Chapter 27: The night before the Storm

While sitting on bed she was waiting with an anticipated look in her eyes. Selena was right about her being not asleep. She nibbed her nails to the point of bleeding. The door opened with a creak sound and closed on the next moment. Under the dim white light of the room Juliet spread her arms open to welcome the intruder. He got in her embrace as she had tears in her eyes. There were no sound but they spoke thousand words to each other in that long moment. The love that sailed off one sided is now starting to get a new shape of their future. After about half an hour, Duke noticed her grip loosened around his back so, he carefully grabbed the back of her neck to look at her. Juliet fell asleep on his shoulder after crying for a long time. The exhaustion was evident on her face specially, her long eye lashes were still wet and the corner of her eyes were completely red. Duke kissed her forehead one more time before laying her down on the bed.

Duke sat beside her bed the whole time holding her hand in his until it was time for dinner. He woke her up with gentle pats on her arms. Juliet opened her eyes and saw him sitting in front of the bed. She smiled gently on her thought that it was no longer a dream.

"Did you have a good sleep?" Duke asked in a husky voice.

Juliet just hummed in response as she stretched her hands together to break her sleep.

"Are you feeling well now?" Duke asked her as he checked her temperature with the back of his hand.

"Yes, I feel refreshed after taking a nap." Juliet told him with an innocent look.

"Then let's go for dinner. Everyone must be wating in the dining room. Get up, wash your hands and face then we will head down together." Duke helped her to get to the washroom. Then he came back to the room to get the towel for her. As he was about to knock her bathroom door, he felt a sharp pain on his chest. It felt like someone was shoving thousands of needles on his heart at a time. He wobbled for a moment, his head was spinning as he clenched his chest tightly. He couldn't breathe, his ears were ringing and his surrounding started blurring out.

"Duke, did you find it?" Juliet shouted from the washroom.

Duke dropped on the floor while grabbing his chest. He heard her voice but he couldn't move much except for saying, "y-yes."

After some few seconds, Duke somehow got up by supporting on the wall. He gave her the towel and sat on a chair closing his eyes. He was still unstable but a bit better than before. His pain subsided slowly.

"What happened? Are you feeling unwell?" Juliet asked him as she gently caressed his cheek.

Duke took her hand in his saying, "Nothing….. let's go." They both went downstairs for dinner.

Everyone was waiting on the dinner table except for Jessica's little baby son. Lisa came to Juliet and sat on her lap.

"Julie, are you ill? Mama said you have a fever. Fever fever go away!" little Lisa chant those words while blowing Juliet's forehead.

"Yes, it has completely gone down. Now should we eat like a good girl Lisa?" Juliet kissed her forehead.

They all ate together for the next twenty minutes.

"Goodnight Julie, goodnight everyone." Lisa went to her room.

"Congratulations, Juliet for finding the love of your life. I am happy for both of you." Jessica gave the two her blessings. She got to know about it from Selena. Then she also went to her room.

"Take care of Juliet, goodnight." Selena said that to Duke and he hummed in response.

Then they both went back to Juliet's room.

After entering the room Duke said, "Now you get back to sleep. I'll sit on the chair beside the bed. I'll not go anywhere so sleep well to recover faster."

"No….. I'll not go to sleep if you sit beside me throughout the night." Juliet sulked.

"Then should I go back to my room?" Duke teased her.

Juliet grabbed his hand and said, "No... I didn't ask you to go back. Just sleep beside me. Anyways we are already dating so...."

Duke didn't said anything more and sat on the bed while his back supported by the bedstand.

"Come here….." Duke gestured his hands.

Juliet dropped her head on chest and Duke hugged her to sleep.

"Duke?"

"hmm…." He responded.

"Should we just get married?" Juliet asked.

"Don't you want to know me first? What if I am a bad person who is acting to be good?" Duke said smiling.

Juliet held up her head and twitched her brows. She seemed to be in a deep thought with a sour expression on her face. After some seconds she showed her gentle smile and said "Ummmmm..... then I will just say, I fell for the bad boy because I will never be able to love anyone if it's not you."

Though she uttered those words very simply but it shook him inside out. He didn't say anything and patted her head. After sometime Juliet fell asleep. Duke also closed his eyes for a while.

Duke waked up from his nap after hearing something. It was half passed one, and he saw Juliet was shaking. The cold sweat covered her forehead and she kept mumbling the same words again and again, "N-no….n-no…. d-Duke….. pl-please don't l-leave…. Pl-…."

"Juliet, Juliet!!! Wake up! You are having a nightmare; I am still by your side, Wake up Juliet!" Duke patted her cheeks to wake her up.

"h-huh!!!" Juliet opened her eyes and gasped for breath.

"D-duke…. Duke….." the only words she said before fainting was his name.

"Juliet! What happened open your eyes please!" Duke shook her again and again but she never responded. He checked the temperature and it was increasing again. He put her under the blanket and went downstairs to grab the cold water and towel. He kept nursing her for another one hour but the fever indicated 39.4°C. He was losing his patience. He went downstairs and knocked on Selena's door. After telling her the whole thing Selena called their family physician. Dr. Charles aged in his mid-fifties, came after half an hour. He lived nearby and was a very good friend of Juliet's father.

Everyone gathered around her bed except for the two children. But after checking her Dr. Charles asked, "did she took any medicine?"

Selena answered, "yes, actually she caught fever after coming back home yesterday night. But she got better after taking the medicine, even ate with us at the dinner table today."

"Strange, then how is the fever so high right now? She is not even showing any dangerous symptoms of any kind of illness!" the doctor exclaimed in surprise.

Everyone was very worried about her condition. The doctor gave her an injection for reducing the fever and suggested to shift her to the hospital if the fever doesn't go down by the morning. Duke went with the doctor to see him out.

After coming back, he was about to step on the staircase, Jessica ordered, "DON'T YOU DARE!"

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