At first she had barely noticed his arms around her, as the pain seared through her. Slowly she became aware of his presence. For some strange reason, it gave her some comfort. Her breathing became more even, though it was still excruciating. Bash slowly let go of her and picked up the cloth he had before. He poured more alcohol over it to rinse it off and then, very gently, began to clean the excess blood off her wound.
"So tell me then, why are you here?" Catherine said in a raspy voice. She needed something to distract her from the pain.
"Catherine, now really isn't the..." he began. He didn't want to tell her about the vision while she was already in such a bad state.
"You said you tell me when we were safe, and we are...mostly." she said, wincing slightly every time the rag touched her. He tried to be more careful, but he was already as gentle as he could be. He got up and grabbed another cloth from his bag and a vile and walked back over to her. He opened the vile and started rubbing its contents on her wound.
"Well, I...when our boat cashed on the shore in Scotland, I was near death. We were saved by some druids. They healed me, but a band of rebels killed them, we only escaped with our lives due to some quick thinking and a bit of luck." he started his story.
"What does any of this have to due with why you're here? And what is that horrid smelling concoction you're putting on me?" she asked.
"Well if you would give me a moment, I was getting to that. As for the ointment, it's to help it heal, and you probably don't want to know what's in it." he said. Catherine wrinkled her nose up at the thought of how bad the ingredients must be if he didn't want to tell her. "Anyway, as I was saying, we tricked the rebels into thinking we were kidnapped by the druids so they would help us, but while one of them was dying she told me that I had magic in me. I thought she was just out of it at first..."
"At first? I take it to mean she wasn't as out of it as you thought." Catherine assumed. Bash took the the cloth and started to wrap it around her middle.
"When we finally got to the castle, I started to see things. I saw her again, the druid who told me I had magic." he told her.
"But she died. Didn't she?" Catherine asked. Bash nodded.
"Exactly. It was her spirit. She told me I needed to learn about my gift so that I could use it to do good...so I left, I went to find another group of druids who took me in and taught me. I wasn't there long before I started to have visions, sort of like Nostradamus. At first they were just small things, and then I had a vision of a fire. Just a fire, nothing more. For weeks, it was the same. Just a fire. Then, all of the sudden, something more appeared in the vision. It was Mary. I saw her lying there, dead amongst the flames. So I rode back to the castle that day, to warn her..." Catherine interrupted again.
"Is Mary alright?" she asked worried.
"Yes, Mary's fine, there's still more." he said as he tied off the cloth. Catherine rolled her eyes, both annoyed and relived that Mary was okay.
"And I'll be dead before you get to the point." she added.
"That night I saw it again, only this time Mary wasn't the fire's only victim." he paused a moment, unsure of how to say the rest. "It was Charles and Claude, Elizabeth, all of them, all of your children." Catherine shook her head. "That's when Mary told me about Claude's wedding invitation, and I knew that must be it. I told her not to come, one less person we will have to worry about."
"No. No, this can't be true. Your vision must be wrong, maybe you misinterpreted. or...or..." Catherine started to panic.
"There wasn't much to misinterpret." he said, putting his hands on her shoulders to settle her. "It's okay. I'm not going to let it happen. I am here to help you stop it."
"I once thought I could stop a vision, we both know how well that turned out." she said as her eyes watered up. He saddened at the thought of Francis, knowing how they all played at least a small part in his demise.
"This is different. Charles isn't Francis, he will believe it...and now you have me...You won't be fighting alone." she calmed a little and laid back down.
"That's what happened earlier isn't it? When your eyes went blank. You saw something." she asked. He nodded. "What did you see?"
"It was you...crying over their bodies." he said. He wasn't sure if it was right to tell her the rest. She might feel violated further. He really had no right to see what he'd seen. The look of fear covered her face. "I...um...let me..." he said as he stood and took a shirt out of his bag and returned to her side. "Here." he said handing it to her.
"What's this for?" she asked.
"To wear. I mean, you can't put that corset back on and that riding habit doesn't really...I mean in the front it's..." he stammered. She took the shirt and tried to put it on with out dropping the jacket she held to her chest. He saw her struggling and tried to help her. Once the shirt was over her head he pulled the jacket from beneath it and placed it over her like a blanket. "You should try to get some rest. We'll have to spend the night here. There's no way I can move you yet. Regain your strength and we'll head back to the castle in the morning."
"Rest. There is no rest now." she said. He stood, and once again took something from his bag. Another vile.
"Here, drink this." he said. She looked at him warily.
"I'm not drinking anything when I don't know what it is." she said.
"What? Do you think I'm going to poison you or something?" he asked.
"You might. How should I know." she replied.
"Why would I go through all this trouble to help you, just to poison you two minutes later?...It's for the pain." he clarified, putting the bottle closer to her. She took it reluctantly, looking at it with unsure eyes. She drank it and handed it back to him.
"All these remedies you have..." she posed as a question.
"The druids." he answered. She raised an eyebrow, thinking to herself that she should have realized. "They work in all sorts of healing, magic and otherwise. This is just a bit of ginger root and willow bark. No magic here."
"And your visions, how can you be sure they're accurate?" she wondered.
"I guess you'll just have to trust me." he said.
"Forgive me if I don't. I believed Nostradamus's visions because he had accurate visions before, I know nothing of your ability, or if you even have the sight at all. Seems like an odd coincidence that this gift should appear just after you leave here, no?" she sounded as if she were accusing him of something, but really she simply didn't want to think that this vision could be true. However, believing she was actually accusing him, he got defensive. If she wanted proof, he'd give her proof.
"Let's find out just how accurate my gift is then shall we? I'll tell you what else I saw before and you can tell me if it's true. Hows that?" he hissed.
"What are you talking about?" she asked worried.
"I didn't just see you in the future, I saw your past as well. Back in Italy. I saw you restrained, men around you. Soldiers, tearing your dress. How many were there? Four? Five maybe? Shall I go on? How detailed would you like me to get before you believe me?" every word was dripping with anger. Pain and fury were fighting to take precedence in Catherine's mind and all over her face. Bash could see what he'd done in saying what he had.
"How dare you." was all she could muster to say. He knew immediately that he'd made a mistake, but he was too angry at the moment to apologize.
"How dare I? You all but called me a liar." he replied.
"Get out." she said.
"What?" he asked confused.
"Get out! Leave!" she yelled even though it hurt to do so.
"Right, and I'm sure you'll have fun getting back to the castle." he scoffed.
"I would rather die than look at your face for one more moment." she said. He pursed his lips and then he grabbed his things.
"Fine! I don't need this. I'll just go warn Charles myself and be on my way.I'm sure he'll send someone to get you...eventually...that is if you make it that far!" he added as he took his horses reigns and stormed out of the cave leaving her half dressed with no food or water. Then the tears she'd been holding back started to fall.
Once Bash was outside the cave he picked up a rock and threw it in frustration.
"AH! Insufferable woman!" he grunted. He took a deep breath and looked back at the cave. He sighed. He'd let his anger get the better of him, which seemed to be the trend when he was around her. Why did she have to be so steadfast in her attempt to grind on his every nerve? He tied his horse to a nearby tree and started pulling some berries off a bush aggressively. He started to think maybe he shouldn't have come back to France after all.