The Fire's Center

by Shannon Farrell

  Yet as he observed Riona, he could see that she was willing to make an effort to get along well with everyone, from the visiting dignitaries down to the lowest of the poor people who had come for the free food.

  Riona patiently served an elderly woman unable to stand, and even made sure she wrapped up some oatcakes with the butter sandwiched in between them for the old woman to take home.

  Riona listened to the younger women as they complained about their children’s and their own health, and didn’t even seem remotely repelled when some drunks appeared looking for free whisky.

  "There’s no whisky, but plenty of tea and even coffee," she had said calmly, and led them to a bench to eat and drink their fill.

  Quentin had gagged at the smell of their unwashed bodies, but Riona had even touched them.

  "The girl is a saint, Lucien," Quentin said to his brother, as he followed Riona with his eyes.

  "I know, I know, and I thank God daily for sending her to me,"’ Lucien said with a completely straight face.

  Quentin couldn’t decide whether his brother was joking or not. He had certainly never been a religious man so far as Quentin could make out.

  "But seriously, Lucien, did you really meet her on the road?"

  "The whole thing was exactly as we told you," Lucien confirmed with a laugh, looking at his brother’s incredulous expression.

  But as Quentin continued to stare at Riona, Lucien again felt a terrible pang of jealousy, worsened by the fact that Riona had finished serving the guests, and Charles Durance was now monopolising Riona’s attention.

  "Don’t be ridiculous, Charles is even older than me, and very shy, whilst Quentin is happily married to Antoinette," he scolded himself, and smiled as Riona looked imploringly at him to come and rescue her.

  "Oh Riona, there you are," Lucien exclaimed, inserting himself between the handsome pair. "Have you met Mrs. Sturgess and Mrs. Allen yet? They’ll be helping with the fete, and the women’s committee they are setting up," Lucien said as he rescued her.

  He gripped her strongly by the hand, savouring the contact, and led her in the direction of the two women.

  As they went, Riona couldn’t help but notice that Dr. O’Carroll had backed Antoinette into a corner.

  "Thank you for rescuing me," she whispered as she cast an anxious glance at the other couple.

  "Charles is very earnest, but rather dull, isn’t he? But it wasn’t a complete lie. I do want you to meet the women’s committee. The fete will be a great fund-raising opportunity if we all pull together."

  "Fine, but I think you had better rescue your sister-in-law now. It looks like she's being subject to a medical discussion by Dr. O’Carroll, and you know how squeamish she is," Riona warned, conscious of the lie, but not willing to voice her uneasiness about Dr. O’Carroll’s deportment towards women.

  She hoped she was wrong, though her instincts were generally sound. She told herself that she might have taken his remarks too much to heart, and it would do no good to cause friction at this early stage of the proceedings.

  "Always thinking of others." Lucien smiled fondly, patting her on the shoulder, and after making the appropriate introductions, he left her.

  Riona consulted with Mrs. Sturgess and Mrs. Allen for some time, but soon the mountain of food at last began to run out. After making sure that every last crumb was distributed to the poor, Riona organised her last surprise of the day, hundreds of milk containers to be distributed all over the Liberties with the address of the clinic written on each.

  "Some of them will be able to read, I'm sure," Riona had said to Lucien, "and it's the least we can do for all the people who are working and couldn’t come to the opening."

  As the crowd began to dwindle and darkness fell, various people invited Lucien to supper, but he was reluctant to go, for no mention of Riona coming as well had been made, especially not by his bachelor friends.

  Charles Durance asked shyly then, including Riona in the invitation, but Lucien declined for them both on the grounds that it was already late in the evening, and the clinic would be well and truly open for business in the morning.

  "An early start, you know, Charles. Some other time, thanks all the same."

  "I’ll hold you to that," Charles called as he entered his carriage, his attractive pale blue eyes resting on Riona’s face for a trifle longer than necessary.

  Lucien handed Riona into his coach, and they chatted happily about how the day had gone until they arrive home.

  As soon as they were inside the foyer, he ordered a bath for her.

  She began to argue it wasn't necessary to trouble the servants.

  Lucien insisted, "You were exposed to hundreds of the poor today, so no arguments."

  "All right, I'll get in the tub, and will even submit to lice lotion, but you have to give me a bone test in exchange."

  Lucien raised his eyebrows until she added, "Here, sit outside the door and test me while I soak. Then when I’m finished, you can come have your bath."

  "Don’t you want the bath in your room upstairs?"

  "I think it’s silly the servants having to climb a whole extra flight of stairs, don’t you? Besides, we’ve shared before, haven’t we?"

  "All right, I’ll just get my dressing gown."

  Riona ran upstairs for hers, and tapped on Lucien’s dressing room door.

  "Go on through," he said, waving her forward.

