Reckless (Age of Conquest #5) - Tamara Leigh Page 0,39

I was certain I left behind a man soon dead. It was not enough Canute had slain his own kin…” She touched her throat as if imagining the blade slicing her flesh as well as Bjorn’s. “I did not mean to scream.”

As she revealed little more than he had learned before retrieving Zedekiah, he saw no reason to comment, and silence settled between them until Zedekiah groaned.

Immediately, Nicola freed herself from the blanket and tucked it around her patient.

She was filthier than thought, her lower skirt heavily muddied, the upper lightly so, evidencing bogs had tried to suck her under. Then there were her muddied bare feet. Doubtless, ever the slippers of a Norman lady would evidence one had been in that wood, though only the mud would know.

When Zedekiah returned to deep sleep that seemed his greatest chance of healing, Nicola said, “As many wounds as he suffered, how is it he lives, Vitalis?”

Since he was not ready to absolve her of anger and fault for his friend’s sacrifice, he would have preferred she call him a Saxon pig rather than speak his given name. Even if Nicola D’Argent wanted something more from him, he wanted nothing from her.

“How?” she asked again.

“He should be dead, and I believed he was when I found him where those miscreants left him, but the Lord was not ready to admit him to heaven. Perhaps He shall allow Zedekiah to enter this day or the next. Perhaps it will be a year or many. If the latter, then only possible if my friend’s way henceforth is opposite the direction you and I take.”

“I am sorry. I was not thinking—”

“Non, you were not,” he switched to her language. “Do you ever? Or would it ruin the salving of boredom that causes you to behave as though you were born a man and raised a warrior?” He raised his eyebrows. “If not for outrage over being bound when you were traded for the abbess, none of this would have happened. Your cousin’s man would have had you off the horse so Bjorn could not recapture you, and Zedekiah, you, and I would not be here. As for that lovesick young Dane, he would live.”

Her eyes moistened. “Does Zedekiah die, I do not think ever I shall forgive myself.”

“That would not be a bad thing,” Vitalis muttered and lifted his wineskin and drank down half its contents. When he lowered it, she yet watched him. “It is hours ere the day warms sufficiently to make tolerable what is now required of you, Lady Nicola, but you will do as told.”

Alarm flashed across her face. “What is that?”

He jutted his chin at the water. “Bathe so more thoroughly and safely you may tend Zedekiah’s injuries.” He was certain she would protest, citing the need for modesty and, when he assured her she would immerse fully clothed, find another excuse to remain dry, warm, and covered in filth.

But she peered down her front and considered her fouled hands. “Neither my aunt nor the Abbess of Lillefarne would approve of ministering to the ill in this state.” Rising to her knees, she began loosening her side laces.

“Lady Nicola, again you do not think well! Have a care for your modesty and remain clothed. The water will clean your garments as well as your body.”

She paused. “I do think well. As more than once you could have worked ill on me and yet proved honorable, I believe I would be safe with Lady Hawisa’s man even if I cast off much modesty. Thus, I shall remove my gown and retain my chemise so both can be more thoroughly cleaned and sooner dry separate from each other.”

She was thinking right, though only because he would not take what neither the lady nor the Lord allowed. “Be quick about it,” he said and gave her his back.

It took longer than expected, though not for want of trying he knew from her grunts of frustration, but at last she said, “Keep this for me,” and reached a hand around him.

It was the cloth taken from William.

“I will go in now,” she said as he pushed the mantle piece into his purse. Then the boat shifted and he heard her breath catch as she entered the chill water. When the vessel centered itself, she called, “Keep watch. I know not what creatures lurk here.”

He turned and saw she was several feet distant. Shoulders covered in a thin chemise, jaws clenched to keep her teeth