by Gay, Gloria
“I can’t either!”
Liddell stole glances at Bella but Bella was hardly aware of him.
Liddell left their hotel address with the desk clerk in the event Jack should return and tipped him for his help. Then he and the girls were off.
* * *
“Indeed,” said Henrietta when they were all settled in the small hackney, “I am persuaded nothing in my experience can match this night.”
They were all relieved at the outcome, although there were as yet a few strings left to be tied. The little party settled into weary silence for the ride back to their hotel. Celia thought that admonitions from her part to Bella had better be left to a time when they were alone. She wanted to make certain no intimacies had happened between Bella and Jack although she was fairly certain there hadn’t been any. Bella still seemed the innocent she had been up to this point.
She noticed, though, that Bella’s face was hot. She examined her sister’s face and realized that she did not seem herself. Tracks of tears still glistened down her cheeks and there was a queer look about her eyes. Poor lamb, she thought, what an ordeal for an innocent like her.
* * *
Liddell was tense sitting opposite Bella and no one suspected the tumble of emotions that were going through his head. For the first time in his life his practical mind had met with something that could not be placed squarely in a ledger and solved easily. The night had unnerved him in many ways. The excitement of the chase and the happy outcome had now been replaced with unfamiliar feelings each time he cast guarded glances at Bella. Nothing in his experience had prepared him for the moment his eyes first fell on Bella.
Bella might have well been a goddess beside him for the awe in which he held her. He could not trust himself to even glance at her. That he existed in the same world as she! But to be in the same carriage, sitting in this casual way was beyond anything he could fathom. He had fallen in love at first sight and didn’t yet know it.
He only knew that his life had not prepared him for this moment and that Celia had been right when she had told him he was not in love with her, that he only thought so. How right she had been!
* * *
Any talks on the evening’s events from Celia to Bella were not destined to be discussed later that evening for by the time they had reached their hotel Bella was shaking and her face was wet with perspiration. Alarmed, her three rescuers almost carried her inside and minutes after they had settled her in bed she was wrapped in a fever and she had begun to ramble in delirium.
While the girls were settling Bella in bed Liddell waited outside, an intense look on his face. Finally, Celia came out.
“I have no idea what caused this or what Bella ails from,” she said with a worried frown. “We must arrange for a physician to see her at once, Liddell. She’s extremely ill!”
“Will one come at this hour?” asked Henrietta.
“I shall bring him by force if he refuses,” said Liddell, so that Celia looked curiously at him. The events of the night must have unnerved him, she thought, and he is not his usual self.
Liddell left shortly after in search of the physician while Celia sat down to write a letter to her mother, to tell her that Bella was safe with them, although she had been struck with a fever. They must surely remain at the hotel until Bella’s condition was diagnosed. She entreated her mother to write posthaste.
The physician, looking the worst for being awakened and almost forced to make the sick call examined Bella carefully but concluded that it was as yet too early to tell what had caused the fever and what kind of fever it was. He did not inspire much confidence although the girls made him promise he would return early the next day and make another evaluation.
They spent the night in fearful vigil by Bella’s beside.
The girls took turns with Bella during the night and Celia noticed there was a drawn look in Liddell.
“You should go back to your lodgings,” Celia advised him, her face tired and her hands red from the cold compresses, the only thing the doctor had advised to bring down Bella’s apparent high fever.
“I would not dream of leaving you and Henrietta alone at this time,” he said.
“Then why don’t you settle yourself in that chair by the window,” Celia suggested. “Bella is not as restless as before. She is sleeping now. Henrietta and I will take turns with her. It’s almost dawn.” Celia stared out the window at the black night but knew it was the dark before dawn.
“There’s an extra coverlet on the wardrobe,” she said.
“I will do so if you promise to wake me up at the slightest sign that her condition has changed.”
“I shall do so”, Celia assured him. “But please settle down on the chair. You really look exhausted. You don’t know how much I appreciate what you have done for us, Liddell.”
Finally everyone except Celia, were fast asleep. Henrietta had settled at the foot of Bella’s bed but Celia kept her quiet vigil with only her thoughts for company.
Then she heard a knock at the door. None of the others stirred, so exhausted they were, not even Liddell who slept soundly in his uncomfortable position on the chair, snoring lightly.
Celia went to the door.
“Who is it?” she asked in a muffled voice.
“It is I, Robert.”
For a moment Celia thought she was dreaming, so fuzzy and unclear his form seemed before her as she opened the door. She was exhausted from having had little sleep in two nights. She was unaware that her clothes were rumpled and that her hair was in disarray, falling to one side of her face in a tangle of waves. She stood in silence staring at Lord Merrick, unable to utter a single word.
“You must come with me at once, Miss Meade,” said Lord Merrick. “We may still avert a tragedy. “Your brother Fred has challenged Jack Longard to a duel!”
“Oh, my God!”
“There is little time to lose…”
“I’ll be ready in no time.” Celia opened the door wide for Robert to enter. But he stood just inside the door, willing her to hurry with his eyes.
