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Adrienne watched, resentfully at first, then slowly with degrees of u
nderstanding.
‘I’ll get fresh water,’ she offered after the sixth time.
‘Cooler,’ Hester told her.
When Adrienne came back she continued. Radnor’s pulse was still racing and weaker, but his temperature was lower.
‘Put the bowl down and take one of the other towels,’ Hester told her. ‘And do the same to his legs, as high up as you can.’
Adrienne looked startled. ‘I can’t! It’s—’
Hester tried to be patient. ‘Do you want him alive or dead? His legs aren’t any different from any other man’s.’
‘He’s my father!’
Hester met Adrienne’s gaze, and saw the terror in her, the embarrassment, the fear of loneliness.
‘Adrienne,’ Hester said more gently, ‘this is necessary if we are to save him. If you prefer to, you continue with the upper part of his body, just as I was doing, and I will take his legs. It is beginning to work.’ Please heaven that was true. ‘But we must keep going. If the fever breaks then we will be all right . . . at least for the time being.’
‘Will he?’ Adrienne’s voice was hoarse. ‘Are you sure?’
What should she say? It was all they could do. There was no other way she knew of to bring the fever down before it killed him. Perhaps all their lives depended on it.
‘Keep cooling him down with the water,’ Hester told her. ‘Gently! If we can lower the fever it will save him.’
The tears spilled over and ran down Adrienne’s face. ‘Thank you.’ She took a deep, shuddering breath.
They worked all night. Rand came back with tea for both of them and a mixture of spirits and cordial to offer to Radnor if he should regain consciousness and be able to swallow.
As the very first light showed palely in the east, so that black branches of the trees were outlined against the sky, Radnor opened his eyes.
‘Papa!’ Adrienne was overwhelmed with relief. She grasped his hand and held it to her face, kissing it again and again.
Hamilton Rand looked at Hester and very slowly smiled.
‘Thank you, Mrs Monk. You were true to your highest calling.’
Hester looked at Radnor and met his eyes. In them she saw arrogance and victory, and the second after, his knowledge that she had seen it and knew it for what it was.
She felt as if ice had touched her heart.
Chapter Eight
MONK SEARCHED every avenue he could to find Hester. He spoke with all his own contacts along the river, including Crow, who told him of his visit with Hester to the Roberts family, where they had learned that the children had been taken to the hospital with their father’s consent, albeit also with payment. Monk spoke privately with Sherryl O’Neill, the nurse with whom Hester had worked most closely, but Sherryl knew even less than Monk did. She was distressed herself about Hester’s disappearance, but could offer no suggestions. She was also afraid of endangering Hester by making a fuss, which Monk noted with a chill to his heart. And she confirmed that the children were no longer in the hospital.
He informed all his own men, up and down the river, of Hamilton Rand’s disappearance, but that in itself was not a crime, as Dr Magnus Rand reminded him.
Radnor and his daughter had no doubt gone willingly. But where?
It did not take long to find out where Radnor lived. His butler watched while Monk conducted a thorough search of the entire beautiful house with all its paintings, ornaments and mementoes, but they turned up nothing that indicated where Radnor had gone. It was more than possible that he had not known in advance.
Similarly there was no sign of Adrienne. Her maid said that none of her clothes was missing, except the dress she had worn the last day she had been at home. The woman had no idea where her mistress might be. In fact she was concerned that Radnor had died, and that Adrienne was so frantic with grief that she was out of her mind, wandering somewhere alone and unable to face reality.
For once Monk could think of nothing to say except to suggest she consult whatever legal or financial counsellor whose name she could find in Mr Radnor’s papers. The one thing he learned was the name and whereabouts of Radnor’s lawyer, and he determined to send Hooper to interview the man. Not that he expected much from that. Radnor had the right to come and go as he pleased, and no obligation to inform anyone. He had committed no offence whatever.
Monk left with his mind whirling. He walked down the quiet street in the sun and felt neither its brightness nor its warmth.
