Scorned By Him, Cherished By His Brother novel · Chapter 5 of 24

Chapter 5: The Healing Night

I sent my father home in a hired cab and told him I would be back by morning.

He looked at the steward, then at me, and did not ask a single question.

The vestry was dark when I came in, and the fire had burned down to red.

Henry lay on the stone floor beside the table, with a blanket under his head and the steward kneeling at his side.

His face was white and wet, and his lips had gone a bluish colour.

"He tried to stand to reach the window," the steward said. "He thought he heard the carriage."

"Help me lift him to the cot."

We lifted him together, and he was lighter than a man his size should have been.

I knelt and put two fingers against the inside of his wrist, just under the long white scar.

His pulse jumped and stopped, and jumped again.

"Foxglove," I said. "Some of it is still in him from the autumn, and the cold has brought it up. Fetch hot water, a basin, and every blanket in the chapel."

The steward went out at a run.

I unbuttoned Henry's shirt.

It was a plain linen shirt, and under it his chest rose and fell too fast, with every rib standing out.

I laid my right hand flat over his heart.

I laid my left on his ribs beneath it, and I counted.

His skin was cold and clammy, and under my palm his heart kicked hard and uneven.

"Henry," I said. "Open your eyes."

He opened them.

They were dark blue and they did not quite find me.

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