" Will he be alright, Doctor?" Katrina asked anxiously wringing her white hands until they glowed red.

"Too soon to say I'm afraid. He's running quite a fever but I don't dare bleed him much as he's lost quite a bit of blood already from a stab wound in his upper shoulder. All else aside he was lucky. Another few inches and whatever inflicted the wound would have cut his throat."

Katrina shivered. "May I see him?"

"I'm afraid I'm not quite through with the examination and it would not be quite...proper for you to enter at the moment."

"Well then finish!" Katrina snapped and stalked out of the house.

The night air was damp and cold against Katrina's flushed cheeks and more of a relief than anything else as she sank down on the porch and felt the tears she had been holding back since finding Ichabod form in her eyes and trickle down her face. Her shoulders shook with sobs. "Please let him be all right..." She whispered to no one in particular, perhaps to God but she really did not know. She'd never been so miserable in her life and believed she could not feel any worse. She was wrong.

Brom Bones swaggered up the steps a half-drunk grin and a roguish song on his lips. "Hi Katrina!" He called out and waved cheerfully to her. "What's the matter?"

Katrina stared at him her grief not disappearing but becoming somewhat overshadowed by pure, violent hatred. He wore an empty scabbard for a sword around his waist and his boots were stained with fresh wet mud. She stood up her heart pounding and picked up a rock, which she hurled at his head. It glanced off his shoulder.

"Owww!" He cried and gave her an indignant look. "What was that for?"

"You bastard!" She screamed at him not caring who heard. "I know what you did to poor Ichabod!"

"What I did... a harmless prank, Katrina that's all." He smirked. "No call for such language."

"A harmless prank?! You charge at him with a sword, stab him in the shoulder and then leave him to bleed or freeze to death alone in the woods! And the only reason he was just wounded was because you were too drunk to actually sever his neck like you intended!"

"You can't prove I intended to do that. For all you know I'd only wanted to scare him to get him away from my girl and never meant to hurt him."

"I am not your girl, Brom and I never was!" Katrina hissed. "Just because you had father's permission to try and get my affections does not mean you got them. You never did, you haven't and you never will and whatever your intentions I hate you more than ever! And if he dies from this I would not shed a tear to see you tarred, feathered and hung by the neck in the streets!"

"Miss Van Tassel..." The doctor called from the door, "he's asking for you."