by Lucy Langton
“No,” Louisa said firmly, “and we’re getting a different doctor. I’m never allowing that one to set foot in our home again.”
Martha took the cold compress off of her forehead and looked astonished. “But ...” she stammered, “Doctor Franklin is a dear friend of my sister’s, and if we don’t allow him to come back, she’ll think …”
“She can think whatever she wishes, for that man is nothing more than a fool, and I will not allow him to be responsible for overseeing Father’s recovery,” Louisa told her mother. Martha responded by emitting a high-pitched whine and falling back upon the couch once more, as though she were a child who had just been told that she could not have one final sweet after dinner.
“Mother,” Louisa snapped, and the formal address that Martha had received made her look up at her daughter suddenly. “I know how worried you are about Papa, and that concern is making you feel rather incapacitated, but I cannot do all of this on my own. Either you must assist me with tending to Papa, or you must take up some of the household tasks that Sophie does not have time for. What will it be?”
Martha was obviously not used to being spoken to so directly, as Archie tended to be overly lenient with her odd behaviour. However, she was not so unusual as not to understand when her daughter needed serious help, and so she simply nodded, sat up, and quietly said, “I do not understand a great deal of the household affairs, and so I shall see to Archie when you cannot. Has he had his lunch?”
Louisa was pleasantly surprised by her mother’s response to her ‘tough love’ approach. “No, he has not, and I have not yet had time to make anything, so …”
But Louisa did not need to finish, as her mother was already up and heading to the kitchen to begin preparing something. Louisa allowed herself a moment of pride as she watched her mother taking up a task that she did not ordinarily attend to. Then, there was a knock at the door, and Louisa’s attention was pulled to the entryway.
That’s odd, Louisa thought, I wonder why Sophie is knocking and waiting to enter after returning from the market. She’s worked here for long enough that she knows she can simply walk inside.
But when Louisa grabbed the door handle and pulled it open, she saw that it was not Sophie at all. Standing in their doorway was Isaac and Gregory Quince, and Louisa’s heart very nearly stopped in surprise.
Chapter 10
Louisa’s mouth hung open for so long at the shock of seeing the brothers at her doorstep that eventually, Isaac had to start speaking first. “Good afternoon, Miss Louisa,” he said very respectfully. “We heard this morning of your father’s attack, and so we brought over some items that we thought might be helpful to you in this difficult time.”
Isaac gestured to the carriage behind him, and Louisa saw that it was filled to the brim with food, both pre-prepared and fresh. She nearly had to pinch herself when she saw it, for she could not believe that that much beautiful food was for her and her family to eat.
“That ... that is for us?” she asked.
“I wish that we could have brought more,” Isaac said, running his fingers through his hair thoughtfully, “but this was the largest carriage that we owned. Will that food suffice for a week? We shall come and drop more off at that time, but if you think that you might need more …”
“Oh goodness, no, this will be more than we could eat in a month, thank you Isa – I mean, Mr Quince.” Louisa caught Gregory’s eye after she very nearly addressed his brother by his first name, and he looked amused.
“Our pleasure,” Isaac responded. “We do not wish to keep you from tending to him, but we did want to check and see how he was doing.”
Louisa was almost certain that Gregory did not care one bit about how her father was doing, and it was likely that the Duchess had sent him along with Isaac to ensure that he was not seen returning to the Pelham household by himself once again. “He’s ... not doing as well as we’d hoped, but he is doing surprisingly well for having had a major apoplectic fit only three days ago.”
Both brothers’ eyes widened. “He’s suffering from apoplexy?” Gregory asked, suddenly genuinely interested in what was happening to her father.
“Yes, thankfully, I was in the room when it happened, but he still has his entire left side paralyzed, and his right side is struggling to recuperate as well,” Louisa responded.
“Has Doctor Abbot been to see him yet?” Isaac asked urgently.
“No, he’s only been seen to by our local doctor ...” Louisa thought back on the interaction she’d had with the deplorable doctor this morning, and that memory urged her to finish her thought. “But now that you mention it, we are looking for someone new to come see him.”
“You must call upon him,” Gregory urged her, “for he is the very best at dealing with cases of apoplexy. He was the one who aided our father when he had his attack, and we credit him with the length of life that our father was able to have.”
Louisa had to turn that sentence over in her mind a few times before it truly registered with her what Gregory had said. “Your father suffered an apoplectic attack as well? I had no idea.”
Isaac nodded solemnly. “It was a truly awful experience for all of us, but I agree, it is thanks to Dr Abbott that Father recovered as well as he did. Every other doctor who came to see him told us that he would remain bedridden for the rest of his sure to be short life, but not Dr Abbott. He worked with him as much as he could to ensure that Father had every possible advantage given to him in his recovery.”
