37: The epidemic (part 2)

The epidemic (part 2)

"Allow me your hand, Lady Larissa,"0

A subdued Larissa placed her hand in his, no questions asked, as if it was the most natural request in the world to make, or as if she had done so a hundred times already.

"Whatever for?" Adela asked with accusatory eyes on her sister's behalf.

Andreas batted his long eyelashes innocently, "I already opened a portal to come here with due speed. We have no time to waste," he looked at Larissa with intense eyes, "Come what may, do not let go of my hand. And hold on to your sister's hand with your left one, do not leave hers either…This might be uncomfortable," he warned, about to close his eyes to focus on teleporting them.

"Wait!"

Larissa left both of their hands and never looked Andreas in the face as she spoke to him, "I have been having these vivid vision-like dreams about you…"

Adela's cheek burnt with embarrassment hearing what she should not have.

"…Forgive my impudence, Lady Larissa," he said as if he had been appearing in her dreams deliberately! "Now is not the time nor the place to discuss that. Please, do not let go of my hand again,"

Adela did not appreciate the undercurrent his words carried. But as the man said, time was of the essence.

"Thank you, My Lady," Andreas purred when Larissa's hand was back in his.

Fog surrounded the three of them, a one-of-a-kind sensation that tugged on the back of her mind, she felt as if she had become one with the mist, much like a cloud in a midsummer sky, lightly traveling to a predetermined destination, carried over nothing yet floating like a dream above all.

With the white fog receding from around her, the sense of individualism returned, and the unfortunate chaos she arrived at knocked the breath out of her. The garden outside of the infirmary looked far worse than what she witnessed twelve hours ago.

She counted around thirty of them, but a rational diagnosis was impossible to make. Some were unconscious, others shivered from head to toe, and most whined or sobbed into their sleeves.

A group of young women watching with horror-stricken expressions from afar stood out.

They formed a protective arch around a panting older woman, drenched in sweat and lying limply on the ground. She was covered with a familiar-looking red cloak that Adela encountered a couple of times before.

Ice shot in her veins seeing how the cloak's owner sat on the cold ground next to her, rocking back and forth, her  eyes stopped before they looked him in the face.

Is she his wife then?

The woman placed a protective arm around her middle part that suddenly bulged out.

A pregnant one at that!

"Why…Why did he have to die?"

Adela froze when the woman spoke deliriously, clutching Egon's shoulder with her other hand and shaking him weakly.

"Answer me! Where is he...My baby's father...My poor baby!"

A massive amount of pity in Adela's chest fired up, consuming every last bit of her passive resistance. She looked at him.

The magnificent unknown creature appeared less a man and more a lost child as he clenched and unclenched his teeth, his dark eyes absent, belonging to a different era of his life. A darker one if that notion was even a possibility.

It dawned on Adela like an epiphany, what a sick pregnant woman must mean to Egon, her sobs about a dead husband that abandoned his child must have been one of the cruelest jokes that destiny has ever played on someone.

Adela's feet took her to him, barely stopping herself one step away.

"Hear me out, everybody!" She addressed him, her confident voice rising above the murmur of the high and low pitched voices that hummed in the air.

Egon's glistening eyes focused on her, his lips forming the letters of her name like a prayer.

"Adela?"

Guarding her self-control, she turned away from him.

"Rest assured…All of you are going to be just fine,"

She looked around her making eye contact with the crowd of untrained civilians, their vibe incomparable with that of her father's trained knights.

"I cannot do this alone; you must help me! We will get over these hard times together!"

Discouraged features wavered, lacking the conviction needed for the present moment.

"Refrain from drinking or eating anything that has not been boiled, this order is as of now, an indefinite one,"

She was yet to determine what caused the epidemic.

She looked at the boys huddling together for warmth in the middle, "Young men capable of carrying wood should start a fire at once," her eyes drifted to the ladies standing next to her.

"Have you brought this woman here?"

The youngest-looking lady who was dressed in a long brown coat stepped forward, her red puffy eyes shaking, "This woman was my nanny, she fell ill today, and no doctor would see her, my sisters and I brought her to the commoners' infirmary, but she got worse on the way, and…The infirmary is closed…"

Adelaide removed her handkerchief.

"L-Lady Adelaide?"

Recognizing the Archduke's daughter, the young woman curtsied followed by her sisters.

She gave them an encouraging nod, "You brought this woman here and thus are responsible for her, you lack neither the brains nor the hands to make the difference required of you today…I believe in you,"

The women exchanged looks of excitement and some nods of reassurance.

With everyone around her on a mission, she took the final step separating her from a proud-looking Egon then crouched next to him.

"Wear this at all times,"

With tender touches, she covered his nose and mouth with her white handkerchief and then directed her gaze to the sleeping pregnant lady.

"She does not have a fever, and her colors are fine, I cannot be sure, but she might be going into early labor. I will send news to one of the midwives, she will not be discriminated against,"

She sprung up, running away from the decades-old agony that twisted his face.

"We shall move in groups into the infirmary, wash your hands then wear gloves, keep sufficient distance between you and the person next to you,"

Two large hands surrounded her from the back, wrapping a black handkerchief around her mouth and nose, his hands slid beneath her elbows then slowly turned her around to face him.

Was it the musky scent of the handkerchief, the burning area below her elbows, or the overflowing tenderness in his dark eyes that sent her heart running wild?

She did not get the chance to process what had taken place a day before just yet, but one thing was for sure. Whatever Egon von Conradie was, Adelaide de Lanark had not the slightest fear inside of her heart.

Will I be safe with you? 

There was no fear, but Adelaide's insides were filled with doubt. 

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