The Loving Spirit by Gordon Lucy

Author:Gordon, Lucy [Gordon, Lucy]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2012-06-02T21:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seven

The hour it took Dr Thornton to arrive was the longest of Justin’s life. Tom was breathing, but in a faint, ragged way that filled him with dread. It seemed impossible that the boy could cling to life another moment.

As soon as the doctor arrived, Justin spoke hurriedly to Ferris. ‘Take the fastest horse you can find and ride to Farringdon Park to fetch Her Ladyship.’

‘It’s serious,’ said the doctor, speaking as soon as Ferris had gone. `He has a bad wound to his side and he’s had no treatment to speak of. God knows what he must have suffered on the journey! I’ve dressed the wound and given him a paregoric draught, but his temperature’s mounting, and that’s my greatest worry.’

‘But he will live,’ Justin urged. ‘He must.’

Dr Thornton hesitated. ‘He’s young and strong, but he needs care around the clock. I’ll send a nurse.’

The nurse was there in an hour. She was large and blunt-mannered. She also appeared clean, efficient and sober. Justin was soon thankful to have her, for Tom’s fever mounted rapidly. In contrast to his death-like torpor, he now began to toss and turn violently, breathing harshly and sometimes crying out. It took both of them to hold him down on the bed and continually replace the covers he’d thrown off.

He settled at last, falling back into the dreadful stillness that was even more frightening. Justin had stripped off his jacket and sat in his shirtsleeves. He had eyes only for the desperately ill boy. Night fell, and he sent the nurse to get some sleep while he took the first watch. It was a fatal mistake. Once alone she succumbed to the temptation to take ‘just a nip’. By the time she returned to duty her speech was slurred.

Justin thrust some coins into her hand and ordered her out with instructions not to return. As he sat alone in the semi-darkness, he tried to calculate how much time must pass before Kate could arrive. Farringdon Park lay twenty miles off. On a swift horse Ferris might cover the distance in three hours. The journey back in the carriage might take four. She could be on her way at this very moment.

Dr Thornton came again and heard the story of the nurse.

‘She’s an excellent nurse when she first arrives,’ he said with a sigh, ‘but the temptation overcomes her. I’ll find someone else.’

‘No more nurses,’ Justin said firmly. ‘I’ll care for the boy myself until his mother arrives.’

At that moment Tom began to thrash about. Between them, Justin and the doctor managed to get a draught of laudanum down his throat, and at last his strugglings abated.

The hours crawled past. One o’clock. Then two. What was keeping her? What would she say to him when she arrived? Would there be reproach in her eyes? Hatred? Did he deserve it? Yes.

At last came the sound he was waiting for, carriage wheels on the cobbles below. A glance out of the window showed Ferris handing Kate down and showing her into the hotel.

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.