He missed it. Was it real? His throat and his eyes burned as he turned to see her, to lay his eyes on her again.
“Lily,” he breathed her name as if it were a prayer.
She didn’t look ill. She looked breathtaking and beautiful to him. She held little Eddie close in her arms, holding his head away from the carnage.
Was he dreaming?
“Is any of that your blood?” she asked as if she feared she were dreaming, too. She came closer, looking at his face, his clothes.
He shook his head. “Nae, my lady,” he answered softly, afraid to move lest she disappear, “‘Tis not my blood. Are ye well?”
She nodded. “Forgive me.”
Were those tears in her eyes?
“I tried to fool Bertram. I was never sick.”
Elias felt so relieved…his knees buckled beneath him. What the—his stomach twisted into a tight knot. He felt his blood begin to burn just before he hit the floor. He saw little Eddie’s tiny face, his deep blue gaze staring down at him.
And then he saw only red.
Chapter Twenty
Lily wasn’t going to lose him. Not him.
Once he saw Elias and realized he had the plague, the innkeeper would not help her get him to her horse.
At least the rains had stopped.
“Elias,” she said as she gave his cheek a few small smacks. “There are soldiers around. I need you to stand up!”
Thankfully, her beloved came to enough to make his own way to one of the six soldier’s horses, and then motioned for her and the babe to take another and leave Bertram’s horse behind.
They traveled south to a small village outside of Downe. But Elias refused to stay there and continued on toward Sevenoaks.
He needed rest. Twice, she feared he would fall from his horse, but he managed to hold on and even take command over his mount.
He was a man with a strong will. It would help him.
“Stay with me, Husband,” she commanded softly, keeping her horse at an even pace with his. “Did you think to even see me again?” She hated bringing it up, but if it produced an emotion in him to distract him from the sickness, then so be it.
“At first…I didna.” He looked away and up at the sun. His eyes gleamed in vivid hues of deeper blue against bloodshot red. “The thought of ye dyin’ with Bertram at yer bedside made me suffer madness.”
Nothing in her life since being taken from her family affected her this way. She felt a wave of emotions battering outside the doors to the innermost chasm of her heart. “Forgive me, Elias.”
“I do, my love,” he assured her with a smile that convinced her. “I’m happy to be with ye again, thankful that ye are well.”
“As you will be,” she told him. “Aye, Elias?” Her words only mattered if he believed them.
“I will be well.”
She smiled at him and he swayed in his saddle. She realized then and there exactly how much this man loved and cherished her. He’d stayed in her village before the pestilence struck. He could have outrun it, but he hadn’t moved away from her. He said and did things to make her forget the world falling apart around her. He’d waited until she was free to take her to his bed, to even kiss her. She believed he would have waited years. He’d dug his boots into the ground around her and nothing could move him.
“Elias, just a little while longer,” she promised and kept urging him on.
When they finally reached their village. Simon and Father Benedict were there to meet them.
When he saw Elias, Simon immediately began praying while he helped Father Benedict haul him to the house with the red roof.