New Blood by Gail Dayton Page A

Whitcomb.
    She grabbed him by the hand and hauled him out of the tent behind her, displaying his still-inflamed finger to the shouters. “My servant burned himself,” she said. “I was treating
his
injury.”
    Teo, the brute who’d led the party that dragged Miss Whitcomb to the camp, shouted something.
    â€œBut
I
care,” she retorted. “Jax is
my
servant, and I most certainly do care more about him than about you. About
any
of you. Now, if you want me to treat your scratches, get back over to the hospital and line up. I’m not treating a rowdy mob.”
    Teo reached for her, but Miss Whitcomb skipped out of his reach. One of the others shoved him back, talking fast in a joking tone, apparently hoping to keep the thug from taking offense. Jax could feel her trembling through her grip on his arm, but nothing showed where anyone else could see it. Gradually, the outlaws faded away and she let go of him.
    Instantly, Jax took her elbow to provide support. She could stand on her own against these outlaws, he had no doubt. But with him here, she didn’t have to.
    Â 
    T HAT DAY PASSED much as the days before and each one that came after. Costel continued to improve. It was evident to Amanusa that he would live, but Szabo refused to believe her. In truth, he probably did believe, but he refused to let her go until Costel walked out of the hospital tent under his own power. He was sitting up in bed, taking small steps while leaning heavily on Miruna to collapse in a camp chair. And with every improvement in Costel’s health seemed to come a corresponding deterioration in the mood of the camp.
    Not because of Costel’s health, but because of Teo’s inability to break Amanusa’s will. He could batter himself against it until the end of time, but she would never give in, and with every failure, his moodgrew blacker. And when Teo was in a black mood, everyone suffered.
    â€œWhy don’t you just give in and give him what he wants?” Szabo asked one afternoon when Teo went snarling and stomping away yet again.
    â€œBecause he wants me broken and whimpering at his feet,” she said calmly, picking up the no-longer-clean laundry Teo had dashed from her hands. “And that will never happen. Ever.”
    â€œHe will kill you.”
    Amanusa shrugged. “Then he kills me. He will not break me.”
    She could sense Jax stiffen behind her in denial. His reaction made it harder for her to accept her fate calmly, as she always had before, because she felt his rebellion.
    â€œHe will kill your idiot first,” Szabo growled. “Have a care for him if not for yourself.”
    Amanusa had to force another shrug, this time through her own pangs of denial. Her own life she could risk as she liked. It was not so easy to treat another’s life as unimportant. But Szabo—and the rest of them—could not be allowed to know it. “Then our bargain is broken and you have no healer. This is your problem to solve, old man.”
    She turned away and marched back to the stream to rewash the clothing, leaving the bandit leader muttering to himself.
    â€œA woman should not be so strong!” he shouted after her.
    â€œA man should be strong enough not to fear a woman’s strength,” Jax muttered, startling a laugh from Amanusa.
    â€œWhen did you become so wise?” she asked,shooting him a teasing glance from beneath her lashes.
    Jax gave her a crooked smile in return, after first checking to be sure no one was near. “After a very long and painful education.” He winked, then his face lost all its humor. “This place is becoming too dangerous.”
    â€œ
Teo
is becoming too dangerous.”
    He took the laundry from her hands and knelt beside the frigid mountain stream. He kept insisting on actually doing a servant’s job. But this time . . .
    â€œLet me do that,” Amanusa said. “You stand watch. I don’t trust