“Mayhap a wee bit. Half the time I was only pretendin’ to ignore ye. The rest of the time I was listenin’.”
They both smiled and wiped their eyes.
“Your father saved my life,” Simon told him. “I went from being a slave to being one of Nicholas MacPherson’s closest friends. I would have done anything for him. I vowed to look after you when you were little Eddie’s age. I have kept my word to your father. You are Lily’s now. You have little ones of your own to care for.”
Elias pulled him into his arms…but his faithful companion was gone.
He opened his eyes.
“Simon!” he grasped at the air.
“Lily!” He heard Charlie call her name. She was there with Elias, sitting behind him on the bed. She moved him gently from her lap and then bolted to her feet.
“Brother Simon,” she whispered and then hurried down the stairs.
Elias knew his old friend was gone. He left the bed slowly, but with more strength than he had last eve. He padded to the stairs and looked down at his family, his wife and his adopted bairns crying around Simon. He thought he might collapse, not from exhaustion or sickness, but from sorrow.
#
Lily looked up from Brother Simon’s left side and thrilled at seeing Elias standing at the top of the stairs. He lived. He’d fought a monster and he lived. She wanted to go to him but she felt rooted to her spot, kneeling beside Brother Simon, trying to remain steady and steadfast.
Her gaze followed him as he came closer and reached for her hand to steady him. She stood up and let him take it. Feeling the weakness in his arm, she rushed beneath him and aided his next few steps.
“Where is Chisholm?”
“Dead,” she told him beneath her breath.
He stood over Brother Simon with tears falling over his cheeks and onto the brother’s hand. “Any man or woman would be blessed to have a friend like Brother Simon.”
Lily and Charlie agreed, and then so did Annabelle, not wanting to be left out.
They bid him their farewells in waves of tears. Most of them.
“I dinna want his body burned. I want him buried,” Elias declared.
“Who will dig, Elias?” Lily asked him, hoping he didn’t think he was strong enough to do it himself. “Certainly not you! You are just out of bed!”
“Tomorrow. I will bury him tomorrow,” he said as if it were now carved in stone.
Lily wanted to demand that he stay in bed for at least three days. She knew he wouldn’t.
She looked down at Brother Simon. His body would remain here all day and all night, and until his grave was ready. They could lay him in the shed or in the back of the shop, but who would carry him there?
“I wish to take the children to Eleanor’s. They should not—”
“Aye,” he agreed. “They shouldna.”
She went to him and touched her fingers to his face. He was cool. “I will make you some tea first.”
He shook his head. “Nae, love. Ye will go now fer I wish to have a wee bit of time with Simon.”
She took little Eddie from Annabelle and turned for the door. She stopped and turned back around. “Charlie, come with me, please.”
The lad shook his head. “I want to stay with—”
“Go with her,” Elias told him. “Go on.”
Charlie left the house and went the other way.