When she reached his side, she placed her hand on his shoulder, feeling the heat of his body through his shirt even though a chill still hung heavily in the air. “Flynn,” she cried, brushing a golden tangle of hair from his eyes. “Flynn, wake up!”
For a moment he didn’t rouse, and she feared that perhaps she’d lost him, but then he finally blinked up at her, his blue eyes hazy with pain and fever. “Daisy?”
She nodded, blinking away burning tears. “What are you doing out here, Flynn?”
He shook his head in hazy confusion. “I don’t know.”
“Can you get up?” she asked, leaning to wrap an arm around him and help him to a sitting position. “We need to get you in bed.”
He nodded, and she somehow managed to help him stumble the dozen yards or so to the cottage. Once she had him tucked safely in bed, she brewed him another cup of the fever-relieving tea she’d brought with her, stunned by the heat that emanated from his skin. Yesterday, he’d been slightly feverish, but today he was burning up.
Making sure he finished the tea, she squeezed his shoulder. “Try and get some rest. I’m going to go up to the manor and get some help. You need a doctor.”
Before she could move away, he reached out and grabbed her hand, some clarity finally settling in his eyes. “Don’t stay away long. Please? I don’t want to be alone.”
She nodded, biting her lip at the entreaty in his gaze. “I’ll be right back. I promise.”
As hard as it was for her to leave him, she knew that he was far sicker than it lay within her ability to help him. He needed a doctor, and fear for him clawed within her. Why hadn’t she stayed with him last night? Why hadn’t she sent for a doctor as soon as she noticed he was feverish?
Racing up to the manor, she threw open the front door without waiting for a servant and looked around wildly for someone to help her. Luckily, she found her sister in a sitting room to the right of the front entryway.
“Violet! We need a doctor! It’s Flynn. He’s very ill.”
Violet surged to her feet, a look of concern on her lovely features. “Flynn? What’s wrong with him?” She immediately reached for a small bell on the table beside her and rang it, summoning a servant.
“I found him down in the garden. He’s burning up with fever. I think he tried to make it up to the house last night but collapsed halfway. Send for a doctor and then have a servant come down with some supplies to help me.” Daisy waited only long enough to hear her sister repeat the information to the maid before dashing back down to the cottage.
When she entered Flynn’s bedchamber, she found him still burning up, murmuring incoherently. She pulled the chair that had sat in front of the desk next to his bed and sank down beside him, her heart thundering in her chest. She reached out a trembling hand and pressed it against his forehead. “It will be all right,” she whispered, feeling utterly helpless. “The doctor will be here soon. He’ll know what to do.”
She hoped that was the truth. She didn’t know what she’d do if something happened before she had the chance to tell him the truth, to try and make things right between them. She wanted a chance to talk to him in real life the way she had in those letters. He had been her whole world for so long... She couldn’t lose him now.
He seemed to quiet when she touched him, nuzzling against her hand with a sigh. She loved the thought that her touch had calmed him, and she continued to whisper comforting words as she stroked his brow with a cold cloth and prayed for the doctor to come quickly.
“Violet?” he suddenly said, opening those dark blue eyes and staring up at her. “You’re finally here, darling.”
Tears stung her eyes, and she blinked them furiously away. What she wouldn’t give to have him look at her this way. But it would do no good to remind him of what he perceived as Violet’s treachery right now. “I’m here,” she murmured instead. “I’m here, my love.”
He smiled and closed his eyes once again, obviously comforted. It seemed horribly ironic that at long last she was free to touch him as she pleased, to say all the words she wanted to say, and he was too far gone with fever to know she was even there.
About thirty minutes later, Heath arrived, his handsome face creased with worry. He was an older, sterner version of his brother with the same golden hair and blue eyes. “Violet just told me what happened. How is he?”
Glad for the distraction, she placed a little distance between herself and Flynn, allowing his brother to lean over him. “He’s terribly feverish. The wound is enflamed. I fear he left hospital too soon.”
“Stubborn fool,” Heath said tenderly, pressing his hand to Flynn’s head and then pulling it away in shock. “You’re right. He’s burning up.” He looked back toward the door in frustration. “Where in the blazes is that doctor?”
She shrugged helplessly, realizing that it would take some time for the servant to ride all the way into town and then fetch the elderly gentleman back.
After an hour of waiting, Heath left with a growl of fury, promising to find out what was taking the doctor so long. Flynn drifted in and out of an uneasy slumber but she hadn’t been able to get more than a few dribbles of water past his parched lips, and he didn’t seem to even know she was there.
Despite her feverish prayers and Heath’s fury, it took nearly another hour for the doctor to arrive. Heath was not with him, so they must have somehow missed each other on the way. She greeted the older gentleman in the sitting room, then paced back and forth while he completed his examination in Flynn’s bedchamber, knowing she’d not be welcomed.
He returned about half an hour later, shutting the bedchamber door quietly behind him.
“How is he?” she asked, whirling to face him. “Is he going to be all right?”
The doctor nodded but his face remained sober. “I’ve given him something for the fever and cleaned and rebandaged his wound. He wasn’t fully healed when he left the hospital and the long journey exhausted him. But I think with some care and rest, he’ll be fine.”
“Thank you,” she whispered. “Thank you so much.”
