Free Elysium: The Plantation Series Book IV by Gretchen Craig

woke up about midnight, dizzy, but the
doctor was here and said he will recover from his head wound. Rachel did
everything right, the doctor said, and he has hopes there will be no infection."
    "Infection? In his
head?" Musette said.
    "He has a wound,
here," she said and gestured to her shoulder. Lily had guessed right.
Musette was deeply attached to Thomas Bickell and she was scared to death. It
looked like Mr. Chamard had been holding her back, telling her to wait for
first light, and when dawn came, she cast off all his cautions.
    "Can I see -- "
    Mr. Chamard spoke over
her. "I’m relieved to hear you and your daughter are well, Mrs. Palmer."
He had not released Musette’s shoulder.
    Major Whiteaker opened
the door and came in with a rifle in his hand. "I saw Miss DeBlieux
rushing this way. Is everything all right?"
    His gaze flickered over
Lily’s nightgown and at the braid hanging over her shoulder.
    "We’ve merely come
calling too early, Alistair. Excuse us. Musette and I will call later in the
day. Thank you, Mrs. Palmer."
    With his hand on
Musette’s shoulder, he turned her and firmly guided her out the door.
    The major closed it
behind them and turned back to Lily with a question on his face. "What’s
happened?"
    "Miss DeBlieux has
apparently been waiting for daylight to come to enquire about Thomas. If you’ll
give me a minute, I’ll make coffee. You’re probably half-starved, too."
    Her bare feet were stuck
to the floor for a moment, waiting for her to tell them to move. His eyes were
perfectly correct, avoiding looking at her nightgown or even at her hair mussed
from the pillow. But he didn’t keep his eyes from looking at her bare toes.
    He jerked his gaze back
up to her face. "Yes. Coffee would be good. Thank you."
    Lily’s feet flew up the
stairs then. When she came back downstairs, dressed, her hair in a neat bun, he
was coming in the back door with a bucket of water from the well.
    He was rumpled and in
need of a shave, but he moved with the elegance of a man in white tie and
tails. "I got the fire lit in the stove," he said. He had a row of
five or six stitches in his chin where Rachel had sewn him up some time after
Lily had gone to bed.
    "Thank you. I
confess to being intimidated by it, such a grand stove as this. Twice as big as
the one I cooked on in Philadelphia."
    Uncle Garvey came into
the kitchen rubbing the sleep out of his face. "Morning, Lily. Alistair. Who
was at the door?"
    Lily glanced at the major,
who seemed content for her to answer. "Mr. Chamard and Musette stopped by
to ask about Thomas."
    "How is he this
morning, Garvey?"
    "I thought he
sounded pretty clear-headed last night considering the man has a concussion."
    The major nodded. "I
can send some laudanum over later, for the pain."
    "Alistair, I don’t
know about that stuff. He’s already got a head full of wool. I think I’d rather
let him sip at a glass of whiskey if his shoulder pains him too much. The
headache, well I expect he’ll sleep through the next day or so."
    All three of them stilled
at the sound of a horse in the yard. Major Whiteaker strode to the door where
he’d propped his rifle and picked it up before he opened the door.
    "It’s all right,"
he said over his shoulder, catching Lily’s eye. "He’s one of my men."
    An old black man
dismounted from his mule and walked up onto the back porch. "Morning, Major."
    Alistair stepped onto the
porch to meet him, leaving the door open behind him. "Morning, Elvin. What
brings you here so early?"
    Uncle Garvey stepped next
to the major to see what the man had to say. Lily stood in the doorway.
    "Got bad news, Major.
Sorry to tell you this. Didn’t come any sooner cause I don’t like riding in the
dark, and well, nothing you could have done about it we weren’t already doing.
So I waited till the sun was up before I saddled Mable here and come on. That
wadn’t till after we figured you might be here cause this is where that speaker
lives, the one got beat so bad