AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter 20
“Delia!” Lavinia cried as Artierushed over from the other side of the table. She knelt over her elderly friend, caressing her face. “Delia, can you hear me? Speak to me if you can.”
Delia was unresponsive.
Lavinia patted her hands and then patted her cheeks and then patted them more vigorously. She peeked under one of Delia’s eyelids—what she expected to find she wasn’t sure, but all she saw was a rheumy eyeball staring at nothing.
“Smelling salts,” she muttered. “Why I’ve never thought to carry smelling salts, I’ll never know.”
“Delia,” Artie cried, kneeling by her and taking one of her hands in his. “She’s only fainted, right, Lavinia? She’s only fainted. I told you to eat more kidneys, Delia. Oh, what to do, what to do!”
“Artie, go get help. Quickly! She still isn’t responding.”
He dashed from the room, and once he was gone, Lavinia put her mouth next to Delia’s ear. “Come on, Delia. It’s time to end this.”
No response.
“If I find out you are up to something, I will be extremely upset. It isn’t fair to put Artie through this. Or me and Hannah either.”
One of Delia’s hands lifted slightly, her eyelids fluttered, and . . . that was it. Nothing more.
Lavinia’s insides felt leaden. Delia could not be ill. Shecouldn’t. But what if she was? And what if Lavinia’s own skepticism had kept Delia from getting the help she needed in time? She kept caressing her friend’s dear, familiar face; they had gone through so much together. She should not have told them they’d be leaving Alderwood when it had been obvious that Delia was not her usual self this morning; it had placed too great a strain on her.
Lavinia would never forgive herself if Delia did not pull through.
“What has happened?” Lady Thurlby exclaimed as she rushed into the room, followed quickly by Lord Thurlby, Lucas, and Artie.
Artie dashed back to Delia’s side, dropping to his knees again. “Wake up, Delia,” he said, patting her hand frantically. “Come on now; there’s a good girl. Wake up. Please wake up.”
Delia didn’t move.
“John, fetch Doctor Ellis,” Lord Thurlby told the manservant who’d delivered Lucas’s message to Lavinia earlier. “Tell him it’s urgent.”
“Yes, milord.”
Lucas placed a hand on Artie’s shoulder. “Let’s take her up to her room,” he said gently. “She’ll be more comfortable there.”
“Yes. Right.” Artie reluctantly moved out of the way, and then strong, sure Lucas crouched down, took Delia carefully into his arms, and rose to his feet. Delia hung limply, like a rag doll. Lady Thurlby gave swift orders to a maid to have Delia’s bed prepared for her. Lucas carried her from the breakfast room and up the main stairway, with Artie and Lavinia trailing behind, creating a somber procession to Delia’s room.
Hannah came out of her room as they passed by. “What’s going on?” she asked, and then she blanched when she noticed Lucas carrying Delia. “What has happened?”
“We were in the breakfast room, and she fainted,” Artie explained, his voice cracking. “But she won’t come around. We tried and tried to wake her, Livvy and I did, but she won’t come round!”
“Oh, Hannah!” Lavinia threw her arms around Hannah in a desperate hug. “What are we to do?”
“There, there, luv,” Hannah said, patting Lavinia’s back. “Let’s go be sure our Delia’s settled in proper-like, shall we?”
When Lavinia and Hannah got to Delia’s room, Artie was pacing back and forth outside the door, tearing at his hair, while Lucas stood nearby with his hands clasped behind his back. Delia was visible through the doorway, lying as still as a corpse on the bed.
How quickly the day had changed, Lavinia thought. One moment she’d been concerned only with having her friends ready to leave Alderwood; now she was frantic that one of them might be dying.
When Lavinia’s father had died, she hadn’t felt like this. The lessons she’d learned from her father had been bitter ones, and his passing, as unfortunate as it had been, had been more of a relief to her than a sorrow.
But losing Delia, despite her advanced years . . . Delia was clever and delightful and had brightened their lives during the time she and Artie had been with them.
She would be greatly missed.
Oh, she mustn’t think this way, Lavinia chided herself, clutching her waist and fighting back the tears that threatened to fall—she mustn’t presume the worst. The doctor would arrive soon, and he would explain everything and assure them all would be well. And allwouldbe well. Itmustbe.