Celia donned her cloak and boots in a matter minutes. She went to where Liddell, who was now awake, sat on the chair like one in a trance. She told him hurriedly what had happened and that she was leaving the girls in his care. He nodded and locked the door after them as Robert and Celia left the room and went quickly down the stairs.
Robert offered Celia his arm as they went out to the waiting coach and assisted her in. Celia felt dazed still as the carriage took off over the streets and headed to the wooded area Robert had mentioned through the inky dark that comes just before dawn.
Fred in a duel! How did this nightmare come about? He was young, a little over seventeen, and had no experience with duels. The image of Fred lying in a pool of blood came unbearably to Celia’s mind.
She was quiet, awed by Lord Merrick’s presence. He seemed to her ethereal, a vision with no substance.
“I heard of this unfortunately too late for me to stop it at the outset,” he said. “A letter from Ellen to me went astray. In the letter she informed me of your family’s difficulties and implored my interference in finding your sister Bella and Jack.
“She did not have to implore. I would have gone gladly had her letter reached me in time. The moment I received her letter I took off, hoping it was not too late. I arrived at the hotel where Jack had taken Bella hours after you had removed her. The hotel clerk mentioned the place you were going to, for a young man who accompanied you had given him the address on the chance that Jack would return.
“I went back to my townhouse to get the carriage, for I had gone to the hotel in a hack. A friend of mine was waiting for me with the disturbing news of Fred’s impending duel.”
In the dark interior of the carriage where a dim candle in a lantern illuminated half of Lord Merrick’s face, Celia listened in silence as though he was recounting a play in which the protagonists had nothing to do with her. Fred in a duel? It still seemed incredible.
“It’s to take place at dawn…we’re almost there.”
“But my brother is barely seventeen,” Celia said. “I wonder if Jack knows this!” He probably didn’t, because Fred had always looked older than his real age.
They had entered a thickly wooded area on the outskirts of London and through the trees dawn was breaking in streaks of light of a grayish blue hue. When they reached a wide meadow the carriage came to a halt and the driver jumped down and told Robert the carriage could not go through because of thickly placed gorse bushes. He said that it was as far as he could take it.
Robert told the hackney driver to wait. He then helped Celia out of the carriage and they walked quickly over a trail overrun with shrubbery and dew-wet grass. Celia felt the weeds and burrs scratch against her boots as she held on to Lord Merrick’s arm in the uneven terrain.
In the distance they saw in a clearing a small group of men all dressed in black with the morning mist lifting around them so that they were only visible from the waist up.
“We must run!” Lord Merrick yelled, pulling at Celia’s arm.
Celia ran beside Merrick as fast as she was able to, her heart pounding with the most horrible fear she had ever felt in her life. When they reached the group Jack and Fred, with their pistols drawn, had already started their paces.
“Stop!” Celia yelled as she broke away from Robert. She ran and stood between Jack and her brother with arms outstretched as they had stopped and pointed their pistols at each other.
“Celia!” Fred yelled.
“You can’t go through with this, Fred, I implore you!”
“How else can he pay for the dishonor he has done us?” Fred’s face was pale and wet. He seemed older than his age. He had grown ages in a few days.
“He’s not worth your life, Fred. Bella is safe. Nothing happened to her. Her honor is intact. I beg you for Mama’s sake! You are only seventeen!”
Fred glanced at Jack, his eyes icy.
“He assured me he was twenty-one years old,” Jack said. “I have not harmed your sister,” Jack added. “I assure you of that. You have my word on it!” Jack glanced cautiously at Tom who stood grimly by the doctor.
“Your word,” Fred said with contempt.
“I never meant any harm. Caroline planned it, but I—I changed my mind. That’s why I left Bella money to—in any case, I knew her family would come looking for her shortly—I was going to send to you a message if you didn’t…come. I just did not want to stay with Bella…I hoped her family would come soon.”
“You’re nothing but scum,” Fred said, glaring at him.
“I will apologize to her as I apologize to you,” Jack said, his head bowed. Then he turned to Celia.
“I didn’t know Fred was only seventeen, Miss Meade. He assured me he was twenty-one.”
He looked relieved to have avoided the duel. Tom, who had acted as Fred’s second, stood silently by Jack’s second and the physician, a grey haired man dressed in black as were all the others, and paid him his fee.
Jack and Fred returned the pistols to their seconds and the little group dispersed as the salmon light of dawn shot up in the sky and birds began a fearful racket at being disturbed by so much talk.
CHAPTER 20
After a few words with Fred and Celia, Tom said good-bye to them and to Lord Merrick and Liddell, with the intention of returning home.
On the way back to the carriage, Celia, walking between Fred and Lord Merrick disclosed to them her alarm at Bella’s sudden illness. They stood in the inchoate dawn and talked about what should be done.
“Can she be moved?” asked Lord Merrick.
“We don’t even know what the nature of her illness is,” Celia admitted. Unable to look directly at Robert she glanced at the trees, the wet grass—at everything but him. She felt the color rising in her face as she spoke to him.
