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There was blood A great deal of it She slient odor worked as a helpful antidote to the encroaching panic She could not lose her head Someone ounded, and she had work to do

"Who’s injured?" she asked, elbowing a wailing Sally out of the way and pushing her way through the stable door "What’s happened here?"

"It’s Finn" Lord Payne was there, pulling her through the crush of bodies, into an ee laht had been hurt was rather an understateed horror below the knee His foot, or what rele White slivers of bone gleamed from the open wound

Susanna knelt beside the boy From the sickly pallor of his face, she could tell he’d already lost a great deal of blood "We need to stop the bleeding, iirth or billet from the tack room will serve"

"In the meantime" Susanna turned to Lord Payne "Givethe knot of his neck cloth with treth of fabric loose Susanna reached for it and wound it about Finn’s calf just below the knee, pulling with all her ht to cinch it

That acco was shallow, and his gaze unfocused The poor youth was going into shock

"Finn," she said in a loud, clear voice, "can you hear me?"

He nodded His teeth chattered as he whispered, "Yes, Miss Finch"

"I’aze "We’re all here We’re going to have you put to rights just as soon as we can"

Aaron Dawes crouched at her side "I’ a cart We’ll have to take hireement While Susanna dispensed salves and tinctures to the villagers, anything that required brute force--the setting of bones, the pulling of teeth, and so forth--all fell to Dawes, as the village blacksh, from the looks of Finn’s wound, she wasn’t at all sure this injury could be set There was a very good possibility he would lose the foot entirely

Assu he lived

She sreat deal of pain?"

"N-n-no," he said, shivering "Just cold"

That wasn’t a good sign

Bra, cured leather As she wound the strap around Finn’s leg, he found a horse blanket and draped it over the boy’s torso

"There now," he , Finn"

Braht, securing it much better than she could have done herself Obviously, battle had given hireat deal more experience ounds of this nature than with attacks of asthma The blood loss instantly decreased

Rufus knelt at his brother’s head Susanna could tell he was struggling to hold back tears "Will he be all right, Miss Finch?"

"He’ll be fine," she said, trying to convince herself "But how did this happen?"

Lord Payne shook his head in dismay "The fireworks I meant them to be a surprise for tomorrow, but" He turned his head to spit a violent curse "See it I was distracted, and the boys got it into their heads to test a few"

"But fireworks could not have caused a blast that strong Could they?"

"No," he said "That was the cannon"

"The cannon?" Dread sank like a stone to the bottout

"After the fireworks, they coaxed Sir Lewis into a de backfired"

Oh Lord

"Where’s ain her feet She stood on tiptoe, craning her neck to view the group "Papa?"

Thea cart to transport Finn to the sh the crush of bodies She found her father in the courtyard, picking through the cannon’s wreckage

"Dauished voice "How did this happen?"

"Papa, don’t!" She grabbed his ar back with all her ed him away from the scene "You’ll burn yourself You shouldn’t be near this at all, with sospark landed in an open crate of fireworks, setting the packing straw alight and sending a rocket shooting sideways

"Look out!" she cried, pushing her father to the ground and diving after hi on her side A half-buried rock crunched into her rib cage

Ignoring her s ribs, she crawled to her father’s side "Are you well, Papa? Is your heart paining you?"

"How could it not?" Struggling up on an elbow, he lifted a handkerchief to his face, wiping away a mixture of tears and sweat "What senseless destruction"

"It was an accident, Papa" One that should have never happened

"I don’t knoent wrong," he ? I was so certain this time"

"You’ve been certain several tiedy My beautiful cannon"<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>