Free Dark and Bright by Anna Markland

horses lathered from the hard journey. They brought news of the accident and rescue. Carys and Annalise stood together hand in hand in the courtyard. Carys gasped when told of Baudoin’s stupor. He’d at length opened his eyes and spoken her name. Annalise fell to her knees and wept for her husband’s suffering. But he was alive!
    “I must go to them, Annalise. I’m a healer. They need me,” Carys exclaimed.
    Annalise shook her head. “Rhun’s news assured us they’re in the hands of a capable healer, Carys. You’re with child. You can’t undertake such a journey now and endanger your baby. Baudoin wouldn’t want you to do such a thing. We must make preparations for their return. Come, let’s weep with relief together, and give thanks that our husbands yet live, and our children are not orphans before they’re born.”
    ***
    When Baudoin tumbled over the edge of the gorge, his last thought was that he would never see Carys again. Now he opened his eyes. He was lying before a hearth, bound to a crude pallet of some sort.
    “Carys?” he whispered, sure no one but his magically mystical wife could have saved him from death. But why was he bound?
    “I am Glain, my lord Earl,” a warm voice said. “I’m a healer. Your wife awaits you at Ellesmere. You’ve been in a stupor for some time. You hit your head when you fell. We’ve worried about you.”
    He turned his head. A young woman was bending over him. “Rhys?” he asked. “What about Rhys?”
    “My lord Rhys ap Rhodri broke several bones, but he too lives. He’s asleep on the pallet.”
    Baudoin noted the tone of respect for Rhys in her voice. He was still in Wales. “Where are we? Who brought us here? Who rescued us?”
    She soothed his forehead with a sweet-smelling wet cloth. “Be calm, my lord Earl. Rhun and Rhydderch ap Rhodri rescued you, but you’ll learn the tale later. Now you must rest, so I can send you back home to your anxious wives.”
    The tension left him, but he ached in every part of his body. However, he was alive and seemed none the worse for wear, except for an excruciating headache. What a fool—to fall into a gorge, and drag with him his brother-by-marriage who now lay broken on the pallet beside him, somewhere in Wales! And they’d been rescued by the two hotheads!
    ***
    They stayed in the village with a smaller contingent of their bodyguards for a full sennight. Baudoin made good progress. After two or three days on a more comfortable pallet brought from a neighbouring cottage, Glain gave permission for him to get up and walk outdoors. He went first to the pallet where Rhys lay in the grip of a fever.
    “Rhys, I’m sorry I dragged you with me when I fell. It appears you cushioned my fall and took the worst of it. When we get you home Carys will help you heal.”
    His eyes glazed, Rhys replied. “Baudoin—I’m simply thankful we’re both alive. Imagine—two men such as us—falling off a horse into a gorge! We’re surrounded by—danger wherever we go—but we had to create our own—I’ll be well again. You’re right—Carys will help us to heal—and Annalise—if I survive this cursed fever.”
    “Glain is an accomplished healer, Rhys. She won’t let us travel until you’re sufficiently recovered. I have a feeling that the longer we stay here the happier the terrible twosome will be!”
    In his fevered state, Rhys had been unaware of the romantic tensions going on between Rhun, Rhydderch and Glain. “What do you mean?”
    “Well, the lady is going to have to choose between them. They’re both smitten with her.”
    In the days that followed Rhys improved steadily, and he too soon noticed the interplay of suggestive looks, smiles, and discreet touches going on between the three. He wasn’t sure what to make of it. His twin brothers had shared women before, but in a devil-may-care kind of way, like they shared everything. This was different. There was a smouldering passion about the way they looked at Glain,