But why was she trying to make sense of any of it? In the end, and the end was coming, it wouldn’t matter. She was happy he was here today.
“Elias?” She wanted to tell him that she was glad he was here. Tell him things she’d already confessed to Brother Simon. She thought about Elias all the time. And when she was asleep, she dreamed of him.
“Come now, both of you,” Father Benedict scolded them from where he waited at Osbert’s front door. We do not have all night to wait for you!”
Elias scowled right back at him and then lowered his head when he saw Charlie and Terrick watching him. “Aye, forgive us, Father,” he corrected.
“Aye,” Lily agreed, and then spoke to the priest in a hushed tone while Elias stepped inside. Father Benedict would not allow them to leave once he had them. “And forgive me but I forgot something at the shop. Start without me, Father.” She hurried away. The shed wasn’t too far.
By the time Elias realized she had slipped away, she would be on her way back to him. She only wanted a moment with Bertram.
She stepped inside the shed and reached for the burning torch on the wall. The door hadn’t shut all the way and almost blew out the light. She hurried to the door and secured it shut. She took four steps to where Bertram sat sleeping on the floor. He wore a mask over half his face and his wrists were tied over his head to the post behind him in a small part of the shed where Richard usually kept his old horse, Peony. Richard had changed the bandages around his shoulder.
“Bertram! Wake up!” she demanded with a soft kick. She waited a moment to see if he would respond before kicking him again. “I cannot wait to finally be free of you. I will—”
“Boy.” Bertram whispered and grinned at her.
“I am not a boy. I am Lily. Open your eyes.”
He did. They were so bloodshot that they were almost solid red. “Always…the…boy. “
She had no idea why he would say anything about a boy. It must be the sickness. He must be dreaming of only God knows what.
“Bertram!” She kicked him harder. “Wake up. I wish to tell you something. Bertram?”
What did it matter? He would be dead soon and face God.
She left and returned to Osbert’s home.
She didn’t see or hear Elias when he stepped into the torchlight after she’d gone.
Chapter Eleven
By early the next morn, every herb and plant was back on the shelves and Richard had tried three different mixtures on Bertram. Normally, the apothecary had explained to her and Elias, he would work faster with fewer ingredients. Time was their greatest enemy. Elias spent the morning playing with Annabelle, as he’d promised. When Joan fell ill by mid-afternoon, Richard had his second patient and was able to double his work.
Lily sat by Joan’s bedside for long periods during the day. She wiped her friend’s head down with vinegar and fed her the teas Richard had prescribed. She prayed for Joan and for everyone in Sevenoaks, in England and beyond. She wondered if her husband would be the one who found a cure for the Black Death.
“Joan, dearest,” she said softly to her friend. ”Richard is working feverishly. We will fight this.Youwill fight.”
“Be away from me, Lily,” Joan cried out. “Be away!”
“I will not go away, Joan,” Lily let her know. “I will not abandon my closest friend.”
“Be away as my husband and daughter are away.” Joan cried.
Lily frowned, knowing that Martin hadn’t visited his wife at all, nor had Deirdre, though Deirdre was heavy with child. “Your daughter should stay in bed—”
“Aye, that is what I told Martin! But he pulled Deirdre out of bed and onto a horse and left with her.”
“What?” Lily sat up, alarmed. What should she do? “They left?”
“Aye,” Joan wheezed out, but Lily was gone.
She hurried to the shop and burst inside when she reached it.
Elias was there, crushing herbs and writing things down on a piece of parchment on the table before him.
“Richard!” she shouted to get him out front.