Excerpt of The Traitor's Mark by D.K. Wilson

He sent one of his colleagues in search of water and,
when a bucket arrived, he gently washed down the skin
around the hole in my body. ‘What we have to do,’ he
said, ‘is close this up as much as we can, then bind it
as tight as you can bear.’

‘You seem very expert.’

I’ve watched many field surgeons at work.’

‘Is it very bad? Am I likely to …’

‘Die? That you’ll have to ask a priest.’

Strong fingers pinched the edge of the wound. Fresh
padding was applied.

‘Hold that while I bind it,’ my ‘doctor’ ordered. He
wound long strips of cloth round my stomach so firmly
that I could take only shallow breaths.

‘I suppose Black Harry and his companions will get clean
away,’ I muttered disconsolately.

‘I don’t fancy their chances in the dark – not in all
this mud and marsh.’ He helped me into a clean shirt.

‘Pray God you’re right,’ I said. ‘If that murderous hell-
hound slips through our fingers after all we’ve been
through … Our men must be feeling very dejected.’

‘I’ve seen troops with better morale. No one likes losing
friends in battle but when you can’t see the point of the
battle … When you’re just obeying orders because they’re
orders …’

‘I’m afraid I’ve led you all into a real mess and we’ve
nothing to show for it.’

‘No one blames you, Master Treviot. Most of us know you
were caught up in this against your will. Please God,
you’ll live to laugh at this fiasco. Right, that’s
patched you up. Keep as still as you can. Don’t waste
whatever strength you’ve got. You’ll need it when we get
ashore – if we get ashore.’ With those comforting words
he departed.

The next few hours seemed like days. I had nothing to do
but try to keep my mind off the pain. I thought back over
the events of the last two months. Should I have done
anything different? Every single event had been like a
link in a chain pulling me inevitably towards the
situation in which I found myself now. Could I have
broken any of those links or was I the victim of
inexorable fate. Strange that a respected London merchant
should end his days on a foreign ship wallowing through
turgid waters of the east coast of England. I thought of
my prim brothers of the Worshipful Goldsmiths’ Company.
My unconventional passing would make a fine topic of
conversation in our hall on Foster Lane. I imagined the
solemn, nodding heads and the wiseacres who would claim
they had always known young Treviot would come to a bad
end. I laughed. That was a mistake. I yelped loudly as
arrows of pain pierced my torso.