The General's Wife Wants to Leave-Chapter 55: Over the horizon

The night had come as the long day had ended. The serenity engulfed the mountains as the night smoothed out its black tarp.

After taking a bath and having dinner, Joanna and Mrs. Powel came to Liam’s room to check on his condition before they headed to their own room to call it the day.

The room where Liam was now occupying was actually an infirmary, a room for the care of those who were ill. On the ordinary days when Liam was not sick, he would share a room with three other boys as each room in the Powel Orphanage was designed to be occupied by four people who were differentiated by gender. No room was designed for mixed genders.

However, because Liam was now sick, he was separated from other kids so that he could recuperate peacefully without being disturbed or disturbing others.

Arriving in the infirmary, both of the ladies were shocked to find Liam looking more pale and limp. As they approached the bed where Liam was lying weakly, they got confirmation that there was something wrong with the little boy.

"Liam, dear, how are you feeling now?" Joanna asked Liam before Mrs. Powel did, gently grabbing his shoulder. But Liam did not respond. He was just silent, curling up in the bed with his eyes closed.

Although the little boy was still breathing, his condition had caused Joanna to turn alert. She stared at Mrs. Powel, finding the same panicking look in the older lady’s countenance.

Taking a seat on the edge of the bed, Mrs. Powel then called Liam a few times with a slight shake on his shoulder, but the response that he gave was only a slight movement of his eyelids as if it was difficult for him to open his eyes or too weak to give a proper reply in words.

When the two ladies panicked and were thinking about what to do, there was a voice coming from the doorway, making Joanna and Mrs. Powel turn to look in the direction of the coming voice.

"Liam got diarrhea again and there was blood in it. But he didn’t allow me to tell anyone. He didn’t want to make anyone worried about him." It was Denny who revealed the information about the younger boy with a low, hesitant voice.

He peeked in the doorway, showing only half of his body, as if he was afraid of either being blamed for betraying the younger boy or being late in telling the two women in the room.

From the information relayed by Denny, Joanna realized that Liam’s condition was more severe than she thought and, according to his current condition, she was actually too late to give him the previous aid. Moreover, as predicted, Matt had returned to the orphanage without a doctor with him.

Contemplating for a few seconds, Joanna had actually found a solution in her mind. However, she wanted to make sure that her assumption was not wrong as it would decide the solution to be made.

Joanna walked towards Denny in the doorway, which made the boy flinch, and he took some steps backward, keeping his distance from the approaching lady.

"Come here, Denny. Don’t be afraid." Joanna stopped at the doorway, not approaching the frightened boy any closer. She beckoned him to come to her by moving her fingers repeatedly, in the form of a hook, toward her palm that faced down. When she found the boy was not moving closer, nailed on the ground, she said,

"Don’t you know that you indeed did a good job by telling us the important truth behind Liam’s condition, Denny?" Joanna tried to comfort Denny, who should have thought that he was wrong and she approached him to nag at him.

The doubt in Denny was gradually washed away when he heard that he did a good job by telling them about Liam’s condition. Besides, the young lady did not look angry at all as she smiled warmly at him. Knowing that he was not wrong, he then gingerly moved toward the smiling lady.

As the boy came closer to her, Joanna kneeled on the floor to make her face the same level as the boy’s face. She kept a smile on her face and asked Denny, "Did you go to the forest with Liam yesterday?" After receiving a nod from Denny, Joanna asked another question,

"Did you know what Liam ate in the forest?" Denny shook his head but then paused before giving a slow single nod.

"Then, what did Liam eat in the forest?" inquired Joanna in the same soft and tender voice, smiling at him.

"I am actually not sure, Lady Joanna. But I guess it was a mushroom. There were so many mushrooms growing in the forest that we found yesterday and I had warned Liam to not touch or eat any of them. But he..." Denny did not continue his explanation, lowering his head instead.

Denny lifted his head to look at the young, beautiful lady when she caressed his hair gently.

"Thank you, Denny. You have done a good job and it is not your fault for Liam to be in this condition," Joanna assured the boy, trying to ease him from the guilty feeling. "You just need to pay more attention to him and all of your younger brothers and sisters next time. And tell them that you are not going to play with them again if they are not obedient. Okay?" And Joanna offered the boy a warm smile when he nodded at her queries.

"Will Liam be fine, Lady Joanna?" asked Denny, fidgeting his hands while staring at the young lady with his innocent eyes.

Joanna nodded her head firmly in response to his worried question. "He will be fine and you don’t need to worry," she affirmed. "And now, go back to your room. It is already late," Joanna demanded with a smile.

With those words spoken, Denny then went back to his room after offering the young lady a good night greeting and a polite bow.

Watching the boy walk back to his room, Joanna was still in the same position, thinking. It was, like her presumption, food poisoning by mushrooms, which had caused intestinal bleeding. And for remedy, she needed an herb that she did not have with her right now and she was sure that it was not planted in the backyard of the orphanage building as she had never seen them there.

That meant that she should find and get them in the forest as it was the place where she had seen them.

Looking at the night sky through the window, she made up her mind to go to the forest when the sun showered the land with its first rays.

With that thought, Joanna stood up and went back inside Liam’s room to narrate the information that she got from Denny to Mrs. Powel, who soothed Liam on the bed. She told the old lady that she would give him the herbal medicine to cure his intestinal bleeding tomorrow morning.

In the meantime, they could not do anything. Shifting her gaze from Mrs. Powel to the sleeping boy, Joanna hoped that he could endure it until she found him the remedy.

The following day, Joanna woke up at dawn before the sun was visible on the horizon.

She went to Liam’s room, where she found Mrs. Powel sleeping in the same bed next to the boy. The old lady seemed to keep Liam company, just like how the old lady told her last night to rest in her room when she insisted on staying up to watch over the sick boy.

As if noticing the presence of someone in the room, Mrs. Powel slowly opened her eyes and was surprised to see the young lady in the room, already standing next to the side of the bed. She then hastily got up and Joanna helped her to steady her body as she was wobbly when making her old body sit upright.

Once Mrs. Powel sat steadily on the bed, Joanna asked for some information related to Liam’s condition, and the old lady narrated that she had cleaned up the boy who had diarrhea in his sleep. Joanna responded, telling the worried older lady that food poisoning mostly caused people to not be able to control their excretions, especially when it went out too frequently and aqueous.

The sun began to rise over the horizon, making the sky become aglow, fabricated in red and orange hues. After finishing her breakfast that was prepared by Mrs. Valore, Joanna asked Lucy to accompany her to the forest without bothering to ask Sir Sylvester and the other knights to go with her, as the forest was just behind the orphanage building.

Besides, it was not the first time for her to enter the forest. In other words, she was familiar with the forest as she had often strolled around to find some herbs that she would then plant in Alenna Garden.

However, to her surprise, when she opened the back door of the building, there were already another presence in the backyard which made her halt in her tracks.