#but!!! I let jennet plead and it succeeded!

[thestressedsimmer]

May, 1315: The Comyn Estate

Hextilda's health did not improve as she got older, despite what her sister-in-law reassured and promised. She would often rush off to go lay down - her tutors told her parents that she didn't seem able to focus on any of her studies and was frequently found asleep when she was supposed to be studying. She was frequently in trouble for that.

Princess Isabella knew that her sister-in-law had health issues and urged her in-laws to go easy on her but they were worried about her future and her ability to land a good husband like her older sisters did if she didn't focus on her studies.

This attitude led to her pushing. Ignoring her body's signals and stubbornly continuing about her days. Until she could no longer ignore it. She felt so weak, her body was on fire with pure pain, and despite trying to fall asleep? She was too afraid to let herself drift off.

"Hex?" Her sister, Jennet's, voice broke through her revelry. She glanced towards her sister's bed... But she couldn't see her face. It was blurry. "Hextilda, what's wrong?"

When her sister didn't respond, Jennet leaped out of her bed and eased her sister into hers. While they didn't get along very well and frequently fought, she didn't want anything bad to happen to her.

She settled her sister in bed, trying to wrap her in a blanket to stop her shivers and shakes, but when nothing worked? She rushed to her mother's chambers.

"Mother? Mother, you must wake up!" Jennet said in a hushed, but urgent tone.

Hearing the terror in her daughter's voice, Joan woke up, blinking the sleep from her eyes. "What is it, darling?"

"There's something wrong with Hextilda. Please, you have to come quick! Her eyes looked far away, she's pale, she's shivering horribly and I can't get it to stop! I tried, mother, I swear I tried!"

"Jenny, you must calm down." Joan said softly, brushing her daughter's hair out of her face. Although her heart filled with fear at the same time. "You did well coming to get me. Go and wake your father, tell him to fetch the physician. Tell him I said to drag him from his bed with his sleeping cap still on if need be."

"Yes, mother. I will." Jennet said, clearly fighting back tears. But as much as her mother wanted to, there was no time to stay and comfort her - she trusted that as everyone in the manor woke? Either John IV or Isabella would comfort her healthy daughter while Joan tended to the sickly one.

When she saw Hextilda? Her heart sunk. The girl looked as if she was on death's door - Jennet's description was accurate and she was trembling so hard, it almost looked as if she was convulsing.

She tended to her for a while; singing to her and comforting her until the physician got there. According to him? If Jennet had not gotten her parents when she had, her sister would have been in the Watcher's arms by first light.

With that perspective? Suddenly, the girl having to spend a week or so in bed didn't seem like such a horrible thing.