I hope Cedric hasn't torn open his stitches!
No worries there, because no stitches. Cedric had a kind of flesh wound, not a penetrating wound. The bullet grazed his side, 4-5" in length, leaving ragged edges, and then his clothing rubbed against it which aggravated it. Some cloth fibers had to be pulled out of the wound because they were contributing to the infection. Muscle and bone were not really affected. There was blood loss, though, and he was soaked through by the rain and exhausted by the long ride. So, he's been recovering from the inflammation, the blood loss and exhaustion. Lavinia would have tried to keep the wound as clean as possible and then used the pressure of the bandages to encourage the edges to heal together.
At least, that's how I pictured it in my mind as I was writing about it. I used as my reference points a couple of the injuries I got in my tom-boy youth. <g>
