She closed her eyes and tried to slow her heartbeat. He cared for her and for Richard and the villagers. He’d proven it. He was courageous and compassionate.Lion Heart.Oh, it was difficult to resist him.
She looked around then leaned in closer to Brother Simon. “I have been dreaming about him,” she confessed, knowing she could trust him. Even so, she felt ill speaking it aloud. But if she was going to die, she wouldn’t go guilty. “I do not mean to. I pray not to, but then there he is, every night. Tell me what to do.”
He pulled down his mask and his luminously large eyes softened on her. “These are dire times—”
“Never mind,” she whispered nervously when Elias and Richard left the shed and headed back.
Brother Simon pulled his mask back up and turned to greet them. “Does he still live?”
“Aye,” Richard told them. “But he is worse. It progresses swiftly. I must get back to my task. Eli will fill you both in on what happened.” He walked away and returned to the back room.
“He is weary,” Elias remarked about Richard. “He will not rest.”
Aye. She knew it was true. Richard barely sat down and had been awake all night. Now that he had a patient, he would find a cure.
“Did Bertram drink the tea?” she asked Elias, letting her gaze drift over the top half of his features. She loved looking at his eyes, not just looking into them. She loved the silver shards against a background of blue—like a sky lit with stars, or lightning. She wished she could pull down the cloth covering the rest of his face. She wanted to take in the strength of his jaw, the…
She blinked out of her reverie, when she realized he was speaking.
“He complained like a child aboot the taste and was takin’ too long to drink. I had to convince him to drink faster with the cold tip of my blade against his throat.”
“You enjoy pushing him around,” Brother Simon accused Elias with a teasing smile.
“Verra much,” Elias confirmed with a sinister snarl that made her catch her breath. “We will give him more tea in two hours. Richard says we will know more after that.”
Lily looked toward the shed rather than at Elias. She would like to go in and have a word or two with Bertram while he was still alive to hear her. She knew it wasn’t safe, but she had already been exposed. Besides, Richard and Elias had gone into the shed. If they both died, she would prefer to die, as well.
But what was there to say to him? That she hated him for taking so much of her life, and then returning to take the rest of it? Would it make her feel better to tell him that she hoped he lived so that she could watch Elias kill him, or mayhap, she would kill him herself? Was he worth her soul?
No.
But she would speak to him…tonight, when everyone was asleep.
They started back to work, preparing for the next batch, talking about the sickness.
Lily turned to both of them with a pleading look in her eyes. “I do not wish to speak of this thing any further today. We do not know what tomorrow will bring, or whose life the sickness will claim.” She spread her eyes over the village. “I do not want to think on it anymore.”
Brother Simon lowered his gaze and nodded in silent, somber agreement.
“I dinna want to think on it anymore today either!” Elias proclaimed across the narrow table. He turned to look down and offer her a bright smile. “Let us gather everyone, includin’ Richard fer some hours of drinkin’ and mirth. Simon, knock at every door and tell the villagers to meet us ootside the shop in an hour. Lily, gather the children, invite them to come and meet me fer some games. Also, who was that man playin’ the lute last eve?”
“Norman the baker.”
“Tell him, too! I will convince Richard to rest for a little while.”
Lily shook her head. “He will say it needs to be done now more than ever. Even though he will be correct, he has not slept and he has not sat down all day.”
“I will ask him fer an hour or two.” He winked at her. “Have faith in me. If I say I will do somethin’, I will do it. Richard will sit.”
She gave him a hopeful smile and left to go about her task. Aye, this was the right thing to do. At least it would get the children away from their wailing parents.
Poor Brother Simon. She didn’t envy his task. No one was going to want to drink and laugh with a death sentence over their head.
She wasn’t sure she wanted to. But it was better than trying to stop something she couldn’t control. In that, the pestilence was like her feelings for Elias.
One would destroy her body. The other, her soul.
She wanted to weep but she saw Charlie and his sister, Cecily, getting water from the well. She smiled instead.