Read Online The Tempting of Thomas Carrick by Stephanie Laurens - Free Book Online

sunken. Lucilla had noticed that the child had been moistening her lips in between speaking; she had glanced around, but the water jug on the dresser was empty, as were the glasses each girl had on her nightstand.
    Then the girl blinked up at her and in a thready voice asked for water.
    Lucilla patted her hand and rose. “I’ll bring some. Just close your eyes and rest, and I’ll bring you some water and perhaps something else to drink soon. But first I want to check on your brothers and parents.”
    Her eyes already closing, the girl nodded.
    In the boys’ room, Lucilla found much the same situation—the ten-year-old was recovering more quickly than the sixteen-year-old. As in the girls’ room, each boy had been provided with a bucket, and although the smell was dreadful, the evidence led Lucilla to conclude that whatever they’d eaten since breakfast the day before hadn’t stayed down, which explained the prevailing weakness.
    She reassured both boys and moved on to their parents’ room.
    There, she found further confirmation that what was principally ailing the Bradshaws now was lack of nourishment, lack of water, and overall exhaustion brought about through the pain of their earlier violent spasms.
    But the spasms themselves seemed to have passed.
    Mrs. Bradshaw seemed the most dragged down; Lucilla theorized that as a working farmer’s wife with a large family, of said family, Mrs. Bradshaw very likely had the lowest reserves.
    Lucilla had to climb up on the bed to examine Bradshaw himself. A bear of a man, he roused as she was leaning over him. His eyes opened, then flared wide.
    Having been told that she resembled some people’s idea of an angel, she was quick to reassure him. “Mr. Thomas brought me to help.” Bradshaw knew her by sight, and the mention of Thomas’s name helped recognition flow.
    Bradshaw tensed to sit up, but she pressed him back. “No. Just rest. You’re too weak to help yet, and you need to get better if you’re to help your family—all of whom are recovering, too.” Shifting back off the bed, she looked around the room, confirming that here, too, there was no water. “Just wait and I’ll bring you something to drink. Your wife is still sleeping deeply, and there’s no need to disturb her. At this point, it’s best she sleeps.”
    She left the bedroom and walked back into the main room. A quick glance at the sofa showed that Joy hadn’t stirred. Lucilla checked the healer’s pulse; it was barely there, and slowing, fading. The glow of lamplight spilled out from the kitchen. Carrying her single candle, she headed that way.
    Thomas was working at the kitchen table, filling a second lamp. He looked up as she appeared.
    She answered the question in his eyes. “The Bradshaws are already recovering. Whatever it was, they vomited it up, and now that’s done, they’ll recover well enough.”
    “So it was something they ate?”
    “That’s what it looks like. Something that caused a violent stomach reaction. Something like a poison, but one that doesn’t stay down, and once it’s out, it no longer affects them. They’re still in some pain, but it’s from muscles strained through prolonged retching, not from any continuing ailment. I’ll make a tisane that will ease that, but first they need some water.” She’d been looking around for whatever the Bradshaws used to fetch water, but hadn’t spotted anything useful.
    Thomas pointed, and she turned to see a large metal ewer sitting in the shadows close by the back door. “It had rolled and spilled. I tipped what little was left into that glass on the sideboard. Joy must have had the ewer in her hand when she had her seizure.”
    Lucilla paused, then, without looking again at Thomas, walked over and picked up the ewer.
    “What?”
    The demand—more like a poorly worded command—had her glancing his way. She hesitated, but he was probably the right person to tell. “You asked about poison. I don’t know what it was the