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"Lad, ye'd best move yer hand else ye might lose it," Aulay said with amusement as Greer growled deep in his throat.
Flushing, the boy quickly shifted his hand to rest between her breasts, muttering, "Sorry."
Aulay nodded and then turned his gaze to Saidh and said, "As fer needing so many to hold ye down, love. We ken yer strength. We've wrestled with ye."
"Aye," Geordie said dryly. "Yer powerful strong when yer blood's up, Saidh. 'Tis best we take precautions."
"Hmm," Saidh muttered and shook her head.
"Put yer arms around me and try to keep them there," Greer instructed. When she did, he added, "Scream all ye want to, love. Ye've a right to."
"Trust me, I will," Saidh assured him with little humor and then roared in shocked pain and tried to buck backward as Rory suddenly thrust forward on the arrow shaft without any warning at all.
Of course, with so many holding her in place, Saidh couldn't back away. In fact, she would have sworn that Aulay and Dougall pushed her forward into the thrust and Greer pulled her in the same direction doing the same thing. Whatever the case, pain exploded in her chest and then her back as the arrow tore through the undamaged skin there.
"It's through!" Saidh heard Aulay bark above her bellowing. "Pull it out from yer side, Dougall."
"Carefully, and straight out. Do no' bend or twist it," she heard Rory caution as her roaring turned into a whimper and blackness rushed in to claim her.
Chapter 12
Greer eyed Dougall's expression of grim concentration and almost held his breath as the man slowly pulled the arrow out through Saidh's back. It seemed to him they all breathed a sigh of relief when it was done. Dougall pitched the weapon aside, and then he, Aulay and Alpin released their hold on Saidh and moved out of the way.
Greer started to lay her back on the bed then, but Rory stopped him with a hand on his shoulder.
"Nay. Keep her upright. I need to clean and bind her both front and back," the man said.
Greer nodded, and raised Saidh upright again. Holding her still, he gazed at her unconscious face, frowning at how pale she seemed. His gaze then shifted to her wound as Rory barked orders to the others to hand him strips of the clean linen Conran had fetched. While there had been little blood when the arrow was still present, there was certainly blood now. It was as if the arrow had acted as a cork in a bottle, now that the cork had been removed, blood was pouring out a thick, dark red and Rory was pressing linen into the wound both front and back trying to staunch the flow.
"She'll be a' right, will she no'?" Greer asked with concern as he watched the man work.
"Aye. She's strong," Rory said reassuringly, throwing the already blood soaked swatches aside and grabbing the fresh ones Niels held out. "The bleeding is already slowing."
It didn't look that way to Greer, but he held his tongue and merely watched as Rory continued to press linens against her wounds.
"Did ye put the tincture in the water as I ordered?" Rory asked, lifting up the edge of the linen he'd pressed to the front of her wound and then pressing it firmly back again.
"Aye," Niels assured him. "Six drops."
Rory nodded. "Then dip two folded linens in it, but do no' wring them out ere ye give them to me. I'll need to clean the wound ere I sew her up."
"Are ye all right, me laird?" Alpin asked suddenly.
Greer glanced to the boy with surprise. "Aye. O' course."
His squire merely looked dubious at the claim. "Ye're looking pale enough I'd think ye were the one losing the blood."
The comment made Rory glance sharply at Greer and the man frowned. "If ye're going to faint, let Aulay take o'er holding up Saidh and--"
"I'm fine," Greer snapped, sitting a little straighter and tightening his hold on Saidh. He was feeling a bit off, but was damned if he was going to faint away like a puling woman in front of these men. He was just alarmed at how much blood Saidh was losing. It seemed a hell of a lot to him.
Rory eyed him for a moment longer, then merely turned his attention back to Saidh. After a moment, he replaced the now blood red and sodden linens with the tincture-soaked ones Niels gave him. As he pressed the wet material to her wound, he muttered, " 'Tis good she's sleeping fer this. This tincture stings like a son o' a bitch and the sewing up part would no' be a pleasure to endure either."
