Chapter Eleven:

Cindered

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James wasn't breathing. Clara's own breath stuttered to a stop as she stared at her little brother in horror, until suddenly, his chest heaved and he started to cough. A wave of relief washed over Clara as she held her brother in a sitting position as he spit up water.

"It's okay. Get it all out," she said, rubbing his back gently. The majority of her attention was on watching James, but the muffled sobs coming from her two younger sisters did not escape her notice.

Clara carefully put her arm under James' knees, and the other around his back, and despite the fact that she was not terribly strong, she lifted him up off the ground, doing her best to hold his shivering form close to her.

"Harriet, I need you to run up ahead, gather as many warm blankets as possible, and bring them down to the kitchen; we'll all be sleeping by the hearth tonight. The attic will be too cold for him." Harriet didn't need to be told twice, sprinting away to follow Clara's instructions, leaving Amelia to hurry alongside Clara's brisk pace.

Clara's arms were utterly exhausted by the time they reached the kitchen, but she didn't put James down until Harriet had arranged all of the blankets from their attic bedroom on the floor in a semi-comfortable nest shape.

"Is he gonna be okay?" Amelia whispered, once James was fast asleep next to the kitchen hearth. Clara didn't answer the question immediately.

"I hope so," she whispered back, before helping Amelia and Harriet lay down on the blankets. Eventually, after making sure all three of her siblings were situated, she laid down as well. She was already fast asleep when her stepfamily got home, and she didn't even stir when they made a ruckus.

-0-

The next morning Clara was woken up by coughing, loud coughing. She shot up from where she had been laying on the floor and turned to see James hunched over, hacking into his sleeve. Clara hurriedly got up and got him a glass of water, but it didn't seem to help, as he just continued to cough his barking cough.

"James, do you need anything?" James, still coughing, shook his head, instead going to take another sip of water. By then both Harriet and Amelia had woken up and were watching worriedly. After a few more sips of water, James' coughing died down enough for him to talk.

"My throat hurts," he said, his voice sounding ragged. Clara's brow creased as she put the back of her hand against his forehead, he felt a little too warm.

"Well, you feel a bit hot. Why don't we bundle you up? Maybe that will help," she suggested, and together with Harriet, she wrapped James up tightly. As soon as James was settled, she set to work getting breakfast ready, the last thing she wanted was an angry Linette on her plate as well as everything else.

Clara did her best to prepare everything quickly, not wanting to waste any time, but every time James coughed she felt her own chest tighten in sympathy. It might just be an after effect of the fall, the water was awfully cold. However, that didn't explain the fever.

Still lost in thought, she got her siblings their breakfast, before she carried up trays of food to the dining room where her step-family took their meals. Clara nudged the door open with her elbow, balancing the trays precariously on her hands. As soon as the door swung open, she placed the food onto the dining room, all but ignoring the chatter of her stepfamily.

"My word! What is that on your face?" Clara snapped out of her thoughts of James to stare at Edina.

"What do you mean?" She asked, earning a laugh from Edina.

"That, right there," Estella said, reaching across the toast and marmalade to poke Clara's cheek with one of her fingers. "It looks like soot!" Clara hastily rubbed at her cheek, feeling her face flare up into a blush. Of course she would be the only one of her siblings to get soot on her face, but then they wouldn't have thought to check her face like she had checked theirs.

"What did you try to do? Rub your face across the coals? I understand the want to rid yourself of a face like yours, but I don't think that would help." Edina said, snorting indelicate laughter in between her words.

"No, I did not rub my face across the coals," Clara answered as calmly as possible. "We were sleeping near the fire to keep warm." Her stepsisters stared at her in confusion, as if they couldn't quite wrap their minds around the idea of being too cold in their own room. Glancing at Linette, Clara debated whether or not to tell her about the incident. She was their step-mother after all... at least in the eyes of the law.

"I'm sure being near to the fire wouldn't mean actually putting your face with the embers, Clara," Linette drawled, her eyebrows raised, before she gave a short laugh. "Best get back to the kitchen, Clara, we wouldn't want your siblings to miss their dear cinder covered sister." She paused for a moment.

"Not to mention I have no interest in having soot in my breakfast." Linette waved Clara away lazily, and Clara turned on her heel and left the room, her retreat followed by the sound of snorting and high-pitched laughter.

Maybe it was for the best she hadn't told Linette about James. If that was how she reacted to finding her stepchildren were too cold to sleep in their attic room, Clara didn't want to find out how she reacted to a near death experience. She didn't want to put her heart through that. However, Clara thought to herself, if James got worse she would tell Linette.

-0-

James had gotten worse. Three days had passed since the incident, and his fever had gotten higher, he was weak, tired, and his cough was much worse. Every time he coughed almost everyone in the house could hear it, and it was even worse at night. Clara had decided to tell Linette, but that hadn't gone so well.

"He could be seriously ill! Actually, he is! He's very sick, why can't we send for the doctor?" Clara said pleadingly, trying not to scowl when she saw Linette merely take a calm sip of her tea, looking as if she hadn't a care in the world.

"I would but we aren't made of money. I'm sure John will be fine."

"His name is James, and you just bought the twins new dresses two days ago! You had enough money for them!"

