The squire lay with hands folded upon his sunken chest, face as white as his pillow, blank eyes half open. Doctor Rhodes sat on the opposite side of the bed, as if to make room for callers paying their respects.
“May I?” Jewel asked.
The doctor nodded.
She leaned to press a kiss upon the dying man’s forehead. His eyes never moved.
“Is he suffering?”
“He has no apparent birthing pains. I’ve given him some laudanum to be sure.”
“Birthing pains?”
The doctor smiled tenderly. “I have sat by many bedsides, and have felt the difference in the room when a soul leaves it. My friend is being birthed into another world.”
Jewel sat in one of a pair of chairs on the side of the bed nearest the door.
Mr. Toft stepped inside. They traded grim nods. He advanced to pat the squire’s frail shoulder. Wiping his eyes, he asked Doctor Rhodes, “And where is Mr. Gibbs?”
“Off praying for his soul,” the doctor replied in a voice tinged with doubt.
But Jewel hoped it was so.
After Mr. Toft left, Jewel nodded toward the copy of Around the World in Eighty Days on the bedside table. “We’ve but two chapters remaining.”
“Vicar Phelps read Scripture,” the doctor said, “and his eyes never blinked. He has no knowledge of anything going on in this room.”
“How can you be sure?”
Doctor Rhodes nodded wearily. “Very well.”
She took up the novel, opened it to the Pears soap wrapper that served as bookmark.
“ ‘It is time to relate what a change took place in English public opinion when it transpired that the real bank robber, a certain James Strand, had been arrested on the 17th of December. . . .’ ”
Servants stepped in for reports, to touch his hand. Jewel hardly noticed them. The squire had never said an intelligible word to her, yet in her mind she felt his companionship as they traveled through the story.
She was midway through the final chapter when Mr. Gibbs entered.
“Mrs. Cooper is sending up tea.”
“Thank you,” Doctor Rhodes said.
Mr. Gibbs seemed composed, serene, if indeed he had spent the afternoon praying. He folded his long limbs into the chair beside Jewel’s.
“How is he?”
The doctor rose, put stethoscope into his ears, and listened to the sunken chest. “Growing weaker.”
Poised to read another paragraph, Jewel glanced at the brass clock atop the squire’s chest of drawers. Four o’clock. She should have left a half hour ago.
“I shall have to finish tomorrow,” she said with great reluctance.
“Very well, Mrs. Libby.” The look in Doctor Rhodes’ aged eyes said she would not have that opportunity.
She had hoped he would offer to read, but he was so obviously weary. She set the book back upon the table and touched the squire’s hand. As she turned for the door, she happened to glance to the side. Out of the doctor’s line of vision, Mr. Gibbs’ long fingers drummed upon his knee, as if he were a schoolboy sitting through a boring lecture.
She realized two things in that moment. That he cared even less for his uncle than she had thought. And that she had no reason to fear him. She picked up the book again, carried it to him.
“Mr. Gibbs, please finish this for him,” she said in a tone that begged no refusal. He owed it to the dying man. And even to her.
His mouth twitched as if to refuse, but then he shrugged. “Very well. Show me where you left off.”
She pointed out the paragraph and left the room with the sound of his voice behind her.
“ ‘Phileas Fogg had, without suspecting it, gained one day on his journey. . . .’ ”
Becky skipped by her side, chirping over the fun she had had with the Raleigh twins. The laundry bag sat inside, a reminder that life goes on. She would be ironing tomorrow, no matter who passed on.
Mrs. Hollis was apparently napping.
“I must cook quickly,” Jewel said to Becky. “And I don’t need any help today. Play quietly.”
She chopped lettuce for salad, brushed four lamb cutlets with egg and dipped them in breadcrumbs, as Mrs. Beeton’s book advised, and put turnips into a pot to boil.
At the sound of footsteps on the staircase, she automatically glanced over her shoulder. Mrs. Hollis was descending, her blue gown appearing to have been slept in, her ringlets crushed on one side.
