by Paula Quinn
“Norman the baker.”
“Tell him, too! I will convince Richard to rest for a little while.”
Lily shook her head. “He will say it needs to be done now more than ever. Even though he will be correct, he has not slept and he has not sat down all day.”
“I will ask him fer an hour or two.” He winked at her. “Have faith in me. If I say I will do somethin’, I will do it. Richard will sit.”
She gave him a hopeful smile and left to go about her task. Aye, this was the right thing to do. At least it would get the children away from their wailing parents.
Poor Brother Simon. She didn’t envy his task. No one was going to want to drink and laugh with a death sentence over their head.
She wasn’t sure she wanted to. But it was better than trying to stop something she couldn’t control. In that, the pestilence was like her feelings for Elias.
One would destroy her body. The other, her soul.
She wanted to weep but she saw Charlie and his sister, Cecily, getting water from the well. She smiled instead.
“Elias invites you to meet him for some games.”
They looked relieved and more grateful than if she’d just given them a sennight’s worth of cookies. They happily agreed to tell the other children and ran off hollering and making quite a fuss—drowning out the sound of crying.
#
The sun began its slow descent, leaving the world in an odd orange-crimson glow. No one wanted to go indoors yet to eat, for they had unpacked their food and prepared another feast in Osbert the reeve’s dining hall.
Some sat on blankets in the cool grass watching and cheering the children while they played foot ball with lemons. Elias had taught them how to play after he taught them and Lily more defensive maneuvers with his dagger. Eventually, some of the parents joined in.
Everyone was there. Even Richard had kicked a lemon around the markers before he took a seat in a cushioned chair—one of three Elias had carried out of Osbert’s house and placed in the grass for the elders to sit.
Elias had kept his word.
They cheered when young Annabelle kicked one lemon through Simon’s legs and hit a marker. They laughed when little Eddie, who seemed to always miss hitting the lemon when he kicked his short legs at it, finally dropped on all fours, stole the lemon, and ran off with it.
Not everyone participated in the merriment, but they all showed up.
Lily was thankful. She looked over at Elias laughing with the children. How did he do it? How did he manage to remain so strong? Strong enough for them all?
The lemon came her way and she shoved it forward with her foot, gently enough not to hurt any of the children running at her. She looked for a clearing and pushed the lemon to her left. She kicked, but the fruit was intercepted by Norman’s daughters, Ava and Emma. The rest of the children reached her and she laughed in the midst of them. She felt better than she had since she was a child. She enjoyed kicking lemons around in the grass and being chased by laughing children.
“You have turned a horrific day into something less horrific,” she told Elias on the way back to Osbert’s house for supper. Richard walked ahead with Osbert and Father Benedict.
He bowed in his place, leaving her to stare at the soft waves in his dark hair. “I’m pleased ye think so, my lady.”
“Elias.” six-year-old Annabelle tugged on his cloak and looked up at him from over her mask, her huge blue eyes shining in the torchlight. “Tomorrow, want to play with my toys?” She was out of breath from running to catch up with him. Her mask sucked in and out. “I have clay poppets and wooden horses, and I have teacups and a kettle. I could make you some tea!”
Lily watched Elias, already bent to the girl. “I would like that verra much, Annabelle.”
The little girl giggled and then ran off to her mother.
“How are you so good at this?” Lily asked, marveling at him. No one was crying and everyone was hungry.
“I have a huge family,” he explained. “I have two brothers, two sisters, and nine cousins. My brother, Colin, has four bairns. Elysande, my cousin, has six with her husband, Raphael. Her brother, Milo, has five and Robin has five, as well.”
“My, that is large!” Her eyes crinkled when she laughed under her mask. “And do you all play?”
“We used to.”
“You miss them,” she said, knowing he must. “We were so close to going back. I’m sorry you came here.”
His warm gaze skipped back to hers. “I’m not sorry.”
“Elias,” she said stopping. She grabbed hold of his arm to stop him, too. “You could have gone. You could have left yesterday and escaped this. I do not want to think that you gave up your life for me. I do not want to live knowing that.” Tears misted her eyes. “Not even for a few days.”
He breathed out a gust of breath beneath the cloth tied around his face. “I didna want ye to fall ill, Lily. The thought of it crushes me. All I could think aboot was keepin’ ye and Simon and Richard safe. Then, when ye refused to leave, ye forced me to realize why ye wouldna go. So, first, please accept my sincerest apologies fer askin’ such a selfish thing from ye. And also, forgive me fer bein’ so selfish. I had a lapse in good judgment due to…fear.” He looked as if he wanted to say more, but he kept silent for a moment. Then he said with a shrug, “Normally, I dinna run from anythin’.”
