CHAPTER FIVELucia wandered over to her mother’s room.
Quietly she opened the door and put her head inside. Her mother was asleep and her mouth had fallen slightly open. Her skin was grey and her breathing laboured.
It brought tears to Lucia’s eyes to see her.
‘Mama ’ she cried under her breath.
Tiptoeing quietly towards the bed, Lucia smoothed down the coverlet and sank down in the chair close by.
She sat there for a while gazing at her mother while her heart contracted with sorrow.
‘What will I do if we lose her? She looks so ill.’
Lucia looked at the cluster of bottles on the bedside cabinet and picked up each one in turn.
Taking up the brown bottle at the back with a cork stopper, she furrowed her brow at the dried trickle of fluid that had collected around the rim.
‘I shall sp
