“What happened?” He spun about and glared at Mrs. Fletcher and Miss Norleigh as if this was somehow their fault. “How did this happen?”
“He was fine earlier,” Miss Norleigh explained. She stood back slightly, as if she was afraid to get too close. “There was no sense that anything was wrong.”
“There must have been something,” he growled.
“She speaks the truth.” Mrs. Fletcher stepped between them, almost as if she was protecting Miss Norleigh. “I saw young Hugh after supper, and he was well. The fever came on as he was readying for bed.”
He winced with shame. “I am sorry, I should not have…”
Alistair’s relationship with Hugh was not as sound as it might have been. To the world, he was the boy’s father, and that alone was reason to care for him. And he did care, too. Of that, there could be no doubt. He had, after all, upended his entire life to protect the boy and give him the life that he deserved.
However, there was still an underlying tension between them, a gap which existed and refused to close. Their relationship was far from perfect, and even Alistair was unable to imagine where it might go. Or where he wanted it to go, for that matter.
In this moment, none of that mattered.
As he looked at the fever-stricken boy, as he gripped his hand and listened to him moan in pain, all the doubt that Alistair held onto faded and vanished as if it had never been. He cared for the boy… he even loved him.
“A doctor has been sent for.” Miss Norleigh came in behind him, and she gently rested a hand on his shoulder.
“Mrs. Fletcher…” Alistair took a deep breath because his body trembled and he did not want to look weak. “Wait downstairs for his arrival, thank you. And bring him here the second he arrives.”
“It will be done.” Mrs. Fletcher set down the washcloth that she was rinsing and hurried from the room.
Miss Norleigh was quick to pick up the washcloth. She squeezed the water out, removed the cloth already on Hugh’s forehead, and replaced it. Then she used another to dab gently at his face.
“You don’t have to…” Alistair watched her closely, noting how gentle she was with him. Just as he noticed the evident concern on her face. She was not his mother, but she cared for him as if she was.
“Please,” she said dismissively. “If you think I am going anywhere, then you do not know me at all.”
He laughed softly, if for no other reason than because he felt he must. “How did this happen? I don’t…”
“I am sure that it is only a fever. Perhaps something that he ate?”
“Likely…” He nodded his head, needing to believe it. “Tomorrow, he will be fine.”
“I know he will be.”
Alistair continued to nod in an effort to make it seem as if he believed her. But fear is what he felt, that niggling feeling that this was nowhere near as simple as he wanted it to seem.
“Don’t do that.” She turned and looked right at him.
“What?” He looked up and found her scowling at him.
“You know what.” Her expression was hard and no-nonsense. “I will not hear of it, is that understood? What Hugh needs right now is positivity, and I expect you, of all people, to give it.”
He held her eyes, just so that she could see how grateful he was. Alistair liked to think that he was strong, that he was confident and powerful. But at that moment, he had never felt so weak, and he needed Miss Norleigh’s support more than he could voice.
“Thank you,” he said softly, turning again to look at Hugh. “For everything.”
Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw her smile.
The doctor arrived shortly after. He ordered them to the back of the room so that he could observe and treat Hugh, but Alistair refused to let go of his hand.
“What’s happened to him?” Alistair demanded after many minutes of the doctor fussing over him. “Well?!” he barked.
The doctor wore a pair of half-moon glasses, and he looked over them in rebuke. “The good news is that it is just a fever.” Alistair exhaled with relief. “He is in the worst of it now, but it should break within the next twelve hours. After which, a few days of bedrest, plenty of liquids and food, and he will be fine.”
“And the bad news?”
