“I am so sorry I could not be more help, Your Grace. No further cases of high fever have been reported so far. However, without particulars from the patient, I am at a loss of what to recommend in this instance. We might have no choice but to wait and see if the captain recovers on his own,” Doctor Hobbits advised in a voice devoid of hope.
Sally pushed her way inside the room.
Felix lay on the bed around which they were gathered and was as still as the grave. Her grandfather, aunt, and the doctor and butler observed him, looking as if Felix was about to die.
If not for hearing their remarks, she might have thought him dead too on first glance. But on closer inspection, Felix was so drenched in sweat that his shirt was limp and stuck to his skin. His lips were parted and pale, but it was the shallow quality of his breathing that sent gooseflesh rushing over her skin.
She moved into the room, heart pounding with fear and dread at the state he was in.
He could not die. Not like this.
“Sally, get out,” her grandfather growled when he noticed her. “You have no business being in this sickroom. Morgan, take her out and then fetch his friend.”
Morgan rushed toward her, arms outstretched as if to hold her back without actually touching her.
“You have to help him,” she begged. “Please do something.”
Felix sucked in a sharp breath at the sound of her voice, but that was all he managed.
“My lady, there is nothing we can do but wait,” the butler advised, still trying his best to herd her toward the door. “You must think of your own health first and foremost.”
“I am.” She had been intimate with Felix last night. His mouth on her body, his hands on her skin. She had noticed his heat but not realized it had been a fever in the making at the time. If his condition were to spread to others, then she would undoubtedly have the same complaint by now. She should be kept apart from everyone else to prevent the spread of infection.
Sally rolled up her sleeves and avoided Morgan as she scanned the room, looking for a basin of water and a washcloth with which to cool her lover with. “I am staying. We touched yesterday.”
“Touched?” her aunt queried, one brow raised high.
The tone of Aunt Pen’s question suggested much, but she ignored it. For too long she had suspected her aunt knew she and Felix had shared a bed anyway. Thankfully she could not possibly know how often it had been or that they had been intimate last night. Sally chose the lesser of her indiscretions to confess. “He grasped my bare hand in the garden, so if he is contagious then it might already be too late for me.”
“I see.” The duke pierced her with a strange look. “Penelope, you can leave since you undoubtedly wore gloves when you were reintroduced to the captain. Please ensure the good health of the rest of the family. Discreetly, mind. Let us not start a panic. It seems we have no choice but to leave the captain in Sally’s care for now if we want to contain the situation.”
Aunt Pen rushed from the room; the doctor followed.
Sally poured water in a basin and soaked a cloth.
Her grandfather drew close. “Are you sure you will be all right with him?”
“Yes, but I will need a few things. Ice chips, clean sheets, and a fresh cotton mattress for after the fever breaks. I have some beeswax balm for his cracked lips on my dresser. My maid knows the one. Have them delivered as soon as possible.”
“The ice was to be set aside for your wedding breakfast. Your mother planned a pair of towering swans for table decoration.”
“She can fret about the size of the swans later.” Sally stripped away the drenched cravat hanging loosely from Felix’s neck. “He must be cooled as quickly as possible.”
Her grandfather approached to aid her, but she held her hand palm out to stop him. “Did you touch him?”
“No. But we have spent many an hour together.”
“Without knowing what we are dealing with, it is best to limit any further spread.” Her grandfather was not a young man and not robust of health anymore. She could not allow him to place himself in harm’s way. “Best be safe and stay back.”
Her grandfather appeared amused. “Do you plan to undress him entirely, all by yourself?”
“It is necessary.” Sally nodded. She had partially undressed him six years before, but the last time he had been standing and very much aware of what she was doing to him. “He cannot stay as he is. I will be as quick as possible and then cover him.”
“I forget sometimes that you are braver than I give you credit for.” He wavered a moment, then nodded, ceding her the right to decide. “I will leave so you might not be embarrassed. I will send this fellow, this friend of Felix’s, up to the door as soon as Morgan returns and arrange the other things you asked for.”
“Thank you.”
Chapter Eighteen