“Ah, yes, and spread lies about you as well. Let’s go, my dear. Our services are not needed, and he has a right to refuse care. Who are we to argue the matter with him?”
They turned to leave, Dr. Miller putting his hand on the small of Silvia’s back.
“Leave my future wife alone!” yelled the baronet.
Silvia turned. “I’m not your fiancée!”
“But…”
“Good day, Sir McElroy.” They left the room and wandered down the stairs. Sir Tidley procured a private parlour for them to dine in.
“Surgery done already?” Michael asked.
“No. He refused our care.”
“The man is more daft than I realized.” Michael pulled out a chair, so Silvia could sit. Food was brought in, and soon Lord Remington was there.
“I hear there’s been a contretemps at Hart Manor.”
Michael described what happened and Marcus left to interview the patient.
“Thank you for protecting me, Michael. I never suspected he’d seek to endanger your life.”
“He’s all hot air and bluster. Still and all, I have a hole to repair in my wall. He was in high dudgeon when he entered, so I wasn’t taken off-guard.”
They partook of the meal and Marcus returned. “I need to send him to London, I think. Will he survive the journey without having that bullet removed?”
Bruce patted his lips with the napkin and then set it down. “Hard to say. Not sure how much blood he’s lost or if the bullet has hit anything major.”
Silvia’s eyes grew wide. “I forgot that there are some significant arteries in that area.”
“I don’t think he got hit there or he’d have bled out already, but it could make extraction difficult and painful.”
Marcus sat to eat with them. “I’m not sure what to do with him. Seems like prison would be anticlimactic after all this. Do you want to let it go and send him back to his home in Brighton?”
“His chances of surviving that trip are about as good as Newgate. Either way, he would have little choice for medical doctors.”
Marcus frowned. “I suppose I could give him a choice between the prosecution and returning home. He cannot remain here.”
“I didn’t think he was so flush in the pockets to afford staying here as long as he has. I don’t have any significant inheritance to make me worth all this trouble.”
Bruce squeezed her hand. “You’re worth it all and more.”
“I’ll give him his options. He’d need to leave in the morning.” Marcus rose to go talk to the injured man upstairs.
“We’d best be getting you both home,” Michael said. “Katrina will be worried.”
“Thank you for providing dinner,” Bruce murmured as he rose and assisted Silvia to her feet. “I’m sorry we didn’t get our first opportunity to work together side by side.”
She smiled. “I’m sure it will happen soon enough. I’m relieved we didn’t need to perform the operation.”
Michael steered them through the public room to the carriage awaiting outside. He climbed in last. “I feel decidedly de trop. When will the two of you decide you were meant to be with each other? If I weren’t so loathe to brave the cold, I’d be up with the groom.”
Bruce gave Silvia secret grin. Michael would find out soon enough. Bruce was dropped off first. He stepped down from the coach and went to his home. Soon he’d have a wife to share it with. The thought filled him with deep contentment. He climbed the stairs to go to bed and said a prayer for the unfortunate Sir McElroy. He couldn’t blame the man for desiring Silvia. He was grateful she’d chosen him.
~*~
On Saturday morning, Michael perused a missive it and then passed it to Silvia at the breakfast table.
“Sir McElroy has departed. Dare we hope this is the last we’ve seen of him?”
“I feel bad that he is traveling with that wound,” Michael said.
“I suspect he’ll be a difficult patient. I pity his servants.” Silvia shook her head.
~*~
Two weeks passed with Bruce making regular visits to Hart Manor to spend time with his beloved and share meals with Michael and Katrina.
But he hadn’t been able to stop by today. Bruce was exhausted. He had returned from checking on patients and was about to relax with a cup of tea by the fire. when someone knocked on his door. He no longer had the extra servants and he found he missed them. Perhaps he should hire another after he wed, as he wanted Silvia to be able to help him with his practice if she desired.
