They managed to get Elias into Lily’s bed while she went to work on mixing herbs and boiling most. Her hands shook while she strained the contents of the pot into a cup.
Her friends came by to welcome her home and offer their aid. They mourned the loss of Clare, and the beautiful little Lizbeth. Alfred the merchant had also perished in the few days she’d been gone. Still, thank God, Ava, Norman’s daughter, had lived. The disease came and went in a whirlwind, taking or leaving its victim swiftly.
She felt faint with a rush of fear.Please, she begged God,not him. Not him.
Her friends and neighbors went outside to gather the herbs she needed.
Charlie would not leave Elias’ side and Annabelle helped look after little Eddie.
Brother Simon stayed behind to help her in the kitchen and hurry up making whatever Elias needed.
“Do you feel ill, lass?” His voice was stained with worry.
“No,” she assured him. “I am afraid to lose Elias. My heart faints at the thought of it.”
Brother Simon actually smiled and continued cleaning the herbs and roots and then cut them up for her.
“I am thankful he has found you,” he told her. “From the very first moment he saw you, you captured his heart. He disagreed with me about you not being divine.” He smiled and Lily blushed and stirred her herbs.
When she told him to go rest, he refused. “Doing these small tasks helps me keep my thoughts fixed on the Lord and not on Elias being sick. I cannot continually pray in fear.”
She nodded. “I understand.” Then she asked, “Would you mash some peas for supper?”
“Aye, and we have plenty of salmon.” He grinned and Lily realized that she hadn’t noticed his scars since the first day he came here. Brother Simon was a sweet, stern man and a loyal friend and soldier to Elias—and to her. And the children loved him.
She prepared Elias’ cup and rested her hand on his dearest friend’s shoulder.
Lily didn’t leave Elias’ side again until she left him to prepare supper. She cooled his head with vinegar and water. She fed him her remedies, and she prayed.
Elias cried out in his feverish sleep more than once. Lily was there to comfort him. She applied more salve and cooling rags to the swollen lumps on his neck, under his arms, and on his groin, then covered him again.
She ate her supper with the children while Brother Simon stayed above stairs with Elias, who had not grown worse. She didn’t visit anyone nor was anyone in the village sick.
All in all, it was a good day.
At night, she tucked the children into the bed that had been Richard’s and brought Brother Simon a cup of warm chamomile tea to help him sleep. He looked a bit gaunt, but he promised that he was just weary. He needed sleep. She nodded then bid him goodnight and thanked him for all he had done.
She climbed the stairs, praying for Elias and that God would help her not to weep and fall apart. She was afraid she would not be able to be put back together. Not if she lost Elias. What man was like him? She’d had the opportunity to meet many of them and none, not one, was like him.
She striped down to her chemise and climbed into her bed with her husband. She moved close, wanting to hold him. He’d cooled down, thanks to her herbs, and she was able to hold him in her arms
“Elias,” she whispered with her lips tilted to his ear, though he hadn’t responded much since they put him into bed. “If you can hear me, my one true love, listen to what I say. You came into my world and shook the earth and the heavy rubble that had gathered over me.
“I have never spoken of it before but…my childhood was a mixture of many different things. My father was very kind and doting.He took me everywhere with him and had been teaching me everything he knew when Bertram took me from him. It has been too long since I have seen him. I often…” she sobbed out her next breath and closed her eyes. She didn’t know one could weep without tears. She had been holding back so desperately all these years. “I have never let myself hope to see him again.
“Bertram brought me into a life too grown up for the likes of me, and I had to quickly learn how to do the worst to save my life.” She thought of little Eddie on the other side of the curtain. Or someone else’s life.
“Your love is like no other’s. Not even Richard’s, whom I love and hold to a high measure. Your smiles have cleared away the stones. Your face, revealed in the light is, oh so glorious to behold. How could my spirit, my body not want to be free of the world? In the blackest days, you brought me hope and laughter. You faced this thing without fear and did not care about your life when it came to mine.” She paused to close her eyes and tried to continue. “Thank you, Elias, but I do not want you to give your life. I want more nights with you like the last one we shared. Please, my love. You showed me what a lion heart means, for you are as gallant as the knights of old that my father used to tell me about. Fight this for me. Please, Elias.”
She wept. For the first time in nine years. It wasn’t the unbridled emotion she’d been feeling rising to the surface, but it was something. She muffled her cries against him so that the children wouldn’t hear. She almost didn’t feel Elias’ arms close around her until she relaxed into them and opened her eyes. She drew in a deep sniff and then kissed his chest and smiled. “I love you, Elias.”
“I love ye, too, my lady.”
He would fight. He would fight.
Content in knowing that if he fought, he would win—for he’d killed six English soldiers and she saw him kill three of them. She closed her eyes and slept for an hour before little Eddie’s cries woke her.
She went to his bed and remembered what he’d seen. Poor babe probably had a nightmare. Charlie left the bed and slept on the floor beside it.