Pendragon (Sherbrooke Brides 7)

Meggie bit her bottom lip and yelped. “I’m sorry, just a bit, not bad—”

“All right. Be quiet, I’m going to get you cleaned up. Don’t move, Meggie.”

She didn’t. Her head was starting to pound and truth be told, she felt light-headed. The wispy candlelight was wavering, the white walls were shimmying a bit, now leaning to the right.

“Oh dear,” she said, and held up her hand in front of her face.

“Meggie, what are you doing?”

“I want to see if I can count my fingers.”

“Damn,” he said, then pulled the covers over her. “Whoever hit you, knocked you out, and that can be dangerous. Now, count my fingers. How many am I holding up?”

“I believe there are three fingers there. Do you know, Thomas, all of those fingers you’re waving about have touched me very intimately?”

“Well, yes, I suppose that’s true.”

“Particularly that middle finger of yours—it’s rather long—goodness, I remember just a couple of hours ago when you—”

“Yes, yes, Meggie, I remember everything about that finger. Now, do you hurt?”

She nodded, and that small movement nearly sent her into oblivion. She managed to hold really still until the pain let up. She said then, “You shouldn’t have left me. I was kissing you all over your face, and you told me you wanted to sleep in your own bed. Why did you do that, Thomas?”

“You want the truth? No, don’t frown like that, you’ll just scramble your brains. Lie still and relax. All right, I’ll spit it out. I left because I’m afraid of storms, have been since I was a little boy. I didn’t want you to see your strong manly husband cowering when lightning filled the sky and thunder sounded like cannon fire, in fear for his life.”

“It’s not all that bad. Whatever happened when you were a boy, I’ll make you forget it. I’ll hold you close. You can cower all you want.”

“You’ll pat my back?”

“Oh yes. I could even sing you to sleep. Just don’t leave me again, Thomas.”

“I won’t. Now that you know about my weakness, there’s no reason to go hide.” He stood. “I’m going to get the physician.”

“Will I have to walk on his back?”

“Dr. Pilchart? Why no, his back is in grand shape.”

“Will I have to lose flesh?”

For a moment, he didn’t know what she was talking about, then he remembered Aunt Libby saying that to Lord Kipper.

“Actually, you need to gain a bit of flesh, not much, mind you, I’ve always liked skinny girls. Meggie, when you’re struck on the head you don’t usually remember anything leading up to it. Do you remember more than you told me?”

“I’ll tell you if you don’t get Dr. Pilchart.”

“But you might be seriously hurt.”

“But what could he do? Would he break open my head and look inside? Even if he did, would he know what he was looking at?”

“I guess not. All right, for the moment, I’ll stay right here with you. Now, do you remember anything more?”

“Oh yes,” Meggie said, “I remember everything.” She stopped every few moments, closing her eyes against those slashes of pain in her head. Finally she said, “It was the lightning, the thunder, I heard him draw in his breath, really sharp. It scared him. When I turned about, then he struck me.”

“You know it was a man?”

“No. But whoever it was wasn’t small. All in black, Thomas, he was all in black, his head, everything, covered.” She cocked an eye open. “Please don’t fetch Squire Billings to assist you in finding the culprit.”

He smiled. “I won’t. Actually, I’m the magistrate around here.”