He rose to his feet to answer the door, surprised to find a young woman there. A very pregnant young woman whom he’d never before seen. She threw herself into his arms, “Oh, Bruce, how I’ve missed you! We haven’t spoken for some time, but I needed to come now that the baby is almost here.” She pushed him back inside the house and closed the door. “Aren’t you going to invite me in?”
He was puzzled. “I’m sorry if I offend, but we are not acquainted. You need to leave.” He grabbed for the doorknob.
“You’d throw the mother of your child out into the cold?”
“I don’t have any children.” He shoved her out the door and locked it behind her. She pounded and screamed, and he went to the rear of the house to make sure that door was locked as well. What was going on? Who was this woman? She was obviously with child, but why did she think it was his? He’d chosen to follow God from a young age and to never allow himself intimacy meant for marriage. He sighed.
He only hoped the woman would leave town.
~*~
Silvia was roused at three in the morning by a maid. “Miss, there be somewhat urgent ‘appening. They need a midwife at the inn in Didcot.”
“They didn’t contact Dr. Miller?”
“Says he refused to come.”
“That doesn’t sound right.” Silvia dragged herself out of bed and threw on her plainest gown. “I hate to ask, but can you get either Lady or Sir Tidley?”
“Yes, miss.”
Michael met her in the hallway. “What’s amiss?”
“I don’t know. I’ve been summoned to be a midwife at the inn. For some reason Dr. Miller refused to go.”
“That doesn’t sound like him. Give me a few minutes, and I’ll accompany you. I don’t want you out alone and unprotected.”
She grabbed her bag and went downstairs to make a stop into the kitchen to get a glass of water. Perhaps there was something to eat left over from yesterday. She found a roll and ate that. Birthing a baby could take hours. What kind of woman would be giving birth in an inn? It was close to Christmas. Well, the inn was better than the stables that Jesus had been born in.
Soon the carriage was ready. Michael assisted Silvia inside and they began their journey. “We’ll stop at Bruce’s first.”
Silvia nodded. She hoped Bruce was well. He would never turn away a patient now that he’d recovered from his surgery.
Michael alighted from the carriage and strode to the quiet house. Silvia waited and watched. Soon Bruce appeared at the door and words were exchanged. The door closed and Michael returned. Settling in the seat across from her, his brows were knit together as he yawned.
“Bruce was never asked to come. He’s dressing and will be with us shortly.”
“They never came to him? How odd.”
Michael nodded.
~*~
Bruce dressed in a hurry. A baby? Fear tingled up his spine. Was this the same woman who had arrived on his doorstep? He sucked in a breath, drank some water and grabbing his coat, hat, and bag, was soon out the door and into the carriage.
Silvia gave him a soft smile. If Michael hadn’t been sitting across from him he’d have leaned over to steal a kiss. Her hair was pulled back into a braid. He never realized how long it was. This would be their first time being able to work together as a doctor and midwife. He reached over and squeezed her hand as the carriage took off for the Inn.
Soon they were there and after helping Silvia from the carriage th
ey went into the common area of the Inn. Mr. Hammon greeted them with blurry eyes. “She be up the stairs first door on the left. Try to keep her from waking the other guests.”
Mrs. Hammon peered out from the kitchen. “I’ll be sending up some tea and rags for you. I’ve tried to keep her comfortable, but the poor girl is miserable.”
“Is anyone with her now?”
“Nay, I just left her. Go on up. Sir Tidley, would you care to wait down here? I’ll make you some tea and I have a few scones from yesterday.”
“Tea for now would be fine after you’ve seen to their needs.”
Silvia and Bruce started up the stairs.
“What is the woman’s name?” Michael asked.
“Said she was Mrs. Bruce Miller,” the landlord stated.
Silvia glanced at Bruce.
“Miller is a common enough name but let me assure you; as a believer, I’ve never been with a woman.”
She stopped him on the stairs. “You’ve gone to London to train at times, have you not?”
