Elijah wondered whether perhaps his sister might have joined her or even one of his brothers, but then Lady Durham turned to the door and said, “Doctor, please come in.”
A slightly embarrassed expression crossed the butler’s face when Elijah turned a glower upon him. Some kind of warning from the man might have been nice.
Where was Harold when he needed to glower at him also? It was as though he had sensed their arrival coming imminently and hadn’t wanted to be there when all hell broke loose.
Sucking in a deep breath, Elijah forced a smile to greet Doctor Redditch, who entered the room upon his mother’s call with a confident smile. Clearly, he did not sense the tension in Elijah at his presence.
“Lord Spurnrose, it is a pleasure to meet you again,” Doctor Redditch greeted him with a bow of his head.
Forcing himself to his feet, Elijah moved away from the table and suggested to the butler, “I am finished. We shall retire to the drawing room to let you go about your work.”
“Of course, My Lord,” the butler responded, bowing and holding open the door for them.
Elijah barely spoke as he gestured for his mother and the doctor to go with him.
As they walked down the hall towards the drawing room, his mother commented, “You are looking remarkably well, Elijah. Much healthier than I anticipated.”
Elijah scoffed a little at that. No doubt his mother’s overactive imagination and love of the dramatics had had him on his deathbed, all cold and pasty and moments from taking his last breath. He could imagine all too easily how insane she had driven his father until he had finally agreed to let her travel alone to Oxford to be with him.
“I must agree with your mother,” Doctor Redditch said as they entered the drawing room, and Elijah turned back to find the doctor scrutinising him quite suspiciously.
“Your cousin led us to believe that …” Lady Durham said, pausing to gulp and look at Doctor Redditch as though she required his support.
Though she looked quite healthy herself for an older woman, Elijah noticed that her dark hair was greyer than the last he had seen her, and she seemed to have a few more wrinkles about her eyes.
“What your mother means to say, My Lord is that we were led to believe you were quite ill and in need of immediate medical attention,” the doctor explained, looking from Lady Durham to Elijah once more. It was clear that they were both quite surprised to see Elijah even speaking, let alone standing or able to move.
“I am afraid that the two of you may well have been greatly misinformed,” Elijah said, and he was unable to stop from adding, “and it is likely a good job as I cannot say that this medical treatment has been immediate.”
He raised an eyebrow at the doctor, and how his mother cleared her throat suggested that his words had been quite rude. For once, Elijah did not care about a doctor's feelings, a man who had been one of those to corroborate the diagnosis of consumption that he had been given months earlier.
Just as all the others had, he had been all too willing to prescribe strong painkillers and tell him to make himself comfortable, to prepare for the worst.
I can see now why Lady Belmont likes to keep herself to herself,Elijah thought, realising even more why she had been reluctant to get involved.
“Perhaps, My Lord, you might allow me a few minutes to examine you?” Doctor Redditch asked, looking as though he was trying his hardest to remain unfazed. “Unfortunately, a man with yourconditioncan sometimes have a last rally before … the end.”
Elijah was unable to stop laughing openly at that. If that were the case, then he had had his last rally several times over by now, and by rights ought to have been six feet under.
“With all due respect, Doctor …” Elijah started to decline, but before he could finish, hurried footsteps paused outside the door.
“Elijah, I have it.”
Elijah cringed as Harold appeared, holding the glass vial of tonic in full view for everybody to see.
“Oh! Lady Durham!” Harold exclaimed, stopping dead in his tracks. He looked between his aunt and the doctor and then at Elijah, his expression becoming apologetic as though he had already sensed his mistake. “Cousin, you didn’t tell me your mother was coming to visit.”
Elijah scowled back at his cousin, knowing that if anyone had known of her arrival then it would have been him. After all, he had practically been her spy all this time.
Rather discreetly, however, Harold started to slip the vial he held behind his back. It was clear from the look on his face that he did not intend to draw attention to it.
Yet Doctor Redditch, just like his colleagues, appeared to be a bloodhound. “What exactly is it you have there, Mr Spurnrose, is it?”
A lump immediately formed in Elijah’s throat. He could already sense how the doctor would react if he were to learn the truth.
“Oh, it is nothing,” Harold said quickly. He shook his head and continued to hold the vial behind him, but the doctor did not appear at all convinced.
He eyed Harold closely, and Elijah’s stomach twisted.
