Page 31 of A Curse of Hope and Shadows: Part I
“Right. Let’s get you into the tub.”
She swooped his arm over her shoulders and guided him to the other side of the room, once more surprised by how light he felt, how a boy taller than her could weigh so little, be so easily lowered into a bath.
He let out a sigh as the water reached him, and she went to fetch more towels to drape across his chest and shoulders while the water level rose.
She dabbed at his forehead with a cold compress, Dimitri groaning under her touch. “I feel like my head’s splitting apart…”
She raised her free hand to stroke his cheek, wishing there was more she could do. “It’ll pass,” she said softly. “And I’m here.”
There was a knock at the door. Adeline rushed up to answer it, finding Clarin in the corridor with a small vial of something blue. He glanced at Dimitri groaning in the tub behind, and lowered his voice. “He doesn’t half complain a lot, doesn’t he?”
Adeline blinked. “I don’t think he’s making it up.”
Clarin shrugged. “Nobles, though. They don’t know real pain, do they? Wish I could lie in the bath all day…”
Adie took the vial, closing the door behind him roughly. She returned to Dimitri’s side, pressing the vial to his lips. He coughed it down.
“It’s foul,” he hissed, “and if I throw it back up, it’s your fault.”
“All right,” she said, “if you say so.”
She turned off the taps, swilled out the bucket in the sink, and sat beside him on the floor, not sure of what else to do. The room was already dark. She supposed the best course of action was to stay quiet, let the drugs take effect and let his body cool, but she felt a strange kind of uselessness. When a woman was in labour, she always knew what to do to ease her, even if that was sometimes just talking. She wasn’t sure Dimitri wanted her words, or needed them.
Instead, she stroked his face, letting him know she was here, and sat with him in the quiet. He was so still he might have been sleeping, but his eyes whirred behind closed lids, flickering in what was obviously quite a lot of pain. The rest of his body was coiled as tight and stiff as wire.
Slowly, he started to cool, and eventually began to shiver. “Let’s get you out,” she whispered, helping him up.
He’d fallen into the tub still in his underwear, which she had to peel off him now. He didn’t seem to notice, and she barely looked, even though naked women were far more her comfort zone. She helped him into fresh night clothes and laid him back into bed. His eyes were still tightly shut.
“You need to eat something,” she said.
He shook his head against the pillow.
“Just a little,” she insisted. “You’ll feel better after you eat.” Rather than wait for another argument, she fetched the tray and started to spoon the porridge into his lips, slowly, one mouthful after another. He managed half a bowl and some tea, by which time the drugs had clearly started to work. He looked more drowsy and less pained as she cleared the tray away.
“Would you like me to leave you and let you get some rest?” she said, fixing the sheets around him. “Or maybe at least stop talking?”
A hand reached out and grabbed her wrist. “Honestly, I find the sound of your voice quite soothing.”
“All right,” she said, “I may need to find a book or something to read aloud though. Carrying a conversation by myself might be difficult.” She stroked back his hair, fingers soft against his scalp.
“That’s nice,” he said. “Don’t… don’t fetch anything just yet. I’m sure you can think of something to say.”
Adeline smiled. “I’ll stay for as long as you want me.”
“Is that a today promise, or a forever one?”
“What do you mean?”
“Are you promising to stay with me just for today, until I am better, or long term?”
“Hmm,” she said thoughtfully, “long term is a pretty big ask. Are you going to increase my salary?”
He snorted faintly. “So easily bought…” He let go of her hand. “Fetch your book, then.”
Adeline collected a book from the newly-restored dresser, one they’d started a few nights earlier. She pulled up a chair beside his bed and read for almost an hour, keeping her voice soft and low. Dimitri turned his head into the pillows, so still he could have been sleeping.
“I’m sorry if I barked at you,” he said. “Earlier, at any point. I just find it difficult when—"
