Mr. Hammonds thought for a moment. “I wonder if Mr. McOwen has the terriers looking for rats today?” He looked out the door and beckoned over a footman who was passing by. The fellow nodded, and hurried away. “Mr. McOwen has the young pups hunting in the attics. If he has had any luck, he’ll bring a rat down to us directly.”
While waiting for Mr. McOwen, Gran’ther Tim and Dr. Dermott conferred together. After a short deliberation, Gran’ther Tim went out and brought back plantain and comfrey.
Dr. Dermott mashed the plants together in a pestle, then added a splash of vinegar. He then soaked a length of bandage from his bag in vinegar, plastered David’s hand with the mashed plants and wrapped it in the soaked bandages. Mr. Hammonds hastily placed a large ewer on David’s lap to keep the mess from soaking the young man’s trousers or dripping onto the floor.
Meanwhile, dinner preparations went on at their usual pace. Mr. Hammonds sent David to the Upper Servants’ dining area to clear the butlery so that he could continue with his work.
Warner came down and passed through on his way to the washroom, carrying the Duke’s soiled linens. When he saw David sitting in the dining area, he raised his eyebrows to nearly comical heights. “What happened to you, David? Got your hand caught in a door?”
“Not sure,” David replied. “But Dr. Dermott and Gran’ther Tim poulticed it, and it is feeling a lot better.”
“Good, good,” Warner nodded. “Mind where you put those hands, you might need them someday.” Having made this sage, if incomprehensible, pronouncement, he went on down the stairs.
Betty McGuire had come into the servants’ dining room to set the table for the evening meal, and looked over at David with sympathy. “Will you be feelin’ good enough to have a bit of supper, David?”
“My hand is feeling better, and breakfast was a long time ago. I think I could eat.”
“What was with that one and his comment?” Betty nodded toward the stairs where Warren disappeared.
“Who could possibly know?” David frowned “Nor do I care. He’s always on about something.”
“We’ll see to it that ye won’t starve,” Betty smiled at the young man. “You just rest easy, and we’ll work around you.”
David leaned back in the chair, resting his head against the tall ladder back, and closed his eyes. His hand throbbed. Both his grandfather and his older brother, Christopher Hammonds, had warned him that service could be hard with unexpected hazards. But he had never dreamed that it could be dangerous. Chris had always said that he could find trouble if there was any to be had. But this time trouble had found him while he was doing exactly as he should. Why would the Duchess have an old coin in her reticule? Especially an old coin coated in some unknown substance.
I would gladly trade getting a dressing down from Grandfather for flirting with the maids for this latest mess I’ve gotten myself into.
Chapter 16
The following morning dawned bright and clear as if the storm had never happened. The last of the guests ascended the winding mountain trail back toward Edinburgh and their own holdings. The final few traders packed up their remaining wares, and likewise departed. The household resumed its normal routine, including Celeste getting up early to take care of the household floral arrangements.
Celeste wanted something special for the Duke’s study. The violets and asparagus fern had been nice, but she had in mind an arrangement that would truly impress. When she asked Mr. Hammonds about some wild gathering, he had suggested she go out with Gran’ther Tim, taking Betty with them for propriety and to help carry back anything they found. Everyone had been far too busy during the spring trade fair to think about extras.
On top of that, one of the footmen had developed some sort of rash on his right hand. The hand had swelled up, and the poor man developed a fever. That made the staff a man short, adding to the difficulty of getting all the work done at such a busy time.
But with the guests all gone home and the spring weather becoming increasingly warm, a day was found for Celeste, Gran’ther Tim and Betty to go wild gathering.
Betty was with the gardener when Celeste reached the kitchen door. “This’ll be fun! Celeste, thank you so much for asking for me to go along. Gran’ther Tim has been the gardener here ‘most forever, an’ he knows ever’one an’ ever’thing, so we are sure to find something you can use.”
Gran’ther Tim touched his forelock and grinned. “Not quite ever’one and not quite ever’thing, but I do know a bit. Now, Hammonds says you two wants to go gatherin’ stuff fer boo-kays.” He put a heavy emphasis on the “boo”.
Celeste nodded. “Something nice for the Duke’s study, not too floral or feminine.”
“Not floral, eh?” Gran’ther Tim pushed back his straw hat and scratched his head. “Well I knows where they’s some catkins an’ some purty grasses. But they’s up by the Lolly Mire. We can go there, if yer not too scairt. But mind you two don’t be goin’ up there by yerselves, ner after dark. That’s where the body was found and where Farmer Jenson’s sheep got stuck, and a high old time they had getting’ the old girl out. Wound up breakin’ ‘er neck, so’s she was the guestin’ feast durin’ the fair.”
Dire warnings about dead maids and drowning sheep notwithstanding, it felt grand to be out in the spring sunshine. The gardener walked with them down to the edge of the mire and they gathered a few stalks of catkins.
Celeste saw some dried winter grasses and seeds that looked promising. “Is it all right to pick those?” she asked the gardener.
“Yes’m. But don’t you go beyond the edge here. That looks like a field of grass, but ‘tis really floating grass chunks on top o’ water. You steps out on those chunks an’ ye’ll go straight to the bottom, ye will.”
Celeste shuddered. Carefully, she used the shears the gardener had thoughtfully provided to cut several long grasses and dried grass heads that had survived the winter.
A small brown bird with long legs started up out of the grass and lighted in a clump several yards away. It began scolding in a high-pitched shrill voice.
“Wood sandpiper,” Gran’ther Tim said. “They’uns live all along the marsh edge. Come summer they nests in the reeds. He’s tellin’ us we’s too close to ‘is courtin’ spot, I reckon.”
“Poor fellow. We should get back to the house with our treasures then. I should get these arranged before the Duchess wants me.” Then Celeste spotted some ferns and green moss. “Oh! But could we have some of those?”
