but she ignored him, dismounting and searching for a source of the sound. The first man she found wounded and moaning had a massive gash in his head and blood covering his entire face, and his arm was badly bleeding. She wrenched open his coat and tore at his shirt, using a length of linen to tie off the end of his arm to stop the bleeding. At first he started to panic, begging her not to kill him, as though he fully expected an execution.
“I’m no’ going to kill ye. I’m here to help.”
“Bless ye, angel,” he murmured.
“I’m no angel, sir,” she whispered with a smile. “No need to bless me. Just stay strong. We’ll get ye to safety. What’s your name, soldier?”
“I… I…canna remember.”
She wrapped another bandage around his head, while Eppy dismounted to find the next downed soldier they could help.
“’Tis all right,” Annie soothed. “Ye’ll remember soon enough.”
Thomas watched for only a moment before he took off for the help she’d ordered.
Gregory joined Annie and Eppy, calling out when he found someone alive and carrying the soldier to Annie if he were able. Four were all they found in this first part of the fields, and there were so many more dead. Some of whom looked to have been killed by a single blade to the heart—as though the redcoats had indeed come through the field after the fight, killing survivors. Each time she wiped a face clean of blood or mud or turned a man over, she expected to see someone she knew and loved.
Thankfully, she’d not yet recognized anyone. From what she did learn, she was among the MacLean and MacLachlan men, which meant that Graham’s men wouldn’t be far from here. It also meant that any of the men she found here could be the lieutenant.
The wounds she found were horrendous, and though she tended each one, a subtle shake of her head at Gregory told him which men should be left in peace where they were and which ones should be moved to the group of those she’d bring back to the Sullivans’ croft.
On the far side of the field, people moved about the bodies. Annie spotted them and urged her three companions to duck down, afraid it might be Cumberland and his men come back to finish off the survivors. But after a moment it became clear that the others were about the same purpose, checking the wounded.
Thomas returned with the wagon, and he and Gregory worked to load in the four men they’d rescued before Thomas left once more to take them to Mrs. Sullivan’s small cottage.
Movement to her right caught her attention, but no moans or calls for help came from that direction. Was it ravens already pecking at the bodies of the fallen? The birds of prey circled overhead, but none had landed so close to her yet. Though it was only a matter of time. Nature had to take its course.
There, again, just a subtle movement. A hand. She edged closer. The moving appendage was attached to an arm buried beneath an unmoving body. Dear God, a soldier fallen in battle and another man landed on top of him. He was lucky not to have been suffocated by the pile of bodies.
Annie heaved at the first body, unmovable in its dead weight. Eppy knelt beside her and helped to roll the poor sot off the other. Lying on his belly, blood covering his face, the wounded man had a shallow gash across one shoulder blade that could use some stitching but was not itself life-threatening. They managed to roll him over. The soldier had a massive gash on his forehead and a wide hole in his jacket, burned at the edges and oozing blood from a gunshot.
“Can ye hear me?” she asked.
He groaned in answer.
“I’m going to help ye.” She palpated the wound and grimaced. The bullet had gone in deep, as if he’d been shot at point-blank range. It would cause him a lot of pain when she dug it out.
The soldier blinked, eyes red and filled with pain as he stared up at her. His features were difficult to make out in the fog and covered in muck and blood as he was. Recognition seemed to flare in his eyes, though. Poor sot probably was hallucinating that she was someone from his family, perhaps his sweetheart or wife. The thought struck her right in the chest. Would she ever feel love? Always on the move