“That is excellent news. I had begun to worry that there would be no medical professionals who would be willing to assist Papa in his state. Especially ...” Louisa was about to mention the family’s state of affairs, but she knew that she did not need to. The Quince family had evidently heard a great deal of the gossip that had circulated about the Pelham family, and it was only through Louisa’s positive association with Isaac that they had begun to see through the town’s lies.
Gregory looked from his brother to Louisa. “Perhaps I shall go and unload the carriage,” he said, making his way towards where the overburdened thing sat. “But do not feel pressured to assist me, brother, for I believe that I could do with the exercise.”
Louisa nearly laughed out loud at the blatantly obvious way in which Gregory was trying to give her and Issac a moment alone together, while still remaining present as the ‘chaperone’, of sorts. However, she truthfully did not care how obvious he was being, for it was very kind of him to understand why Isaac had wanted to come and facilitate the couple’s ability to communicate.
Right at that moment, however, Sophie returned from the market with a basket full of fresh goods. When she got close enough to the house to see the massive mountain of food loaded onto the carriage, she put her basket on the ground defiantly and said, “Jeanie Mack! Why in heaven’s name did you have me running all the way into town to collect these measly fruits and vegetables when you had two fine young gentlemen delivering that great mass of food to you this afternoon! You make me feel rather redundant; you know that, Louisa?”
“Yes, but you see,” Gregory said with an armful of carrots, potatoes, and turnips as he passed her on his way into the house, “if Miss Louisa hadn’t sent you into town to fetch those things, then we never would have thought to come. It’s like a watched pot – it never boils until you’ve walked away from it for a moment to admire the day out the window.”
Sophie put her hands on her hips and gave Gregory a once over. Louisa could see the gears in her head working as hard as they could to recognize who this stranger was. She was probably noticing how similar he looked to Isaac, and yet how different they were.
“And who do you think you are, talkin’ to me like that?” Sophie asked frankly, strutting up in front of Gregory. “Might you be Mr Quince’s serving man? I’d thank you not to try and convince me that my afternoon’s work is not a consolation prize for the family I serve.”
Louisa had always known that Sophie had a sharp tongue in front of
the family but had never known her to speak this ... candidly in front of a family like the Quinces. She didn’t want to admonish the young woman, as she not only thought of Sophie as an equal but also a friend, and yet she knew she had to stop her putting her foot any further into her mouth.
However, when Louisa opened her mouth to speak, Gregory went ahead and did it for her. He put the armful of produce that he had on top of Sophie’s basket filled with goods and said, “Mr Quince’s serving man? Well, I’m honoured that you’d think that my family would encourage one of our serving men to dress in such fine attire, but I hate to disappoint you. I am Gregory, Isaac’s older brother, and the Duke of Grenfell.”
Sophie was so shocked by this revelation that Louisa was worried that her jaw might fall right off its hinges. Her eyes were very nearly bugging out of her skull, but when she realized what an unsightly facial expression she was making, she collected herself. “Your Grace,” she said, removing her maid’s cap and curtseying to him, “I am mightily embarrassed, please forgive me. I’ve been walking in the hot sun for most of the afternoon, and I let my temper get ahead of me. I should have recognized you immediately, and I am so sorry that I …”
“Do stop apologizing,” Gregory said suddenly, in a tone that Louisa was surprised to find incredibly sexy. There was a certain gruff brashness to it that she found irresistible, and she thought that Sophie might, too. “I liked you better when you talked to me like nothing more than a serving man.”
Gregory took a step towards Sophie and looked her up and down. Louisa could hardly believe what was happening. Is ... is he admiring her? Louisa wondered, positively astonished.
But even more surprisingly, Sophie took all of this in stride. She let him look her over, and then she puffed out her chest and narrowed her eyes. “Good. Then I shall keep treating you like one. Follow me,” she ordered.
When Sophie strode inside the house with her produce basket under her arm, Gregory followed her as though he was an obedient schoolboy heading after his Head Mistress. Then, remembering that he had nothing in his arms, he returned to the carriage to get an even fuller armload than before and then bolted inside the house after Sophie.
When the two of them had disappeared indoors, there was silence for a good thirty seconds between Louisa and Isaac. Then, at the exact same time, they slowly turned their heads to look at each other. “Did ... did he just ...” Louisa asked Isaac, who moved his head up and down.
“I believe he did. Did she really ...” Isaac wondered, and it was Louisa’s turn to affirm what he had seen.
“I do believe we just witnessed something rather miraculous,” Louisa said finally, looking after the duo who had just gone inside. Then, when Gregory came striding out of the house, he did not look at either his brother or Louisa. Instead, he went directly to the carriage, removed his elegant riding coat and fancy dress shirt, and began loading the food into his arms wearing nothing more than his undershirt.
