Underground Captive (59 page)

    
             
He knelt beside her and turned her over.  Barely breathing, Nicki had a morbid pallor and her skin was clammy and cold.  Seeing the small, shallow breaths that she took, Jared knew she was succumbing to the grip that death had on her.  She could well be stolen away from him.

    
             
"Nicki, baby.  Sweet bairn."  He pressed his fingers to the pulse in her neck and it was almost non-existing.  Nicki was dying in his arms as Patricia had.  "Mother of God!" he whispered.  "Don't let this happen again."

    
             
Without hesitation, he quickly stripped off her wet clothing, and covered her with his thick, woolen cape. 

             
Angus discreetly turned away from the sight of her pale nakedness.

             
"Would ye be needin' me cloak also, Master Jared?"

             
"Aye, Angus.  She's very ill.  We have to get her warmed up."

    
             
Standing with Nicki wrapped in his dry cape, Jared gave her to Angus while he mounted Satan.  Angus handed her still form over to him and then gave Jared his cloak.

    
             
Jared covered her with it and held her lovingly next to his heart, praying all the while that Nicki would wage a battle with death as she waged a battle with everyone and everything else that was against her.  He prayed that she wouldn't die.  If she did, he couldn't survive without her.

    
             
Guiding Satan to the front of the house a few minutes later, holding her limp body securely, Jared knew that Nicki meant everything in the world to him.

At that moment nothing else mattered to him as long as he had Nicki.

             
Nothing.  Not even vengeance on Ricard.

     *  *  *

             
Jared kicked opened the door, barking orders to everyone within earshot.  He hurried upstairs to his bedchamber with his precious bundle.

    
             
Laying her on his bed, he tried to examine her, but, because of the mud, couldn't decide how badly injured she was.  She was caked with mud; mud was tangled in her hair and smeared all over her face, her hands and her feet.  He felt her forehead.  Her skin, which had been so cold a scant fifteen minutes ago, now was a branding iron to the touch.  Reluctantly, he decided to clean her off.

    
             
He looked at Elizabeth and Mary Douglas, whom he'd summoned to follow him upstairs.  "Get clean linens and water, I must clean her up.  And make haste, I need to check for cuts and bruises as soon as possible."

             
"Milord, 'tis not proper," Elizabeth said, her voice breaking.  "We willa clean the lass."

    
             
Jared peered at her in surprise.  This was the first time in the ten years he'd known Elizabeth Wedgewood that he'd seen her perturbed--perturbed to the point that she forgot the golden rule and called him "milord".   He realized that his staff had be
come very fond of his troublesome captive.

    
             
Mary Douglas, who was strangely calm, or maybe shocked, and Elizabeth, hesitated momentarily to study Jared.  When they saw Jared meant he was going to clean Nicki himself, the two women stepped aside.

    
             
He lovingly washed the mud and dirt from Nicki's face, body, and legs, checking for bruises as he went along.  Finding none, he decided to wash her hair to check her scalp for cuts, but there weren't any so he wrapped her head in a towel.

Panic swirled within him.  Nicki could slip away from him at any moment.  Just the thought of that shattered him.

    
             
Mary Douglas went to Nicki's bedchamber and got a nightrail for Jared to put on her feverish body.  The women needed to change the bed that had gotten wet when he washed Nicki.  He sat in the chair and held her close to his heart while they did.

             
Regrets and guilt assailed him.

    
             
When he had the chance to accept the love Nicki offered him, he didn't.  When he had the chance to tell Nicki he loved her, he hadn't.  When he had the chance to spend time with Nicki, he wouldn't.

   
             
Her presence had tormented him from the first time he met her.  When he’d met Nicki, his battle had begun.  He should've let go of his hatred for Ricard.  His pride hadn't let him.  His mother once told him without forgiveness the heart died; without love the soul died.

    
             
God, don't take Nicki away from me.  Let me have a chance to tell her I love her.

    
             
Suffocating anguish tore at him and his thoughts made bile rise in his throat.  He sighed, bleak with sorrow.  The desperation of his worry was beyond tears; the sickening and fiery pain clawed harshly at his heart. 

             
Indeed, at his very soul.

41   

             
For three days Nicki lay flushed with fever one hour and trembling with chills the next.  Jared refused to leave her side.  He forced liquids between her parched lips and sometimes chatter
ing teeth.  Thrashing about, she called Ricard and her father.  She cried out for her mother.  She cried out for Jared.

    
             
He laid beside her, holding her, whispering to her, soothing and calming the tempest that raged within her.  At the sound of his voice, she usually quieted immediately.  He couldn't risk summoning a doctor and he saw that Nicki wasn't getting any better.  She needed attention other than what they were doing for her.  He called Angus upstairs.

             
"Aye, master," Angus said worriedly.  "Ye be callin' me?"

    
             
"Aye, my friend," Jared replied wearily.  He had rings beneath his eyes and a three-day growth of beard shadowed his face.  "Ye must do something for me, Angus, and ye must not fail.  Nicki's life depends on it."

    
             
"I'll do me best, master.  Just tell me what I can do tae 'elp the wee lassie."

    
             
"Go to the city, Angus.  Get Odessa and bring her back here.  Be careful not to let anyone know.  I don't know how ye'll accomplish it if Charles and Antoinette are at the house, but ye've got to, Angus.  Ye've got to."

    
             
Angus laid a comforting hand on Jared's shoulder.  "I willa noot fail ye, master.  I willa be back as soon as I can," he promised, hurrying out of the room.