He nodded.
“And you never…?”
“Never.”
Silvia’s eyes narrowed. She turned and continued up the steps.
Bruce didn’t know whether she believed him.
They both entered the room, and the woman writhing on the bed stopped to stare at them. “Who are you?”
“I’m Miss Burnett. They called me in as a midwife. This here is Dr. Miller.”
The woman pointed to Silvia. “You can stay. He needs to leave.”
It was the woman who had been to his house yesterday. “Either we both stay or we both go.”
A contraction hit the woman, and she moaned in pain. Bruce put a hand on Silvia’s arm to hold her back. She frowned.
When the contraction passed, Bruce came close to peer down at the woman and repeated his offer. “Either we both stay or we both go. Your choice.”
Silvia was by his side. “I’ve delivered babies alone before. You can go sit with Michael, and I’ll send for you if I need you.”
He turned to Silvia. He dragged her to the door and into the hallway. “I don’t trust her. She showed up at my house last night after rounds trying to tell me that this was my baby. I never…” He sighed.
“Why would she say such a thing?”
“I don’t know. I’d never seen her before yesterday.”
Silvia frowned. “We’ll figure this out, but first, she needs help delivering this child.”
He nodded. “Send for me if you need me. Yell out the door. I’ll be down the stairs.”
She kissed his cheek. “I do love you, you know that, right?”
“And I you. Thank you, Silvia.”
She turned and went into the room as the woman started to moan louder.
The door shut in his face and he headed on down the stairs.
~*~
Silvia went to work. The young woman spouted all kinds of nonsense in between contractions, telling stories about Bruce. Every tale was a stab to Silvia’s heart. Could a woman be lying like this while giving birth? As much as she wanted to fall apart and mourn the man she thought she knew, she had a baby to deliver. There would be time to deal with all the other information later. She shoved it all into a closet in her mind and locked the door.
“I can see his head. With the next contraction push hard.”
The umbilical cord had wrapped around the baby’s neck, and Silvia tried to loosen it the minute she realized what occurred. As the next contraction hit, the cord tightened around Silvia’s finger as she attempted to loosen it. At the same time, the woman screamed cursing someone named Gerald. Silvia barely heard her as she struggled with the baby, realizing it was too late. The child wasn’t breathing.
She wiped off the child and tried to revive it. She placed it on the bed and ran to the door. Opening it, she yelled, “Bruce! I need you!” She ran back to the baby and tried to blow air into its lungs.
The woman on the bed was crying. “Where’s my baby?”
“I’m still taking care of it,” Silvia said.
Bruce burst into the room.
“Get him out of here!” the woman screamed.
He rushed over to Silvia and she whispered about what had happened. Bruce checked over the baby. He worked on the baby and soon the child cried. He cut the cord, wrapped the little one up and handed it to Silvia. A Christmas miracle.
Silvia accepted the tiny body into her arms. She walked to the head of the bed. “Your little boy almost didn’t survive.” She handed the baby to the woman who stared at the tiny face. “Who is Gerald?” Silvia asked.
9
The woman cooed as she held her infant child.
Bruce worked at cleaning up the afterbirth as Silvia stood to the side silently weeping. He wasn’t positive why, unless it was the stress of almost losing a patient. That was never easy.
Silvia removed her bloodied apron and washed her hands, scrubbing them with soap. Without another word, she left the room. She had asked about a man named Gerald, but the woman hadn’t answered.
Bruce went to wash his hands. Silvia had been efficient in her preparations which made his job easier. His esteem for her grew. He dried his hands and turned to the woman in the bed who was sniffing now.
“Who are you?” he asked.
The woman refused to answer.
He walked out of the room to find his fiancée.
~*~
Silvia sat in a chair by the fire in the private room Michael had arranged. Food had been brought in, but she wasn’t hungry. Numb would describe her best. All the words screamed in that room upstairs had been locked in the closet of her mind and now she opened it up enough to shove in the grief. Uncertainty of who Bruce might be to this woman, came along with almost failing to deliver a healthy baby.
