The Seahorse and the Spice 🪼🎩✔

19: Forgotten

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Andrew knocked on the door and waited for a moment but the duke didn't answer. He opened the door and a small breeze from the open balcony doors wafted through, though it didn't help the smell. I noticed it was quiet and Andrew seemed to have noticed too so he turned around and put his finger to his lips to show me to be quiet. I nodded and we all walked into his room. There was a slight snore coming from the bed and Andrew stopped, looking at it.
"Looks like he fell asleep. We may have to do this later, I don't want to wake him."
"You still need a blood sample from him right? To give to the chemist?"
Andrew nodded and walked over to the duke. I walked past the bed and saw the duke sleeping quite soundly. From the way the sun hit him, he looked as pale as a ghost. I decided to just let Andrew do what he needed as I went over to the small shelf of books that he had. I scoured the collection he had and was surprised to find a few that did not seem to fit his personality at all when I came across one without a leather covering. I looked around but Andrew seemed to be taking some blood without waking the duke up so I pulled out the binded pages and read the cover of it.
""The Adventures of the Bug and the Bee"? What could this be?"
I flipped through the pages and my eyebrows furrowed, the words all written out in elegant wording with ink. There was even sand in the cracks of the pages where whoever wrote it had used it to keep the ink from being wet anymore. I looked behind me as Andrew tied a tourniquet around the duke's forearm in order to study his pulse.
"Um, it looks like you won't be needing me for this round so I'll just go to the drawing room for some tea." I said softly.
Andrew nodded and I left, taking the book with me.

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I put the book on the small table and opened it up from the beginning. The writing was a little smudged but I could just make out the title and the author of the book. I blinked a little at the names at the bottom of the page.
"What are you looking at, Mum?" Bastion said, leaning over me to look. "Huh... "The Adventures of Lord Piff and Arnold", written in collaboration by Duke Salem Barma and... X? Where did you get this?"
"I was looking at the duke's book collection and saw this there. I looks as if he wrote this himself along with someone starting with X. The word is smudge off so I can't see who was the other person."
"Yeah. But what kind of name is Piff? I don't see the duke giving someone in his story a name like that. It seems quite childish of him."
"Well, the title on the outside says something about bugs and bees. He must have been working on a title."
"The way that the ton talks of him and as well as Andrew, I really didn't think he had the capability of writing a book." Bastion said with an ashamed look.
"I truthfully didn't either. In all honesty, while we were at Lady Granthum's party, I felt as if he were not trying to get with me but rather simply speak with me pleasantly. Maybe when he is better we can ask him about this."
"Yeah... Is Andrew doing things on him right now?"
"I think he's taking vitals and such, nothing too troubling."
"I'm going to see if he needs my help or if he would let me watch."
I nodded and began to read the book from the shelf.

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Bastion
Things were getting very odd. As I looked around, I felt as if I had been here before. The hallways and rooms and the even the stairwell was all too familiar with me, and I knew I'd never been in this house. As I walked to the duke's room -I was surprised I knew exactly where it was- I opened the door slightly as Andrew seemed to use his stethoscope to listen to the duke's chest. I walked over to him as he sighed and took the earpieces out of his ears. I knelt beside Andrew and he looked at me.
"I'm worry about him."
"Have you figured out what's wrong?"
"No... His breathing is a little shallow and the fever is still high. His pulse is very weak. I'm not sure what to do. I can see the small specks of blood on his mouth and chin from where he had been coughing but it looks like someone must have given him something to put him in such a deep sleep."
"That would be my fault, milord." I turned as guy a little older than me stood in the doorway, wringing his hat. "Forgive me."
"What did you give him? And why were you in here?"
"Aw, the duke's always been real nice like to me and when I saw 'im sufferin something fierce, I got a sleeping draught with me own money from the apothecary. I told ole Uma about it and she thanked me kindly for it. So she put it in 'is tea so 'e could sleep sound. I was just comin' up to see if 'e was doin' well when she said you lot were 'ere."
"So you got him a sleeping draught?"
"Yeah."
"Thank you, young man, for doing that. It was probably the right thing to do for him. Do you know if he's eaten?"
"Whenever I come up 'ere, 'e usually 'asn't. The food tray usually stays full but I told ole Uma to stop making 'im try and eat a bunch but she won't listen."
"Stew." I blurted.
Andrew and the guy looked at me and I scratched my head, wondering where that word had come from. I had heard of it amongst the maids and such but never truly had it myself. This was all odd.
"Andrew, may I sit with the duke for a little bit? I'm sure you'll need to talk with that old lady"
Andrew seemed skeptical but nodded. "Alright, I'll go and tell the cooks to prepare something light for him and to also go over the last few days to get a good record. If he gets any worse, we might have to call in a real doctor."
"I thought you were a real doctor?" I said with a small frown.
"I know the basics but not enough to carry around anything very effective against something to this degree. I have the basic laudanum and a tiny bit of morphine but I fear there is more needed than just those two things. Those are only for the pain anyway. This gentleman was right for going to the apothecary. But, you can stay here with him."
I nodded and he took his stuff with him as he left.
I sat down by the duke and watched him for a moment. It was all so very strange because all the things he was going through was the same thing I went through a while back in regards to a wish. It was odd too because some of the wishes that I've granted haven't had any backlash to them.
"What are you doing here?"
I looked at the duke's face as he stared at me with sleepy eyes and breathed in a little.
"Duke Barma, why is it that I feel I should know you?"
"Because you do." I stared at him for a second as he reached up shakily and touched my face. "You do know me. I just made you forget."