Tulips

Chapter 30

The door was heavy. Yet you still could hear the bustle of the room from outside. The noise dimmed momentarily when she entered the room before erupting back into itself. The doctors swam around him like a shoal of fish. He was pale, eyes screwed shut. He writhed in pain on the bed, the sheets were strewn on the ground.

"Louis," Adelaide pushed her way through the circling crowd.

"Addie?" he groaned.

"I'm here," she took his hand, smoothing back his hair off his damp forehead.

He opened his eyes and looked at her. "Are you alright? They said – you'd been shot." his breaths were shallow.

"I'm alright, we're both going to be alright," she tightened her grasp.

He sighed, closing his eyes. "That's good,"

Adelaide felt as if she were drowning, waves lapping at her bobbing head, gasping for air. Her feet try to find solid placement but find no such relief, they flail down into the emptiness.

A doctor at the other side of him patted his face with a wet cloth.

"Don't stand on the sheets, please," Adelaide said.

The doctor lifted the sheets at his feet and set them to the side.

"Thank you," she said. She fidgeted with her hair, suddenly conscious of its unruliness. What a sight she must be, with a torn gown, covered with blood.

"Adelaide?" Louis placed his free hand on her cheek. "where are you planting the pears?"

"The west path," she laughed.

"He's had a lot of medicine so he may seem a bit – strange." The doctor butted in.

Adelaide nodded in acknowledgement.

"You're too good for me," Louis' speech was slurred.

"What?"

"You're so smart," he shook his head. "And pretty,"

"Thank you," she smiled. My word, he's gone truly senile.

"And today, I really liked your dress. You were so beautiful – and it looked like lemons. And I don't like lemons, but you look nice as a lemon," he rambled.

"Well, I don't think I'll be able to wear it again," she attempted to smooth her ruined skirt. "I'll get a new one made, shall I?"

"We should get a dog," he said.

Adelaide sniffed, worried her friend had fully fallen into the depths of madness. "That sounds like a great idea,"

After many hours of watching him wince and moan in suffering Louis, finally, fell asleep. Adelaide sat on the edge of the mattress next to him. She held his hand clasped in hers. Although her eyes were heavy, she tracked his rising and falling chest; scared that if she were to give in to sleep it my stop it's hypnotizing rhythm. The staff completed their care quietly around them. She looked up to see Lenoir appear through the doors. She lifted a finger to her lips, he nodded looking to the sleeping king.

"How is he?" he whispered.

She shrugged. "He's a fighter. The doctors say it's still up in the air,"

Lenoir nodded, stiffly.

"Is he talking? The man," she said, suddenly remembering the bigger picture.

"Yes," he sighed "I've sent the letters,"

"Good," Adelaide said, she placed her focus back on Louis.

Sleep begged at her through the night, but Adelaide sat the entire night awake watching him. Still wearing what had been a light-yellow dress.