The family was deeply concerned because she was not the Emma they all knew and loved, so Amy volunteered to stay with her while everyone else was at church. Her mother readily agreed.
As Emma slumbered, Amy sat reading a book from her father’s library which her mother would not have approved of if she knew what it was. Fortunately, for her two rogue daughters, Lady Sibbridge had little awareness of the contents of Sir Anthony Sibbridge’s library. That was not her way, nor of Mattie for that matter.
“Where is everyone?”
Amy had thought Emma was asleep so the question was a surprise.
“You’re awake, Emma.”
“Could you read to me from the Bible?”
“You want me to read to you from the Bible?”
“Everyone is at church so that seems the thing to do.”
“All right, Emma, I’ll go to father’s library and get the Bible.”
When she returned with the Bible, Emma had propped herself into a somewhat slouched sitting position.
“You want me to read to you?”
“Yes, please,” said Emma.
“Is there anything special you would like me to read? The beatitudes?”
“Please read Psalm 22.”
Amy quickly found the scripture in her father’s Bible.
“My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me...”
Amy abruptly stopped reading and looked at her sister.
“Please continue reading,” said Emma.
Amy looked at Emma for a few moments, and then resumed reading.
“O my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent.”
Amy stopped reading again, and looked at Emma.
“I know you don’t feel yourself, at the moment, but you will get better.”
“Will I? What about those who will never get better?”
“We can weep with those less fortunate, but we cannot let it dominate us. Give yourself a few days. It is no sin to feel happiness and joy. It fact, we owe it to others. I think you will see it more clearly as you get older, but at times we must be a beacon in a world of sadness.”
That evening, Mattie offered to take dinner to Emma to relieve Amy of the burden she had carried almost alone for several days now. And Amy was grateful for her sister’s kindness.
The family ate mostly in silence for about ten minutes, deprived of Mattie’s exuberance. Finally, Amy after glancing around at the silent ensemble, broke the silence.
“Mother, I know our funds are limited, but is there any possibility we could visit London. It would be good if Emma could see a London physician. She is not improving as she should, and she is not herself. Her mood is...”
As Amy struggled to find the right word, her mother broke in.
“I do not think so, my dear. London would not be a good place for Emma, what with the smoke, disease, dirt, and the hordes of disease-ridden...uhh...rapscallions and the poor.”
Amy realized there was a measure of truth in what her mother said so she left it at that until a later time.
Dr. Chisolm came by the next morning. He dutifully examined the somewhat morose Emma.
“How is she, Doctor?” Lady Sibbridge asked anxiously.
“She checks out all shipshape, Ma’am.”
He looked at Emma and shook his head.
“What you need, young lady,” he informed her jovially, “is fresh air and sunshine. This is a fine Monday morning this second day of September, and you need to be outside, not wasting away in your gloomy room.
As the doctor looked on, they helped her out of bed and down to the garden. Emma was weak and frail. Even if his outward demeanor was jovial, Amy could see concern in Dr. Chisolm’s eyes.
She spent about an hour in the sun that day and a little longer the next two days. But Emma needed a lot of assistance in all that she did and her recovery, if she was recovering, seemed painfully slow. Their mother kept saying it was because the fever had been so depleting, and Amy hoped her mother was right and that it was not just wishful thinking.
Everyone was concerned, but her mother was obviously increasingly worried. Perhaps for that reason her mother’s resistance to the London visit seemed to be wearing down. But Amy was growing more and more discouraged. She anxiously felt something must be done, and soon.
On Friday afternoon, Amy went on her charitable rounds. Her last stop was Mae Bickford’s cottage. That would be a difficult and painful stop. She was glad when Reverend Howley stopped her trap and asked to accompany her. She rather suspected he didn’t want to go alone either.
At Mae’s cottage he helped her carry in the hamper with the sweetmeats. It wasn’t as full as it had been last month. And in truth it didn’t matter. Mae was much more in need of Howley’s words of encouragement than Amy’s foodstuffs. It was a troubling visit, but it seemed to do some good.
She arrived home just as the family was sitting down to dinner.
“The Ramseys came by for a few minutes this afternoon,” her mother told Amy. “They recommended that we take Emma to London to see Doctor... Oh, I can’t remember his name but Frank wrote it down.”
“Can we afford it mother?” Amy asked, desperately hoping they could.
“Frank and Esty said we could stay at their London house. They absolutely insisted. I had to agree. Just as they were preparing to leave, Dr. Chisolm came by to see Emma, and he thought it was a very good idea. He has a great admiration for the doctor they suggested and said that if anyone could get Emma back to normal he was the person. We will leave Monday for London.”
Back up in her room after dinner, she sat down to write to Ben. He had been gone for about two weeks doing whatever it was he was doing. She didn’t know what it was but she rather supposed it involved a good deal of danger. Her letters to him had gone unanswered which was beginning to concern her a little. So she told him she was coming to London and where she would be while she was there.
Amy glanced at her clock. It was a little after eight. The Royal Mail night coach from Cambridge to London passed through Stockley-on-Arne about eight-thirty each weekday night, briefly picking up the mail. If she hurried, she could get the letter on its way to Ben.
