Greenwood Knight

Chapter 67

"I have the tub and—you look terrible." Drew laughed as he stepped into the room and was immediately shushed by the woman and Erec together.

"Is she unwell?" Drew hurried to Gwyn's side and gently touched her brow. "She looks pale. Has she been feverish? Why did no one send for me?"

"She is well." Erec arched a brow in challenge to Drew's last question but chose to take the meaning that Drew should have been sent for in his capacity as an apprentice healer.

"Or so I am told. She has ever been asleep since my arrival. I am also told that I am to allow these good people to tend my wounds. Since you are here with the tub, am I to assume that my wife ordered another hot bath and subsequent treatments?"

"Aye. She did." Drew watched Gwyn carefully.

"Her breathing is even... She merely sleeps." Drew nodded slowly, more to convince himself than any other. "But she sleeps so deeply? She has been running from her exhaustion these many days. It must finally have caught up to her."

"With a little help from Matilde and her potions." Erec confirmed. "But it is just as well. If it is as you say, then she definitely needs the sleep."

"As do you, milord." Drew turned his attention to Erec. "Can you not manage to stay in one piece? Must I ever be sewing your hide?"

"They are all the injury I have, aside from the many bruises."

Drew raised a brow in challenge. He knew Erec well. The man was the sort to deny his injury, fatigue, and any other weakness in order to press on and do what he felt must be done. If Drew and the others were not there to convince him otherwise, he would likely go until he collapsed.

"There is a great deal of battle fatigue, no doubt. I find it a wonder that you are awake." Drew looked doubtfully at Erec.

Erec did not like the worried expression on his friend's face.

"I am fine. You know how it is in battle." Erec gave a shrug and winced at the painful tug on his aching muscles. "I saw and heard nothing save my foe."

"It is no wonder that you ache so deeply. Do you not know how long you fought with Lord Neron?"

"Sooth, it felt like an eternity, but I imagine it was nary an hour that passed—Ouch!"

"Witch hazel stings does it not?" Drew chuckled, "But you are in error...my lord."

Drew used his mocking tone. Erec would have smiled were he not annoyed. Drew did enjoy pointing out Erec's errors, both in judgment and deed.

Mayhap it was just as well...Men who would not admit error were reckless and arrogant fools.

"Sooth, your match was closer to eternity than you imagined, milord." Drew shook his head. "It is a wonder you did not collapse sooner."

Erec did not know if that last was meant in disappointment or awe.

Drew was a real pain in the arse, but he was also on point...most of the time.

"Well," Erec all but growled in his growing irritation. "Out with it."

"You really do not know?" Drew blinked once, twice. "Did you not hear the church bells?"

Erec shook his head and hissed as the woman swabbed another cut.

"You have been fairly shredded. You rather look like one of those quilts; the ones with the odd bits sewn together, going this way and that." Drew gestured at the randomness in the air. Erec let out a low growl and Drew gave a shrug. "Most of the cuts will not require stitches. I do not imagine many will scar, although the one on your jaw..."