“My lord!”
Jane caught up behind me, a ghastly tone in her voice. As I crouched down to the steps, my hands hovered for a moment, briefly hesitating, before they reached down and wrapped around the spirit girl’s shoulders. She was motionless.
A chill went down my spine. My shoulders stiffened, fingers freezing onto her body with a deathly clasp. Eventually, I dared to turn her over, revealing her petite face, sodden with grimey rainwater. Her eyes were shut, brows limp without expression, and her lips hung slightly parted. She was not bruised, but I could see faint rings under her eyes.
Jane’s dress brushed beside me. “Is she…?”
“Hey.” I gave Alice a light shake. “Can you hear me?”
No response. I gave her another shake, “Hey,” shaking her harder each time.
Miraculously, after a bit of suspense, her brows drew together, weakly frowning. Her lips silently drew together, faintly smacking, as if she were muttering something.
“Bloody hell, she’s alive!”
“Get the door for me, please.” Slipping my arms underneath her spine and neck, I cradled her soggy body and lifted her off the ground. Her long hair fell down my arms, soaked heavy from the rain. I brought her up the steps, inside the cottage, as Jane stood at the doorway, gripping the door. Turning back to her, I nodded towards the porch. “Will you get my basket for me?”
“Right.”
I tried to wiggle my feet out of my boots, but could not do so. I quickly gave up, going into the hallway with my boots on, squelching mud over the hardwood floor. A soft whump echoed through the hallway as Jane shut the door and followed in, carrying my basket. I went to the couch in the drawing room and stopped, looking around.
“Could you fetch me some towels from the bathing room?”
While Jane hurried upstairs, I studied Alice’s face again. She’d gone expressionless once more, but I could see her chest weakly rising and falling. She was hanging in there.
Jane returned with a few towels and spread them out over the couch. I laid Alice down on top, taking another towel from Jane’s hands and hastily drying off the girl’s face. Pulling out her hair from underneath her head, I draped them by her shoulder, squeezing out the water with the towel.
Looking up, into the kitchen, I paused. I could feel Jane’s presence next to me, silently watching. What was I doing? Alice probably hasn’t eaten for days. I considered asking Jane to heat up some food for her, but it wasn’t that simple of a task. Leaving the towel on her belly, I got up.
“Sorry, will you dry her off for me, please? I will heat up some food for her.”
She took over without a word. As I rushed over to the kitchen, hearing my boots squelching loudly once more, I hastily unfastened my boots and left them there in the dining room. There was a mess on the floor I would have to clean up later.
I took out the leftover porridge and set it on the stove, sparking it. As I waited for it to heat up, I realised, as Jane tended to the girl, she would notice the unusual properties of the girl’s body. My neck tingled with the thought of that possibility, anticipating her exclamation at any moment. Oh well. With deep breaths, I carried on, forcing myself to be patient with the porridge. She was going to find out soon enough, anyway.