Candlelit Christmas Kisses. Anne Herries

and as she approached the bed, he screamed out and sat up in bed, staring at her with wild eyes.

      ‘It’s a bloodbath!’ he cried. ‘We’ll all be killed. Save the wounded … take them back through the lines …’

      ‘Now, you can just stop all that nonsense,’ Selina said firmly, and placed a hand on his brow. He was burning up and it was no wonder. She tossed back all of the blankets save for one light one, saying over her shoulder to Henry, ‘It’s too hot in here. See if you can pull one of the logs from the fire, please—and open the window for a few minutes to let in some fresh air.’

      ‘The doctor said we must keep him warm.’

      ‘There is a difference between warm and boiling hot,’ Selina said in a calm, practical tone. ‘I have found with fevers that it is best to keep the patient cool. However, someone must sit with him at all times, because he must not be allowed to turn icy cold. It may mean taking blankets off and sponging him with cool water—and then, later, he may need to be covered over again. I shall do what I can for him now. I suggest you leave us. Take time to eat and rest, Henry. We shall share the nursing between us—and Jane will make us a jug of her tisane, which is nicer on the tongue and of as much help as the doctor’s medicine, I think.’

      ‘Your mama’s maid’s tisane? Yes, he swallowed that earlier and seemed better for at least half an hour. Then the fever returned and seemed more intense.’

      ‘I daresay the fever will wane and then return several times,’ Selina replied, while fetching cool water from the washstand. ‘They always seem to be so much worse at night, I find. Please go and take some rest for yourself. I have eaten, and I will have a cold supper later.’

      ‘Thank you. I am most grateful for your help—and Robert will be too when he recovers … if …’

      Selina turned and saw that Henry was in great distress. ‘Oh, you poor man. You care for him so much, do you not?’

      ‘He is my brother and my saviour and my friend.’

      ‘As you are his, I imagine,’ Selina said, and nodded. ‘I cannot tell you that he is not very ill, for he is—but I have seen fevers like this before, and they are not always fatal. If one is devoted in one’s nursing, the outcome can be a complete recovery.’

      ‘What should we have done had you not been here?’ Henry smiled at her and went out, leaving her to continue her work alone.

      When the door had closed behind him, Selina pulled the bedcovers right back. The Earl was completely naked, and for a moment she felt heat suffuse her cheeks, but she placed a cloth over his private parts and began her task. Another cloth was dipped in cool water and wrung out. She began to bathe his chest, arms, shoulders and his long legs, not forgetting his rather beautiful feet. Her papa’s feet had not been so perfectly shaped, but then every part of this man’s body was glorious—and she should not be thinking such naughty things when the poor darling was so ill.

      Selina had been the one to nurse her father when he was ill, just before that last fatal trip to London. She’d sometimes thought that if she had not nursed him so devotedly, he might not have gone off to the card tables and ruined them, but that was a wicked thought and she banished it firmly. Her mother had mentioned the possibility more than once.

      ‘If he’d died of his fever, Selina, you and the girls would have been so much better off. I have so little to leave you.’

      ‘Hush, Mama, you do not mean it,’ Selina had soothed her. Of course Mama had not meant it, but the fact remained that Papa’s reckless last fling had ruined their lives.

      ‘Juanita …’

      A sobbing cry from Moorcroft’s lips brought Selina’s thoughts back to the moment. She had finished her bathing and drying and covered him with a sheet and a thin blanket. She placed a hand on his forehead. He was thankfully a little cooler.

      ‘Please … do not die … I cannot bear it … I don’t want to punish you but I have to … Forgive me …’

      ‘Hush, dearest one,’ Selina said, and bent over him. She hesitated, then bent to brush her lips over his cheek. ‘I am here. I do not know what troubles you, but you must rest. You are safe now. I shall not let you die. I promise you will be better soon.’

      She felt him relax under her soothing hand. His hands unclenched and he lay back with a sigh.

      ‘That’s it, my brave hero,’ she said, and kissed his lips lightly. ‘You’ve suffered so much, but I shan’t let you die. You must live—think of my poor sisters. If you were selfish enough to die, they would be so miserable—and poor Henry would be heartbroken. Surely you cannot be so selfish as to inflict such pain on us at Christmas?’

      ‘Mama …’ Robert murmured, and a smile touched his mouth. ‘Do not scold me, Mama. I did not mean to let the boar in with the sows …’

      Selina smiled as she realised that her scolding tone had taken him back to his childhood. That was good, for it meant he dwelt in a time before he had known so much suffering and pain.

      ‘Well, I shall scold you, you foolish man,’ she said. ‘If you do not take your medicine and get better soon, you will find me a hard taskmaster.’

      ‘I’ll be good, Mama,’ he said, and she saw that he had drifted into a peaceful sleep.

      ‘You must not worry too much, Henry,’ Amy said as they ate a rather solemn supper in the smaller dining parlour. ‘Selina is the best nurse you could find. The doctor said that Mama would have died years before she did had my sister not cared for her so lovingly.’

      ‘Yes, I could see she was quite capable,’ Henry said, and a slightly wicked smile lit his eyes. ‘Robert has been ill many times, Miss Amy. He is actually very strong—but difficult as a patient. I’ve sometimes had to use force to get him to swallow his medicine.’

      ‘I thought you told Selina …’ Amy stopped and stared at him, understanding dawning in her eyes. ‘You pretended he was worse than he is—didn’t you?’

      ‘No such thing. When I spoke to her, I was truly concerned, but she has already worked her magic,’ Henry said.

      ‘I think she enjoys looking after him. It might be the very thing for them both.’

      ‘ Now what are you thinking, Miss Amy?’

      ‘Only that they are both lonely people—would you not say so?’

      ‘Robert needs to be loved and brought back from the shadows,’ Henry said, and looked thoughtful. ‘They have haunted him for too long. I do not have the right to tell you the whole story, Amy—but he has suffered as no man should.’

      ‘Yes, you can see it in his eyes sometimes,’ Amy agreed. She paused, then, ‘I think you have also suffered, sir.’

      ‘I almost died on the field of battle, and after in the surgeon’s tent. Robert saved my life, and my scars have ceased to cause me pain. I have accepted that I am ugly, and I can live with it. I have discovered that it means little to true friends.’

      ‘No—how could it?’ Amy said, and smiled at him in a most beguiling manner. ‘All it means is that you are a very brave man, sir. I think I should not like to go to war and see the things you and the earl have seen.’

      ‘I thank God for it that you have not,’ Henry replied, looking grim. ‘War is no place for ladies, Amy. Even those who have the courage to follow the drum run terrible risks—and if they die, their deaths are more terrible to bear than all the rest. The cruelty of some men shames us all—and Robert more than most, since he was their captain.’

      ‘Is that what happened to the earl?’ Amy shook her head. ‘No, do not tell me. I am not a complete innocent, Henry. I can imagine the things that might happen to a woman who finds herself caught up in war. I think people do terrible things when they are seized by bloodlust.’

      ‘And what do you know of