Page 27 of The Mountain King
Maddugh rolled his eyes. “Dwyrkin females, admittedly, are as fierce as the males. I was hoping you might have escaped that side of your nature, but clearly I hoped in vain.” He sighed. “I suppose it is well. I wouldn’t want our children to be weaklings.”
Persia coughed. “Cart before the horse, huh?”
Kailigh ignored them all, dislodging Persia’s arm to wrap her own around her baby, and lead her back up the stairs.
“Get a doc,” she said over her shoulder to Maddugh, ignoring that he was Lord here and this was his house. She just didn’t care.
“We will talk, mistress,” he replied, crisp.
But he brought a physician barely a half hour later, and had also taken the trouble to don pants. Cin was given a brief exam while staff cleared the bodies out of her room.
“We’ll prepare a new room for you,” Maddugh said.
Cin blinked, startled. “That’s a waste. A good scrubbing will get the blood up, and I don’t mind the scorch marks on the walls. A patch.”
Maddugh stared at her. “Ah… if you’re… certain.”
Kailigh snorted. “I didn’t raise my girls to be faint of heart, though—” she glared at Cin ”—this one has been known to try my patience with her silliness at times.”
Cinvarra blinked long lashes, wide pansy eyes innocent.
* * *
“Well,” the physician said, a no-nonsense Dwyrkin female with a long braid and trousers, instead of skirts. “Girl’s good. Come, Lady, let me see the leg.”
Kailigh settled on the bed, a slit cut in her skirt to reveal her wound. She winced from that waste, but figured a seamstress could finagle some decorative stitching and make it look like it was done on purpose. Kailigh glanced at Maddugh, who watched with interest. He was walking around bare chested. Kai wanted to cover Cin’s eyes, at the very least, because Maddugh made innocent bare chest look indecent.
“Nice, toned legs,” Maddugh said, eyes roving up and down her exposed flesh. “You should check for wounds higher up.”
Cinvarra made a gagging noise, as only a seventeen-year-old girl could.
The physician glared at the lord. “None of that, my Lord, or you can leave. Stop that, girl. How do you think you got here?”
Kailigh smiled until the woman prodded the cut. It was just a flesh wound, but it stung. A few stitches later and some antiseptic that made her curse, and Kailigh was pronounced fit.
“I think I’ll come to the faire,” Cin told Maddugh. “I’m feeling much better.”
“You’re insane,” Persia said.
Kailigh concurred. “Persia, you go ahead, I’ll stay—”
“No, Ma,” Cin said. “I need some air. I don’t want to be cooped up for the rest of the night. Please.”
Kailigh paused her protest, studying her daughter’s carefully composed face. The wound hadn’t reopened, and despite all the action, Cin was on her feet, and steady.
“Okay. Maybe a little distraction will help us all recover.”
Cin stood. “I’ll go put on that dress.”
The physician gave brief instructions on the care of the wound. “You look like this isn’t your first go around,” she said, wry, “but I have to go through the spiel anyway.”
When she’d left, Maddugh glanced at Persia and Amnan, the latter having entered the room quietly a few minutes before.
“The humans are secure,” he said to Maddugh.
The Lord nodded absently. “Yes, yes, I’m sure you have it well in hand. Will you two excuse us? I’d like to speak to Mistress Kailigh alone.”
Their children paused, looked between Maddugh and Kai. “Father, I don’t think…”
