Chapter 7
Dusk had fallen on the British army camp. Awinita kept herself busy by helping with Elijah clean the saddles and making sure the horses were all right. She desired to leave, but she learned the hard way that the British were quick to go after her. Biting one soldier would not be enough and she figured that another would shoot her dead.
Her mind wandered away as she worked. She thought of home and her family the Martins. She felt that they went looking for her when she didn't return home the other night.
"You there!" a man shouts and Awinita comes back to the present. She turns to see a few Red Coats and they were looking at her with cold eyes. "You're needed at the medics tent," one of them said.
She didn't dare ask and she quickly washed off the dirt from her hands and tied up her hair. She entered the medics tent where she saw a Red Coat on a cot, he had a bullet wound in his shoulder. The medic points to Awinita, "You, help me remove his shirt," he said and she looks at the injured soldier. She rolls up her sleeves and curls them to prevent them from falling down.
She then looks at a pair of scissors and she says, "I need those, it's no use to remove it by hand."
"You read my mind," the medic replied and hands the scissors to her. She starts cutting from the bottom and moved upwards. She then removed the shirt from one side and the other.
"That'll do, fetch me some of that boiling water," the medic said, pointing to a black pot that was being boiled under a fire. Awinita took a clean bowl and went out. She took a ladle and filled the bowl with hot water.
She sat it on the table next to medic and he places some surgical tools in the hot water. He had her clean the blood from the bullet wound. She took some clean rags and soaked it in the boiling water from the pot.
She looks at the wounded soldier and she tells him, "This might sting." The soldier looks at her, at least he was awake, but there was fear in his eyes. Awinita cleans off the blood and saw that the bullet was not deep in the skin.
Then, she noticed some other wounds. Bruises, scrapes, and some bullet grazes. "Let me remove the bullet first," the medic told her and gets to work. Awinita places a wooden stick wrapped in cloth in the soldier's mouth. This wasn't a painless operation as she suspected the soldier would experience severe discomfort in his shoulder.
The medic uses a tool that went into soldier's wound and Awinita saw the look of utter pain in his eyes, but he bit down on the stick. It didn't take long for the medic to remove the bullet and began to bandage his other wounds.
Then, to Awinita's surprise, Tavington and another Red Coat entered the tent. Tavington looks at the wounded soldier and calls out, "Private!"
The soldier looks at him and Tavington asks, "Tell me who did this to you?" The man struggles to speak and Tavington says, "Now calm down, calm down."
Awinita begins to clean the medics tools, but listens to the conversation. "Now twenty of His Majesty's soldiers are dead and I want to know how?" Tavington asks. Twenty soldiers dead? Awinita's curiosity grew, just who killed twenty soldiers?
"Maybe one," the private answered.
"One man," Tavington said and the private adds that he noticed that the killer vanished after the slaughter.
"He just doesn't vanish. Sounds like a ghost than a man," Tavington replied and Awinita had to agree. She had some skepticism about the supernatural, but no ghost could kill twenty men.
Then another Red Coat enters the tent and is introduced as Captain James Wilkins, a colonial loyalist. Awinita looks over at Wilkins, but doesn't recognize him. She listens to the three Red Coats talk and Wilkins mentions, "A traitor deserves to die a traitor's death."
She felt her insides shiver at those words, but she didn't dare speak against Wilkins. Then, she felt a presence behind her and looks to see Tavington, his blue eyes staring into hers. "Come to my tent when you are finished," he whispers into her ear.
Awinita nods and he leaves. She felt cold, what did Tavington want with her? Granted, he did save her from the brutality of the other Red Coats earlier, so the least she could do was show up.
She cleaned the medic's tools until all the blood was gone. She looks at the private, he had fallen asleep, and she felt it was a good thing as he had been through enough today, much like her.
From the author: Hello my readers. This is a short chapter I know, but I want to get to the "steamy" stuff between Awinita and Tavington as soon as possible. Can't seem to hold it in much longer. See you soon!