The first several rashes were painless. Julia made sure not to pick at them, instead wrapping the afflicted areas with soft rags dipped in cold water. Or water as cold as she could get it, at least, when it wasn't too far past the beginning of the autumn season yet. With assiduous care and the help of Flavia and Alba, she changed out the cloths and waited for the rashes to die down.
But they didn't. They spread from her back down to her arms, up to her neck, covered her legs in painful red splotches that now burned and seared as if someone had branded her with hot poker irons all over her entire body. Within a week of the first spots appearing, she was barely able to move without wincing, and red pinpricks began rising even in the unaffected areas as if her very pores were bleeding.
Ridi
