“Women brought by the tapestry are special and are to be treated as such. No one will harm her here. The penalty for such a thing would be death.” Jarek met Logan’s gaze.
Marc strode forward, obviously reaching the limits of his patience. “Enough. Mara is outside the door with hot water and more supplies. If I’d wanted any of you dead, I would have left you all behind.”
There was that. She tried to nudge Tienan forward but it was like trying to move a brick wall. She appealed to the only other sensible person in the room—the other woman. “You must be Christina.” When the blonde woman nodded, Kathryn continued. “I’m Kathryn Piedmont. This is Tienan.” She indicated him with a tilt of her head. “The man holding the sword is Logan. We come from Earth.” That last line sounded like something out of a cheesy, twentieth century science fiction movie.
Christina’s eyes widened and she smiled. “I’m from Earth originally too.” Pushing past her husband, she strode forward. Logan stepped out of her way, uncertainty on his face. Kathryn knew he’d never raise a finger to hurt Christina. Slowly, he lowered the sword until the point was touching the stone floor.
Kathryn nodded. She’d known that from the book. “I think we come from vastly different times, though.” Wrapping her free arm around Tienan’s waist, she tried to take some of his weight on her. She could feel his muscles beginning to tremble.
“Bring him over here. We can talk more later.” Christina motioned to Logan. “Help her move your friend to the bed.”
Kathryn shook her head. “The table is better for surgery. He’s got a bullet in his shoulder.”
Christina became all business, directing the men to clear the table and move it closer to the fire. An older woman bustled into the room, carrying a large kettle of steaming water. Behind her, several men hefted an even larger kettle into the room, setting it over the fire.
The warriors all crowded around, no one leaving. Marc eased her gently aside and placed his hand over hers on the bandage. “I will hold it in place. See to your supplies.” She hated to leave Tienan but knew Marc was right. “Okay,” she turned to Christina. “What do you have in medicines and medical supplies? I need a scalpel and something to act as forceps.”
The women conferred and Kathryn quickly came to realize that Mara was the one with the knowledge. The woman offered up some herbal concoctions to speed healing and to deaden the area around the wound. As a botanist, Kathryn was intrigued by the salves. She definitely wanted to talk to Mara and pick her brain later.
Medical tools were harder to come by. There was no scalpel but plenty of sharp knives. When Christina explained what a scalpel was, Marc had drawn a wickedly sharp-looking dagger from a sheath just inside his boot and handed it to her. Kathryn quickly dropped it into the kettle to boil.
Her eyes fell on her purse and she grabbed it, ripping the zipper open. Digging into it, she found a small sewing kit with several thin needles and some thread. She knew she had a set of eyebrow tweezers in her makeup bag. They were small but they were better than nothing. She plunged the tweezers, thread and several needles into the pot of boiling water to sterilize them.
She also found a small bottle of aspirin, which would help with fever. Tienan was bound to have one. She only hoped that the medicine that Mara had would keep infection at bay. Right now, that was a bigger concern to her than removing the bullet.
When she had everything she knew could be of help, she tossed the bag under the table for safekeeping.
“Okay.” It was force of habit that had her reaching for the cuff of her blouse to roll it up. She muttered as she touched bare skin. She’d sacrificed her top as a bandage and she’d been running around in nothing but her bra ever since. Everyone had seen her this way. She muttered under her breath. There was nothing to be done about it and her bra was as decent as if she were wearing a bathing suit top for swimming.
Putting it out of her mind, she motioned for Mara to fill a bowl with hot water. She glanced at Tienan and noted the white lines of stress around his mouth and eyes. “How you holding up?”
“I’m good.”
She heard the low grunts of approval from several of the men behind them and barely resisted rolling her eyes. Men! The stupidest things impressed them.
Kathryn tried to give him a reassuring smile. “This won’t take long.” Turning away, she began to focus on the job ahead.
A heavy hand landed on her shoulder. “What can I do to help?” Marc was a solid presence behind her. For some reason, just his being there steadied her, made her feel better. Which was crazy. He was a complete stranger. Still, she couldn’t deny how he made her feel.
“I’ll need you to hold his feet and legs. Logan will hold his shoulders.” Marc glanced at Logan. “I am bigger. I should take his shoulders.” She shook her head. “Both Logan and Tienan are much stronger than they look.” Turning aside, she blocked out everyone in the room. She plunged her hands in a basin of hot water Mara had poured from the smaller kettle she’d set beside the hearth, grabbed the bar of soap beside it and began to scrub. When her hands and arms were as sterile as she could get them, she shook off the water and let them air dry. One of Mara’s helpers removed the dagger from the boiling water and handed it to her without touching the blade. The sterilized tweezers, needles and thread were laid out on a clean towel. It was a pitiful assortment of implements but it was all she had.
Bending over Tienan, she stared at the blood-saturated bandage. Logan had stripped away the remainder of Tienan’s shirt. “Hold him.” She waited until both men had moved into position and reached for the edges of the makeshift dressing. She didn’t mean to look at Tienan but she couldn’t help herself. He gave her a crooked smile and then closed his eyes.
Taking a deep, steadying breath, she peeled back the bandage and studied the wound. She dipped a cloth into a clean bowl of warm water and began to clean around the edges of the hole. Once that was done, she anointed the area with the salve that Mara assured her would help deaden the area. With nothing else to be done, she picked up the dagger and gripped it firmly but not too tight. Placing the tip on the edge of the wound, she began.
Time lost all meaning as she worked. First, she widened the hole and then came the arduous search for the bullet and fragments of cloth and bone that might have collected inside the wound. Her fingers cramped as she manipulated the tweezers, swearing under her breath whenever she lost a piece and had to try again.
Tienan’s back arched when she made the first incision. But Logan held his shoulders on the table and Marc pressed down on his legs, not allowing him to move.
Tienan never made a sound.
She knew he was still awake and aware of what was going on. Anyone else would have passed out by now but both Tienan and Logan had an extremely high tolerance for pain—another gift from their years of training. Mara worked alongside her, keeping the site clear of blood. From the sureness of her actions, it was obvious to Kathryn that the older woman had seen her share of bloody injuries.
When she stood for a moment and stretched out the kinks in her back, she felt Marc’s large hand against her spine, rubbing it and lending her his strength. She turned her head toward him. He was watching her, his face calm but serious.
She went back to work, renewed. She didn’t know how long it took her but finally she felt certain she had removed every piece of foreign matter. There had been several small bone chips, but thankfully, the bone itself was intact with no breaks or fractures.
Given his genetics, Tienan would heal rapidly and with no serious complications. Or at least she hoped he would.
Picking up a bowl of hot water in which Mara had mixed something she guaranteed would keep the wound from becoming infected, Kathryn poured it over the wound, flushing it out.