Chapter Ten #3
Cole watched Corisande examine Addax, looking at both eyes, inspecting the split scalp on the back of his head, the one that bled so profusely that when bent over as he had been, blood had streamed into his ears and nose and mouth.
It was all from that gash to the back of the head, as Corisande determined, and she went through the same process with Addax that she’d gone through with the soldier.
She cleaned, she rinsed, she stitched, and she bandaged, and Addax was well-tended.
Corisande wanted him to rest, however, so Cole escorted the man back to the knight’s quarters and watched him as he climbed into his borrowed bed.
Addax didn’t want to stay in the hall with everyone else, but simply be alone to recover.
Cole left him alone, sprawled out on his bed, and returned to the great hall.
He found Corisande supervising a young, dark-haired woman as she cleaned up an eye injury.
Cole seemed to remember seeing the lass when he’d feasted with Alastor and the de Bourne brother and he was told that she was a ward.
It was the Gratiana Corisande had spoken of.
When Corisande looked up and saw him standing behind her, she left her post and went to him.
“Is Addax lying down?” she asked.
He nodded. “He is,” he said. “But I always thought that men with head injuries should not sleep. Should we send a servant to keep him awake?”
She shook her head. “I do not think there is anything to worry over,” she said. “He is exhausted from battle and some blood loss, but I did not see anything else that was concerning. It is right that he should rest now. No more fighting for him.”
Cole took her word for it. “As you say,” he said. “But there is more for me. I should return to the battle and help your brothers.”
She grew serious. “Must you?”
“I must, unfortunately.”
“Did you really cut that man’s head and hand off?”
“I did.”
“But why his hand?”
He gestured, lifting his left hand to his face. “Because he raised his hand to stop me and it got in the way,” he said, watching her features ripple with distress. “Would you rather I did not and let him kill Addax?”
“Of course not,” she said, growing frustrated.
“I simply meant… I do not know what I meant. I’ve seen battle before.
I know what happens. That does not mean I like it or understand it.
The next injured man they bring in here could be you and I would not like that at all, Cole. I think it would make me sick.”
The corners of his mouth twitched. “This is our first real test of coming to know one another,” he said. “I can see that you are a competent, knowledgeable healer, and you can see that I am a knight who will fight to the last man. You have your vocation and I have mine.”
She eyed him. “I know what you are,” she said. “My father and brothers are the same. But with you…”
She stopped herself and turned away, but he reached out and grasped her by the arm, preventing her from moving away. “But with me what?”
Corisande shook her head and tried, weakly, to pull her arm away. “It does not matter,” she said. “I have already said too much. If you really do intend to return to battle, please be careful.”
He didn’t let her go, but his grip wasn’t crushing. It was firm, strong. She finally stopped trying to pull away and just stood there, turned away from him.
“Cori,” he said in a soft, seductive purr. “Look at me.”
Slowly, she did. He smiled faintly at her when their eyes met. “It is my duty to return,” he murmured. “But for you, I will be especially careful. Only for you.”
Corisande returned his smile, however reluctantly. “You must think I am a terrible bother,” she said. “I have no right to even suggest that you should be careful. I am no one to make such a request.”
His smile faded. “That is not true,” he said. “You are someone to me and, God willing, you will become more important by the day. As I said, this is all part of coming to know each other and, unfortunately, we are doing it under strained circumstances. But this will pass.”
She gave him a long look. “It will not be the last battle you ever attend.”
His grin was back. “Nay, it will not be,” he said. “But I’ve done fairly well until now. It is my intention to keep my limbs and body intact because I do not want you sticking needles in me like you did to Addax and that young soldier. You would probably do it excessively hard simply to punish me.”
Corisande started giggling. “Are you telling me that you are not afraid of a broadsword, but you are afraid of a little needle?”
He finally let her go, chuckling because she was. “Do not laugh at me,” he said, pretending to be wounded. “I have had my share of stitches and they hurt like the blazes, so if I can avoid them, I will.”
Corisande found that quite funny. “You are an immoveable object, a knight of the highest order,” she said. “But if I come at you with a needle, will you faint?”
“I might.”
She burst out into gales of laughter that were cut short when Alastor entered the hall. Seeing Corisande and Cole, he rushed in their direction.
“They are leaving,” he said to Cole. “The Scots, I mean. They’re finally leaving. We’ve got more wounded, so I am going to open the portcullis to admit my army.”
Cole was already on the move, unsheathing his broadsword. “I’ll come with you,” he said. “In case the Scots decide to turn around, I’ll be standing at the mouth of the gatehouse to discourage them.”
Alastor turned around and rushed out, preceding Cole from the hall. Cole may have been focused, but he hadn’t forgotten Corisande. He paused at the hall entry long enough to turn around and wink at her.
And then he was gone.
Corisande stood there for a moment, replaying that wink over in her mind a few times before returning to her duties. Not strangely, she couldn’t keep the smile from her face or the giddiness from her heart.
Not strangely, she was coming to like the man who so badly wanted to court her.