“Come on, Silvia. It’s already past noon and you’ve not had a bite to eat all day,” Michael pleaded with her. She hadn’t told him anything about the birth or the woman and her insinuations. She couldn’t talk about what happened.
“I want to go home.”
“I’ll call for the carriage. Will Bruce be joining us?”
She shrugged.
The door closed as Michael left the room and the only sounds were the crackling of the fire as it licked the logs, and the breaking of her heart.
The door opened again. She didn’t even check to see who it was but stood to put on her coat.
“Silvia?”
Bruce. She turned to him.
He moved toward her and she shook her head.
Michael entered. “The carriage is ready.”
Silvia followed him out. Her black bag was left upstairs, but she didn’t care about that right now.
“Silvia?” Bruce clasped her arm as she walked by.
“I can’t…release me, Dr. Miller.” He let her go and she strode past him, closing the door behind her. Her heart shattered into a million pieces.
~*~
Bruce stood there nonplussed. He’d spent hours in this room while Silvia had taken care of the woman upstairs. He still had a patient, so he couldn’t leave yet. Perhaps Silvia needed time to rest and recover. He’d be trying to sleep when he got back. The innkeeper came in.
“You’re still here, Dr. Miller?”
“Yes.”
“The baby?”
“A boy.”
“Congratulations.” The man started to clean up the table.
“Pardon?”
“It was your child. The woman told me so. How you could be marrying Miss Burnett and not the one who bore your child is none of my concern, but I thought you to be an honorable man.”
“Mr. Hammon, I’d never met that woman until yesterday. The child couldn’t be mine. I’m not that kind of man.”
“All young men are, ’ceptin’ maybe the viscount.”
“Mr. Hammon, where did I go this year? When did I leave this village?”
The man stopped to think and shrugged.
“Nine months ago, d
idn’t I come here to treat your gout? And eight months ago, I set your son’s broken leg from playing around in the barn. Tell me when I would have left the village to seduce any woman?”
Mr. Hammon stared at him wide-eyed. “She’s a liar.”
“I’ve worked in this village for years. Worshipped alongside you all every Sunday. Come to help people regardless of the weather or time of day. How could you believe I would callously abandon a woman who was carrying my child, much less have intimate relations with one outside of marriage?”
“But you and Miss Burnett…?”
“Are due to be married in a week and we have never been alone for longer than a minute. Even during my operation, someone else was in the room.”
The man nodded. “I’m sorry I believed her lies or the rumors that Sir Gerald told as well. Nasty business, that.”
“Sir Gerald?”
“Yes. Sir Gerald McElroy. That’s how he signed it when he arrived.”
“My guess is that the woman upstairs was hired by the baronet.”
“Hired?”
“Use your imagination, man. Either to stir up trouble or possibly even left that poor woman in this position. Maybe he paid her to come and besmirch my reputation.”
“How soon can I kick her out?”
“I’d give her a day to rest and she can be on her way. I’d better go up there and gather my things.”
“I’m sorry I thought poorly of you, Dr. Miller.”
“Apology accepted. Can you make sure the rest of the village hears the truth?”
The man smiled. “Aye. I can do that.”
Bruce trudged up the stairs. He knocked but there was no answer in the room. He slowly opened the door and found the bed empty, except for the swaddled infant there. “Miss?” No answer. The woman was gone. He went to put his things away and gathered up Silvia’s stuff as well. He collected the infant. Poor thing was abandoned like the bloodied and dirty rags. He swallowed hard. As sad as it was for the babe to be orphaned, it would have likely had a hard life given the choices of his parents. But what to do with him?
He left with the child and took the long walk home in the bitter cold. Once there he found a box to put the child in and took it over to a young family that had recently had a child. Perhaps they’d not mind another baby to care for.
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