Eye of the Wind Read Online Free PDF Page A

food to keep it cool. After he had piled stones around the food to protect it from foraging animals he lay down, propping his head on the makeshift pillow of his spare clothes, intending to plan his next move. But within moments, weakness and exhaustion overtook him, and he fell into oblivion.
    Melissa was shaken out of a deep sleep by a hand gripping her shoulder. It seemed only minutes since she had closed her eyes, for she had lain awake for a long time. But as she turned over and blinked up into Addey’s face, creased with anxiety beneath a large frilled mob cap, she was immediately alert.
    ‘What’s wrong?’ She raised herself on one elbow.
    ‘You’d better come,’ her mother’s old nurse blurted. ‘She don’t look right to me.’
    Throwing back the bedclothes, Melissa pushed her feet into slippers and grabbed the wrapper that lay across a tapestry chair. She was already halfway along the landing before she had finished tying the sash. Addey hurried along in her wake.
    ‘I stayed with her till she went to sleep, then I thought I’d better get some rest myself. The poor dear soul needs looking after. If it isn’t one thing ’tis another with her just now. I can’t help but wonder if doctor do know what he’s doing.’
    Melissa didn’t waste her breath arguing. Addey knew perfectly well that Dr Wherry, having lost his own son in a hunting accident, had a special sympathy for Emma Tregonning, and took particular care over her treatment. But in her anxiety for her mistress the old nurse needed someone to blame.
    Looking small and lost in the huge four-poster bed, Emma Tregonning was as white as the rumpled sheet except for the hectic flush of fever across her cheekbones. Her eyes were closed, her brows puckered, and her head moved restlessly on the lace-trimmed pillow.
    Melissa laid the back of her hand against her mother’s forehead and was startled by the heat. ‘Mama?’ she spoke softly. ‘Mama, are you in pain?’
    Emma’s eyelids quivered but did not open. ‘George?’ she muttered. Melissa picked up her mother’s thin hand. It burned against her palms. Twin tears rolled from beneath Emma’s closed eyelids. ‘Where are you? Why don’t you write?’ Her breathing was shallow and harsh.
    Melissa heard a muffled mewing sound behind her and turned to see Addey’s eyes brimming in sympathy as she wrung her hands.
    ‘If he’ve gone too, it’ll break her heart.’
    ‘Stop it, Addey!’ Melissa whispered sharply. ‘As he’s so far away there could be any number of reasons why his letters haven’t reached us. We’ll probably receive several all at once. Instead of thinking the worst, let’s concentrate on making Mama more comfortable. Fetch some water and bathe her hands and face. As soon as I’ve dressed, I’ll send John for the doctor.’
    Later that morning, Melissa preceded the short, wiry figure downstairs.
    ‘Your mother has influenza,’ Dr Wherry confirmed her suspicion. ‘I’ve seen four cases in the past two days. All are people your mother knows. If they have visited, she might have caught it from any one of them. I’ll leave you some Peruvian bark and calomel, and James’s Powders.’
    As she glanced over her shoulder, Melissa’s eyes were level with the doctor’s as he paused on the stair above hers. ‘She seems very restless. Is there anything else we can do to make her more comfortable?’
    His shoulders moved in the faintest suggestion of a shrug. It was not lack of interest, Melissa knew, but frustration with the limitations of his weapons in the fight against illness and disease. ‘A sponge bath with tepid water might help bring down the fever. Ensure she takes plenty of liquid, something bland, like lemon barley water.’
    Melissa nodded quickly. ‘Addey’s already making some. It’s always been her standby. Whenever I was poorly –’
    ‘A rare occurrence as I remember.’ The doctor’s brief but kindly smile drew an answering one from her.
    ‘Indeed. All