|
|
|
|
|
|
that the conversation had got out of hand. If he had said anything loverlike, she could have been repressive and severe. But how could one be severe with such remarks as he made? She giggled again, thinking of the "uncomfortable thing on the stool" being the question Walter wanted to ask her father. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
All the while her fingers had been pursuing their quest, and Walter stiffened suddenly and said, "There." |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Sybelle raised her hand at once, moved it farther along, and touched him cautiously. "Better? Worse?" |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
"I do not know," he replied between set teeth. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
She felt the knob of the shoulder, top, back, and front, but did not need to question because she could feel the slight relaxation of Walter's body. "Not too bad," she said with satisfaction. "You have broken your collarbone just before it joins the shoulder. That will mend easily. I had feared you had damaged the joint, which is a very bad thing, for even when it heals, sometimes it will be stiff and painful always. But that leech was a fool." |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
"More likely he had many others to attend to," Walter pointed out. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
"That is true," Sybelle agreed, but abstractedly. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
She was not absolutely certain how to deal with the injury she had found. She could set the bone, but how to keep it in place was a problem. Better ask before she meddled. She would need salves for the cuts, also. They were not healing cleanly. And it would be simplest if Walter just got into a bath so she could wash everything at once. The only other thing of importance was the injury to his left leg that made him limp. Sybelle came around in front of him and said briskly, "Stand up and take off your chausses." |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Walter jumped slightly. He had been both relieved and irritated by Sybelle's discovery. He, too, had feared an injury to the joint, which might cripple him permanently. The broken collarbone was better than that by far, but it was a nuisance since it would keep him out of action for some time. He had been contemplating what to do about it so that Sybelle's order took him by surprise. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Sybelle stared at him, astonished. "But I must look at your leg," she said. "I cannot see the hurt through the cloth." |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
"You are like to see a good deal more than my bruised knee," Walter retorted dryly. |
|
|
|
|
|