Keeping the Castle - By Patrice Kindl Page 0,57

a queer one, with a third party invited along for the journey.

“Oh, you’ll never be happy until you find out what is stirring, Miss Crawley, so you might as well come too,” said Mr. Fredericks. “You may even be able to be of some service to your friend.”

With this I had to be content. I hastened my steps to catch Miss Vincy up and, putting my arm around her waist, helped her over the rough ground. So pale was she, and so wild and fearful were her eyes, that it would have been a cruelty to question her further. I held my peace, resolving to get it out of Mr. Fredericks at the first opportunity.

In a few moments we reached our destination: a small workman’s cottage with a few outbuildings nearby. What we could want in such a humble dwelling was a mystery to me, but I was not long left in suspense. Miss Vincy burst through the door without knocking and plunged into the darkened interior.

“Has he come? What does he say?” she demanded of a respectable-looking elderly woman who advanced to meet us.

“He’s here. Hush, my dear, and we’ll know all about it in a moment,” responded the woman, an utter stranger to me, though I would have thought I knew by sight every human soul in the district for miles around. Her eyes flicked up to mine. She dropped a curtsey and continued in a low tone, “Pardon my boldness in saying so, Miss Crawley, but I am glad you’ve come. My poor dear needs a friend right now.”

Bewildered, I followed Miss Vincy into an inner chamber. Our local doctor, Haxhamptonshire, was bending over a tumbled and disordered bed. The figure in the bed was small, that of a young child. As Dr. Haxhamptonshire moved the candle, examining the flushed face and limbs of his patient, I saw it was a little boy, younger even than Alexander.

Miss Vincy sank to her knees by the bed. “Well, Doctor?” she asked in an urgent whisper, “What is it?”

“Ah, Mrs. Annuncio, I see,” the doctor said, addressing Miss Vincy. “It is an infection of the lungs. Listen,” he said, as the child drew breath. Even I, hesitating in the doorway some ten feet from the bed, could hear a rasping, rattling sound.

“Will he live?” she murmured.

“It’s too soon to say. I have given orders to your nurse to give him this syrup, and these powders dissolved in a little warm wine every two hours. You say he has been ailing for the past three days?”

Miss Vincy nodded. “We thought it nothing worse than a cold at first, but he fell into a fever, and I have been so frightened . . .”

“Well, I’ve seen many worse than this recover—we can only watch and wait.”

I had had some experience at nursing, and so as the doctor prepared to leave, I prepared to settle in. Whoever this child was, whoever “Mrs. Annuncio” might be, it was clear that my friend needed me. I instructed Mr. Fredericks to return and tell my mama that I was occupied in helping to nurse a neighbor’s child. She would, of course, wish to know which neighbor, so I told him to tell her it was Mrs. Bowden’s grandson, come to visit from Scarborough. I added that the doctor believed the disease to be of an infectious nature so I thought it best not to come home until the crisis was over. Old Mrs. Bowden lived quite seven miles away over the moorland, and I doubted Mama would feel the need to hurry over, offering assistance.

As to the rest, I left it to Mr. Fredericks to cope, and I had no doubt that he would.

The little boy was restless and feverish. I set to work bathing his hot forehead with vinegar and water, soothing him as well as I could. The nurse, who, I suspected by her manner, had once been Miss Vincy’s own nurse, assisted me ably in my efforts, and after a few hours thus spent, she retired to provide us with a tray of bread and cheese, and the patient with the medicines prescribed by the doctor.

Miss Vincy proved to be inexperienced with children. Her powerful attachment to the boy was the principal difficulty; she fretted and fussed with his bed clothing, smoothed his hair and altogether kept him in a state of perturbation and wakefulness, until I ordered her to cease and desist.

Instead I required her to empty out the satchel she had