Slatter didn’t hesitate. He caught his wife with one arm as she stumbled from the blow and he swung with his other arm, his fist catching Sterling in the jaw and sending him tumbling to the ground.

Devin was on top of Sterling after that, tying the man’s hands behind his back before he came awake.

Slatter clamped his hand over his wife’s wound and he almost cringed when blood started seeping through his fingers.

“You have to wrap it,” Willow instructed, pain raced through her but she fought it, needing to keep focused to let her husband know what to do. “Rip the sleeve off before you do, then wrap it tight. Use my cloak.” She shook her head, a lightheadedness taking hold and she worried she would faint.

“You need to get her back to the keep,” Tarass said, hovering around them.

“You set a trap?” Slatter accused while doing as his wife had directed.

“I had to learn the truth for myself, since I wanted the actual culprit caught and made to suffer for his crimes. Now get your wife to the keep. I’ll see that Sterling and his friends are returned to Macardle land for now.”

Slatter looked to Devin.

“I’ll make sure of it,” his friend said with a firm nod.

Willow fought against the faint that hovered around her. She needed to stay awake, keep focused so she could instruct Eleanor how to tend her wound.

“You’re going to be fine. I’ll have you home soon,” her husband said before she was handed to someone while he mounted a horse, then she was up in is arms again.

He was worried for her and she was as well. She didn’t know the extent of the wound only that it bled and pained her. If it was a deep cut, it would not heal easily and there was always the chance of losing some of the motion in her arm.

She squeezed her eyes shut tight, forcing herself not to think about it, to think only on what had to be done to heal it.

“You’re in pain,” her husband said and he sounded as if he suffered along with her. “We’ll be home soon.”

She would have smiled if she wasn’t gritting against the pain. After a few moments, it became too much.

She opened her eyes and said, “Faint.”

“What was that?” Slatter asked, not having heard her.

She tried to repeat it, but there wasn’t time. She dropped into a dead faint.

Slatter’s heart pounded against his chest like a mighty hammer when his wife’s body turned lifeless in his arms. “Willow! Willow! Don’t you die on me. I can’t lose you. I won’t lose you. You’re my world now, Willow. Do you hear me? You’re my whole world.”

Willow came awake to the sound of worried voices and she felt herself being rushed up stairs. She was home.

“Wake up, wife, I demand it,” Slatter said, after placing her on the bed in their bedchamber.