“We have to bring her fever down. Gather some rags so we can sponge-bathe her.”
“Aye.”
“Da?” Brody tugged on Taran’s pant leg. “Emily can’t play. Ma says she’s sick. Can you fix her?”
Noah and Taran exchanged unspoken looks of helplessness.
“We’re going tae try, son,” Taran patted Brody’s shoulder. “Would ye help Noah bring in some wood tae build up the fire? We dinnae want her tae gettoocold, aye?”
Noah didn’t want to leave Emily. Not even for the mere minutes it would take to grab an armload of wood from beside the cottage.
He’d vowed to protect her, and he’d failed. He thought about the first rule of battle Taran had taught him.
You must know your enemy if you hope to overcome him.
Noah turned to Paige. “I’ll build up the fire, fetch and do whatever you need. But you must tell me what plagues her so we can fight it together.”
Pressing her lips into a tight line, Paige merely nodded.
“We will win this battle,” Noah whispered, his eyes locked on Emily. He’d lost his mother, his father and two siblings when he and Emily had been inexplicably swept away from the world they knew. He would not lose her, too.
Minutes later, he and Paige knelt beside the pallet Taran hastily put together near the fire and sponged Emily’s feverish body. Her weak murmurs and feeble attempts to push them away only increased Noah’s concern. The light was gone from eyes that seemed far too heavy for her to keep open.
He turned to Paige as the fire cast eerie shadows on the stone walls of the cottage, making the moment feel even more surreal. “What is this strange affliction that has overtaken her? There must be more I can do. Tell me. I’ll do whatever is required.”
Taran sat Brody down to a hastily prepared cold supper before joining them. “Tell him, Love. All of it. He needs tae ken the truth.”
Paige looked from Taran to Noah, drawing a shaky breath. “When I was a teenager living in foster care, before we came here, I lived with a family for a long time. The Masons. They had a little girl…. Chloe.”
Alarmed by the tremor in Paige’s voice, Noah gritted his teeth and waited for what must surely be bad news.
“She had leukemia.”
Noah stared at her. The word had a heavy, foreign ring to it. “What are you saying? What is that?”
He hadn’t meant to sound so sharp, but he couldn’t help it.
“I don’t know for sure if that’s what Emily has,” Paige admitted. “I’m only guessing by all the familiar symptoms. But Emily’s fever, the bruises on her arms and legs that don’t heal, the increased exhaustion…” she inhaled deeply before whispering, “All of it reminds me of Chloe.”
“If she has this…leukemia,” he struggled with the strange word, “what does that mean? What does it do? Will she be sick long? How do we treat it? Tell me what you need to cure her, and I swear I’ll find it.”
Tears sprang to Paige’s eyes, and the quiver in her chin sent chills up his spine.
“She needs care that we can’t give her, Noah. Leukemia is a disease of the blood. If that’s what she has, she needs specialized care and medicines that only doctors and hospitals frommy timecan provide.”
Noah studied Emily as if seeing her for the first time. How had he not noticed her weakness? The dark smudges beneath her eyes? “There must be something we can do.”
“I’ve tried everything I can think of. When I realized her symptoms were worsening and I discovered nodules at the base of her skull, I spoke to Aiesha about her. We tried poultices and various herbs and teas, thinking it was an infection, but to no avail. Even Aiesha admits whatever ails Emily is beyond her expertise.”
Noah stood abruptly, his breath coming too fast. No, this wasn’t happening. Emily was fine. She had to be fine. “She just needs rest,” he muttered, shoving a hand through his hair. “It’s just a fever. She’s had them before. We all have. She’ll get better.”
Paige didn’t argue, but the grief in her eyes gutted him.
“No! It can’t be true.” Noah backed away, shoving the heel of his hand against his forehead. How could he fix this? He was supposed to protect her. From the moment they’d been ripped from their time, from their family, from everything they knew, he had sworn to himself that no matter what, he would keep Emily safe. But how was he supposed to fight something he couldn’t even understand?
“There might be a way tae get her the help she needs,” Taran spoke quietly behind him, his Scottish brogue thick with emotion. “But ’twillnae be easy.”
“Name it,” Noah cried, whirling to face him.