Greer merely grunted and shifted his gaze to Saidh's face. Her head was lolling back, her face upraised as if waiting for a kiss and he gently pressed one to her lips, then leaned his forehead on hers and closed his eyes. He had no desire to see Rory pressing a needle and thread into her flesh and back out again. Whether she would feel it or not, he suspected he would if he watched, so kept his eyes closed and merely held her silently as Rory finished cleaning and then began to sew the wound.
Judging by the shuffle of feet moving away from the bed, Greer was not the only one who had no desire to watch this part of the procedure and found it ironic that warriors like himself and these men could be so squeamish about mending a body, when they had no issue with causing such injuries. That thought brought him back to the question he hadn't allowed himself to consider ere this. Who had shot Saidh with the arrow?
"Did ye see who shot her?" Aulay asked suddenly, his thoughts apparently turning in the same direction.
Greer opened his eyes and lifted his head, but steadfastly refused to look to see what Rory was doing as he answered, "Nay. She raced off and left me by the loch, pleating me plaid. I found her lying on the path moments later when I gave chase. There was no one around, jest her and her mare."
"Could it ha'e been bandits?" Dougall asked.
Greer considered that, but frowned. "I suppose. But Bowie has no' mentioned any issues with bandits around here, and if 'twas bandits, they were brazen. Where I found her was no' far from the castle. Another hundred feet and she'd ha'e been out o' the woods in full view o' the men on the wall."
"Conran, go fetch Greer's first so he can ask him if they've had trouble with bandits of late," Aulay ordered.
Greer didn't comment on the order. While he was sure Bowie would have mentioned such an issue if there was one, it was better to be certain. Besides, he wanted to have him send men out to search the woods for any clue as to who may have done this. Chances were they wouldn't find anything. It wasn't as if the culprit would have left a scroll with a signed confession lying about, but they may have dropped something or . . . hell, he just didn't know what else to do.
"Do ye really think 'twas bandits?" Niels asked and Greer could hear the doubt in his voice.
"Nay," Aulay said on a sigh. "They'd gain nothing from shooting her except drawing attention to their presence."
"Mayhap she came upon them in the woods and they feared she'd give their presence away anyhow," Alick suggested.
"Then they'd be more likely to take her than shoot her on the spot," Dougall growled. "That way they'd have something to ransom, or a good raping at the very least."
Geordie snorted at the suggestion. "Rape our Saidh? She'd ha'e gutted them fer trying."
"It had to ha'e been bandits," Alick said suddenly. "Who else would want to hurt our Saidh?"
Greer peered at his wife, his arms tightening instinctively around her. His mind was stuck on Dougall's comment about the bandits raping her. The idea was an appalling one: this strong, passionate woman held down and raped by a group of filthy bandits. He was quite sure Geordie was right and Saidh would gut a villain or two did they try, but if there were a lot of them, or they took her by surprise, or if they even just got lucky, she could have been overcome.
He shuddered at the thought, suspecting that for a woman as strong and proud as Saidh, such an attack would leave her broken in spirit as well as body. Greer would rather suffer the tortures of hell than witness such an eventuality.
"There."
Greer glanced around at Rory's weary comment to see that he'd finished not only sewing the injuries closed, but had bandaged her as well while Greer was lost in his though
ts.
"Ye can lay her down, now," Rory said as he shifted off of her and got off the bed.
Greer hesitated, oddly reluctant to let her go, but then sighed and lay her gently back on the bed, only to stiffen and frown when he saw the state the bed was in. While someone had thought to push the furs down the bed and out of the way, both the upper and lower linen were now soaked with blood and the water with the smelly tincture in it.
"Hey!" Alpin cried in surprise when Greer suddenly scooped Saidh and the top linen off the bed, leaving him uncovered.
"The bed has to be changed ere ye both sleep," Greer announced as he turned and strode across the room. "Bundle yerself up in the furs and come sit by the fire until 'tis done."
"Alick--" Aulay began.
"I'll fetch some maids to change the bed," Alick said before Aulay could finish giving the order.
