Jaw set, she let him do as he purposed, cleansing then wrapping her arm. As soon as the linen was in place, she could feel the blood’s flow again. But ’twas the feel of his hands on her—and the knowledge of his hands on Mattachanna—that had her gathering all her strength and shrinking back from him amid the bed linens. The soft pillow held the scent of her father. Had he not fallen in the courtyard before dawn?
Her voice was a whisper. “How is my father?”
A prolonged pause. “Your father, God rest him, will be buried posthaste due to the extreme heat.”
At that, she slipped back into the blackness. She came to her senses again as her mother’s soft, tear-laden voice droned on in the shadows. “The window was left ajar ... my daughter went to look for Watseka...”
The beloved name nearly brought her upright.
“There’s every reason to believe the Indian girl beneath your roof has simply run off to rejoin her people.” The sheriff’s words were clipped, certain.
Nay, nay.Watseka would not run. The girl did not have a fleeing bone within her small body. She’d been content in their care. The peace of the entire colony might well hinge on her well-being. And Xander’s own life was at stake. The tension between the English and Naturals was always asimmer. Watseka’s vanishing might well lead to more warfare. Another massacre like 1622.
Laurent was still hovering. “I have prepared a posset for you.”
Something touched her lips. She sputtered, finding it bitter. But it was not valerian.
Mayhap poisonous.
Wrenching her head to the right, she refused, spilling the posset across the bed linens.
“Confound it! You minx—” The epithet was said through clenched teeth, and then he nearly shouted at Izella to clean up the mess.
At last the dark shadow that was Laurent moved away. “It is I, Nurse Lineboro, come to help care for you.”
Selah stilled, eyes closing to stop the room’s dizzying spin. “How is my mother?”
“She is unharmed but, as a new widow, understandably stricken.”
Father.
How she loved him. The fact he’d been ailing—failing—lessened the ache not one whit. How they hoped he’d be well in time. Had prayed to that end. Already the house felt oddwithout him. Shay was the heir, the head of the family now. And he but a boy far from home.
“Can you sit up, Selah? Take some nourishment?” Nurse Lineboro prodded. “Water, at least.”
Selah raised herself up against the pillows Izella bunched behind her. The effort seemed herculean. But drink she must, if only to stay clearheaded enough to keep an eye on Laurent. A knot of men remained in the parlor, the physic among them. Though she had no proof, she felt him behind Watseka’s baffling disappearance.
“Pray becalm yourself, as the physic said. Think of your poor mother.”
“How did you come to be here?”
“We heard a weapon firing clear to Rose-n-Vale.”
“Has Watseka been found? I fear the physic has somehow done her harm.”
“On what grounds?” Alarm flared in the nurse’s eyes. “I know little of the law in James Towne, but I caution you against offending Helion Laurent. You are useless to your cause if you give him reason to bring a charge against you.”
True, but this did little to relieve the fury asimmer inside her, a fury that would only subside with the return of Watseka if not her beloved father. A fury so consuming that only Xander could douse it.
Downing more water, she lay back, restless for her mother. In time, Candace was at her side, her eyes puffy from weeping.
“Your father has gone from us.” She clasped Selah’s hand. “Though we mourn, we are not without hope. Our concern at present is the here and now. Seeing you well.”
“What felled him?”
“I believe ’twas his heart, but only the Almighty knows.”
Her stalwart father rarely complained, but when he did it was about his chest. Being roused from sleep and pitched headlong into a fright had done him no favors either. A prick of guilt arose, but she countered it. Finding Watseka was now their chief aim.
