While Angels Slept by Kathryn Le Veque Page B

seem
to bring forth the words. After a moment, she simply moved for the door and he
followed.  But she abruptly paused before opening it and he nearly ran into the
back of her.
    “May I ask a
question, my lord?” she asked.
    He was hesitant;
the last time she asked a question, he divulged details that had almost driven
her to insanity.  But he nodded. “Aye.”
    “Have you ever
lost someone close to you?”
    “Many people, my
lady.”
    “May I ask who?”
    “My father, my uncle,
my older brother.”
    “In battle?”
    “I lost my
father and brother in the same battle.”
    She digested
those facts. “When you said that these dark days will pass… will they indeed?”
    He nodded,
slowly, his dark eyes studying every curve, every delightful contour of her
face. “They will appear less so in time.”
    “It does not
seem like it.”
    “I know. But you
must trust me.”
    She took a deep
breath, for strength and for courage, and lifted those magnificent eyes to him.
“Your comforting presence has meant more than you can know to me and my family
and to that end, I am eternally grateful.  To thank you seems wholly insufficient.”
    He smiled
weakly, feeling humbled. “Your thanks is more than adequate, I assure you.”
Then his smile faded. “But you must promise me one thing.”
    “Anything, my
lord.”
    He began to look
around as if he’d lost something.  Cantia watched as he took a few steps
towards the massive wardrobe and reached down to collect the dagger he had
thrown.  His dark eyes were fixed on her.
    “You will never
try anything like this again.”
    She nodded,
embarrassed and ashamed.  Opening the chamber door, they made their way down to
the hall in complete silence. 
    Tevin didn’t
take any chances. He kept the dirk.
     
    ***
     
    Though there
were others who were more severely wounded, Cantia’s first patient was Val
simply because she happened to be the closest to the door.  It took Cantia a
matter of seconds to figure out that Val was, in fact, a woman, and her
features registered the surprise.
    But she said
nothing as she examined the patient, determining that she had a few broken ribs
and a broken collar bone.  Tevin held his sister steady as Cantia and a serving
woman bandaged up the ribs and then secured the left arm into a permanent,
wrapped position so that the collar bone would heal.  It was a relatively
simple procedure that had taken less than an hour.  But the relief Val, and
Tevin felt, was immeasurable.
    Cantia had Val
moved into the small solar, away from the bulk of the wounded, for the sheer
fact that she was female. It was not proper for her to convalesce in a room
full of men, even if the woman was dressed like a knight.  Oddly enough, Cantia
asked no questions of Tevin as to the identity of the female knight; she simply
accepted it on face value and moved on to her next patient. 
    Though Tevin’s
attention was focused on settling his sister, he could not help but be
distracted by Lady Penden as she moved among the wounded.  He was impressed by
the fact that she was able to put the needs of others over her atrocious
grief.  It must have been exceptionally wrenching for her to tend men with
arrow wounds, knowing her husband had died days earlier in the same manner. But
she said nothing, focused on helping those who needed her.   From what he’d
seen over the past few days from her, he’d expected nothing less.
    Tevin eventually
accompanied Val into the solar and saw to her comfort there on a bed that the
servants had place near the fire. He was glad that the result of her having
been slammed off her charger was just a few cracked bones; in the heat of the
battle, it could have been much worse.  Val had been given a brew of willow
bark that eventually caused her to drift off to sleep somewhere near dusk, at
which time Tevin left her alone.  He had many others wounded and would use the
time to see to them.
    The great hall
was darkening as evening fell.  A fire