The Duke's Lady

Chapter 23

Jessica lead all of the men to where Lindsay was down in the hole with Holly. When William saw where Holly was, " That is not a ditch, that is a ravine." His angel was down a ravine, she must be hurt bad. He walked over to the edge and peered down the side.  He saw Lindsay, she was cradling Holly's head in her lap. He shouted down to Lindsay," Lindsay, is Holly okay?"

Lindsay smiled up at her brother" She is cut up pretty bad and I think her leg is broke, she is in and out of consciousness." 

William smiled at Lindsay," I am just happy that she is alive, we need to get her up here and to the doctor."

Lindsay nodded" she is going to need one, she has open wounds on her arms and of course her legs." 

William stood up and knew what had to be done, they were going to need to figure out a way to get her up here. It seemed that Holly's brothers were the last to arrive. John the oldest looked at William's face" Is it true you have found her?"

William smiled" yes, and she is alive but hurt badly, we need to get her up carefully and to the doctor."

John nodded, " Okay I am going to send someone to let everyone at your home know that she has been found and that she is alive."

William nodded" yes, so that way they can make preparations for her arrival.  Now to figure out how we are to get her up without hurting her to much."

As the men put their heads together after a rider had been sent to prepare everyone at the Ducal estate. They were trying to figure out how to bring her up easily. Jason walked over," If we could find some strong enough tree limbs that we could make a stretcher of some kind. We could lower that down to put her on it. Then we could holster her up without to much movement to jar her and make her injuries worse."

William and the other gentlemen liked the idea, so they began to search for some tree limbs. When two had been found, then they need some kind of cloth to tie to it. Jessica walked forward with her under skirt in hand, she tossed it to them. " Use this it is strong enough to hold her light frame, besides she would have done the same for me."

William nodded at her" Thanks Jess, I will make sure it is replaced and your right Holly would have done the same for any of us."

Now that they had their stretcher made they needed to find an easier way down then the way Lindsay went down. So they carried the stretcher down a half of a mile and found where they could get down it with no trouble at all. They walked back up the half a mile to where Holly lay. 

William was the first one to be by her side, he looked at her bruised face and saw all the cuts on her arms. He felt like his heart had been ripped out of his chest just by seeing how injured she was. He would make sure that she would never be hurt like this again. He would kill the person who even dared to touch her. 

As the stretcher was laid beside her, the men saw how mangled she was. She definitely had a broken leg, even though the bone hadn't punctured the skin. Which was amazing, it was swollen and black and blue. You could see where the bone was against the skin, it was going to be painful when the doctor went to set it.