'What have you been treating her with?' Tessa grabbed up the water pail from the back door and pulled a chair out from the table, motioning Mistress Bowman to sit.
'Honey and tea. My mother swears by it, but it has been of no help.' Worry wobbled in her voice as she dropped into the offered chair. 'I don't know what else to try.'
'I will come take a look as soon as I'm done here.' Tessa hefted the heavy pail and poured. Water sluiced into a small kettle. ' 'Twill take only a few minutes.'
'I fear Thankful's fever is far too advanced. I should have asked for your help earlier, but I was sure it was just from the change in weather and all this dampness.'
'Jonah, will you see after Andy?'
While concern narrowed his eyes, he nodded gently. 'Thomas has not dragged me out into the fields yet, so I have the time. You want me to give Andy tea?'
'Just plain tea and honey, and he is to drink it all up after he takes this powder. Just this much.' She grabbed a spoon from the holder and measured out a quarter teaspoon. 'He's to put it right on his tongue. It will taste nasty, but it should ease his pain. If I'm not back by suppertime, make sure he has another cup of tea but no more powder.'
'I will.' Jonah's hand curled around the kettle handle. 'Have Thomas saddle Father's bay mare for you. And Tessa? Try to be home before dark.'
A gentle light of caring shone in his eyes, and it moved her, touched her as nothing ever had. He would miss her when she was gone. Her heart filled to brimming. 'Twas a good thing to be loved.
The sun had set by the time she rode into the stable. The mare was as soaked to the skin as she was. 'Twas a gentle animal, with big friendly eyes and a gentle nature. Friendly, as if the poor animal didn't have anyone to ride her much. Tessa uncinched the saddle and vowed to take the animal out for a run one day soon.
'There you are.' Thomas splashed into the stable, wearing a dripping jacket and cap, carrying a small lantern, a tiny beacon against the gathering darkness. 'Jonah nearly sent me five different times to see to your safety. He feared the horse had thrown you and left you hurt in the middle of the road.'
'I hope you told Jonah I know how to care for myself.' Although it warmed her to know her husband worried over her welfare. 'Where is he?'
'Putting Father to bed. I saw you ride up.' He hooked the lantern on a nail. 'Here, let me rub down the mare.'
'I was planning on taking her back out again.' Tessa gave the horse's neck a gentle pat. 'Thankful Bowman complained of a headache yesterday and today she is very ill.'
'Andy has a headache.' Thomas' jaw tensed. He was a burly man, broader than Jonah through the chest, but not as tall. His somber nature made him seem just as powerful as Jonah, though in a different way. ' 'Tis not a good sign.'
'Nay. I wanted to take some medicines to Mistress Briers. She complained of a headache today too, and I think 'twould be best to medicate this fever before it hits and settles into the lungs.'
'The storm is too miserable. I will take the medicines. All you need to do is write the instructions for the seamstress, and I will see that she gets both.'
'You would do that?'
'Aye. Jonah would have my head if I let you back out in that storm. Besides, we fear Andy needs your care now.'
Thomas spoke sense, and 'twas good to be needed. And 'twas good to be treated like this, with respect and caring. She imagined this was how good families behaved toward one another, and how nice it was. She knew Thomas, as Jonah's brother, didn't need to come out into the rain to help her or run her errand. But he had.
'Thank you.' The words caught in her throat because they were so hard to say.
'For what?' He looked up from grabbing a linen towel from a dark shelf. 'For saving you from getting more soaked than you already are?'
'Nay. For accepting me into your family, for treating me so well. 'Tis more than my own family has done.' She watched the surprise on his face, and mayhap a bit of confusion. Embarrassed, she ran out into the drumming rain and let the cold wetness sluice away the heat from her face.
'Tessa?' Thomas gazed out at her, framed by the dark threshold, backlit by the single lantern's gentle flame. 'I am glad you're happy here with us. We appreciate you more than you know.'
Aye, 'twas good to belong. To truly belong. She smiled, not trusting her voice, and hurried to the house. Warmth and the sweet scent of steeping tea met her as she rushed inside. Water dripped from her cloak's hem.
'Mistress.' Anya spun from the hearth. 'We've all been worried. The storm is so severe.'
'No need to worry, for I'm well. Has Andy shown any signs of fever?'
'Nay, but he has been coughing.' The girl stuffed her hands behind a pretty but plain apron. 'Colonel Hunter said that since I was looking around in the attic as you told me to do, I should take whatever I might need. Like this apron.'
Tessa knew Anya had come with only the clothes on her back. 'Did Samuel climb the attic ladder by himself?'
'Aye. He tried to swear me to secrecy, but I told him I would not lie to my mistress.' A small nervous smile flickered across her pale face. 'If this is too much, I can put it back.'
'Nay, an apron is sensible. And we must clothe you. Think of how indecent it would be if we did not.' On a smile, Tessa shrugged out of her cloak and hung it on a wall peg to drip dry. 'Do you like your room?'
' 'Tis very comfortable. With a real bed. The colonel said I might borrow a book to read at night from the library after my work was done. If I am careful with it. Is that all right?'
'Of course. I would let you go now, but I need help with an onion poultice for Andy.'
'Let me go down cellar and fetch some onions. How many will you need?'
'Four will do.' Tessa reached up into the cupboard and found a small empty crock. The girl had already slipped into the pantry. The cellar door squealed a protest in the small room.
Tessa measured out a good amount of crushed yarrow leaves, sweetgrass, dried bearberries, cottonwood bark, and mint. She set Anya to peeling, then slicing the onions. Thomas knocked at the back door, and she handed him a small packet with instructions, wrapped in leather to protect it from the rain. She thanked him again, and he was gone, blending into the shadows of the thunderous night.
She chose cottonwood bark to steep with Andy's tea and then headed upstairs. The house seemed quiet with the parlor dark and the colonel asleep.
At the head of the stairs, a thin light drew her to Andy's chamber. The door was ajar. She could see a bed centering the room where a down comforter was drawn up to Andy's chin. A fire crackled in the small fireplace, the light glancing over Jonah to illuminate the sleeping man propped up by pillows.
'How is Mistress Thankful?'
'Not well. Her malady seems similar to your father's. Is Andy worse?'
'Aye, he started coughing after supper. Not hard, and he doesn't have the rattle in his chest Father had.' Lines furrowed across Jonah's brow. How tired he looked, how worried. He'd pulled his dark hair back into a leather tie at his nape. If he were not in a sick room, he could be mistaken for a pirate, or mayhap a spy for the French. His hand caught hers and fire skidded across her skin. Desire built in her blood. 'I didn't send for you because I knew Mistress Thankful was more ill.'
'Anya is slicing onions for a poultice. It will help keep his lungs clear.' Tessa watched Jonah rise and tower his full height over her. She stepped into the shelter of his arms, against the wondrous comfort of his chest. She could hold him forever just like this with their hearts beating together.
'Andy will be ecstatic. He sleeps now, but when he was awake he complained mightily of your awful tasting headache powder.' His hand on her back caressed slow circles at her spine. 'I scared him into taking it by saying I would fetch you from the Bowmans.'
She tilted her face upward, and his smile became a kiss, fiery and possessive.
'I missed you this evening.' His fingers brushed over her hips. How dark his eyes were. Was he thinking of the
