by Heather Gallagher

Created on: July 07, 2010

Arwyn awoke slowly, almost struggling towards consciousness. She forced her eyes open just enough to see the only light was that of a fire and a few candles. Even that meager, flickering illumination was an assault to her senses. She winced and tried to shrink even further down into the soft depths of the feather mattress. Where in the hell was she? She vaguely remembered her ordeal in the wood and the two men that came to her aid. Had they brought her here? Where were they, and where in the hell was here? When she’d asked him where she was he’d said something about McAllister lands. That seemed a little archaic.

Gritting her teeth, she forced her eyes all the way open and dealt with the pain that laced through her skull at first and forced herself awkwardly, into a sitting position with her uninjured arm. She collapsed weakly back onto the pillows, a fine sheen of sweat on her brow and upper lip. The effort had been exhausting. She took a moment to take stock of her injuries. Her head throbbed, her arm was alternately numb or throbbing with a white hot pain that was nearly unbearable which suggested nerve damage - at least she thought so. And her leg was tender and the bite stung like hell. Aside from that she could feel every other myriad scrape, cut, and bruise, every torn muscle and wrenched joint. She was a bloody mess, but nothing too serious. Hopefully these people could get her cleaned up and back on her way to London by tomorrow. Unless of course it was tomorrow.

She pushed herself further up against the pillows and squinted into the gloomy interior of the large room. She was barely able to suppress a startled squeak when a large figure rose from the corner and approached the bed. She resisted the urge to shrink back against the pillow and instead, gingerly craned her head back to have a look. She couldn’t be sure but she thought he was one of her rescuers.

“It’s been nearly two days, girl. I was beginning to wonder if you were going to wake at all.” Alasdair looked down into her bruised face, pleased to see that some of the swelling had already gone down and her bruises, though much darker, seem to have gotten as worse as they were going to get. “How do you feel.”

“Like I was nearly eaten alive by a pack of hungry wolves. Did you say two days?”

She had startled a laugh out of him and it took him a moment to answer. “Aye, two days. I thought that perhaps I had underestimated that wee

• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• Next Page >>