Father Colm inclined his head toward Eithne and Malcolm and said, “Please excuse me.” After they exited the great hall he said, “Lady Katherine, your son seemed anxious about something this morning. He wanted to talk to ye. Diarmad and I tried to find out what was bothering him, but as soon as Laird MacLennan and Lady Eithne arrived, Tomas said no more. He has gone to the stables with Diarmad.”
“That doesn’t surprise me. I’m sure you have noticed Niall assigns one of his guards to keep an eye on Tomas every day.”
Father Colm chuckled, “I had noticed Tomas always seemed to have a guard with him. The days when Turcuil becomes a fierce dragon who needs taming are humorous indeed. I did not know the reason.”
Katherine laughed, too, and went on, “Well, the primary reason is to keep Tomas away from Lady MacIan.”
“That seems like a wise choice. It also explains a few things, clearly the lad is cautious of both Lady MacIan and Laird MacLennan. I have found children and dogs to be uncanny judges of character. I will keep an eye on Tomas as well.”
“Thank ye, Father. I will find Tomas as soon as I have spoken with Bridie.”
“It is probably nothing, but I’m sure he will feel better once he tells ye what it is,” Father said with a reassuring smile. “Let me know if I can be of any help. I have some things to take care of in the chapel this morning.”
It took much longer for her to seek Tomas out than she had anticipated. Before Katherine finished with Bridie, a servant came rushing into the kitchen looking for her.
“My lady, there has been an accident on the training field. Fingal is hurt. They’re bringing him up to the castle now.”
“Please go to my chamber quickly and bring me my bag of supplies,” Katherine said to the girl. She sent other servants to prepare Fingal’s chamber and to bring other supplies she would need. Then she rushed to meet the men carrying Fingal.
From a distance she saw blood drenched his left side, but he was still alert. When she reached him, she assessed his wound quickly. It looked more severe than it actually was. Relief flooded her and she thanked God and his angels for their protection. “This isn’t nearly as bad as I feared. Why, it is a scratch, really,” she teased.
Fingle groaned, “Just a scratch, is it? It hurts a tad more than any scratch I’ve ever had.”
“Well, perhaps it is wee bit deeper than most scratches. I will clean and stitch it, but ye’ll be fine. The bleeding has already slowed. How did this happen?”
Rab explained, “One of the young soldiers in training made a wild swing and lost his balance. As he fell, he slammed into Fingal’s back. Fingal was forced forward onto Bruce’s blade, with whom he was sparring. Bruce saw it happening and tried to avoid Fingal, but still managed to give him that wee scratch.”
When they arrived in Fingal’s chamber, Edna awaited them with all the supplies Katherine required. Katherine asked Turcuil to stay, fearing that he might need to hold Fingal still while she worked. “Drink this, Fingal,” she said, giving him a potion.
He swallowed it, shuddering when the cup was empty. “God’s bones, what kind of poison is this?”
“I’m sorry, I know it’s bitter, but it will help with the pain. Here is some ale to get rid of the taste.”
“Couldn’t we have started with the ale and skipped the other?”
“This is likely to hurt quite a bit. I’m sure ye’ll be thankful for both.”
“I believe ye, thousands wouldn’t.”
She gave the potion a few minutes to begin working before she started stitching. She had hoped between the potion and the pain, he would lose consciousness, but he didn’t. With his jaw set and fists clenched, he remained silent as Katherine worked. By the time she tied off the last stitch, he looked pale and exhausted from the ordeal.
“Try to rest now, Fingal, the potion I gave ye should make ye sleepy. Turcuil, please stay with him and let me know if anything changes.”
“I don’t need a big, ugly nursemaid. Now, if perhaps the fair Fineen wanted to tend to my needs, I wouldn’t turn her away.”
“Ye are a rogue, Fingal MacIan. I think it would be best for ye to keep your mind and your hands off the ‘fair Fineen’ until your side is healed. I don’t want to have to sew ye up again. Edna will bring ye some broth shortly and I want ye to drink it all.” Katherine laughed when Fingal pouted, looking very much like Tomas did when disgruntled. It reminded her that she needed to find Tomas. “If he won’t let ye stay, Turcuil, would ye please look in on him frequently for me? I need to find Tomas, he was looking for me earlier.”