Elias was away from the table instantly. “What is it, lass?”
“There, there now, what is this sound you are making, Wife?” Richard asked hurrying to her side.
“Martin and Deirdre have left Sevenoaks,” she labored to tell them.
“No!” Richard said then looked toward Elias.
The Highlander didn’t flinch or hesitate. Not once. Not even for an instant. He hurried past Lily and left the shop. He sprinted for his horse. Filling Simon in when his friend saw him and joined him.
Martin might not listen to two strangers. He almost assuredly wouldn’t put his cherished daughter into the hands of a Highlander. She had to go with them.
“Richard needs ye here.” Elias told her when she ran to the stable.
“I’m coming.”
“Nae,” he said, sounding as if his mind were made up.
“Elias, they might not listen to you,” she insisted. “I cannot sit here do nothing while my friends die!”
“We dinna know what is oot there, Lily,” he countered. “Please, my lady, do as I ask and stay.”
Oh, she felt herself giving in to him. “Elias—”
He held up his hand. “Please, Lily.”
She nodded, biting her lip, and then spun around on her heel and left the stable.
On her way back to Richard, she saw Charlie and Terrick running toward the shop. Something was wrong, She hurried forward and entered the shop at the same time the boys did.
“Richard!” Terrick cried. “My father is ill.”
“My mother, also,” Charlie tried to sound brave. “She said to tell you she has been feeling ill all day.”
Lily turned a terrified look to her husband. “Three people in less than two days,” she whispered to him. “I have to do something.”
He swallowed and nodded, then wiped his brow and set about collecting what she needed. His formulas of hawthorn, milk thistle, cordyceps, crushed alfalfa leaves, blackberry and hot peppers—among other things.
She wanted to crumble to her knees and weep. These were her friends. People she cared about. But there was no time for crying. She hurried to Richard and he gave her four blends and two extra that would only be given to Walter and Charlie’s mother, Alice.
“Take me to them,” she told the boys, running with them from the shop.
They went to Alice’s cottage first, since the seamstress had no husband. Lily hurried inside and found Alice on the floor with Cecily sitting beside her and crying.
“All right,” Lily comforted. “’Tis all right. Charlie, take your sister outside with Terrick, please.”
When she was alone with her friend, Lily curled Alice’s arm around her shoulders and pulled her to her feet. “Come on, then, dearest. Let me walk you to your bed.”
Alice tried, but her legs gave out. Lily couldn’t hold her up. She fought to keep Alice up and then her friend grew lighter. Charlie had returned and helped his mother get to her bed. When she was down, Lily poured one of her teas into a cup by the bed and held it to her friend’s mouth.
“Drink,” she urged and tipped the cup as Alice drank, and then coughed up blood.
How? Lily grieved, how was it attacking so quickly? Alice appeared fine the night before. A chill swept through her thinking about who would be ill tonight, and how many would be dead in the morning?
No. Stop.She admonished herself. She would remain strong as long as she was alive. She would be of help to no one if she fell apart.
But, oh, it was hard to stay together. When she looked at Charlie sitting on the other side of the bed, she felt her heart tear to pieces inside her.
“I must go and see to Terrick’s father. I will return to give her another cup of tea in an hour. Why do you not go sit outside your house for now.”