“Good morning, Your Grace.”
“Good morning, Mrs. Clark,” he said, with the intonation of a question.
“I just came up to tell you that I have a pot of my special broth going on the fire. My mother raised eight children on it, and we never got sick. I made it special for Her Grace. The secret is fresh ginger root,” the poor woman kept babbling, and Colin, instead of being annoyed (or even affronted) by her taking liberties and eavesdropping at his sick wife’s door, found himself a hairsbreadth away from hugging the dear old woman.
Lizzie is so loved, he thought with a tight throat.
“Thank you, Mrs. Clark. Please go into the room and tell Mrs. Cooper; she will see to it that Her Grace drinks the broth.”
He turned away from his cook abruptly (not because he needed to hide his misty eyes) and rushed to his study.
As Mrs. Cooper uncovered his wife’s back, Colin had to sit on his hands like his tutor used to have him do when he was a vivacious young boy. He could see that Doctor Cooper was careful not to touch Elizabeth’s skin as he arranged the heated glass containers on her back.
Is the heat hurting her? Is the cupping painful?He wondered and grimaced at the thought of causing Lizzie any morediscomfort. When he opened his eyes, he was met with Mrs. Cooper’s curious gaze.
“I’ve had this done to me before,” she said. “It doesn’t hurt.”
“How did you know what I was thinking about?” he asked in astonishment.
Mrs. Cooper glanced at her husband and then returned her eyes to Lizzie’s back. “I know what I would worry about if this were being done to someone I loved.”
Colin’s love for his wife, acknowledged out loud for the first time ever, sat in the room with them now; more precisely, itloomed– bright and gargantuan and conspicuous.
Elizabeth’s fever seemed to have burned off the last of Colin’s resistance to the truth. He looked at the slight woman who was now stroking his wife’s hair, grateful that she had taken his burden from him and set it down so he could finally rest.
Then, without knowing why, he told her, “She might leave me when she’s well enough to do so. I’ve made some mistakes, you see…” he trailed off, perplexed.
“If she does leave you,” Doctor Cooper said calmly, as if this was the type of conversation one had every day, “the only thing you shall feel is happiness that she’s healthy enough to do so. Let’s worry about that now, shall we?”
Talbot watched, transfixed, as the dark blood beaded on Lizzie’s skin.
It looks almost black,he thought.Surely it is unhealthy and must be removed. Lord, please let this help her. Please help her heal. Please let her come back to me, even if only to turn around and leave me.
“I should write to her mother,” Talbot said after a while.
“We’ll sit with her,” Mrs. Cooper said, but Talbot still rang for Mary, who, when she arrived, told him that she’d already sent Robert to fetch Miss Williams, her own parents, and Jane.
“Thank you, Mary, I only remembered them now.”
“You’re welcome. Please remember to rest as well, Your Grace. Mrs. White said you haven’t been using the bedroom she made up for you.”
“I want to stay with my wife,” he said petulantly.
“Do you want us to bring in a cot so you can sleep here?”
“That is a good idea. Thank you, Mary.”
He watched as Mary also stroked his wife’s hair as she leaned down to whisper something to her. He was no longer concerned with the propriety of their relationship, but was, instead, thankful for its existence, and he felt the tender love the two friends shared spill over to touch him as well through Mary’s concern for his rest.
Elizabeth’s fever burned for two more nerve-racking days, during which Doctor Cooper and his wife had moved into the Duke’s house together with Elizabeth’s mother and the mean-looking old maid whose name was apparently Jane.
Despite the gaggle of people currently living in it, the house was subdued and quiet, and mealtime conversations were stilted. Colin was a most impolite host, too steeped in his guilt to worry about decorum or his guests. No one seemed to hold it against him, though. The women misinterpreted his guilt as concern and were touched by it. Again, he didn’t care (or notice).
Mrs Cooper and Miss Williams spent a lot of time in hushed conversations, Jane spent her time with Mrs Clark, and the Coopers had each other, which left Colin without anyone.
It didn’t bother him, seeing as he was just waiting for everyone to go to sleep so he could be left alone with his wife. Sometimes, he’d bring his old philosophy textbook from the library and read it to her, because grappling with the different moral and intellectual concepts helped occupy and soothe his thoughts. Then he’d pray and think of her last words to him.
Then he would lie down beside her, hold her hand, and just talk to her: about his day, about his love, about his regrets.
