“Malcolm!” Iylaine choked and leapt up from her bed.
“I’m sorry to wake you, Babe.”
“I wasn’t sleeping… I don’t… think…”
She did not know what she had been doing. She was so tired all the time, and yet she seldom slept during the day… and yet she seldom remembered the day at all.
“So you were ignoring my knocking?” He was pretending to be angry, trying to joke, and truly worried.
“Noooo… perhaps I was simply remembering that you’re not supposed to be alone with me in my bedroom.”
“I’m not permitted to be alone with you in my bedroom, I’m not permitted to be alone with you in your bedroom – in whose bedroom am I permitted to be alone with you?”
“I don’t think there is one.”
“In our bedroom?”
“I’ve never seen such a room!” she smiled.
“If you did?”
“You would still have to catch me in it!”
“I shall simply send you to it when you are naughty.”
“I can still run faster than you.”
He laughed and walked away from her. “Don’t give me any ideas, girlie. If Alred let me in here now, it’s because I’m only staying long enough for you to get your boots and cloak. We’re going out.”
She followed him across the room to stand before the fire. “I can’t go out.”
“Don’t you feel any better, Babe?” he asked tenderly and stroked a hand down her cheek.
Iylaine closed her eyes and leaned her face against his fingers. She constantly thought that his touch was what she needed. It never seemed to help.
“Not much,” she said.
“Haven’t you been resting?”
“All the time.”
He sighed. “I wish I didn’t have to take you out again. But it’s too important.”
“Where are we going?” she asked warily.
“To your father. Get your cloak.”
She lifted her head and glowered at him. “Why?” she growled.
“Because Lili is dying.”
“I have nothing to say to her.”
“I’m not taking you to talk to her. I’m taking you to save her. Get your cloak.”
“Save her?” she cried.
“She has a fever.”
“And?”
“You saved me when I had a fever.”
“That doesn’t mean anything! I don’t know anything about saving anybody! I simply – simply laid my hands on you and tried to take the fire out of you.”
“So try to take the fire out of Lili. You have to try.”
She wanted to say that she did not care whether Lili lived or died, but she could not look Malcolm in the eyes and say it.
“Do it for your father,” Malcolm said, as if thinking it had been enough.
“Why does he care?” she snapped. “He never wanted to marry her. She tricked him!”
“Why does he care? Baby! Perhaps he didn’t want to marry her, but he loves her now. Can’t you see it? Are you blind?”
“I never look,” she sniffed.
“You should open your eyes once in a while, stupid girl! His heart is breaking. You can’t let this happen to him again. How would you feel if I were the one dying today?”
“I wish I had never told you I saved you,” she muttered.
“You keep this up and I shall make you wish you never saved me at all!”
Iylaine stamped her foot and cried, “The devil take you and scour his pots with your hide!” When this did not relieve her sufficiently, she stomped away from him again, back into the corner by her bed. Malcolm followed without a word.
His silence infuriated her. It meant he already knew she would agree to come.
“It might not work,” she grumbled. “It might have been your luck that saved you, or one of your nine lives.”
“You have to try.”
“Perhaps the trip or perhaps the trying will make me very ill. How will you feel if it is I who die at the end?” she sniffed, but she did not look at him when she asked it. She could not have looked him in the eyes and said it, and when she did look into them, she saw something there that frightened her and humbled her.
“I’m sorry!” she squeaked and leapt at him.
Chapters
Ah ha! I was thinking of that yesterday. I thought maybe Iylaine could save Lili, but convincing her to do so would be the problem.