Page 30 of A Curse of Hope and Shadows: Part I
“You’re… not well.”
“Not particularly, no,” he said. “Would you mind fetching me a bucket? Only I’m going to keep retching, I fear, and I’m struggling to stay upright.” As he said that, his legs gave way underfoot. She reached out to steady him— “Bucket,” he pleaded, his voice plaintive. “Please.”
She sped to one of the cupboards along the hall, gathered a bucket, raced back again and thrust it into his hands. He seized it from her with a delirious kind of thanks, and promptly vomited into it.
She rubbed his back as the shaking subsided, feeling the bones of his spine against her palm. He was drenched with sweat.
“How long have you been awake?” she asked.
“A few hours,” he murmured.
“Why didn’t you call?”
“I didn’t want to wake you.”
She stroked back his damp, matted hair. “That is quite literally what you pay me for…”
Dimitri retched again into the bucket, bringing little up.
“It’s all right,” he said. “I barely eat enough to be properly sick.”
“Nothing about that sentence is all right.”
She checked his pulse. It was steady enough, despite the heat of his skin. “Do I need to call a healer?”
He shook his head. “I’m afraid I’m your problem now.”
She recalled Mrs Minton asked her during the interview if she was any good at dealing with illness. “Does this happen often?”
He nodded numbly. “One of the little side effects of my little curse. Sharing your body with a monster… sometimes it bites back.”
“Tell me what’s wrong,” she asked.
“Head, mostly,” he rasped. “Room… spinning… too hot… far too hot.”
Without another word, he yanked off his nightshirt. He was still self-conscious whenever she helped him dress, often closing his eyes. It was a testament to how wrecked he was that he had abandoned all care.
There was a short knock, and Mrs Minton walked in with the breakfast tray. Her eyes widened at the sight of him. “Dimit—” she wavered, all proprietary lost.
“His Lordship is a little under the weather,” Adeline said calmly.
“Do you… require any assistance?”
“Don’t worry, Mrs Minton, all is under control.”
She set the tray down. “I’ll send Clarin with some medicine,” she said promptly, and backed out of the room.
Adeline returned to Dimitri. She was used to pain. She was used to illness. She wasn’t used to feeling likethisbecause of it, helpless and lost, all remedies temporarily lost to a frazzled kind of haze.
“Bath,” he gasped, “cold.”
“You want a lukewarm bath,” she insisted, “and it is coming.”
She rushed to the other side of the room and turned on the taps full blast, dousing a nearby towel in the stream and taking it back to Dimitri. She pressed it against his forehead, and he murmured under it.
“Are you done with being sick?”
“Think so.”
