also knew that there wasn’t much to be done beyond getting food and water into them, keeping them warm, and hoping for the best.
“And what would that be?” the woman asked, stepping closer.
“Consumption, by the looks of it,” Will said.
Now that the woman was nearer and the sun higher in the sky, Will could see she wasn’t as old as he had previously thought. Certainly not forty, for all she was swathed in shawls and scarves like a village witch. “You’ve been nursing a consumptive on your own for how long?”
Will needed a moment to add up the days. “A bit over a week. But he’s doing much better now,” he protested.
“And what are you eating?”
“Tea and porridge,” Will said, trying to keep up with the interrogation. “He can’t really eat much more than that.”
“But you can, you daft child. Daisy!” she called, cupping her hands to her mouth to make a funnel. “Get over here!”
A minute later a girl appeared from behind a hedgerow. In one hand she carried a brace of hares, and Will now understood why her mother had been worried about poachers being caught. “Mum?” she asked.
“This fellow here, Mister—”
“Sedgwick,” Will supplied.
“Mr. Sedgwick is staying here, at the old gamekeeper’s cottage, and he needs a maid of all work. You start tomorrow.”
“But Mum!” she cried, imbuing the single syllable with all the outrage a girl of about fifteen is capable of.
“Off with you. Tomorrow morning. Be there before dawn. Now take those—” she gestured at the hares “—and dress them for supper.”
The girl sulked off.
“I’m afraid I can’t pay a maid’s wages,” Will admitted, his face flushing.
“Didn’t think you could. The fact is that I need a man around the house, fixing the roof, splitting logs, helping Daisy catch the pig when it gets loose. Can you mend walls and fix barrels and that sort of thing?”
“Yes,” Will said. After a childhood spent in a house that seemed always on the verge of collapse, followed by his years at sea, he could fix almost anything.
“Good. And,” she said, lowering her voice to an ominous tone and leaning in, “the girl has too much time on her hands. The ostler’s been making eyes.”
“I see,” Will said, unconsciously imitating her tone and her posture, so they were effectively whispering in one another’s ears.
“Keep her busy a few hours a day, and she can come back in the afternoon with a loaf of bread and a pot of whatever I’m making for supper. You look like you could use feeding up,” she said, casting a critical eye over Will’s form. “You or your friend touch her, I will kill you.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Will said, startled.
“Good.” She nodded and left in the direction her daughter had gone.
Will was very aware that he had just been manipulated, but he was also aware of something like relief. For a week, he had felt like the only person in the world who wanted to drag Martin back from the brink of death. Even Martin—especially Martin—seemed disinterested in his own fate. Having someone to help, even an obstreperous child, would be worth something.
Chapter Three
“I swear to God I will not let another spoonful of that putrid nastiness pass my lips,” Martin said, and, really, it was good to hear him sound like his old self. After two weeks in the cottage, Martin could shuffle around on unsteady feet and wasn’t coughing half as much as he had been when they arrived. “I haven’t had a fever in over a week and I’m hardly coughing up any blood at all. No more medicine.”
That was just as well, because they had run out of the paregoric the day before. “How about some potato soup?” Will asked. He had already ladled some into the cup on the hopes that Martin would want it.
“Promise it’s not gruel,” Martin said, but Will saw him eying the mug greedily.
“On my honor.” Will sat on the edge of the bed and held the cup to Martin’s lips.
“I’m not a baby,” Martin protested.
“Only acting like one,” Will murmured, earning himself a glare. “Is your hand steady enough to hold the cup?”
With a roll of his eyes, Martin held up a mostly steady hand. Will helped him wrap it around the cup, keeping his own hand around Martin’s just in case. It was slow going: Martin’s grip was shaky, and Will needed to brace a hand at the back of Martin’s neck in order to get the job done. Finally, though, Martin took a