“The physician Liddell brought to her last night could tell us very little. He said it was still too early to diagnose,” Celia added.
“If you will permit me,” said Lord Merrick, “I could arrange for our family doctor, who is in London at this time, to examine her. I’m certain he will think as I do, that she should be moved from that place at once. In fact, I think we should lose no time, but go directly to him so that he may go back with us to the hotel. That is,” he added, “if you’re in agreement.”
Fred, unnerved still from the morning’s ordeal nodded quickly, thankful that his opinion was asked. He looked toward Celia, who was silent. “My sister and I would be very grateful to you, my lord.” he said.
Celia could not find her voice in the emotion she had felt at Robert’s words and nodded. She was finally able to say, “I, too, am very grateful to you for your help, my lord.”
* * *
On the way to the physician, Lord Merrick sighed with relief that Celia and her brother Fred had allowed him to have his physician examine their sister.
Lord Merrick was a man of action and because of his father’s illness was very used to making all the decisions in his house himself. He was now anxious for them to have all the cares concerning their sister given over to him. He longed to be of service to Celia and felt protective of her young sister, who had not only gone through a terrible ordeal as a result of her impulsive nature and the influence of persons like Jack Longard but was now struck with a fever.
Although Lord Merrick accepted as fact that Celia had placed herself beyond his reach, her lovely serene face had lived too long in his heart during the weeks he had not seen her. He yearned to be near her even if they could not be together. Forgotten as though it had not happened was the scene at the woods between Celia and Bannister. Later he had chastised himself for his reaction.
Upon examining the event in his mind he had determined that he had come upon what could be termed as a stolen kiss. He later recalled Celia’s startled look and her quick separation from Scott Bannister.
Lord Merrick was tense from the nearness to Celia. She appeared deep in concentration, probably wondering how she would deal with having to depend on him for Bella’s recovery. He would try to make it as easy on her as he would try to make it for her ill sister.
He did not trust his voice with small talk so he looked out the window instead. In truth, rejection again would be such a knife thrust in his heart that he preferred not to know, not to read it in Celia’s eyes. Ignorance held hope, while knowledge might be death itself.
* * *
The group made the trip back to the hotel in silence. Celia could see that Fred, who had little in common with Lord Merrick and had never spoken three words together to him was silently thankful. Celia glanced at him fondly. He looked broody over the morning’s events and was probably light-headed and drained of energy. She was certain he had had little sleep the night before and had spent the larger part of the night in the tension that precedes a duel.
Celia could still not shake the feeling that she must soon wake from a dream and that none of this could be real. She stole a glance at Lord Merrick. He was lost in thought as he stared out the window. The carriage sped over the cobbled streets and while the fog had not fully lifted it had become ragged enough that it allowed traffic to proceed.
Celia felt a warm glow at how Robert had come to their aid and he also seemed eage
r that Celia should place the burden of Bella’s illness on his shoulders.
What would have happened if he hadn’t come to get her to stop the duel?
Yet even as she tried to calm herself, nearness to him mixed with the embarrassment of how intimate he had become with her family’s troubles made her heart beat alarmingly fast. She wanted to arrive so that she could breathe, for the tension was becoming unbearable. Of all the outcomes she had imagined, one in which Robert played such a prominent part—or any part at all—had never even crossed her mind. Once she had told him she could not marry him, he had seemed so removed from her life and so unreachable that his nearness was now very unnerving.
“We’re here,” Lord Merrick said, cutting through Celia’s troubling thoughts.
They had arrived at the physician’s house and Robert got down to make the inquiries while Celia put Fred up to date on the rest of the events that had lately shaken their family. Fred was surprised that their mother had been called to Farley Hall with such urgency and wondered what could be happening there.
“I think you should catch up with Mother,” Celia told Fred. “Ellen has been kind enough to assist her, but she may need to return to her home and may not want to leave Mother alone at the hall.”
Fred agreed and assured Celia that as soon as Bella had been settled at the Merrick townhouse and he had an idea of what her illness was he would leave for the journey directly to Farley Hall. They were in agreement that it would be better to have some knowledge of Bella’s condition in order to transmit it to their mother. Lord Merrick had told them on the way that his townhouse staff was directed by his Aunt Amanda, so that it was perfectly proper for Celia and Bella to spend a few days in his house until Bella recovered.
Lord Merrick and Dr. Lorne emerged from the house and Fred and Bella made room for them in the carriage. Again the wheels rattled over the cobblestones, but now the silence was broken by the doctor’s terse voice as he asked Celia more particulars about her sister’s symptoms.
At last they arrived and once Dr. Lorne had examined Bella he agreed with Robert that she should be moved at once to the Merrick’s townhouse. He assured Celia that Bella would be warmly wrapped and transferred in a manner that would ensure her comfort and safety. From his examination he had concluded that they should let the fever run under his supervision, for though Bella had some symptoms of pneumonia he needed to make a more thorough examination in order to be certain.