"Exactly, I have enough money for my children. You know I don't give handouts."

Needless to say, Clara had left her audience with Linette with a barely controlled temper, but instead of shouting at Linette, she ran to the kitchen.

She and her siblings had all taken to sleeping in the kitchen, and so they spent much of their time there. Which was why Clara was currently pacing up and down the kitchen as her sisters watched her, their eyes darting back and forth as they followed her, all while James was sleeping in a rocking chair by the hearth.

"You're going to form a rut in the floor."

"No I'm not," Clara said, trying not to snap at Harriet. "I just don't know what to do. Linette won't help, there weren't any books on medicine left in father's study, and the Landons are currently visiting Mrs. Landon's sister. There is no one left to go to!"

"What about that woman from the party, Lady what's-her-name," Harriet suggested.

"You mean Lady Stanford?" Clara paused for a moment to consider it, but threw up her hands in frustration as a thought hit her. "That would be perfect, if she had actually told me where she lived."

"Oh," Harriet said, and Clara continued to pace. "What about Petunia?"

"Petunia?"

"You know, the lady in the woods?"

"You mean Gardenia?" Clara asked, but already she was mulling the idea around in her head. She could go to her, but Clara was a little unsure about the idea of it. Something was off with Gardenia, and she wasn't sure she trusted her brother's life in the woman's hands.

"Yeah, you said she knew Mother?" Clara nodded. "Then maybe she'll help, after all, we are Mother's children."

"That might work," Clara said, before leaving the kitchen to go and grab her cloak from the hallway.

"You're going now?" Amelia called after her.

"Yes," Clara answered as she came back in holding her cloak. "I'll need to get going now if I want to get back before dark."

Clara burst out of the kitchen, but instead of the slow walk she had used the first time she had visited Gardenia Hedgeworth, she was now almost jogging. While she tried not to let it show too much, Clara was incredibly nervous about James' health, far more than her sisters realized.

Harriet and Amelia had been asleep the night before so they had missed the reason for Clara's anxiety. James had coughed up blood and now she was convinced beyond a doubt that this was more than just an aftereffect of cold water.

Her breaths coming fast and swirling in the cold air, she ran up the forest path, coming to a skidding halt when suddenly Gardenia's house was in front of her. It was official, something was definitely not right with that woman, or her magically appearing and disappearing house.

Hurrying up the steps, she knocked on the door loudly, trying not to feel too impatient. When Gardenia finally opened the door, she gave an audible sigh of relief.

"Why hello, Clara, what brings you to my doorstep?" Gardenia had barely finished talking when Clara's words tumbled out.

"I'm sorry to bother you, but I need your help. James fell in a well, and now he's sick, and Linette won't help him. I don't know what to do. Can you please help me?" She pleaded for the second time that day, but whereas Linette hadn't shown any remorse, Gardenia looked as if she was currently having some sort of internal battle.

"I would dear, of course I would, but I have no power over life and death. I'm afraid I can't do anything." Clara stared at the woman in shock. What was with people and not helping?

"But surely-"

"Clara, I would if I could, I swear to you, I would, but that is not the way things are meant to happen."

"Things are meant to happen? And who are you to decide what is and isn't supposed to happen?" Clara stated, frustration leaking into her voice as she forgot her manners momentarily.

"Exactly, I don't. I can only follow the clear path shown to me."

Clara didn't know what to say. The clear path shown to her? What on Earth? Not to mention, no one had any power over life and death, Gardenia wasn't anything special, that was called being human.

"Good day, Madam Hedgeworth, I thank you for your time," Clara responded bluntly after a slight pause. She then gave a nod, and turned around to leave.

"Clara, wait!" She stopped, watching as Gardenia seemed to have another silent argument with herself on her front doorstep. "Everything will turn out well, I promise. You'll see." Clara shook her head, before walking away. Gardenia couldn't promise her anything, especially not anything like that.

The time it took her to get back to her home was quite possibly the quickest it ever had been, but Clara paid that no mind. Her thoughts were spinning out of control. There had to be something she could do. She couldn't lose another person that she loved, she just couldn't. She was coming through the front door when a loud shriek struck her eardrums.

"Clara! There you are! Can you believe it?" Estella squealed, spinning Clara around wildly, almost making Clara lose her balance.

"I- what? Believe what?" Clara asked, trying not to fall over.

"You didn't hear?" Clara shook her head, and Estella's eyes grew to the size of saucers. "The Royal Family is holding a giant birthday celebration for the Prince! They say he's supposed to pick a bride at one of the four balls!"

"Hold on, four balls? Isn't that-"

"Wonderful? Yes! I'm so excited! Mother said we'll be getting new dresses, and we'll hire a coach! Can you imagine it? Think of all of the Lords, and the Dukes, and the Prince! No one has ever seen him you know, awfully strange isn't it?" Estella continued to ramble on about the wonders of the four balls and the prince and everything else, but Clara wasn't listening, because she'd had an idea.

A terrible, wonderful, idea. An idea that could save her brother's life, but quite possibly ruin hers.

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So what do you think? Four balls, a prince who no one's seen, and a terrible idea! Any predictions? If so, tell me in the comments!