cottage
When you wake up, you are inside the cottage. There are about 15 men
inside and a fire burning in the fireplace. You scramble up to a
standing position and try to become part of the wall in the hopes of
no one seeing you. Tough luck.
"Where's the lass ye found, Murtaugh?" a big man was asking.
"O'er there in the corner, Dougal", replied your captor,
with a nod at you.
All the men in the cottage turn towards you. They start discussing
what to do with you. One wants to kill you, one wants to take you with
them, and one wants to let you go. They debate and funally decide.
They move on to a different topic. You fade into the corner once more.
"We're ready to go," said one man.
"Aye, but we mun do somethin' about young Jamie's shoulder",
says Dougal.
The men shift to show a young red-headed man sitting on a stool with
his head bent. Your medical traing as a nurse during the war tels you
his shoulder is dislocated. Two men walk over to him and prepare to
jam the arm back into place.
The angle is all wrong, you think to yourself. The men try three times
to put the arm in place with no result. You know that one more will
probably break the lad's arm. But your experience as a nurse won't let
that happen.
"Stop!" you say, stepping out of your corner. "You'll
break his arm that way. The angle's got to be like this."
You take the man's arm and say, "This is going to hurt a
bit."
When you come to, you see a cootage looming closer and closer
through the fog. Your hands are bound to a saddle, which makes you
realize you are on a horse. On a horse in front of your Scottish
captor, to be more exact. You fall asleep.