    
             
"Godspeed," Jared whispered, going back to the bed where he'd been wiping Nicki down with a cool towel.  He replaced the damp towel on Nicki's forehead with a fresh one.  "Just a little longer, sweet Nicki," he told her in a caressing whisper.   "Just a little longer.  Odessa will be here to help ye."

    
             
For the next several hours, Jared laid next to Nicki, holding her in his arms as she waged her battle for her life.  Mary Douglas and Elizabeth came intermittently to check on Nicki and their master, both knowing what a war their lord, himself, was fighting to save Nicki.  It was heartbreakingly obvious to Mary and Elizabeth that Jared was in love with Nicki.

    
             
At the fourth hour, Mary Douglas brought Jared a bowl of chicken soup but he refused it.  His anxiety that Angus wouldn't succeed in bringing Odessa back made eating, or anything but holding Nicollette close to him, impossible.

    
             
"Ricard.  Ricard.  I need you.  Please come back.  I love you."  Nicki thrashed in Jared's arms as she made her plea to Ricard.

    
             
Jared's heart lurched at the sound of Nicki's pitiful cries for her brother.  Threading his fingers through her long black mane, he rested his cheek upon the top of her head.  "Nicki, my sweet Nicki.  Rest yerself," he soothed, his voice breaking.  "Ricard is at Crescent Wood.  He is safe.  Just get better.  Please, get better."

             
As always, she quieted at the sound of his voice.

    
             
The heat emanated from her body, warming Jared, making him all the more frantic for Angus's return.  If her temperature continued to rise she wouldn't survive the hour.  Easing his arms from around her, he stood from the bed.  He opened the door and stepped into the quiet hall.  It seemed as if everyone walked around in a trance since Nicki's accident.

    
             
She had made quite an impact on everyone.  Keith, Robert, Hugh, Malcolm, Mary Douglas, the indomitable Elizabeth, Angus, and Billy all waited and worried and prayed for Nicki.

    
             
Aye, through all of her escapades and temper tantrums she'd turned their lives upside down.  But her spirit, vitality, youth and beauty brought to the household a zest for life no one else ever had.  Thinking how she’d kept everyone alert with her quick wit and daring antics, Jared walked down the stairway and into the foyer heading for the kitchen.  When he got there, he instructed Mary Douglas and Elizabeth to quickly bring cool water to his bedchamber.  He feared that Nicollette would burn up from her high fever.  Both women were not far behind him after he'd reached his bedchamber.  They apologized to him for not thinking to bring water themselves.

    
             
"'Tis not yer fault, ladies.  I forgot to tell ye that the pitcher was empty,"

Jared said, settling himself next to Nicki once again.  He knew they were as worried as he about Nicki.

    
             
Mary Douglas handed Jared the glass of water.  They watched as Jared got a few drops of it into Nicki's mouth, before quietly vacating the room.

    
             
Nearing the fifth hour of Angus's departure, Jared thought Angus would never return when he heard a commotion coming up the stairs.  He opened the door just in time to admit Odessa with Mary Douglas, Angus, and Elizabeth close behind, carrying Odessa's baskets of poultices and herbs.

    
             
"Masta Jared, let me see my bebe," Odessa exclaimed, rushing past him. "Mam'zelle," she said softly, kneeling beside the bed.  She felt Nicki's forehead and other parts of her frail body then she looked up at Jared.  "She ver' sick.  Her has pneumonia, Masta Jared.  Her need medicine."

    
             
"C-can't ye help her, Odessa?" Jared choked out.

    
             
"Yes, masta," Odessa answered confidently.  "I help her, me.  I make her well with my herbs."

    
             
"Then get to work, Odessa," Jared said, relieved.  "Make her well."

    
             
As Jared watched, Odessa used her herbs to make her mystical, magical potions.  When one noxious, thick mixture was done, Odessa forced it down Nicki's throat, while Jared held her in a sitting position.

    
             
Mary Douglas gagged loudly and left the room.  Jared's stomach turned.  He laid Nicollette back down so Odessa could finish her ministrations.

    
             
After stripping Nicki naked, Odessa used her hands to massage and cool down Nicki's fevered body.  Using cool, damp cloths, barely touching her young mistress, Odessa soothingly laved her body.

    
             
Trusting that Odessa would bring Nicki back to everyone, Jared watched the woman apply the cold cloths over the white mounds of Nicki's breasts down to the curve of her stomach.  He studied Nicki's breasts.  Though not very noticeable, they ap
peared slightly enlarged.  However, there were very noticeable blue streaks in her usually creamy mounds.

    
             
Odessa laved, wiped, and washed until the hot, pale white of Nicki's skin glowed with a cool, translucent pink; cool and natural to the touch.  And throughout the day, with Jared's assistance, she continued to force several different herbal liquids between Nicki's lips.

*  *  *    

             
On the fourth day after her arrival at Highland Acres, Odessa won her battle.  Nicki's fever broke.

    
             
Dressed in a clean nightrail and free of the fever that as
sailed her for the last eight days, she lay peaceful in a natural state of slumber.  She now slept off the effect of the herb medicines Odessa used to make her well.

    
             
"Go and tell Mary Douglas and Elizabeth what miracle ye've wrought, Odessa," Jared said gratefully.  He'd grown a full week's beard and his eyes were sunken and hollow.  But they shone with gratitude toward the black woman, who had twice called upon her own expertise to first save his life and now Nicollette's.