Excerpt Sunday – Outside the Walls #Fantasy
Excerpt from Outside the Walls (c) A. L. Butcher and Diana L. Wicker
Carol, the midwife, looked the guard captain up and down and snorted at the posturing men. She had little time for such masculine displays, such foolishness had started this war now banging on the city gates. “Frederick Hilary Ormson! You always were one to be awkward, even as a boy. I see nothing has changed ‘cepting now your sword is real. I brought you into this world, boy, and I smacked your arse when you gave your poor mother trouble. I’ll do it again, don’t you doubt it! Did you not think to fetch me to assist a woman in her need? They pays what they can afford, or they pays in kind. That is the way it is, and always has been. If some fool had thought with his purse and not his heart, you’d not be here now, nor that babe of yours either. Now get you out the way, silly boy!” With that she swept past, as the embarrassed captain stood aside, humbled by the tirade and far more afraid of this woman than the Summoner-Blade. He mumbled something to be rebuked sharply with, “And I ain’t deaf neither.”
In short order, Carol arrived at the appropriate tent, residents of the camp helpfully pointing her along the way as word of her upbraiding of the most feared of the city guards preceded her. Handing the steeping herbs to the midwife, Lynette asked if Eleanor would be needed further, and received an abrupt, but not unkind dismissal. “There are plenty here to tend if you’ve the skill, from what I’ve seen. I will call if I need another pair of hands. You have done what you can for her.”
Lynette nodded, grateful and relieved. She pulled Eleanor away. “Let the midwife do her duty. There are others for you to see, and an apothecary’s apprentice for me to find.”
Outside, Eleanor said with a soft voice filled with anger, “They’ve been on the move for so long with so little. I fear we’ve come too late. There is so much that should have been done, could have been done…”
Universal Link https://books2read.com/Outsidethewalls
