Page 40 of The Thief
Chapter Ten
Scarlett lay in bed, her mouth dry and her head pounding.
Two weeks ago, she had fallen ill and had not been getting any better. She had not gotten any worse; which was something both she and Alastair were thankful for. She sighed and rolled over with a groan, trying to ignore the pain in her body.
It felt like her stomach would not stop cramping and with it, she had trouble eating anything because it just was stormed back up.
Alastair had figured out that she had been poisoned relatively quickly and had sought out the book that had been displaced in his sitting room. When he had arrived there, the book was gone along with the clue. To his dismay. he had been unable to recall what medicine had been on the paper.
He had sent messages to all the heads of the hospitals to see if anyone had any of their inventory missing, and if they did, what was missing. Alastair had also sent Ronald with a message to Everett, letting him know of the situation.
He swore the staff to secrecy in order to make sure that Art did not hear of it and warned Everett not to let anyone know. If Art were to find out, their whole plan would be compromised. Ronald assured Alastair before he left that he would make sure that Everett did not tell anyone about Scarlett’s illness.
Scarlett coughed and leaned over, reaching for some water. She glanced over and noticed that the glass was empty, but there was a pitcher there if she needed a refill. She knew she wouldn’t be able to lift the pitcher and so she fell back against the bed in frustration.
Melody, who had been in the sitting room off Scarlett’s bedroom, heard the movement coming from the bedroom and wandered in to check on her.
Relief flooded her face and she smiled at Scarlett, coming over to the bed.
When Scarlett pointed to the water, Melody filled the cup and helped her to sit before handing her the glass. She drank slowly and almost sighed as her throat felt the cold water coat it.
“Where is Alastair?” she asked, her voice hoarse.
Melody smiled at her with a subtle look.
“He is right next door in his room. He has moved up to his sitting room so that he can get all his work done and keep an eye on you as well.”
Scarlett blushed and looked away, then back to her.
“That is very nice of him,” she said, looking into her sitting room.
The two rooms were connected by the sitting rooms and they each had the bedroom on the other side. Double doors led into each sitting room with one connecting door between both rooms. Enabling outside access, one door connected the sitting room to the bedroom and another connected each bedroom to the hallway. With all the issues, they had been locking the doors to the hallway.
A knock on the sitting room door made Melody stand up; Scarlett adjusted her position on the bed so that she sat up straight. She smiled brightly when Bard walked into the room with a tray of food, her stomach growling in response.
He chuckled when he heard her stomach, and came to set the tray down on her lap.
“It is a very light meal, My Lady, as to not overdo it on your stomach. Lord Alastair made sure personally to oversee your meal and make sure that it was as nutritional as possible.”
“Thank you, Bard. I hope you will extend my thanks to Lord Alastair as well.”
Bard opened his mouth to reply but was halted when another voice carried into the room.
“Your thanks are appreciated,” Alastair said, coming into the bedroom to the sitting room door.
“Oh, My Lord. What brings you up here?” she asked, looking at him.
Auster smiled in appreciation as his eyes rolled over her as she sat in the bed with the tray in her lap. Even though her skin was pale and her eyes had terrible dark circles underneath them, she still looked lovely to him.
“I came up here to see how my patient is doing,” he replied, taking up residence in the chair that Scarlett finally noticed was beside her bed.
“I see,” she said, looking back down at her breakfast.
“Well, I was just about to eat. Would you like to join me?”
He nodded and that was when she noticed he held a book under his arm.
“What book is that?” she asked between bites of bread and jam.