  Lucien sat in the dressing room on a low chair while Riona soaked away the day’s tension and recited her list. Then she dried herself off, pulled on her dressing gown, and submitted gracefully to the lice lotion and the comb.

  Then she sat in the dressing room whilst Lucien soaked, and he tested her on some of the books he had noticed her studying recently. He couldn’t help but be impressed with how much she had picked up.

  "You're really coming along well," he praised through the slightly open door. "I hope your aren’t overdoing the studying!"

  "Not at all. I just want to be ready for when they allow me to go in to view a surgery."

  Lucien warned, "It may be some time before that happens, you know. Even now they are pretty reluctant, though I’ve been doing my best to wry to win them around. You can get a bit more experience under your belt at the clinic first, before we ask them again, eh?"

  "All right," Riona agreed and then stood up as Lucien came out of the bathroom and held out the lotion for her to use on him.

  "I think we are going to have to make this bath a permanent part of the day. I’ve never seen such filth," Lucien remarked as he sat still and allowed her to work carefully on his hair.

  "I know, I know, it's appalling, isn’t it. But the idea of the water tank from the roof is a good one. If only we could do the same with the hot."

  "We’ll wait and see, shall we? Oh, by the way, Mrs. Sturgess and Mrs. Allen will be coming over for an informal supper with their husbands on Sunday at about seven, to discuss the last minute lists for the arrangements," Lucien informed her.

  Riona frowned. "Last minute? I thought the fete wouldn’t be for another five weeks."

  He nodded. "I know that, but they want to make sure everyone signs their name to specific duties and responsibilities at a meeting they are having at Mrs. Allen’s house on Monday.

  "Then we have to send the tickets to the printers. So the programme and other items will also have to be finalised and printed, and the publicity sent out to the papers and posted on the walls.

  "I'm sure you will agree that the food part that we promised to supervise will be crucial. You and Mrs. Kinsella will have to consult with Antoinette, and we will need to have some idea of the cost, and the amounts and so on. "

  "I’ll do my best, Lucien, but it feels like the loaves and fishes," Riona sighed.

  Lucien put his hands around her slender waist as he stood up. "Riona, I'm sure you will be up to it." He pecked her on the cheek, and then suddenly pulled her in close.

  Riona was painfully aware of the fact that th
ey were only in their dressing gowns, and felt the act required some comment.

  "What was that for?" she asked timidly.

  "Just an embrace to say thank you," Lucien shrugged as he released her and walked across the room. "I suppose I can’t say it often enough. In the past week you’ve been here you’ve done everything, from the most complicated down to the dirtiest tasks, all without a murmur of complaint. Everyone likes and admires you."

  "Not your sister in-law." Riona ducked her head as she stooped to tidy away their used towels, which she put in the bathroom.

  Lucien was waiting for her when she came out of the bathroom. He cupped her chin with his long slender fingers.

  "Look at me, Riona. No, not at the floor, look at me," he commanded gently.

  Riona dared to meet his eyes, and saw only warmth and kindness there.

  "Antoinette is a spiteful, mean, arrogant and petty woman. She is all the things you are not, and certainly none of the things that you are. That's why she is envious of you."

  "Envious of me?" Riona laughed incredulously. "Why, she's rich, and so beautiful..."

  Lucien shook his head. "On the outside perhaps, in a cold, haughty sort of way, and true, she is rich because she married a wealthy man. But she's not well endowed with basic human kindness, warmth, and generosity, and she's certainly not beautiful inside, even if she might be superficially attractive to look at in the eyes of some.

  "But you're lovely inside and out. No, don’t blush and look at the floor again, I mean what I say. I saw you hugging and comforting those people today, looking after that frail old woman, and well," he said, holding her close once more, "I suppose I was just wondering if sometimes you needed to be petted and made to feel cared about too."

  He rested his chin on the top of her head, and Riona hesitantly began to loop her arms around him, asking, "And you, Lucien, do you need to be petted too?"

  Lucien stepped away hastily then. "No one has hugged me since my mother died, over twenty years ago. And I’m too old for such things now," he denied.

  Riona came up behind him as he gazed out of the window and wrapped her arms around his midriff. "I don’t think anyone is ever too old for love."

  Lucien patted one of her hands, and then disentangled himself from her embrace gently, reluctantly, exercising steely control over his raging emotions. "Thank you, my dear, that was very kind of you."

  "No. Thank you for the hug, and the bone test," she added with a grin, lest the moment grow too serious between them.

  Then she padded away up the stairs to her own room, her dressing gown trailing along the carpet with a light rustling which caused him to look after Riona until she disappeared.

  "Like a butterfly," he reflected, and then headed into his bedroom.

  Excited by the days’ events, he found sleep elusive, and couldn’t subdue the disturbing urges which he always tried to quell.

