Captured by Him ~ The fourth novelette from "Different Desire", a Gay Victorian Romance and Erotic novelette collection Read Free Page B

small sheaf of different kinds of herbs from the floor. The mort ar was old; the wood had almost turned black with usage. Badger started to pinch off leaves from the herbs and added them into the mort ar . His movements were careful and controlled ; however , Milton thought with satisfaction that he looked rather irritated.
    They were qui et for a while before Badger spoke again.
    “Your wound is healing well, I would say. You were very lucky , by the way . T he blade was thin , and it must have gone straight through without damaging any vital parts.” He paused and added slowly, in what Milton thought sounded like a rather uncharacteristically concerned voice , “You have lost quite a lot of blood , though.”
    “I need to be taken to a doctor or to a proper hospital, you do realize that?” Milton said. His sudden angry outburst had left him feeling weak.
    “To a doctor? Oh, I think not. If you die at the hospital, they will blame it on me and my friends , and we will be hunted down for murder. It is better for both you and me if I treat you myself. Trust me.”
    “But you are no doctor or even a qualified nurse!” Milton protested.
    “No, that I am not,” Badger agreed. “However , my mother was a wise woman , and since she never had any daughters , she passed her knowledge on to me instead.”
    “A wise woman?” Milton said with a mirthless laugh. “Surely you are joking? You are going to be the death of me! It is only down to pure dumb luck if the wound has not festered yet. Please, you must let me go back! Perhaps no one has even noticed that I have been gone … ”
    Badger frowned at his comment. “Oh, I think they have,” he said. “You, my little ‘Sleeping Beauty’, have been unconscious for three full days now.”
    “Three days? Really?” Milton gasped in disbelief, ignoring the other man’s attempt to taunt him. Sleeping beauty, indeed! The man was both intolerable and vulgar!
    “Yes,” Badger said with a small crooked smile, before he grew serious again. “Consider yourself lucky to be alive at all.”
    Milton pondered this for a moment. He did not feel especially lucky or favoured. Indeed, perhaps it would even have been better if he had ended his days at the blade of a rapier in the hands of a highwayman?
    “Oh, do not worry. I think you are out of the woods now, so to say,” Badger said, who had misinterpreted his expression. “In fact, if you sleep and rest properly , I am sure you will be up and about in a couple of days.”
    “Yes, perhaps ,” Milton said , and after watching the other man putting more and more suspicious ingredients into the wooden mort ar, he could not help asking , “What are you doing, by the way?”
    Random herbs seemed fairly reasonable, but soot and salt? What next? Milton wondered. Would he add a piece of iron or lemon to the unholy mixture?
    “It is a potion for you to drink,” Badger answered calmly. “This is figwort and sage leaves. It will stop the wound from festering and make it heal more rapidly. ”
    “I am not drinking that! Do you call that scientific medicine? What is it, some kind of witch brewing?”
    “No, of course not,” Badger said. “This is not witch magic.”
    “Well, thank Heavens for that!”
    “This is druid magic.”
    Milton laughed. He could not help it, even if it hurt the wound at his side. The man was, quite clearly, completely deranged. And just to leave out any doubt , Badger produced a belt knife , and with a quick motion and a small grunt , he sliced his finger and carefully let three drops of blood fall into the wooden mort ar before he started to mash the ingredients together.
    “You cannot be serious!” Milton exclaimed in pure astonishment.
    “Of course I am. Does it look like I am joking? Now stop fretting , and be silent,” Badger said and rolled up his sleeves. And to Milton’s amazement , the man had blue markings along his muscular forearms. Azure blue tattoos snaked up along his arms and in under