End of Day (Hode's Hill 2) by Mae Clair

Author:Mae Clair [Mae Clair]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kensington
Published: 2018-07-31T12:23:58+00:00

Chapter 10

October 18, 1799

Gabriel blinked, consciousness returning slowly as he struggled from a deep slumber. His surroundings were vaguely familiar, the bedroom outfitted with a tall standing wardrobe, rocker, and washstand with pitcher and bowl. He rested in a four-poster bed, far finer than the small cot he slept on at home. Curtains were drawn over the windows to blot the light, but from the hint of red beyond the heavy fabric, he guessed the time near sunset. A fire burned in a hearth in the corner.

Bits of memory floated through his mind—Dinah tending him as he labored with fever, Jasper pacing in the distance. He remembered his friend coaxing liquid through his lips, Dinah pressing a cold cloth to his forehead. He’d twisted with nightmares of the Endling. Ugly dreams in which the beast had mauled his throat instead of his shoulder. Remembering the wound, he fingered the fresh bandage wrapped over his chest. The area was tender, but the ragged starburst of pain had faded.

The sound of footsteps drew his attention to the door. Dinah appeared on the threshold carrying a wooden tray laden with a soup bowl.

“Thank heavens you’re awake.” Quickly, she deposited the tray on a small table by the bed. When she gripped his hands, her touch was papery and warm. “It has been four days, Gabriel.” She eased onto the edge of the mattress, her face drawn by lines he’d never noticed before. Deep shadows bruised the flesh beneath her eyes, and a thin sheen of perspiration clung to her cheeks.

“I feared you would never awaken.” Worry colored her voice. “Father had you brought to Enoch’s room when you passed out. We have been tending you while Enoch and others from the village look after your farm. Everyone is so grateful for what you, Jasper, and Hiram did in killing that dreadful beast. Hiram told Father how you went into its lair and confronted the creature alone. He called it an Endling.”

Gabriel’s head was spinning. Four days had passed? He was in the bedroom of Dinah’s oldest brother? He barely remembered riding into town—the crowd pressing around him, men slapping his back in boisterous greeting, the stench of the Endling clotted thick in his nostrils.

“Dinah.” He lifted his hand to her cheek. “You look flush.”

“’Tis nothing.” She lowered her eyes. “A mild fever.”

“From tending me?” His stomach roiled. He’d assumed his illness had been caused by infection in the wound, not any malady he could pass to others.

“Surely not. It is the autumn chill, nothing more.” She swiped a stray tendril of hair from her face with the back of her hand. “I brought you hot broth, hoping you’d be able to stomach a little food.” She indicted the bowl.

He should be hungry after four days, but the paleness of Dinah’s skin had unsettled his stomach. “Perhaps water instead.”

“I’ll fetch you some.” She crossed to the pitcher and bowl, then poured a glass. Her normal grace was absent, weariness seeming to hang on her delicate frame.

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