She studied him.
His wound didn't seem to be bleeding as much, but the blood had spread down the front of his shirt. She reached for his hand and pulled off his glove.
She couldn't see his face, but his nail beds were very pale. Luna had taught her that trick from one of her medical books. She didn't know precisely what it meant, but it wasn't good. She expected his face to be pale too. He slumped back against another rock, his breathing labored. His head rolled to one side.
“Don't fall asleep,” Willa urged him. “You have to stay with me, stay awake.”
“Nomor groo.”
She couldn't decipher his words. She didn't know how long they'd been moving or how far they'd gone, but along the way she tried talking to him, receiving grunts in response, letting her know he was still cognizant. Her older sister Luna was the medical aficionado. Willa only had the barest of skill and even less bravado when it came to dealing with wounds on another person. They needed shelter. They needed a bed, and dear God, they needed someone to tend him, someone better than her.
“Luna, if only you were here,” Willa whispered.
But instead her husband had taken her off to learn from Dr. Hadley, a progressive physician who didn't mind at all that Luna was a woman.
Worried she might not be able to get up again, Willa forced herself to stand and stretched her legs. She felt like she was walking with bricks in her shoes. She looked around the wood and caught sight of a path.
“Wait here,” she said.
He raised one hand weakly and slapped his leg, mumbling something. Willa smiled. She liked to imagine he said,‘“Where am I going to go?’
She surveyed the path, and her hopes grew as she followed it Up ahead, she could very clearly see a small cabin—hardly a cabin—but more like a hut. Perhaps a woodman's cottage, or gamekeeper’s, but more importantly, it didn't look inhabited. A gamekeeper might be somewhat more useful in helping her rescuer than she was.
She looked back, wondering if she should return to him or go farther and make sure the cottage would meet their needs before making him go all that way. She hesitated in indecision before continuing. As she moved closer, her steps slowed. She sniffed the air. The tang of smoke was much less but still present.
She didn't see any smoke rising from the small chimney in the thatch roof of the hut. She went to a window and peeked in, seeing no one through the glass. The hearth was empty. The furnishings sparse, nothing but a table and chair and a single cot. The floor was swept clean, which was good enough for Willa. This was someone's cottage, and it was used, but not presently.
Willa swiftly returned to his side, the eminent relief of shelter boosting her energy. She slung his arm over her shoulders.
“I found a place you can lie down,” she said. “I need you to find the strength to go a bit farther, and then you can rest.”
He slumped against her, his weight nearly buckling her, but then he pushed to his feet, and they moved slowly but steadily, like a hobbled beast, toward the hut. Once they reached it, she leaned him against the side and tested the door. She should've thought to do this first. Her hopes deflated when it did not open. Why would it be locked? There's nothing to steal! She ground her teeth together. She didn't want to break a window or damage anything. This is a borrowed shelter. They were simply people in need.
She chewed her lip as she examined the small square padlock. Nothing particularly sturdy. A minor deterrent to discourage anyone passing by. She pulled the pin from her hair, one of the very few remaining, and she knelt. She slid her pin into the lock and wiggled it around, feeling the resistance of little tumblers inside. She toyed with it until she thought her patience would run out and she would curse the bloody thing, ripping it from the latch on the door, when it abruptly clicked and the arm swiveled free.
She gasped.
“I did it!” She'd never picked a lock before. Bernie would be so proud of her—after she finished screaming at her, that is.
Oh dear, they were going to be so cross with her. She set out to prove her independence and look what had happened. She'd been no more prepared for the Mrs. Gobstones of the world than highwaymen. They would never let her out of their sight again. Guilt and sadness mixed together. She'd never hear the end of it. Willa would give anything to see them now or one of her large and impressive brothers-in-law. Anyone, really, who could rescue her and her patient.
She pushed the door open and returned to him, wrapping an arm around his waist and leading him inside the cottage. She headed straight for the bed, anticipating he might fall right onto it. She didn't know how she would be able to lower him down if not.
He moaned, muttering something, and toppled onto it with a grunt, nearly pulling her with him. Willa went to the chair and collapsed into it, leaning an elbow on the table and resting her chin on her hand. She was exhausted, frightened, and starving. She realized she hadn't thought about food since breakfast. She had no idea where to find some now.
Willa doubted her patient would be able to eat. He rolled to his side and the most unexpectedly horrific thing happened. He vomited.
Willa jumped to her feet. Her own stomach lurching. She caught sight of a pail tucked under the bed and snatched it out, urging him over it. She had to glance away and hold her breath as he retched into the pail. When he was finished, he rolled to his back and lay very still.
Willa emptied the bucket outside, searching along the woods and near the cottage for perhaps a pump, but there was nothing. It was then that she finally broke down and cried. She dropped her bottom on a stump and wept into her dirty skirts.
She sniffed, hearing a bubbling sound.
Willa wiped her eyes and scanned the woods around her. Following the noise, she took a narrow path into the trees, praying she wouldn't get lost, but it was only a short distance to what might surely be heaven on earth. A little creek, birds chirping, and across the way, a bunny nibbled on some berries.
Heaven above, there was fresh water and berries!
They looked to be edible from what she knew, based on Luna's teachings about herbs and edible foods. She and her sisters all knew how to search for edible plants. When things were scarce in the Marsden house, they foraged. She slumped with relief and then went back to fetch the pail, rinsing it in case they needed it again and to be rid of the awful smell.
