Page 74 of The Best of Madeline Grant

When she finished, his sister said, “Let’s leave her on her side, Alex. Put a pillow to prop her. The sickness is mostly in her lungs, and I fear it’s deep. Has she coughed at all?”

“Aye, she coughed in her sleep a bit.”

“Did she cough anything up?”

“Not that I saw.”

“Was it sloppy sounding or a dry and hacking type of cough?”

Kyla said, “She coughed up some thick green stuff, Auntie. Is that bad?”

Jennie took a spoonful of soup, swallowed, and then said, “It’s in her lungs, and it’s deeper than I like to see.”

“But the bairns get sick and cough thick stuff up all the time. They get better,” Kyla said.

“True, but they are younger and stronger. Alex and Maddie and I are all older. It’s harder for us to fight to get better. She could still recover, but we’ll have to watch her. I’d like to find a way to get her awake enough to drink some broth. Mama used to say it was the best thing for the lungs. More liquid. She said the food didn’t matter, it’s the liquid. Goat’s milk, broth, anything the patient will take. She didn’t awaken while I moved her about, so we can let her rest and I’ll get settled. Then we’ll try later.”

She kissed Kyla’s cheek and patted Alex’s arm. “I think I’ll be staying a while.”

Chapter Four

Maddie

Maddie woke up in the middle of a flaming hearth, she swore. Something was not right. She shoved against the source of the heat, shocked to feel skin beneath her fingers.

“Alex?”

“Maddie?”

“Alex, I have to get these covers off.” She pushed and tugged, but they wouldn’t move. A moment later they were flung off the bed and nearly hit the wall.

“Better, sweeting?”

“Aye,” she mumbled, then broke into a coughing spasm that would not stop. It pulled from so deep inside her that she thought her chest would split in two. “Alex, I’m…”

“I’ll go get Jennie.”

“Nay.” She caught the edge of the plaid he was donning from the side of the bed. “Nay.” She could barely speak and didn’t have the strength to sit up, pointing instead to a goblet on the side table.

“Aye. Drink. Jennie is here and she said if you awakened to get you to drink as much as you could.”

“I can’t…” Her breathing came out in a gasp she didn’t like. It was painful to breathe deeply; her chest felt full, thick.

Alex climbed back into bed next to her and lifted her, sliding beneath her. “I’ll hold you up, Maddie. Please drink. I’ll hold the goblet.

The concern in his voice told her more than she wished to know—how long she’d been sleeping, how high her fever had gone, how worried he was.

Jennie was here. That told her more than anything, but it was also a comfort.

He held the goblet up to her lips, and she sipped, swallowing slowly, the warm liquid soothing her throat. “A bit more.” She drank what she could, then fell back into her husband’s arms, curling into his embrace, tucking her head under his neck. “Alex, I’m not…”

How did one tell their loved ones they were about to die? She knew it but didn’t know how to get the words out. Her insides fought a battle that she could tell she’d not survive. It was so hard to breathe, to cough, to do anything.

It was hard to lift her hand to brush away the damn piece of hair that would not leave her face. “Alex…”

“I’ve got it. I need to get Jennie…”

“Nay. Stay with me.” She closed her eyes, taking in her husband’s scent, which she loved so. He’d protected her all her life, gone to battle so many times for their clan, but this one he would not be able to fight.