When Lightning Strikes (33 page)

Chapter Thirty-Six

Sarah rode along at breakneck speed for as long as she felt she could without giving the horse a rest. She began to slow the mare down gradually, eventually coming to a full stop. She wasn’t sure she was headed in the right direction and she was praying that perhaps the horse would follow its instincts to head back home.

She dismounted and began to softly pat the animal’s neck. “I’m so sorry I had to ride you so hard you poor thing. I promise we’ll try to take it a little slower for the rest of the way. I’m counting on you to help lead us back.”

The horse nickered gently at her and she could feel its breath coming out in great puffs from the long run. She would definitely have to rest her for a while and maybe try to find a stream or a pond somewhere once she had cooled down so she could drink.

Sarah scanned the countryside. Off to her left about a quarter mile away was where the woods edged the field she was now riding across. Perhaps there was a small stream somewhere nearby there and it certainly couldn’t hurt to get out of the open and into the trees where there was shade and safety from predators – both the animal and the human kind.

She took the reins of the horse and started walking her toward the woods. This would allow the animal to cool down slowly. Within a few minutes she was there and sure enough there was a small drizzle of water trickling across the mud and rocks right near the entrance into the trees. She led the horse over to the little brook and allowed her to drink figuring it had been long enough of a time since her run for her to safely ingest the water she needed.

She stretched her back and suddenly she felt so tired. She needed to rest for a few minutes. After the horse had drunk its fill, she led her over to a small group of drooping evergreens and tethered her there and sank down into the soft pine needles to sit and think.

How was she going to rescue Dominic? What if they
killed him along the way? She didn’t want to think about that. If she could just make it back to Thomas’ keep before they got there and she could sneak in somehow, perhaps she could hide in the secret tunnel and wait for them to arrive. Then she could find Dominic later on, after dark and set him free. It seemed sensible enough.

She began to rise when all of a sudden she heard hoof beats coming. She peered out of the cover of the trees and she could see a rider coming her way. She suddenly felt very afraid. What if one of the soldiers had seen her ride away and was coming after her?

She heard a voice calling out but she couldn’t make out the words.

She
squinted her eyes and could hardly believe what she saw. It was him! Dominic was actually here. What was going on? She had seen the soldiers taking him away! Had he escaped?

She took off running to meet him and he had scarcely brought the horse to a halt when he jumped down and grabbed her to his chest. She threw herself into his arms, almost knocking him off his feet, in his weakened state.

“Sarah! What in God’s name were you doing?” He hushed her before she could answer with kisses raining down on her lips, her cheeks, her eyelids.

“Oh, God, I thought…” her words trailed off and were replaced by a sharp intake of breath as she stifled the lump in her throat. “I thou
ght they were taking you away!”

She reached up and touched the place where his shoulder was soaked in blood and pulled her hand back with a horrified look on her face.

He shook his head and took her hand away from the wound, grimacing slightly. “It hurts like Satan himself branded me, but I will live.” She took his wounded hand in her own and lightly stroked the place where he was bandaged.

“It looks…
bad.” She kissed his palm lightly and then pulled it down to her heart and held it there.

He looked at her with tenderness for just a moment before his brows knit together with irritation as he remembe
red he was supposed to be mad.

“Christ’s blood, Sarah! You shouldn’t have been witness to any of it! I told you to stay out of harm’s way until I came for you.” He brushed her hair back from her forehead and kissed the end of her nose. “That is not important now. What you saw was Thomas coming to my
aid
. Margery did indeed see to it that he got the book, as she promised.” He sighed. “Why were you running away from me? I killed Navarre and I would have come for you.”

“I know you would have. And I did see you kill Navarre from across the field. I was so scared. I thought you were going to die! Then I saw the soldiers come up and one of them was threatening you and then I saw some of them putting you up on a horse and I thought they were taking you to hang you or something for killing that scumbag. I was riding away praying none of them would see me escape and trying to figure out how I would get to the keep to set you free from the dungeon!” She felt sort of foolish now for her mistake.

His expression softened and he chuckled lightly. “Well…I suppose it would be just like
you
to come and try to rescue
me
. How gallant of you madame.”

She looked at him like she wanted to smack him. “Why are you laughing at me? I was willing to die to come and free you, you idiot!”

He pulled her to him. “I’m not laughing at you, cherie. I’m simply enjoying the fact that you are strong-willed and hard-headed enough to come to my aid. I know I never have to doubt the fact that you love me, no?”

She smiled just a little. “No, I don’t suppose you do.”

“I love you too, Sarah du Barbaronne.” He pulled her closer and in a second his lips were softly on hers.

The moment of silence was broken by the sound of more hoof beats. A few moments later, Marco reined in his horse. He nodded to Dominic as he slid down from its back.

“Ah – well, just as I told your sire…she did not get far.” He smiled at Sarah.

Sarah removed her arms from around Dominic’s neck
and glared at Marco. “Oh you did, did you? Well, mister I have some news for you…” Dominic pulled her back to him and kissed her again to shut her up.

“The others will be here shortly, ami.” Marco said.

Dominic nodded to him and started to walk back over to where the trees were. “I have to clean these wounds and treat them so they do not fester.” He walked over to the little brook and removed dirty shirt. He had bound up his shoulder with a piece of ragged cloth that was now soaked in blood. He pulled it free, grimacing at the nasty puncture wound that was turning a deep purple.

Sarah rushed over to him. “Let me help you.”

