Taming Jane

Chapter 9 - Photo of Sabine

The picture on the side is how I imagine Sabine to look :)

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Chapter Nine

Hearing that question broke Daniel’s heart. Of course she did not recognise him; she had never seen him before aside from the day she was born.

He let go of her hand and sat them in his lap. He decided not to answer her question, if he did so truthfully he would scare her and he refused to lie. “How are you feeling, Sabine?” he asked softly.

She coughed and lay back on her pillow lethargically. “I’m very ill; Miss Porter says I have to stay in bed.”

“Miss Porter is right; you must stay in bed and rest,” Daniel replied carefully.

“What is your name?” she asked, still trying to decipher who he was.

“Daniel,” he answered truthfully.

Sabine’s eyelids drooped as she listened and before she could respond she fell back asleep.

For hours Daniel stared at her little chest to make sure she was breathing. The doctor came and went every few hours to give her medicine and help her relieve herself. Miss Porter sponged her down every so often and then brought him food and drink but he would not eat.

After two days of sitting by her bed, the doctor finally said that the ulcers in her throat were slowly starting to heal. Her temperature had come down a little and the rash was clearing from her skin. Dr Remington told him that they were not out of the woods just yet but she was on the right track.

Sabine was able to eat solid food, and Miss Porter had brought her favourite food for her to eat from the kitchens. Daniel learned that her favourite food was treacle tart smothered in fresh cream. He liked knowing things like that about her.

Daniel had retreated to the rocking chair in the corner of the room when Dr Remington and Miss Porter were treating her and then moved to the chair beside her bed at night so that he could hold her hand.

Thanks to her youth she was still naïve enough not to question the presence of a strange man in her bedchamber. She treated him as if he were a friend and when she was not sleeping and feeling stronger they would have conversations.

Daniel cursed his cowardice. He should not have been afraid of the house. Every place he’d been or ever would go would hold negative memories for him because he let them. He had to power through it and be strong. He had every reason to because of the beautiful little girl in her bed.

He’d been given the strength thanks to Jane. She’d made him see sense finally. She’d given him the ability to prioritise and care about others again.

When Sabine had fallen asleep with four days until she was in the clear, Daniel got up from the chair next to her bed and walked over to her desk. He picked up a clean piece of parchment, a quill and an inkwell and settled down to write.