He lifted her gently into his arms and laid her on the bed. She stared up at him, her eyes wide with fear.
“You will be all right,” he repeated, more for himself than for her. “Do not move.”
She watched him stride to the door, jerk it open, and bellow for Etta.
Etta paid no heed to Lord Graelam’s nakedness. She was panting with exertion, still pulling on her bedrobe.
“Blood,” Graelam told her. “I fear she is losing a babe. Is she with child?”
Etta felt the blood drain from her face. “Aye,” she whispered. She looked down at Kassia, saw her mistress lying in a pool of blood, and uttered a distressed cry. “Oh, my baby,” she said, clutching at Kassia’s hand.
“What can I do?” Graelam asked from behind her.
Etta pulled herself together. “Clean cloths, my lord, and hot water. We must make certain she does not bleed her life away.”
Graelam turned immediately, pausing only when he heard Etta call after him, “My lord, your bedrobe!”
31
“You knew she was with child?”
Etta’s kind face contorted with pain. “Aye, I knew, my lord, and I was going to tell her if she did not come to the knowledge soon.”
“It is a pity that you did not tell before she played the man today.”
“You had no knowledge of it, my lord?”
Graelam made a slashing motion with his hand. It was on the tip of his tongue to shout at her that he was a man and paid no heed to women’s concerns. But he held himself quiet. It should have occurred to him that she had had no monthly flow. And had he not noticed that her breasts seemed fuller?
“How far along was she?” he asked instead.
“Early days,” Etta said. “Two months, I should say.”
He looked down at his wife, asleep now from another potion Etta had given her. She was so pale that her face looked as if it had been drained of blood. Her chemise, stained with streaks of crimson, lay wrapped in cloths on the floor. He swallowed convulsively. “She will be all right?”
“Aye, the bleeding is stopped.” Etta rubbed her gnarled hands together helplessly. “I should have told her. I thought that since she was now a married lady, and you a man of experience, she would realize that—”
Graelam cut her off. He felt impotent and angry. “I married a child,” he said harshly. “How could anyone expect her to know a woman’s function?”
“She has had other concerns of late, my lord,” Etta said, looking directly at him.
“Aye, riding astride and learning men’s sports!”
“ ’Twas not her fault,” Etta said steadily.
“I do not suppose that she finally admitted to you that she lied? About everything?”
“My lady does not lie, my lord.”
Graelam gave a snorting laugh. “Little you know her. It matters not now. Go to bed. I will call you if she awakens.”
Etta gave him a long look, tempted to tell him he was a fool, but she saw the pain in his dark eyes and held her tongue. He did care for Kassia, she thought, but how much? She shuffled from the chamber, her bones creaking with tiredness.
Kassia awoke, blinking into the bright sunlight that streaked into the bedchamber. Memory flooded back and she tensed, waiting for the terrible pain, but there was none. She felt tired and sore, as if her body had been bludgeoned. She smiled wryly, remembering well that it had. But the blood. What had happened to her?
“Here, drink this.”
She turned her head slowly on the pillow at the sound of her husband’s voice. She felt his hand slip behind her head to lift her, and sipped the sweet-tasting brew.