He nodded and she helped him to gently clean the wound washing it over and over again to remove as much dirt as possible. He then stripped down to almost nothing and laid his whole body into the stream to wash the sweat and grime from it. He faced himself in a direction so that the shallow running water swept his long hair back from his face as he lay there. The coolness of it felt so good to him even though it was not hot outside. He knew that he was no doubt slightly fevered from the severity of his injuries. Sarah bent over him and touched his skin to see if he felt warm.

“I’m scared to death you’ll get an infection in these wounds. In my time we have antiseptics and medicines that prevent this. But here…” her words trailed off.

“I am aware of the consequences of a festering wound. I have seen many die of this. I do not intend to be one of them.” He pointed to a small glade several yards back from them.

“Do you see those plants over there with the white flowers? They have tiny hairs on their stems. Pull them free and bring them here. You will know it is the right plant because the roots are yellow.” She nodded.

“Those plants have much healing power,” he continued. “I do not have time to properly dry and cure them but I can heat some water and brew the leaves to drink and bathe the wounds in it.”

She ran to collect the plants and was back within a few
minutes.

Marco quickly lit a small fire with the tinder he had given to Sarah earlier and they collected some water from the small stream into a little metal cup to heat. A few minutes later Dominic had thrown several of the leaves into the water and brewed it into a dark, earthy smelling tea. Sarah wrinkled her nose. The stuff smelled just like boiled dirt! He drank several gulps of the tea and then poured it first over the huge slice in the palm of his hand and then over the wound in his shoulder. He grimaced at first and then began to settle down as the pain eased up. Apparently the herb had some anesthetic effects as well as antiseptic powers. She was amazed at his ability to know such things back in these medically primitive times.

“How do you know of such cures like this? What’s this plant called?” she asked him. He took his shirt with his good hand and began to wash it over and over in the clear, cool water of the brook until all the stains were faded away. Then he laid it out in the grass in the sunniest spot he could find to dry.

“Mara taught me all she knew. I told you.” He shrugged. “The plant is goldenseal. It would help if I had a needle and thread to stitch with, but that will have to wait.”

She nodded and walked back over to collect more water so he could brew up some more of the tea for their trip.

“How soon will we leave?”

“We must wait long enough for my shirt to dry in the sun so I can bind the wounds in clean bandages. The root tea will not serve any purpose if I use filthy cloths. I do not know why this is so, I only know that it is. Mara told me this and I have seen what happens to those who bind their wounds in filth.”

She nodded. “You are so right. Maybe if you had been born in my century you would have become a doctor.”

He smiled at her. “What is this ‘doctor’ you speak of? Is it a healer?”

“Yes. As I told you before, we can cure many diseases. People live a very long life in my world. We can fix people’s broken bones and their teeth – without pain! We can even operate…cut open the body to fix it.”

He grimaced at her words and looked her in horror.

“No! NO! We can knock you unconscious first. I mean we give you a drug that makes you sleep and you feel nothing while it’s happening.”

His expression softened just a bit. “I think I will heal people just as I do now in the way I have learned. No more,” he said flatly. He didn’t like the sound of this thing called “doctor”.

He believed in healing not cutting people open to cure them. It sounded more like what the healers of the Holy Roman Church believed in with their leaches and instruments of torture.

A short time later the caravan began to make its way into view across the grassy field and finally came to a halt.

“There they
are, ami.”

Dominic stood up and walked toward his wagon to retrieve some of the salve he used for wounds as a few of the riders came over and dismounted.

“I see you are alive and well as is your lady.” Thomas bowed slightly to Sarah. “I am sorry that I was unable to come to your aid when you were in my home. Had I known what was happening, I assure you Navarre would have caused you no grief and would have been punished for his sins.”

Sarah nodded to him politely. “I know this, sir. It was not your fault.”

“Well, then. Shall we be off?” Thomas asked. “We still have quite a distance to cover before nightfall.”

Dominic tore his shirt into pieces, coated his wounds in salve and began bandaging them. He finished
up, pulled on a clean shirt he’d grabbed from the back of the wagon and sat in silence for a moment. “I am not going with you,” he said to Thomas matter-of-factly. Marco and Sarah turned to him in surprise.

“Surely you cannot think you can stay out here wounded as you are?” Thomas expression brooked no defiance, though he knew it would hold no weight with his son.

“I have stayed out here all of my life! Why should now be any different? I will live,” Dominic shot back at him.

“Dominic, what do you want of me?” Thomas pleaded.
“All you have to do is ask and what I have is yours.”

Dom
inic thought for just a moment.

“What I want is for my people to be treated with decency and respect. If you wish to do something for me, then grant me a tract of land for them to work. Give us the acreage around the campsite where we last stayed. It is close to your keep and that of some of the other nobles who come to visit you may buy our wares or pay us coin for our entertainment. And further we can work the land and grow our own food so we do not have to starve when the winters are long and travel is limited.”

Thomas nodded without hesitation. “It is done, if that is what you desire. You may have as much land as you need. I hope that someday all that I have will be yours. Please come back to the keep with us.”

Dominic sighed. He wanted to be out in the open air to gain his strength back and find some peace of mind after all of this – not locked up in some stuffy castle with a bunch of sniveling servants. He looked over at Sarah and finally nodded his head in resignation. She needed the comfort of such a place. She had come from a world where they had beds and lights in the ceilings and all the other wonders she had told him about and it wasn’t fair for her to have to live like this with him.

They started to gather up their belongings when a light rain began to fall. Dominic turned to Sarah. “I will go to the keep for
you
, Sarah. I know what you have been forced to give up living out here like this.”