“You’re back.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Jewel scooped a chunk of clarified butter into the skillet for browning the cutlets.
Mrs. Hollis came into the kitchen. “That young man who delivers the laundry . . .”
“Vernon Moore.” Jewel struck a match, lit the burner.
“Doesn’t he usually deliver in the morning?”
Jewel realized the reason for the question. She turned and saw the worry in her eyes. “I meant to mention that he was late.”
“You should have.”
Jewel’s blood chilled.
But there was a meal to finish.
As the evening wore on, Mrs. Hollis became increasingly restless, even more so than that morning. There was blessed relief when she went upstairs. Jewel was clearing away hers and Becky’s dishes when Mrs. Hollis came back downstairs in a simple dress of faded rose muslin, her hair repaired.
“The peas and salad will keep,” Jewel said. “But if I hold the lamb cutlets any longer, they’ll dry. Wouldn’t you care to take your supper now?”
Staring yet again through the kitchen window, she waved a hand and said, “No, no, I’m not hungry. Just put them on a platter. You can warm them later for Doctor Hollis. Or perhaps he took supper at the vicarage?”
“Probably so.”
Mrs. Hollis turned from the window, eyes wide. “But surely he would have sent word, don’t you think?”
“But perhaps he was called to the manor house? Doctor Rhodes was fatigued.”
She snapped up that hope like a frog would a moth. “Of course.”
That was the case. Doctor Hollis arrived, full of apologies, after Jewel had put Becky to bed. Mrs. Hollis helped him out of his coat, something Jewel had never witnessed. He seemed surprised, and even more so when she said, “I was worried.”
“I should have sent word.” He loosened his collar. “But it did seem unkind to send one of his servants out when . . .”
He glanced toward the parlor.
“Becky’s asleep,” Jewel assured him. “He’s gone?”
“I’m sorry, Jewel.”
“He’s in a better place. I wish I had had the chance to meet him before his illness. He must have been a sweet tender man.”
Doctor Hollis smiled. “Let’s just say he was a diamond in the rough. It was kind of you to visit so often.”
He looked toward the platter and pots sitting upon the stove. “And I’m sorry, but they brought up a tray.”
“It’s all right, sir.” She would clear the things away later. It seemed best to go upstairs and allow the two time to sort out the day.
On her way up the staircase, she heard Mrs. Hollis say, “Mr. Gibbs, the squire’s nephew, came here earlier, quite distraught, asking if Jewel would hurry over there. Of course I gave permission. He was overwhelmed with gratitude. He hardly seemed to know what he was doing!”
He knew, all right, Jewel thought on the landing. And Mrs. Hollis was a foolish woman. But if today’s fright had caused her to realize what she stood to lose, perhaps some good would have come of it after all.
She would pray for them tonight. And she would thank God for giving her an appreciation for Norman for the few years she had him. That none of her memories were tainted by guilt.
“Are you all right?” Philip asked. They sat at the dining table, he holding a beaker of water, she mashing butter into a bowl of turnips.
She chewed, swallowed contentedly as if dining on cheesecake at the Berkeley Hotel. “I’m fine. But when you didn’t come home . . .”
“You were worried?”
“Terribly.” She licked a stray bit of turnip from her finger.
That reply would have sent him to his knees just days ago. But it rang flat in his ears. But why would she even say it if she did not mean it? She had never been generous with compliments, even in the best days of their marriage.
They had danced around each other for over a week. But now that she had broached the subject of their marriage—in a way—perhaps this was the best time to ask what he had wondered for days.
“Did you write to your mother, Loretta?”
“No. Or rather, I did, but I tore it up.”
“Why?”
“Because I agreed to a month. It’s not right to back out.”
His hope dissipated, like ether in air. But why was he surprised? She had said that it was over.
So what kept him there in the cottage with her? Besides the desire to spare his family from humiliation, he supposed it was inertia. Just as after investing the time and trouble to see a play that was not as good as expected, it was easier to sit in the theatre and hope it improved than to get up and walk out.