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“I do not understand.”
“It is far too complicated and painful to explain. All I can say is that your mother…was love’s biggest advocate.”
Then why did love disappoint her so horribly? was what I wanted to ask, when a knock came at the door. I watched as the footmen brought in a copper bathtub, and a stream of maids brought in kettles of water to fill it with…they were certainly fast here.
“Mary, Bernice, help her up,” the marchioness said to them, and I did not protest.
My mind was but a fog and I knew the cause not to be a fever, but my own thoughts. I was not so weak as to be brought down by rain, not as often as I had found myself walking through it. No, I was sure the cause of my present condition was that man and my confusion over what I was now supposed to do.
Was this how he felt upon discovering his attraction to me? What mess of himself did he make pondering such emotions?
I wished to ask him…I had so much I wished to ask him. But there was no way for us to speak, not like we had done yesterday, in the aviary. I could do nothing but wait and hope for another series of events to bring us together again. But surely if that were to happen it would be called fate.
Fate.
Very well, I would leave it to that power, and if he somehow managed to appear today as well, I would not question…these feelings, but dare to explore where they would lead me.
After all, it should be impossible for us to meet again so soon. He was a doctor. He had patients…before recently I had seen him only twice, and briefly, on my brother’s account. The Du Bells would have no engagements outside today. The only possible explanation would be the will of God.
It was that simple.
Theodore
“Tell me, Doctor, what is the matter with her? She’s already lost two of her teeth and gone limp!” the older woman begged beside me as she held one babe on her left hip and the other small child clung to her apron.
I had decided to listen to my uncle and visit a few patients on the east side of town, and somehow found myself seeing more than two dozen children within the same home. At least five families were sharing the house I was in now. I’d gradually gone up the stairs, door by door, examining children no older than seven, who were unable to get out of their beds.
“I’m telling you it was Amanda’s boy, on the second floor…he got the rest of them sick. His disease is going to kill my baby!” the woman hollered at me and her husband, who stood at the door, arms crossed. Both his shirt and his arms were covered in ink and sweat.
“Rebecca, calm down and the let doctor work, you are scaring them. It’s a few teeth—”
“She is a girl, Tim! Who is going to marry a girl with no teeth?”
“She is six years old! Her teeth were going to come out anyway.”
“And the bruises on her body?”
“She is a child, she bumps into things, that’s what children do. They were all playing rough—”
“I know my daughter, Tim, and I know she is sick! That rotten little boy made her sick, made them all sick, and now…and now…she’s going to die!”
“She needs oranges,” I finally spoke, glancing from the little blonde girl back to her parents. They looked at me as if I were mad.
“I beg your pardon, Doctor?” Tim frowned, glaring at me. “Oranges?”
“Strawberries will do too. Even tomatoes. Not just her, but Mrs. Miller’s son on the second floor also. They have scurvy…the remedy is fresh fruit and vegetables.” It was a disease most common among sailors from my studies…it should not have been affecting so many children. “After a few fruits she should start feeling better in two days, continue for two weeks and she shall make a full recovery.”
They were silent, which in my short time here I noticed was not common. Rebecca said nothing, holding on to the two children beside her tightly. Finally, Tim spoke up, his voice a bit softer.
“You don’t have something else that will work?”
I stared at him. “No, unfortunately.”
“There isn’t much in the way of fruits on the market these days,” Tim said to me.
“I saw a stand of fruits not a minute’s walk up from here—”
“Andy’s shop?” Rebecca huffed, lifting the baby again on her hips. “I’d need to sell this one just to afford two or three of his rotten supply.”
“Rotten?”
“He buys off any leftover from the other side of town and brings them here to sell to us for nearly half a day’s wage.”
“Surely the man would want to have customers for his enterprise. He cannot be so overpriced.” What good was it to sell food no one could afford to buy? “Will it not go to waste if he does not sell?”
