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She waited for a moment, but when he did not move, she stepped toward him "Does it pain you to move? Let me help you"

"Nay" He stopped her "It does not pain le, twisting to see the blood stain, ""

"Dirick, do not be foolish ’Twas a deep enough cut and I’ve seen many lesser wounds fester Take off your tunic and I will see to it" She gestured to a three legged stool in front of the fireplace "You ht"

Maris frowned at hile out of the tunic As he sat on the stool, clad only in a thin linen shirt and breeches, she turned to find another candle Lighting the tallow, she placed it on one of the trunks where it would cast a ready light on his shoulder Then, she added water to a s over the fire At last, she returned her attention to him just as he slowly pulled off the linen shirt

Her breath slowed, shallowed, and caught when she saw his sleek, asped, for he turned from his contemplation of the fire to look at her with half hooded eyes

For a olden and rust shadows over the planes of his ar the dip in his shoulder and the hollow of his collarbone It tipped the curling ends of his thick hair with sunlight, sular cheekbones and square chin Shadows rew from the widest part of his chest don to a place she could not see…to where heavy, muscled arms rested between his knees

She had seen many a bare torso in her work as a healer, and also as Lady of Langumont But she had not expected to find herself so…aware…of this one

Maris forced herself to recover "Ah, the stab--’tis worse than I’d thought" Shefire She’d treated countless injuries of this type The only cause of her sudden nervousness was that they were alone in her chahts, she bent to examine the laceration

No sooner had she turned her attention to him than she realized this was not the same as any other time He was not merely a patient to her, a wound to be healed, a bit of skin to be cleansed

And that thought made her all the more aware of what she was about to do

His skin arm and taut, with a feiry hairs scattered over the curve of his shoulder There were many, many other scars healed into pale puckers of skin…and soed Maris wanted to touch theers he’d faced in the service of the king, to be certain they were as healed as possible

Her fingers trembled as they brushed over Dirick’s shoulder blade and little bumps erupted over his skin One of her braids fell fro and thunked onto his shoulder, and Dirick started so that it slid down his back and rested along his spine

She felt him draw a breath when she dabbed a daently at it It was a clean cut froh the tendons, but enough that it would take soht in the coagulating blood and Maris used a bit of the heating water to wash therossed in her work, he see, slow breath

When she left his side to prepare the poultice, Dirick shifted on the stool, watching her Her fingers see and thrice as fat, as first they dropped the leather pouch, and then could not undo its knot And finally, when she pulled a handful of dried woad leaves forth, her fingers did not hold theh and the leaves scattered over the floor and table

Muttering to herself, Maris stooped to scrape up the dried herb, taking care not to cruathered the and stealanced over to check it, Dirick noticed, offering, "I’ll get that for you"<ins class="adsbygoogle" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true"></ins>