Once Upon a Knight by Demelza Carlton

Author:Demelza Carlton
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lost Plot Press
Published: 2022-03-30T00:00:00+00:00

Thirty-Four

Days passed. Lubos helped Molina to eat a little or take some of the numerous draughts the apothecary sent, though she managed to keep very few of the noxious potions down for very long. Her coughing grew worse, until she barely managed to swallow a thing without coughing it back up again. Lubos despaired as she seemed to grow even thinner before his eyes.

Hourly, he sent orders to the castle kitchens for the nourishing foods on the physician's list, but nothing could nourish her if it didn't make it down her throat.

The only thing the cook did not send up was lamb's lettuce, for the cook claimed to know nothing of a food by that name.

Lubos wanted to weep, or break something, or tear his own hair out by the roots. He was being forced to watch the woman he loved die, and there was nothing he could do about it.

Captain Schuttmann made the mistake of visiting and Lubos almost pitched him out the door again. Almost, but some spark of reason far in the back of his mind reminded him that without Schuttmann, he would never have found her, so Lubos sank back on his chair and simply stared balefully at the guard captain instead.

"How is she?" Schuttmann asked.

Lubos waved his hand at the bed. "See for yourself."

Schuttmann's expression said it all. "I am sorry we were too late to help her. I came to tell you that the king has given you permission to marry the girl, now she has spun to his satisfaction."

Lubos wasn't sure whether he wanted to laugh or cry. "She can't keep her eyes open long enough to speak the vows, and as long as she cannot eat anything without bringing it back up again, she cannot gain any strength. And to make matters worse, she's carrying our child!"

Schuttmann's eyebrows rose. "She is with child? My wife had terrible morning sickness with our first child. Couldn't eat a thing for weeks, and she didn't have the strength to leave her bed, either. I ate in your father's hall most nights, for she could not cook. When she carried our second child, she caught a chill, much like your girl here, and I thought I'd lose them both, but there's a witch who lives over on the south side of the mountain, and she has medicinal plants that grow nowhere else but her garden. I paid a fortune for some leaves from a plant called a rapunzel, which she said would help my wife to fight the illness. Watching my wife eat leaves like a rabbit, I thought it a foolish notion, until she began to improve. They say physicians and priests and prayer are all we should need for health, but sometimes we need to go back to the old ways, and the old gods, for witches know things that priests and physicians would never dream about."

Lubos stared at his sleeping lady. The lady who might never wake again. "Can you get this miraculous plant for me? I dare not leave her.

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