Lark said farewell to his cousin and Anthony and then steeled himself to go back in the ballroom.
Chapter Fifteen
Before Adele hadeven finished descending the staircase for breakfast the next morning, Wilton was upon her and said, “Come with me at once, my lady. I’m afraid the countess had taken a turn.”
“She what?”
Adele hurried after Wilton toward the countess’s room. When they arrived, Dr. Willis sat beside the bed as the countess lay there with her eyes closed. She seemed unconscious, though her breathing was labored.
“What has happened?” Adele asked.
“The countess started to struggle to breathe last night. We think it’s pneumonia.”
“Pneumonia?” Adele struggled to process this. “Last night? Why did no one alert me when I arrived home?”
“I did not want to bother you, my lady,” said Wilton. “You needed your sleep.”
“But she…” Adele shook her head, knowing from the countess’s pallor and the wheeze in her breaths that the end was likely to arrive soon. “We’d best send for the earl.”
“He sent word that he was already on his way two days ago,” said Wilton. “He should arrive today.”
Dr. Willis reported in a soft voice, “She has a high fever and her lungs crackle. A younger woman might overcome this, but a woman of the countess’s age, who was already in ill health…”
As the day wore on, a steady stream of the countess’s friends and family members arrived to say good-bye. Adele kept a vigil at the countess’s bedside until John, the Earl of Sweeney, arrived. He ordered Adele removed from the room, so she stewed in the gold salon waiting for word, furious that the earl was keeping her away, especially since it had been Adele caring for her these last few months. He hadn’t even bothered to visit.
Keeping vigil only of the old clock in the corner gave Adele too much time to think. If she had been here last night, might the countess’s prognosis be different? Would she have been available to call Dr. Willis sooner? Would she have been able to see to a need that would have prevented the countess’s current decline. Had the countess caught pneumonia because of Adele’s neglect? Adele had grown somewhat resentful of the countess as Adele’s duties had shifted away from companionship and more toward those of a servant, but she had tried not to let that affect how she treated the countess, and she was fond of the woman, after all.
And for what had she gone to the ball? To wear a pretty dress and drink lemonade? To indulge in some superficial pleasures? Shehadseen Hugh and managed to dance with him twice, but when they were not dancing, he’d barely been able to speak to her. She would treasure those two waltzes for the rest of her days, but everything else had been superficial and silly. It hardly seemed worth it if she could have been here to help the countess.
The earl’s wife and children arrived at the house as the sun began to set. She took the children up to see their grandmother after exchanging only a few clipped words with Adele. Adele tried to sit patiently and wait for news, but guilt ate at her.
Wilton appeared at one point with a dinner tray, although Adele could not bring herself to eat.
“I should have been here last night,” said Adele.
“No, my lady. There is nothing you could have done.”
“But if I’d been here attending to the countess instead of dancing and letting… frivolities, and…”
“Hush, my lady. No. You work very hard for the countess and have been a wonderful companion to her. You deserved a night away. It is just her time. It would not have mattered if you’d been here or not.”
“But, Wilton, surely if I’d—”
“No,” Wilton said softly. “You know as well as I do that the countess has been preparing to leave us for some time. Dr. Willis says this is just God calling her home. Nothing you did or did not do affected when this would have happened.”
Adele still had not eaten her dinner an hour later when the earl’s wife solemnly walked into the room and stopped the clock.
*
Hugh was inthe morning room indulging in a large breakfast while his mother flipped through a newspaper. He let his mind wander to the Wakefield ball and how wonderful it had felt to have Adele in his arms. He thought back to Adele’s retelling of Cinderella. The prince in the story had taken one look at Cinderella and known he’d dance all his dances with her from then on. Hugh only wished he could have done the same with Adele at the ball.
Hewouldmarry her. He just had to figure out how to tell his mother.
“That old crone finally left us?” said the duchess.
“Which old crone, mother?”
“It says in the paper that the Dowager Countess of Sweeney died on Sunday.”