It was early Monday afternoon when they arrived at the Ramsey’s townhouse in London. The Ramseys had told them that their nephew, Leonidas Ramsey, currently lived at the townhouse while studying in London, and indeed, he was there to meet them when they arrived. Amy suspected that he had a keen interest in a family with three daughters coming to stay for a period of time in the same house where he himself resided.
He proved a most charming young man that pleasantly resembled his aunt and uncle in their friendly demeanor. After helping them to settle into their temporary abode, he volunteered his services to escort them around the city.
“I am relieved of my studies for the next few days and would be most willing to take you wherever in the city you need to go.”
He was addressing the whole family, but making a very futile attempt to cast what he thought were furtive glances at Mattie. One skill that Mattie was very accomplished at was somehow making any young man taken with her charms aware that she appreciated his interest. It is doubtful than any of the famed femme fatales of history could outdo Mattie in this regard, and certainly none of them were as truly innocent of any guile as she was. Leo, as he wished to be called, absorbed Mattie’s subtle signals and as he did so he became more and more nervous and started stuttering. Amy found this entertaining, and was disappointed that she had to break in on a more serious matter.
Leo, perhaps because his attention was distracted by Mattie, had barely noticed how Emma had to be helped into the house and seated in the drawing room.
“We need to take my little sister to the doctor your aunt and uncle recommended,” said Amy breaking the spell so sweetly spun by Mattie.
“Uh...oh yes,” said Leo snapping back to reality. “Uncle Frank already contacted the
doctor and he wishes to see your sister in the morning. I’ll be most honored to take her there, and while she is with doctor you and your sister, and any other members of your family who wish to accompany us, are most welcome to come along.”
“I want to stay with Emma at the doctor’s office,” said Amy, adding with hidden mischief, “but I am sure Mattie and mother would love to go along with you on your guided tour of London.”
Before he could answer, Lady Sibbridge interrupted.
“Nonsense. I’ll stay with Emma. You go along with Mr. Ramsey and Mattie. Anyway, I’ve seen quite enough of London in my lifetime. The city is all right for going to balls and the gardens, but that’s because they take place at night and you don’t have to see its dirty sooty buildings and the suffering poor people. All-in-all, I find it quite disturbing.”
Leo obviously liked that arrangement.
“My father will not be accompanying us,” Amy broke in, “it would be best he remained here and enjoyed your hospitality. I don’t know if your aunt and uncle told you, but he had an accident last year and has not yet been restored to health.”
“Yes, my uncle has told me a great deal about your father. He is deeply concerned about his condition. I gather they have been close friends for many years. If you let me know what he needs I will take care of it.”
“If you could give him a writing table, some paper and ink, and a few books of a sort that would interest an old soldier, he will be happy. He won’t use the paper and ink, he might open the books, but I don’t think he reads them. I don’t think he can read them. He’ll be happy all day long that way.”
And so the next morning, after helping Emma into the surprisingly modest offices of the doctor the Ramseys had recommended, Leo was all set to take Amy and Mattie on a grand tour of the big city.
“Where would you ladies like me to take you?”
“Would it be possible,” inquired Amy, “to make a brief stop at a jeweler? I have a pendant I recently became heir to and the silver is so tarnished it is almost black. I would like to have it cleaned. I have not been successful in restoring it to a pristine condition at home and I thought that a jeweler might have potions for doing that.”
Leo knew of a good jeweler and so Amy’s pendant was put into his care, and Leo took them on a tour of the better parts of London. Late in the afternoon they picked up Emma and Lady Sibbridge at the doctor’s office. Amy noticed her mother carrying a large porcelain bowl, but refrained from asking about it at that time. When they arrived back at the townhouse, she was anxious to find out if they had received a letter from Ben. When told no letter had come, she consoled herself with the thought that he might be on one of his missions and had not yet received her letter.
The next morning, which was Wednesday, Amy chose to stay home on a pretty slight pretext, secretly hoping for a letter from Ben. Leo took her mother and Emma to the doctor’s office, and surprisingly, Lady Sibbridge consented to Leo showing Mattie some more of the city despite the lack of a chaperone. She possibly decided that in the daytime with a coachman present, and no nosy village people, that in the big city it was acceptable and within the realm of probity.
Mail did come that day, but Amy’s excitement was dashed when it turned out to be an invitation to a ball on Saturday and not a letter from Ben. Later, Wednesday afternoon, when her mother, carrying another large ceramic bowl, her sisters, and Leo returned. Mattie handed her a small package.
“The jeweler was finished with your pendant,” said Mattie smiling. “You have to show me what it looks like.”
Amy carefully unwrapped it. The pendant was glistening and beautiful. She turned it over and there, engraved on the back, was a large Scottish thistle. The pendant had been so corroded she had not even noticed it before.
“Did you receive a letter from Ben?” Emma asked weakly as they helped her into the living room.
“No,” said Amy sadly, “but we all received an invitation to a ball Saturday night.”
“Does that include me,” asked Emma with a faint smile.
