Falling for the Enemy

Healer

                                                                             Henry  

 Finally, I slide her dress and knickers off and remove her stockings and shoes.  Catherine lies still on the bed, with just a blanket covering her fragile naked body.  Taking a rag and dipping it into the wash pan, I begin gently washing her face, then her lips, next her arms, and then her legs.  It takes a while to remove the dried blood and dirt from her skin but she is becoming more recognizable with each wipe of my rag.   

“Catherine, I need you to roll over on your stomach so I can see your back,” I say in a calm voice.   

Catherine nods and with all the strength she has left in her body she rolls onto her stomach and lies covered under the blanket.  

“I am going to fold the blanket down just to your waist so I can clean the wounds on your back” I hesitate and wait for a response and once more she gives a halfhearted nod.  

Gently, I fold the blanket back lying it just below her waist but still making sure her bottom is covered.  

“My God” I whisper. 

“What did they do to you?” 

Ever so lightly I try to wash each slice that was made into her skin but there are too many to wash individually.  Each small movement of my cloth causes Catherine’s whole body to flinch and recoil in pain.   I have never seen anything like this before, this is a whole new level of cruelty.  I am barely touching the cuts on her back and ever so lightly grazing over her gashes, but even with how delicate I am being with her I still see the tears falling from her eyes.  

“I am causing you more pain.  I am so sorry Catherine” I say trying to hide the crack in my voice.   

“Don’t be, you found me. You saved me” she says into the mattress, gently wiping the tears from her cheek.  

“I need to know something,”  I say pausing but continuing to cleanse her back 

“Did those men.. Did they… Catherine did they rape you?” and I have asked the one question that I have been dreading the answer to since I spotted her tied to the tree in the woods.  

Catherine takes a deep breath in and then slowly pushes the air back out of her lungs, lifting her head from the mattress and tilting it back to look me in the eyes she says “No they didn’t” and she gives me a very small and barely there smile of reassurance and then places her head back down on the mattress and closes her eyes.  

Relieved that those men did not take that away from her too, I continue tending to her wounds.  I gently bandage her back, not quite knowing how to bandage it properly to cover the multitude of cuts.  Sarah and Susanah knock once more on the door checking on Catherine’s condition and bringing us each a bowl of soup.  

                                                                              Catherine

Every muscle and bone in my body is calling out in protest to the pain I have endured over the last two days.  No matter how carefully I move my body, I am paralyzed and overcome with pain.  It is difficult to say where the pain is coming from because it seems to be coming from everywhere and nowhere at the same time.  Even when merely breathing I feel a sharp stabbing pain in my side.  So I lie on the bed ever so still, trying not to make any type of movement. Henry was a perfect gentleman the entire time he was caring for me and my wounds, and now he lies under my head on the bed fully clothed because when he tried to leave I had a panic attack.   

He was trying to be kind and allow me to get some rest but when he moved for the door, everything started closing in on me and I felt like I was falling.  It became very difficult to breathe and I begged him to stay with me for the night.  He quickly put me at ease by promising that he would stay with me the entire night and that he wouldn’t leave my side and this is where he has been since then.  I lay on his chest, no longer naked under the blanket but instead dressed in clean knickers and a new chemise. His arm is draped gently around my back, not touching any of the bandaged areas on my back.  I can hear his heart beating in his chest and it is one of the most beautiful sounds I have ever heard.   The silence in the room is interrupted by Henry’s calm and tender voice.  

“Catherine, I didn’t want to say anything before but now that you are calmer I think you should know that Charles and his accomplice came to the house this morning.”  

With this new information, my heart is again racing and my breathing is going faster.  

“Catherine, they are both dead” is all he says and the conversation is over.  

I do not respond but inside my mind, I am happy that all of the men who hurt Susanah have met their fate.  I focus on each rise and fall of Henry’s chest and this sends a wave of stillness through my body and soon I have fallen asleep to the rhythm of his breathing.