The second time that Gregory walked by them into the house, Louisa and Isaac realized that they both had to stop just staring at him; otherwise, they would never get any talking done between the two of them.
“Has he ever done this before?” Louisa asked as she led Isaac over to a bench in the garden. She had to trust that her mother would follow through on feeding her father as she said she would, knowing that she had to take this opportunity to discuss some important business with Isaac.
“Never once,” Isaac informed her. “My brother has always had a ... mischievous side to him, but I’ve never seen him as outwardly entranced by someone as Sophie just then. I promise that he is usually far better behaved than that.”
There was a pause in conversation as the pair sat down a comfortable distance from one another. She turned her back and saw that she and Isaac were quite visible to everyone inside the house, so she knew that she would be getting many questions later. But for now, she did not mind. All she cared about was that he was here with her, and they had time to talk.
“I hope that this is not an impertinent question,” Isaac began, “and if it is, please do not feel pressured to answer it, but ... how are you?”
Louisa tittered at Isaac’s concern surrounding such an ordinary question. “That is very kind of you to put the question in that way, Isaac, but I’m afraid I am going to have to give you a rather vague answer. To tell you the truth ... I have absolutely no idea how I am.”
Louisa glanced in Isaac’s direction, and instead of receiving a comedic response as she expected from him, he gave her a thoughtful look. “That is not a vague answer at all,” he retorted. “When I was in your shoes back when Father first had his attack, I felt exactly the same way. The only difference is that I had it much easier than you have. I cannot imagine the strain this added care must be putting on you. Will your family hire some more people to come and assist with your father’s care?”
“I wish we could,” Louisa informed him, “but I’m afraid that we cannot afford it. Especially now that we have exactly zero income for the foreseeable future ... we will be living off of what we have, and that is it.”
It was the first time that Louisa had said that out loud, and she surprised even herself by saying it to, of all people, Isaac. She knew that her family’s state of affairs was dire now that her father was not well, but having now put that statement out into the world made it all the more real ... and all the more terrifying. She felt her breath quickening, and the panic that she had been keeping at bay for the last few days tried desperately to creep in, but when she looked into Isaac’s kind, caring eyes, it retreated as quickly as it had come on.
“I had not even stopped to consider that, and that is just awful,” Isaac responded. He looked off into the garden for a moment, took in a deep breath and then said, “In that case, I would like to offer you …”
“No, no,” Louisa stopped him, boldly placing a hand upon his arm. When he felt her touch, his attention was immediately drawn to it, and when she felt his eyes upon her hand, she withdrew it as quickly as she had placed it. “You have done far too much for my family already. I cannot ask of you anything more than your friendship during this time, and as it appears I already have that, I am the luckiest woman in the world.”
Louisa could not resist the way in which Isaac was looking at her, which was as though he wanted to sweep her into his arms and rescue her from all of the hardships that her life was throwing at her. She desperately wanted to accept his help, but a combination of her stubbornness and the implications that his assistance would have aroused encouraged her to deny it. Isaac seemed to want to protest, but in the end, he simply nodded and accepted his fate.
“I am very glad of our friendship, Miss Louisa,” he said quietly, tracing a whorl in the wood with his finger as he spoke. His blonde hair, so neatly pushed back away from his face, took this opportunity to flop from its place to in front of Isaac’s eyes. He looked so innocent and earnest that it made Louisa’s heart want to jump from her chest and into his hands. “But are you certain there is nothing I could do that would be of assistance to you?”
Louisa considered Isaac’s question for a long time, and then finally, one thing popped into her head. “The only thing I could think of is actually probably the biggest, most helpful thing that you could do for all of us,” she responded, “but I do not want to intrude on the proceedings between you and my father or make you feel pressured into doing something that you do not want to do.”
Isaac furrowed his brows and looked momentarily lost until recognition crossed his face. “Oh! Of course!” he cried, pushing his hair away from his face. “I had got so caught up in my concern for your father that I had forgotten the reason why you and I had met in the first place. If you are referring to the purchase of your home, I was all set to sign the final papers when I stopped hearing from your father suddenly three days ago. We had agreed upon a price, and if you were to find me those papers, I would be more than happy to sign them and pay you immediately. I hope that that money
will allow you to find a better, more suitable home for you and your family, as well as help to take care of you and your mother and father until he is well enough to return to work.”
Louisa could hardly believe her luck. “That is wonderful news!” Louisa cried, so happy that she wanted to fling her arms around him. “I shall discuss this with my father tomorrow, and knowing him, he had the papers all drawn up and was just about to send them to you when he had his accident.”