Kevin ran his fingers through his hair one last time, opened the door and went out.
"Who did this?" a man shouted.
"We do not know, but she is strong, she will survive."
"Is she hurt inside?" a woman wanted to know.
"She says nay. She needs rest and time to heal."
Another woman asked, "Where does she bleed?"
Thomas answered, "You will know everything soon enough. Go home and let her rest." They obeyed and as soon as they began to disperse, he and Kevin walked across the courtyard and headed to the loch to wash the blood off.
They were grateful when a woman handed clean clothing to each. Keeping clean was something Kevin insisted on for all his people and for a very important reason. Should they need to hide or sneak up on an enemy, he wanted to make sure no one could smell them before they saw them.
The loch was to the east of the Keep and was normally a quiet, tranquil place. Neither man bothered to undress. They removed their shoes, walked into the loch and swam the width of it twice, not only to clean the blood, but to relieve their anger. It wasn't helping that much and he wasn't sure why, but Kevin found it uncomfortable being that far away from Anna. He got out, changed into the clean clothing and headed back.
*
In the bedchamber, the next hour was a flurry of activity. Katie looked inside her mouth to see where the blood was coming from, saw the cut and told her not to talk. Anna was relieved to find Katie's English was as good as her brother's.
The three women cut off her clothing and bathed her. They looked as pained to do it as she felt, and soon she found herself trying to comfort them with a gentle touch and a nod. Katie applied a soothing salve to her rope burns, which helped, and Gretchen spoon fed her warm broth, so she wouldn't have to open her mouth much. It was all very kind of them and very, very unsettling for Anna.
Finally, they let her lay down on her stomach. Katie was careful to cover her backside only up to her waist, and sent the others out so Anna could sleep.
Kevin stood at the bottom of the stairs and watched as the two women came down, and then hurried off to tell the rest of the clan every detail of her condition. He waited until they closed the large front door behind them and then turned to Clymer. "Send riders to the nearest clans to tell them what has happened." He watched Clymer leave and turned to walk up the stairs. Kevin knew once the first few were told, word would spread all across the Highlands and the message would be clear -- someone tried to kill Kevin MacGreagor's bride and he wanted to know who.