She crooked her mouth at him, but he couldn’t see. “I can see how some would call you reckless.”
She wished they didn’t have to wear these masks! She liked looking at his mouth while he spoke. If they were all affected, wasn’t it too late for masks anyway?
“It all depends on what you believe is reckless.”
Now she felt wretched for giving him the impression that she thought risking your life for others was reckless—in the foolish sense. She didn’t. She found it noble and admirable. Should she tell him? Would it seem as if she were trying to woo him into something?
The silver shards in his eyes twinkled in the firelight when he smiled at her. “If I hadna stayed, then I wouldna be here today.”
He made it sound so simple, as if it should all make perfect sense now.
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 s
o 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. You will 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.
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.”
He shook his head. “I want to stay here with her. Mayhap Cecily could stay with you.”
She nodded and promised to return.
Walter wasn’t in as bad a state as Alice but Eleanor was hysterical, making Terrick and Cecily cry. Lily sent them outside and went to Walter with a cup of Richard’s tea. “Drink this, Walter. Eleanor. Eleanor!” she shouted at the butcher’s wife and finally got her attention. “Your husband and your son need you to control yourself. We are all frightened. But imagine what it would be like for the children if all the adults fell apart.”
“But Lily—” she cried.
Lily shook her head at the woman. “Leave the house if you cannot be a comfort to your husband.”
Eleanor gasped, but took hold of herself.
Lily went outside and spoke to the children in between her visits to Joan, Alice, and Water. Who would be next?
She smiled at Cecily and took Terrick in her arms when he wept over his father. She returned twice more to her patients, administering more tea and prayers with Father Benedict.
She ate supper with Richard, Charlie, Cecily, and Terrick. She liked having the children with her. They didn’t remain morose for long and ended their night in laughter with Lily and Cecily in one bed and Richard and the boys in another—although Richard didn’t come in until much later.
Lily stayed awake all night, wondering where Elias and Simon were. Had they found Martin and Deirdre Miller? Were they ill? Was Elias ill? The more she thought about it the more she couldn’t sleep.
“Lily?”
She opened her eyes to Cecily’s gossamer voice.
“Aye, love?”
“Is mummy going to die?”
What was she to say to such a question, put to her by a ten-year-old child? “I hope not, darling. Richard and I are going to do everything we can to help her live.”
“Thank you, Lily,” Cecily whispered with her eyes closed and her fingers entwined in Lily’
s.
Lily thought she would cry herself to sleep but she was still awake at midnight when Elias returned.
Slipping from her bed, she pulled a green woolen kirtle over her chemise and tiptoed quickly down the stairs.
She was so glad to see Elias hanging up his cloak in her kitchen, looking tired and somber, but alive and healthy, she was tempted to run to him and fling her arms around him. “Did you find them?” she asked in a quiet voice instead. “How is Deirdre?”
He looked away and swung his leg over a stool at the table and straddled it.
“Should I sit, as well?” she asked, afraid he would say aye.
He nodded. Her heart pounded. She could feel it reverberate in her blood. Something terrible had happened. Did she want to hear?
She sat in her chair at the table and waited, squeezing her own entwined fingers until they ached.
“We found them on the road to Netherfield.” His eyes gleamed with sorrow at what he had to tell her. She had the urge to leap off the stool and run before he said another word. She didn’t want to hear—
“They had been robbed,” he continued telling her. “Martin was…ehm…dead from a stab wound.” He reached across the table to cover one of her hands in his. He remained silent while she closed her eyes and shook her head.
“And Deirdre? Her babe?”
He said nothing but looked away.
“No?” She couldn’t take it in. No. She left her chair, grabbed her cloak and left the house. She felt something ready to erupt and she didn’t want to wake the whole house.
She heard Elias come out after her. His hand on her shoulder seemed to ignite what was brewing but she held on and did not weep. Deirdre, her baby. Martin, all of them. All of them were dying. She needed comfort from today, from all the horrors, all the sadness and Richard had enough weight on his shoulders.
She turned in Elias’ arms and let them come around her, engulfing her in strength and courage. She remained quiet against his hard chest and drew strength from him.
“Walter the butcher and Alice, Charlie and Cecily’s mother, are sick. None of the herbs are helping, Elias. I do not know who it will strike next.”