AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“With such a fever and wounds, that might be unwise…” I responded, my eyes tracing the gash along the injured shoulder.
It was deep and raw; the skin had not yet begun to heal itself.
“Sorry,my Lord, but I don’t really care for your opinion.” The young man sneered, glaring up at me.
Before I had a chance to react, the physician responded.
“Lord Marsden is indeed correct. I wouldn’t want to risk it, not in his current state. Are you a man of medicine, my Lord?”
I felt the eyes of every person in the small, stifling room settle on me. The younger man was still glaring at me, and he let out a sarcastic laugh at the physician’s question.
“I studied under a physician at Cambridge for some time.” I answered simply, ignoring the younger man to my left’s glare. “Though I left school prematurely.”
I noticed Amelia staring up at me, her eyes wide with what looked like… surprise.
The physician nodded his head in approval.
“Would you like to examine him yourself, my Lord? You can see that the wound is beginning to fester, in this region here… potentially, we could try an application of mercury… Have you any experience with that?”
I stepped forward, to the clear annoyance of the young man beside Amelia, to examine the condition of Nicholas Allen’s wound.
As I moved closer, I accidentally caught Amelia’s eye. She gave me a small, seemingly grateful smile, before scurrying out of the room to help her cousin fetch clean bedlinens.
IstayedintheAllen’s tiny, cramped upstairs bedroom for hours, observing Nicholas Allen’s recovery.
Throughout the day, Amelia would step quietly into the room, bringing hot tea and morsels of food from the kitchen. The rest of her time was spent soothing Mrs. Allen and her cousins, who were besides themselves with worry.
Mr. Allen’s condition began to improve in the early afternoon. A surgeon’s assistant, called in from the apothecary, applied a poultice of herbs and ground silver to the wound. The blood, pouring out profusely from the wound for so long, finally began to congeal. And his forehead, previously hot to the touch, began to cool.
By three past noon, the old man opened his eyes, bleary from a laudanum-induced slumber. He croaked a few nonsensical words, and Mrs. Allen burst into tears.
“Your father will recover from this, I believe.” The physician said, addressing the younger Mr. Allen with a kind smile.
“Oh, thank goodness!” Louisa Allen cried, wrapping her arms around Amelia with vigor.
The doctor gave the family in-depth instructions for how the wound should be cared for, as well as the proper medicines to order from the apothecary. He then took his leave, bowing to me before departing.
“Happy to make your acquaintance, my Lord.”
I nodded back.
“And yours.”
The injured Mr. Allen grunted his thanks from the bed, wincing a little as he moved his shoulder too quickly.
Soon after, Amelia and I stepped downstairs, leaving the Allens to be with their father. As we entered the drawing room, I realized that I had not left the cramped sickroom in hours. The drawing room, despite its small size in comparison to my own such room in Mayfair, felt expansive, like a breath of fresh air.
Amelia and I had not been alone in hours… not since the carriage ride and our disastrous conversation the night before. But after the events of the day, our journey from Devonshire seemed like almost an eternity ago.
She looked up at me, her eyes wide.
“Will, you were… incredible.”
Her words were genuine, I could tell. She really meant what she said.
But instead of responding with a simple “thank you,” all I could do was stare back at her. I couldn’t get the words out.
Did she really think I wasincredible?
