Free The English Lily (Tales of the Scrimshaw Doll) by Kae Elle Wheeler

veins.
    “And what did you conclude?” he croaked.
    She didn’t answer right away, just pierced him with her wide blue eyes. He might expire on the spot, waiting. But then her words, barely audible, whispered across his skin like a velvet glove. “That I chose you.”
    Joseph dropped the spoon in his bowl and shoved his chair from the table. It toppled back, but he was already around to the other side. He pulled her up in his arms and parted her lips with his. Her arms wound about his neck.
    But something felt out of sorts. The room tilted at an odd angle, spots blacked before his eyes.
    “Is something wrong, my lord?”
    “I-I fear I need to…to lie down.”
    ****
    Kendra assisted her husband to the bed, a feat in and of itself. He was one very large solid mass of masculinity.
    “My dear, this is quite un-unseemly, but I fear I may have to trouble you for the chamber—” Kendra was tugging the chamber pot from beneath the bed even as the words spilled from him.
    For the next two hours, Joseph retched uncontrollably. She held the hair from his face, gave him water to rinse his mouth, and sent for the innkeeper’s wife for assistance. They somehow managed to tug off his boots, divest him of his jacket, and maneuver him beneath the covers.
    “You poor deary,” she said. “ ’Twasn’t nothin’ he ate ’ere, was it? You ain’t sick?”
    “No, Mrs. Harper. It came upon him quite suddenly.” Kendra was panting from her exertions even while her heart still pounded in fear. “I’ve no idea what came over him.”
    “I’ll send up some tea, for ye. Ye’ll need yer strength for that ’en.” She pointed to Joseph, her large bosomy form none the worse.
    “Thank you. I don’t know how I’d have managed.”
    Mrs. Harper quit the room with a small click of the door behind her.
    Kendra moved to the bed and cupped her husband’s jaw. Even in a deep slumber his strength amazed her. Steady, rhythmic breaths reassured her, so much that her fingers trembled. What would she have done if she’d lost him? The enormity of the idea quivered through her.
    She put her lips to his forehead. He must have thought her a complete ninny earlier that day. Of course, people of their rank did not marry for love. But she’d hoped he had some regard for her. The knock at the door startled her.
    “Yer tea, ma’am.”
    Kendra held the door open for the girl, who was obviously the Harpers’ daughter. A sudden thought struck her. “What’s your name?”
    “Rachel, miss.” She set the tray on the table and dipped a quick curtsey.
    “Do you…read, Rachel?”
    “No, ma’am. My mum, she reads a little.”
    “Is it something you’ve ever aspired to?”
    “Don’t see no cause for it in my case, ma’am.”
    “Don’t you?” Kendra asked. “Never to travel to foreign lands through the eyes of another?”
    Rachel tilted her head in confusion. “I fear I don’t understand.”
    ’Twas sad, in a way, but Kendra smiled at her. “Pay no mind to me, Rachel.”
    “Are you meanin’ to say there’s other worlds…in books ?” Her tone sounded incredulous.
    “If one can read, I believe so,” Kendra said softly.
    “I-I believe I might like that, ma’am.”
    “Perhaps your mother can help.”
    “Aye, perhaps…” Rachel shook her head as if remembering where she was and dropped another quick curtsey. “Me mum would have my head if she heard me talkin’ to gentry, like. Will that be all you’re needin’, ma’am? Mum sent biscuits for your man, in case he wakes hungry and all.”
    “Thank you, Rachel. Yes, that will be all.” Kendra bolted the door after her departure and poured herself some tea, with a small sigh. Mr. Thomas and his friend Edmund had taken on quite the task. Kendra would offer help to their cause.
    If she couldn’t read, she resolved to do all in her power to see that others did not suffer her same fate. She could support Mr. Thomas’s dreams, on some level, at least.
    She meandered to the doll and