“I’m afraid to die,” her stepdaughter admitted. Her voice was thick, as if she were holding back tears.
“Listen to me.” Amelia took the girl’s limp hands in hers, then touched one cheek. “We are going to listen to Dr. Fraser and keep the blood flowing through your limbs. We’ll move your arms and legs for you, until you can move them yourself.”
The fear in her stepdaughter’s eyes was mirrored by David. “I keep waking up at night, dreaming that I can’t breathe.”
“Have you lost the ability to move anything else? Your shoulders?”
Christine paused a moment and turned her shoulders one way and then the other. “No. I can still move them.”
“And you haven’t lost the feeling in anything else?”
The girl shook her head. “Not yet.” Her voice was hardly above a whisper, but she seemed to take comfort from Amelia’s observation.
“If it isn’t spreading, then that’s a good sign,” David said. He reached down to lift Christine back into his arms. “Come now, and I’ll take you back so you can rest.”
His gaze turned back to Amelia for a moment, and in his eyes, she saw the weariness. Like his daughter, he was afraid to hope. And he’d been alone for so long, he refused to rely on anyone but himself.
He was trying to shoulder a burden alone that no father should have to face. “It was a nice picnic,” he said to Amelia. “Thank you.”
She remained seated there after they’d gone, wondering what to do now. David seemed determined to separate her out of his life. He was hurting deeply and kept up the mask of indifference. Only during his violent outburst had she caught a glimpse of the pain he was hiding.
Slowly, she rose from her chair in the garden. When she reached the door to the house, she overheard low voices speaking in the parlor. Amelia tiptoed nearer and spied her sister Juliette talking with her husband.
“Will she live?” her sister was asking.
“I canna say,” Dr. Fraser answered. “If the paralysis doesna spread further, it should recede in the next few days.”
“And if it doesn’t?”
“Then she’ll die tonight or tomorrow. She willna be able to move her lungs.”
Amelia leaned back against the wall, feeling as if her knees were about to buckle beneath her. Inwardly, she felt sick to her stomach, and a rise of nausea caught in her throat.
She didn’t want to believe it could be true, and before she could hear another word, she began running up the stairs.
Tonight or tomorrow, he’d said. She prayed that it wouldn’t happen, that the girl would survive it. But Christine’s premonition about being unable to breathe was a tangible threat.
And if the worst happened, she needed to be at David’s side.
The night was long, the hours creeping by, one by one. David’s shoulders ached, and he’d been unable to leave Christine for even a moment. It was as if he could fight the invisible hand of Death by shielding her.
He’d give up his life for hers, if it were possible. Watching her struggle to breathe, seeing her fight to live, was something he’d never imagined would happen.
Dr. Fraser had come in several times, but there was no change in Christine’s condition. David sent the physician away for a few hours, needing the time to be with his daughter. He promised to alert him if she took a turn for the worse.
Amelia, however, had refused to leave. She sat across from him, keeping her own vigil. Her green eyes held exhaustion, and her blond hair tangled against her throat. For a moment, she met his gaze, and he couldn’t help but remember what she’d said before, that she loved him.
How could she? She’d seen him lose control of his temper, destroying most of the gamekeeper’s cottage. He was hardly her ideal husband, and he’d brought her to this miserable marriage where she wasn’t even mistress of her own household.
He’d never seen her look this fragile before. Amelia should have so much more than this bleak existence.
She stood from her place and moved to stand behind him. “If you want to rest for an hour, I’ll keep watch over her.”
Her hands rested upon his shoulders, but he shook his head. “I’ll be fine. But you should go to sleep. There’s nothing either of us can do right now.”
“I won’t leave,” she whispered, and her hands pressed against his shoulders, massaging away the stiffness.
Her hands felt so good, and he closed his eyes for the slightest moment, enjoying her touch. David leaned back his head, taking the comfort she offered.
