Dorrie thanked her.
“Come along, sweet boy,” she said to Hep, who was lying on the foot of Esther’s bed. The little dog had refused to leave the church. He spent his time visiting the sick and sitting on them if they needed comfort.
Essie said the dog had a caring soul.
“You need to go outside too, Hep. We will not be long, then you can return to Esther.”
The disease could come on fast, and death could happen within forty-eight hours. Children were especially vulnerable, but they never knew who would be struck down next.
Every day she would walk out into the street to take in a lungful of cleansing air and her eyes would go to the castle. She’d see the outline of someone up high on the parapet. The distance was far, and she had to squint, but she saw Dev, Harry, or Wolf and waved, knowing they waved back. It made her feel better to know they looked down on them all.
Ash and Baron worked as hard as anyone in the village. Both seemed to always be moving. Ash kept the fires going and walked to the houses each day to check if there were any more ill.
He was solicitous to her and Essie, bringing them tea or food and forcing them to take breaks, but she did not see him doing the same. He seemed to know when she needed him and would appear at her side. A large hand would settle on her back or move her to the side to deal with what needed doing.
Dorrie had to acknowledge now that she felt something for this man. She didn’t know what, but it had settled like a warm heavy weight inside her chest.
He may want people to think him hard, but she’d seen another side to him. The side that gently carried children and those who were unconscious into the church in his arms.
Last night she’d watched him reading to little Tilly Beacon.
Ash Charlton was a good man; there was no getting around that fact.
After taking the bundle to the fire, she started walking back through the village. She stopped not far from the barricade, but far enough she could pass nothing to whoever came.
Today Dev stood at the end of town waiting for her with Eden, Cam, Max, and Warwick.
“Hello, darling, how are you?” Dev called.
“I am well,” she called back. There was of course no need for her to yell, as Eden and Warwick heard her clearly.
“My eyes tell me otherwise,” Dev replied.
He’d checked her colors, but there was little she could do about that. She was tired, not ill.
“Esther is one of the sick now, Dev.” Dorrie said softly, knowing Eden would hear.
“I’m so sorry, sweetheart. I wish I could do more for you and for her,” Dev called after Eden relayed the message to him. She could see the devastation written on the faces of her family.
“It’s hard for them.” Baron came to her side. “They feel responsible for you. Essie too. They fear for you; I can feel it.”
“I know.” Baron had become her friend in the last four days, someone she and Essie leaned on, just like Ash.
Baron and Essie spent hours creating tonics and salves and forcing them down patients’ throats.
“It is good to feel loved.” Essie moved to her side, an arm around her waist, and waved to Max. The worry on his face told them how hard it was for him not to be here with her. Max was a protector. But he was helpless to protect the woman he loved from the pain she was now suffering as she attempted to help those that were ill in the village of Crunston Cliff.
But their children needed him, and Essie in turn needed him to do that for her.
“Esther’s time is near.”
Dorrie turned to see Mrs. Radcliff behind her. Dread gripped her.
“I-I am not ready,” she whispered. Would never be ready to lose the gentle sweet woman who she had shared so much of her childhood with.
“Be strong for her, love.” Essie hugged her hard. “She needs you now.”
“Thank you, Mrs. Radcliff. I will go to her.” Dorrie ran back to the church with Hep and Essie. She heard the words “we love you,” that Dev roared at them.