  It must be the spring, he sighed, feeling his loins stir so powerfully, he had all to do not to seek more than a simple embrace from the wonderful woman whom fate had put in his path.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Lucien's lustiness being due to the spring thaw seemed to be borne out the next day, for after a week of cold and gloomy weather, the sun shone down radiantly, causing him to toss and turn and finally seek a cold bath for relief from his surging loins and unseemly visions of his lovely young houseguest.

  Riona, feeling restless herself, was up long before six to carry out her studies and attend to Lucien’s correspondence.

  Lucien searched for her in the study and eventually found her in the medical room downstairs finishing the last of his letters and updating some of his records.

  "Good morning, Lucien." She smiled brightly. "You have Mr. Rennie at half nine, and Mr. Harcourt at ten. Then we can go to the clinic if you like."

  Lucien nodded, wondering why he felt like he had got up on the wrong side of the bed that morning. It must be the heat he thought, noticing the room seemed very hot and stuffy.

  Riona was wearing one of her white blouses with a navy skirt, and looked fairly cool and calm.

  "Some breakfast?"’ she asked cheerfully.

  "No, thank you!" he snapped.

  Riona stared at him wide-eyed for a few moments, and then gathered her papers and books and left the room without another word.

  "Damn it, what is wrong with me?" he wondered, as he paced up and down in the study for a few moments, before going into the dining room and pouring himself several cups of hot strong coffee.

  He lingered at the table for several minutes, but noticed Riona didn’t join him, and also did not appear when either of his two patients were there.

  Once he had finished with Mr. Harcourt, Lucien went in search of Riona, and at last found her in the study upstairs, pouring over her anatomy book.

  "I’m sorry, Riona, I didn’t mean to snap at you."

  She shrugged, but did not look up from her book. "I just thought it was better to stay out of your way."

  But as Lucien stood awkwardly in front of her and the silence lengthened, she glanced at him shyly and asked, "Are you worried about something, Lucien?"

  Lucien threw himself onto the sofa next to her, and admitted, "The clinic. The launch was great success, but I'm beginning to have doubts."

  "Now who needs a hug." Sliding closer, she leaned her head against his navy blue silk waistcoat. "It will all be fine, you’ll see. It's just a very big step, and now that it's here, of course you're anxious it will be a success. But knowing you, and how hard you work, it can’t fail, Lucien," she reassured him quietly.

  Lucien brought his arms around her and sighed. "Thank you, that’s much better. I’m sorry for being so churlish."

  "Don’t mention it." Rising, she held out her hand to pull him to his feet. "Now, if you’re ready, Dr. Woulfe, let’s go. I’m sure you'll have heaps of patients to see."

  Riona and Lucien worked at the clinic all day. Lucien saw the patients, along with Dr. O’Carroll and Dr. Kennedy, while Riona sat in the office drawing up a complete inventory of everything in the clinic, down to the last bar of soap.

  The clinic slowly filled with various fever cases, people with running sores, and many obvious cases of malnutrition.

  "We’re becoming a soup kitchen rather than a clinic," O’Carroll exclaimed haughtily to Riona as he washed his hands and demanded she fetch him a clean towel.

  "Well, that's what we are here for. If we haven’t any patients, then the people can have the gruel. ’Tis little enough for the poor souls."

  "And you’d know about being poor now, wouldn’t you, Miss," O’Carroll sneered, looking her up and down with a decided leer. "Just what did you do for the committee member to get this job!"

  Riona bristled like a hedgehog. "I’ve never been that poor, thank God. But I’ve seen far too much death where I come from to wish to see any more of it if there anything I can do to prevent it."

  Dr. Kennedy had overheard the last of the exchange, and though he had been frowning worriedly, he now gave Riona a timidly admiring look.

  Dr. O’Carroll decided that if she were as innocent as she really claimed to be, he would try to shock Riona sufficiently to at least knock her down a peg or two, if not outright get rid of her. He disliked her confident manner, her air of command. Women had no business organising and running things. They were good for one thing only...

  "Don’t tell me those women are really poor," he said, pointing to two rather bedraggled specimens. "Women have an easy enough way of earning money if they are willing to lay on their backs for it."

  Dr. Kennedy gasped, but Riona said coolly, "Isn’t it a sad comment on our society then that women, and even men, should be forced to sell their bodies like animals to survive?"

  That wiped the smirk off his face, but he tried to recover his composure by asserting leeringly, "Everyone has a price. What’s yours, Miss?"

  "I haven’t discovered it yet, but I know yours," she replied with a withering stare.
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  "What the hell do you mean by that?" Dr. O’Carroll barked.

  "You made sure the committee members pulled strings to get you in here. If you're really as good as the certificates you possess say you are, then why aren’t you in a private practice? And if you really dislike the poor as much as you say, then why on earth would you want to work here? There isn’t very much prestige attached, so you must be after something else. All I know is that anyone can tell there’s more to you than meets the eye," Riona said boldly, refusing to be intimidated by this overgrown playground bully.