The Letter by Kathryn Hughes

Author:Kathryn Hughes [Hughes, Kathryn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Matador
Published: 2013-06-24T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter 18

Chrissie had been at the farm for two months when her aunt was taken ill. She had immediately known something was wrong because she had seen a number of her father’s patients with the same symptoms.

‘Aunt Kathleen, I really think you should be in bed and not out here in the yard. It’s freezing and you will only make matters worse.’

‘How can I go to bed when there is so much work to be done? Stop fussing, girl, and let me get on with my chores. I’ve never had a day’s illness in my life. I’ll take an extra big spoon of my mixture tonight and I’ll be right as rain.’

Kathleen had taken a dose of malt and cod liver oil all her life. She had tried to entice Chrissie to do the same, but she could not stomach the sweet, black treacly liquid.

Kathleen coughed violently, snorted the resulting phlegm which had accumulated in her throat and spat the huge green globule on the ground. Chrissie turned away in disgust but not before she had noticed the tell-tale streaks of blood. Kathleen was trembling as Chrissie put her arms round her shoulders and guided her to the wall so she could lean on it to get her breath back. Everywhere the ground was as hard as flint as another severe frost exerted its relentless grip. The cattle stood despondently in the fields and even the chickens, which normally ran freely round the yard, were huddled together, puffing up their feathers in a futile attempt to keep warm.

‘Aunt Kathleen,’ Chrissie tried again. ‘I think you may be very ill. I think you might have Tuberculosis. I’ve seen all these symptoms before many times.’

Kathleen wiped her eyes with a greying handkerchief. ‘Nonsense. Tuberculosis, who ever heard anything like it? Where would I pick up a disease I have never even heard of?’

‘You have heard of it, Aunt Kathleen, although you probably call it consumption.’

Kathleen looked doubtful for a second as she thought about this. ‘Well, like I said, I’ve never had a day’s illness in my life, Chrissie.’

‘Then all the more reason for you to go to bed now. I can do more work around here, you know how quick I’ve become at the milking and besides, if I’m right about this, Tuberculosis is very, very contagious. You don’t want to infect Jackie and the others, do you? And I’m sure I don’t want to catch it. It wouldn’t be good for the baby.’

Kathleen put her fingers to her lips and looked around furtively at the mention of the baby. ‘Maybe you’re right. I feel dreadful, so I do.’

‘That’s settled then, you lean on me and I’ll get you inside.’

Then, in a rare show of humility, Kathleen said,

‘But what about you and your condition?’

In the two months since Chrissie had arrived at the farm, Kathleen had not been able to mention the word ‘pregnancy’ and spoke about it as if it were an affliction.

‘I’m fine, please don’t worry. I’m only four

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.