AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Miss Mildred Walsh
He nodded. “This will do. I will send you a missive when I have the girl in hand.” He stuffed the note into his pocket.
“But, Gerard.” She thrust her hip out and began to twirl a strand of her hair. “Do you have to leave so quickly?”
God’s bones, how would he tolerate her until this is finished and he finds a new chit? “I’m afraid I must hurry off, my dear. The girl will be out of school in a little over an hour and I need to prepare everything.” He turned to go, but she tugged on his arm.
“Wait, how will I know where to send the missive to you when I hear from St. John?”
Gerard pinched the skin on the bridge of his nose. “When I send you the note that I have the girl in hand, I will include my direction.”
With those parting words, he was finally able to escape her presence. He hurried down the steps and patted the note in his pocket. This would be the first move toward the life he wanted. And deserved.
* * *
Natalie cutoff the end of the catgut that closed the wound on Mr. Belkins’ forehead. He had received the injury when his head hit the corner of a table in his house. The poor man had very little sight left, so it was no wonder he stumbled around his house. “There you are, sir. All stitched up.”
“Thank you, missy. I sure wish the good doctor kept some whisky handy. That would have made the sewing a tad easier.”
Natalie smiled at the older man. “I’m sorry about that, Mr. Belkins, but Dr. Stevens is quite adamant about not having spirits in the infirmary.”
He climbed off the table where Natalie had performed the sewing. “Now Mr. Belkins. You must try to rest and wait until your daughter comes home from her job, rather than trying to do things yourself.”
“I don’t know how I’m going to do that with all the work that needs to be done.” Mrs. Belkins had passed onto her final reward over a year before, and Miss Sadie Belkins had taken over the care of her father, but she needed to work to support them.
Natalie heard so many of these stories from their patients. Although Rayne had several Upper Crust patients that she always said paid the bills, it was the working class and under class that were the bulk of her patients. They paid very little, and Natalie knew whatever they paid was a sacrifice for them.
Most times the mothers with small children left with a basket of foodstuffs from Cook.
She helped Mr. Belkins out the door, but the man refused to have her call a hackney for him. She even stated it was part of the treatment, but he laughed and waved her off with his walking stick.
It didn’t take long to clean up the surgery area. She glanced at the clock, thinking that Rayne should be back from her calls on mothers-to-be and a couple of patients she saw on a regular basis who could not come into the office.
She stretched and headed to the kitchen where she assumed Annalise would be enjoying her after-school snack. Cook was busy cleaning the kitchen from the day’s work.
She was a part-time employee who only fixed breakfast and lunch for Natalie, Rayne, and the few servants who worked at the infirmary part time as well. As much as Rayne had fought with Sterling about who would pay those wages, he had won out and took care of that expense. He told Natalie at one point that, since he did Rayne’s books, there was no way she could pay those people, along with her medical supplies and groceries.
He also paid Natalie’s wages, which she discovered by mistake. As uncomfortable as that made her, she realized that Sterling was just trying to take the stress off his wife so she could concentrate on the medical part of her practice. He was truly a loving husband to her sister.
Natalie looked around the kitchen. “Where is Annalise?”
Cook looked up from where she was wiping down the wooden table she used for meal preparations. “Oh, my dear. I hadn’t realized how late it was. She hasn’t arrived yet.”
Natalie felt a tug in her stomach. It was more than a half hour beyond the time she usually arrived. Sterling had arranged for his carriage to bring her to school in the morning and pick her up after school and drop her at the infirmary.
“That is quite odd because if Sterling’s driver didn’t see Annalise leave school I’m sure he would have looked for her.”
Cook looked up from her work with a frown. “I’m sure all is well, Mrs. Shaw.”
Natalie was not so sure. Call it mother’s intuition, but she had a strange feeling in her stomach. Even with the heaviest traffic, it would take no more than twenty minutes for the carriage to drive from the school to the infirmary. She looked at her timepiece. It was forty-five minutes past the time school had ended.
She took a deep breath and calmed herself with the idea that the carriage was unable to pick her up for some reason, a broken wheel or such, and Annalise had decided to walk. Convincing herself that was what had happened, she flew out of the infirmary and began the walk to her daughter’s school.
Words raced through her mind about what she would tell her daughter when she caught up with her. Walking home from school was not acceptable. If the carriage didn’t show up for some reason, she should ask the schoolmaster to secure a hackney for her which Natalie would pay for when she arrived.
Growing more panicky as she didn’t encounter her daughter along the way, she hurried up the steps to the school door. Luckily the door was not locked so she entered and stepped into the Schoolmaster’s office.
Mr. Thatcher stood as she entered the office. “Good afternoon, Mrs. Shaw. How may I be of service to you today?”
