“I sent this recipe to Gilroy today,” she said as she spread more of the honey preparation on a dressing. “I’ll send a jar of it with your things tomorrow, to give him time to make his own. You should use it for at least another week.”
“Honey,” David murmured, looking at her through half-lidded eyes.
“Yes, that’s the main ingredient.” She continued to wind the bandage.
* * *
The evening dragged on tortuously slow. Not even spending time with Georgia and Miss Kenyon could shake Ashley’s melancholy. Things might have been different if they were attending a ball and she had the chance to dance. Instead Aunt Eunice and Uncle Edward took her to the home of friends for a card party, and then to another rout. Neither Westbrook or Fairfax, nor any of the other singers she’d come to enjoy hearing, were present at either gathering.
Amidst the noise of conversation and tinkling glassware, Ashley heard David’s voice in her head. Singing. Humming. Whatever he’d been doing yesterday afternoon, the sounds he’d been making, before she silenced him with a kiss. She didn’t recognize the tune. Had he been creating a new composition? She played it in her head over and over, hoping she remembered the notes correctly. Wondering if she’d ever hear the rest of it.
After Sally and Maggie helped her prepare for bed, she brought out the slates and chalk she’d had them pick up on their errands earlier that day, and gave them their first reading lesson before she dismissed them for the night.
As she put away the chalk, Ashley noticed letters on a silver salver waiting on her desk, next to the papers she had Sally buy that was preprinted with lines for composing music. It had been a gamble that such paper would be available from a stationer rather than needing to go to a shop that catered to musicians. The stack was thinner than she remembered. Perhaps those had indeed been paper ashes she’d noticed in the fireplace. Several sheets on top of the stack were filled with musical notations.
“You’ve been busy,” she said under her breath, trying to hear the notes in her head as she looked over the music. None of it seemed to match the tune he’d been singing when she kissed him.
“Yes, I was.” David rolled over and sat up on the side of the bed nearest the desk, swinging his feet to the floor. “My apologies. I didn’t intend to use so much of your paper. I’m out of practice.”
She held up one of the sheets. “It was purchased for you.” She smiled at his expression of surprise. “Is this composition intended for voice, or a particular instrument?”
“Haven’t decided yet. Was just trying to get the melody down.” In an adorable gesture, he shrugged with one shoulder and gave her a bashful grin. He slipped his arms into his banyan as he rose from the bed and limped to the privacy screen.
Peers of the realm were not adorable, she told herself sternly, even if they were sitting on her bed half naked with mussed hair. To distract herself, she broke open the seal on the top letter.“Thank you for your inquiry into the vacancy on our staff. We regret to inform you…”Trying to ignore the sting of rejection, she tossed it aside and opened the next.“While commendable, we feel your experience is not suitable…”She tossed that one aside, too, barely resisting the urge to slam her fist on the desk. How in Hades was she going to support herself if she couldn’t secure another position?
Tears blurred her vision when she realized the next letter was from Mrs. Rafferty. She hugged it to her chest.
“Bad news, honey?” David stood behind her chair, one hand resting on her shoulder.
Ashley sniffed and composed herself. “Those were.” She pointed at the first two letters. “But this is from a former colleague. A teacher who became a dear friend.” She cleared her throat. “You would consider her a friend also, as this week I’ve used much of what she taught me.” Briefly, she closed her eyes as she felt him gently squeeze her shoulder. “It is her recipes I’ve been using for the honey poultice and healing balms.” She rose but he did not step away, and without thinking she darted her tongue out to lick her lips, remembering what his felt like on hers. She cleared her throat. “It’s time to change your bandage.”
As he was wide awake, they sat at the table by the window, her supplies close at hand. David slipped his right arm out of the banyan and rested it on the table, palm up. Ashley struggled to focus her attention on his arm and not his bare shoulder and chest, glowing golden in the candlelight.
“When the school closed, Mrs. Rafferty was kind enough to let me keep her copy of Culpeper’sHerbal. She knew it so well she could practically recite it. She kept the apothecary chest, though.” She removed the old bandage and set it aside.
“The new owners didn’t want the chest?”
Ashley flattened her lips at the unpleasant memory. “Madame Zavrina’s brother said he had no need for it, as a doctor was among the first clients to sign up for a membership in his new establishment. He calls it a club, but everyone knows it’s a brothel.”
“He turned the school into a brothel? His sister must be rolling over in her grave.”
Ashley stared at him. “You’re the first person not to laugh.”
“Well, it is funny.” He coughed. “Mildly. I was thinking of you and the other staff, the teachers. How hard it must have been to lose someone close to you as well as your employment.”
“And my home,” she whispered as she applied the poultice. “He gave us a fortnight’s notice to pack up and leave. Unless we wanted to stay and work for him. Those he deemed not pretty enough to entertain customers were welcome to work in the kitchen or as maids.” She licked some of the honey mixture from her thumb and index fingertip.
As she reached for the strip of muslin, she realized his gaze was fixated on her mouth. Reflexively, she swiped her tongue over her lips, making certain she didn’t miss any honey.
David groaned, she’d swear he did, but he shifted in his seat, making his chair creak, so she couldn’t be certain. He gestured at the letters on the desk with his free arm. “Are you still in communication with any of your other colleagues?”
“Mrs. Rafferty is the only one so far. I was among the last to leave so I was able to say goodbye to everyone.” Ashley began winding the muslin bandage on his arm. “Miss Chase and I would pore over maps while she prepared her geography lessons and talk of traveling to far off places. She especially wanted to visit Spain. I wonder if she’s found a way to go there.” Ashley gathered up the soiled muslin. “Stay put.”
The old bandage sizzling on the coals, she retrieved fresh muslin strips and sat down again to finish. David rested his elbow on the table, his forearm raised. He repeatedly flexed the fingers of his right hand, grimacing as he did so.
“Are you in pain?”
“It itches.” He grimaced again and twisted his arm back and forth.
