"Shhhhh," he said softly. Wringing the water from the cloth, he gently bathed her forehead. The fever was burning her up, and this was all he had to help cool her down. The summer heat was the worst time to be sick. The body was already working overtime from sweating, and then you add increased temperatures, and it was real easy to burn up.
He was really worried, she was thrashing in her sleep so hard. He had had to restrain her a few hours before so that she wouldn't injure herself she was thrashing so bad. He knew that this was not a normal summer cold, but he didn't know what else to do, but give her water and try to keep her cool.
The nearest doctor was two days ride to the east, they had gone way out of the way when they had settled. She wanted a house away from the hustle and bustle, she wanted to live away from everyone. He smiled at the memory of her running naked through the garden on the night of the full moon. She loved the moon so much. He looked down at her resting face. The skin was flushed with heat, but didn't show signs of harm from the fever. She wasn't wasting away.
He had searched for hours for some sign of infection, some cut that hadn't healed well. He had searched every inch of her body, as he had many times before when making passionate love to her. But this time, he knew it was life and death, and not pleasure. He had found nothing.
He knew that if her fever didn't break soon, he would have to get help. But that either leaving her, or moving her, and neither seemed a feasible alternative. It was a long walk back to town, and they didn't have but the one horse. He knew that he would have to fashion some sort of carriage so that they could travel more rapidly. He would start work on it in the cool of night, foregoing sleep. He had to save her.
He looked at the face of this woman that he loved so much. He knew would go to the ends of the Earth to save her. Nothing else mattered to him. She was his everything.
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