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She ignored the stares and the mumbles of “It’ll kill him for sure to put him in a bath,” and went about telling the men where they were to put the beds. She guessed it was odd that she was moving a sick man out of the house and into a dilapidated old greenhouse, but she wanted William to have fresh air and sunshine.
She hustled the workers so much that when a huge man arrived, a frail, emaciated William in his arms, Faith was ready for him. “You may leave now,” she said to the workers. When they hesitated, she repeated herself. “I think Amy has dinner ready.” She didn’t know if it was the mention of Amy or the food, but they went scurrying.
As they went out the door, she stepped aside so the enormous man could enter. He was holding William as though he weighed no more than a dishcloth.
“William,” Faith said softly to the man. His eyes were closed and she could hardly see his breath move his chest under the sheet thrown over him.
He opened his eyes a bit. “It is my angel,” he said, but she could see that the effort to speak was almost too much for him.
“I want you to listen to me. You’re too dirty to put in the bed, so I’m going to put you in a tub of warm water and give you a bath. Do you think you can handle that?”
William opened his eyes and looked up at the man holding him. “A woman to bathe me,” he said. “Do such pleasures exist?”
“I think it will not be the first time,” the man said, and Faith saw that the two men knew each other well.
“Can you help me undress him?” she asked the big man.
“He has done it often enough,” Will
iam whispered. “Thomas has been my companion since I was a child.”
“Come on, then,” Faith said, as she walked toward the filled tub. “Before the water gets cold.” She put her hand in it to test it, then twisted the mallow to release its oils and tossed the cuttings into the water.
She watched as Thomas dropped the sheet off William’s thin body and exposed him in his nightshirt. She could see the sores on his legs.
There was a moment of embarrassment when Thomas removed the nightshirt and William was naked, but that was gone when Faith saw the state of his body in the daylight.
When William’s body first touched the water, he cried out in pain, but he bit on his lip to suppress his cries. Faith’s already high estimation of the man rose even more.
It took a few minutes, but the water stopped hurting William’s raw skin and began to soothe it. Faith started to tell Thomas that he could leave but she didn’t. She didn’t know the story, but she had an idea that the man loved William but had been turned away by the doctor. Now that they were in contact again, Thomas wasn’t going to let William out of his sight.
While she’d been cleaning and directing the others, Faith had tried to get her revulsion of William’s body under control. But as she looked at his arms and face, and in the clear water of the tub she could see the full extent of the damage, her stomach again lurched. She could see his heart beat under ribs that she could count.
“I fear I am not a manly figure,” William said, looking up at her.
“Tell me about when you first got ill,” she said. She picked up a paper-wrapped bar of soap that Amy had sent and smelled of it.
“Is that from Beth?” he asked.
“It is and it smells wonderful.” Faith held the soap under his nose and he closed his eyes at the fragrance.
“It’s from the women in my family and we do not know how old it is,” he said. “Beth has the book of receipts. Tristan’s mother never made the soap, but then she hated my mother.”
“Her mother-in-law,” Faith said through her teeth. “I can understand that.”
“Do you have a mother-in-law?”
“Yes and no,” she said. She dipped the soap in the water, sat down on a little stool by the tub, and began to gently wash him. After just one arm, the water turned dark. “I’m a widow.”
“Ah,” he said, leaning his head back against the tub. “You have lost the husband but kept the mother.”
“And you thought you lived in hell,” Faith said.
William laughed and, in spite of his weakness, it was a good sound.
She knew he was embarrassed by her washing of him, but she wasn’t. She had bathed Eddie hundreds of times. “Will you get me some more hot water?” she asked Thomas. That he left her alone with William seemed to be a sign that he trusted her.
“Tell me about your illness,” Faith said.
