Emerald's Fracture by Kate Kennelly

Author:Kate Kennelly [Kennelly, Kate]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fantasy, Romance
Publisher: Emerald Light Press
Published: 2018-01-26T00:00:00+00:00

When Jules returned from town, he suggested Natalie set up their tent near the house and get some rest. The undertaker had come and gone, taking Da’s body with him. Aaron fell asleep in his bed upstairs. Jules kept watch over her sleeping mother, who coughed from time to time, but Jules and Natalie had heard worse from patients with this disease. With everything in as much order as it could be, Natalie staggered out to the tent and was asleep before her head hit her bedroll.

She woke when the sun’s rays were setting behind the apple grove. Taking in the beauty of her father’s life’s work, it was hard to believe it would live on long past him. Before the tears could fall, she reminded herself she, Aaron and Jules needed to eat. She grabbed the equipment to make snares and set up several in the nearby woods. Returning to the house, she found Jules dozing in his seat next to her mother’s bedside.

She squatted in front of him and brushed a hand across his leg. “Jules.”

He jumped awake and ran a hand through his hair, which stood out at all angles. “Wha? I’m sorry I dozed off. Is she all right?”

They both examined her mother. Natalie shook her head in wonder. “She’s sleeping still.” She put her ear on her mother’s chest. “I can hear congestion, but I’ve heard worse. Why don’t you go get sleep now? I’ve set snares in the woods. Hopefully, we’ll eat well soon.”

Jules nodded wearily. “She hasn’t woken up since your father … She still doesn’t know.”

Natalie bit her lip and nodded.

Jules staggered out the door to the tent, and Natalie took an inventory of the tea and supplies, keeping an ear out for her mother. She alternated plying her mother with medicinal teas and reading her Healing diary, desperately searching for any sort of clues that might help them treat or understand the sweating fever. There must be something in her notes; some clue as to why the young and old did not die from a similar disease or how the disease was transmitted. She must have written down something over the years.

Near dawn, a small whisper came from the trundle cot. “Nat.”

Natalie ran to her mother’s side and grasped her hand. “Mother. How are you feeling?”

“Chest. Hurts.”

“Do you want some tea?”

Her mother made a face. “So. Sick. Of. Tea.”

Natalie laughed. She touched her mother’s head. It felt much cooler than earlier.

“Starting. To. Feel. Better. I think.” Anna swallowed. “How is Da?”

Natalie bowed her head and swallowed as the tears spilled down her cheeks. “I’m so sorry, Mother. I tr-tr-tried so hard.”

Mother looked like a deer that had been shot by an arrow and did not yet know the wound was mortal.

Unable to face her, Natalie rested her head on her mother’s chest, the sobs that had refused to come earlier now rushing out in full force. “I’m so sorry, I d-d-did my best.”

The feeling of her mother trembling beneath her made Natalie cry all the harder.

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