swallowed.
swallowed. With Maria’s pride, you tended to forget she was just a woman from a large, poor caulker family. Even the menfolk could probably barely manage to cipher their names. “Never mind. Benito will read it for you. It should help him to stop coughing enough to sleep. The coughing is not serious. The fever is the part that is worrying. It should break soon and just leave him weak and tired. Then it’ll start up again. Right now he needs sleep more than anything else. You stay with him; don’t leave him. That might be enough—he’ll feel like he wants to die, but he’s not exactly in any danger, so long as he stays warm. But—” Marco paused to think. “All right, worst case. If he gets worse before I get back—if his fever comes again or his temperature goes up more—”
That was an ugly notion, and hit far too close to home. He steadied his nerves with a long breath of air and thought out everything he was going to have to do and say. What he was going to order her to do wasn’t going to go down easy. Maria Garavelli didn’t like being ordered at the best of times, and this was definitely going to stick in her throat.
“I
That was an ugly notion, and hit far too close to home. He steadied his nerves with a long breath of air and thought out everything he was going to have to do and say. What he was going to order her to do wasn’t going to go down easy. Maria Garavelli didn’t like being ordered at the best of times, and this was definitely going to stick in her throat.
“I