Shouts of warning echoed as an empty horse-drawn cart sped by, carving a wake through the unsuspecting crowd. Iain and Anna bolted to the spot where the shouts originated, and found four men and a boy, no more than ten summers old, lying on the ground wounded.
Anna wasted few words. “Fetch my pack and find a cart to carry the injured.” Taking their packages, Iain nodded and raced back to their wagon.
Graham guards stood around, uncertain what to do, so Anna took charge. “Clear this area and keep the people back. I am a healer, and have sent for my supplies and a cart.”
Two of the injured men were members of the Graham guard, while the others were either merchants or unfortunate victims in the way. The largest guard lay unconscious, bleeding from a nasty head wound stretching across his forehead. The other appeared to have broken ribs, clutching his side in pain. Of the rest, one man obviously had a broken leg, the other a long cut on his back. The boy also lay unconscious, though other than a simple cut on his arm, Anna spotted no other injuries.
She tended the head wound first, tearing off part of her tunic to staunch the bleeding. Based on how much blood he’d lost thus far, she feared for his life. She glanced up in relief to see Liam and Iain approaching with a horse and cart.
“Careful. That man has a broken leg, and we don’t want the bleeding to start again on this soldier.” As they loaded the boy, a cry rose from the crowd.
“Shaw, Shaw! What happened? Where are ye taking my boy?” A woman not much older than Anna stepped from the crowd, terror etched on her face. Anna turned to one of the guards for an answer. He rested a hand on the woman’s shoulder.
“Yer son was injured by a runaway wagon. We are taking all the injured into the keep for this woman to tend.”
She clutched Anna’s arm in fear, her eyes wide. “Please save my boy. He is all I have.”
Anna assisted her onto the bench beside Liam, then hopped on the back of the wagon as they drove toward the main gate. At the hall, Anna asked for boiling water, whisky and linens for bandages as the injured were laid on tables.
“If you have a healer, send for her,” she ordered the closest guard. “I will need help.”
He nodded and hurried out the door. Anna assessed the injuries again. The guard with the injured ribs struggled to breathe, but was not issuing blood. The broken leg appeared a simple break and easily set. The man with the long cut on his back lay on his side, conscious but grim. His wound had mostly stopped bleeding. The head injury and the boy remained her greatest concerns. She looked over the boy again. His heartbeat sounded strong, as did his breathing.
“Ma’am, your son appears to be only rendered unconscious. He has no other serious injury I can discern. Place this cloth over his wound. I will stitch him when finished with the other men.”
Nodding, the woman bent over her son, singing to him in a low whisper.
Anna fetched the needle and thread from her pack, and then used the whisky someone brought to clean the head wound. Glad the man lay unconscious, she stitched the jagged cut closed. Iain stayed by her side. At her direction, he dispensed whisky to the other wounded men.
Moving on to the injured ribs, she counted three broken but not displaced. She bound them carefully as the man paled, sweat on his brow. Though he winced with every touch, he remained silent.
“You must stay idle the next three weeks, breathing deeply several times a day to stave off fluid on the lungs.”
He nodded his understanding with a grimace and a whisper of thanks.
With the help of several swallows of whisky, Iain and two guards, Anna set the broken leg. Securing it in place with two boards, she bound it with strips of cloth.
The man with the deep cut on his back also benefited from liberal amounts of whisky. Anna offered a piece of leather for him to bite upon as her needle pierced the skin on each side of the gash. While she closed the gaping wound, the Graham healer arrived. Anna talked her through what she knew and what she’d done. As she did, family members of some of the men came and took them home.