Amy went over to her sister and hugged her tightly.
“Please don’t crush me,” said Emma, “I’m feeling a bit better. I seem to be responding to the doctor’s treatments, although I’m not quite ready for dancing. Maybe by Saturday.”
If only Emma could walk unaided by Saturday, Amy would be ready to set off fireworks.
Saturday was the fourteenth day of September. Amy had last seen Ben on the twenty-third of August. More than three weeks had elapsed and no letter had come from Ben. No matter what he was doing, as long as he was in England, and she had no reason to believe he was anywhere else, he could send a letter any day and he had not. Amy did not know whether to be angry or scared, so she vacillated between both emotions.
The only reason she went to the ball that night was because her mother, Mattie, and even Emma, urged her to put her feelings of fear and anger aside and enjoy herself. With a flood of emotions tormenting her, she agreed. Had he just not seen her letter? Was he ignoring her for some reason? Did it somehow get lost, or worse, was it purloined? Had something happened to Ben? Was he deeply involved in something? Was he injured? Was he...? No! She must put it out of her mind.
When they entered the grand house where the ball was being held, Amy was overwhelmed. It was a glittering affair. It seemed as if a thousand candles were burning, and every one of them appeared to be sparkling in Mattie’s eyes.
“I wish Emma could see this.” Amy spoke to no one in particular.
“Look who is here,” said her mother.
Amy turned to see, and came face to face with the Ramseys.
“We decided we couldn’t miss out on this for the world,” said Sir Frank.
“But...”Amy paused.
“You want to know where we are staying. Well, our own house is filled with visitors from out of town and one rascally nephew.”
“Uncle,” moaned Leo.
“I’m just jesting, Leo,” said Sir Frank. “We decided to get together with some good friends from the Royal Society. We’re trying to find out a better way to predict the weather, but all we’ve done so far is go through some excellent sherry. He does have a wonderful wine cellar. But forgive me for rattling on with inanities, how is my little scientist doing? Are the doctor’s treatments and regimens helping her yet?”
“It’s been only four days, but Emma says she is feeling improved. The doctor gives her some medicines but a good deal of the treatment seems to involve salted pudding. Mother and I are puzzled by that, although I tried some of the pudding and it tastes good, except it is a little salty.”
Sir Frank smiled and patted her on the shoulder.
“Well, forgive us, Esty and I have to be moving along. We have a few acquaintances to renew. ”
He paused as they started to go and looked at Amy’s locket.
“That’s a beautiful locket Amy. Is it new?”
“No. It’s at least twenty years old. I inherited it from a relative.”
When the Ramseys left to mingle with their friends, Amy found herself alone, so she sat on one of the prim chairs next to the wall.
She was only there a few minutes when a familiar voice asked: “I’m sorry I don’t have a dance card, but may I have this dance?”
She looked up. It was Lord Eskman being especially charming. No one else was dancing with her so she decided it could do no harm to dance with him. In fact, if he was dancing with her he was not pursuing Mattie. Probably he had to give up since Mattie had been glued to Leo all evening. At least Leo was an improvement over most of Mattie’s other infatuations.
As they danced, she noticed that Lord Eskman keept glancing down at her bosom, which she found quite irritating. Even if he was an old lecher, which she suspected might well be true, she would have expected him to be a little more discreet.
“That is a most impressive locket you are wearing,” Lord Eskman complimented Amy. “Is there a reason for the Scotch thistle?”
A
my was a bit disconcerted to find he was looking at the locket and not her girlish endowments. It took her a few moments while she struggled to respond.
“Truthfully, Lord Eskman, I don’t know. I inherited it from a relative I’ve never met.” At least since I was a Baby, she said to herself, hoping what she was saying didn’t constitute a lie or a real lie she told herself.
As they danced, she noticed Sir Frank looking at them and frowning. She made a mental note to talk to him later if opportunity afforded it. And as chance would have it, the music stopped and the musicians mostly left after announcing they would resume in ten minutes. When she looked around, Lord Eskman was nowhere to be seen, but Sir Frank was busily engaged in conversation with several other men of his age.
She went and stood near them. When Sir Frank saw her, he excused himself from his companions and came over to her.
“I’m glad you came over,” he said, “you asked me about Eskman, well I have made some inquiries, and I am told he is often seen with rich young heiresses. He is evidently fishing, so I’d watch him.”
“If he is looking for rich young heiresses,” said Amy with a sardonic laugh, “I think I am perfectly safe.”
“It is always wise,” said Sir Frank as he turned back to his friends, “to be cautious with that sort of person.”
When the musicians had returned and were getting ready to begin playing again, she noticed that Lord Eskman was again present in the ballroom. A fiendish plot began to grow in the mischievous region of Amy’s brain. She purposely placed herself in the vicinity of Lord Eskman. So close in fact that he would have to walk around her if he wanted to go anywhere.
“It seems that fate has brought us together again,” said Amy when he noticed her hovering near him.
“Yes indeed, Lady Amy,” he agreed.
“I think,” said Amy, “that I needs must go and sit down again since I am not taken for this dance.”
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