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She obeyed him automatically. ‘Sorry.’
‘Be quiet.’
‘But I am,’ Thea protested weakly, and he wrapped his arm around her shoulder.
‘Stop it. How are you feeling now?’
‘Better. I just want to lie down for a while.’ Suddenly curling up on the grass and sleeping didn’t seem like such a terrible idea.
‘Yeah, I know. Sit in the car for a moment and rest. Then we’ll get you home.’
* * *
He had to stop again so that her aching stomach could reject the water she’d drunk. When the car finally drew to a halt for the third time she neither knew nor cared where she was, just that he’d carried her out of the car and laid her down on cool sheets. She slept for what seemed like five minutes and then the convulsive retching started again, this time all the more painful because of the stretched and aching muscles in her back and stomach.
* * *
Lucas was there when she woke. The curtains were closed and blowing slightly in the breeze, and she was in her own bed. She was very thirsty.
‘Hey, there.’ He’d carried a chair from the living room into her bedroom and was sitting in the corner of the room. ‘How are you feeling?’
Terrible. She felt awful. Memories of last night started to filter back into her consciousness, fitting themselves back together like a jigsaw puzzle.
‘Can I have some water, please?’ Anything to get him out of the room for a moment while she gathered her scattered wits.
‘Yes, of course.’
She heard the sound of his footsteps on the stairs and looked around. From the violence with which she’d been sick last night, she expected to see the room in complete disarray, but everything was just as it always was. The fresh smell of clean sheets drifted into her consciousness, and she remembered that Lucas had changed them at some point last night.
‘Here.’ He sat down on the edge of the bed and Thea slowly pulled herself up on the pillows and took the glass from his hand, drinking greedily. ‘Slowly now. Not too much.’
‘That’s better. Thanks.’ She handed the glass back to him.
Something wasn’t right. Last night should have been one of the most humiliating of her life, but somehow it hadn’t been. She could remember waking up, trying to get out of bed and falling flat on her face, then Lucas scooping her up and taking her to the bathroom. When it was all over he’d been as businesslike as the most practised of nurses, stripping off her soiled nightie, washing her and re-dressing her and putting her back to bed.
She felt herself redden a little at the thought. ‘Ohh. I’m so sorry, Lucas.’
He shrugged. ‘Nothing to apologise for.’
‘There must be.’ She couldn’t remember quite what it was but she’d think of something. ‘What’s the matter with me? The oysters?’
‘I ate the oysters too. Anyway,
they’re all irradiated these days. What did you have to eat yesterday morning?’
‘Black coffee. Toast.’ Not the most obvious candidates for food poisoning. Thea concentrated on remembering everything she’d eaten yesterday, her stomach growling in protest at even the thought of food. ‘Mayonnaise. You didn’t have any of that, and it was home-made.’
He nodded. ‘Sounds as if that’s what it is, then.’
‘Or a bug of some sort.’ Even thinking was tiring her out. Thea slumped against the pillows.
‘I don’t think so. I called the hospital this morning to see if there had been any reports of sickness amongst the staff or patients, and there’s nothing. And you had no fever or any other symptoms.’
That was good to know. ‘Apart from feeling as if I wanted to die, that is.’
He chuckled. ‘Yeah. Apart from that.’
Then she remembered. The feel of his body next to her, lying on top of the bed. Holding her. Comforting her. How his being there had made all the difference.
