CHAPTER29
After dinner, Lizette began scratching her arm, then her neck. He watched calmly at first, but when she began scratching with great vigor, he rose to his feet and took her by the arms to still her. Already she bore long streaks of red down her white neck. “Come, I shall give you something for that.”
“Nothing helps.”
“I shall find something. Come.”
Pausing to pick up his medical bag, he led her upstairs to their bedroom and closed the door. She flounced down on the bed while he set the bag on the dresser and began looking through its contents. “Here we are.”
He sat on the bed beside her and began applying the ointment to her neck, lowering her gown from one shoulder to avoid getting the sticky medicine on the fine material. He smoothed the ointment onto her throat, then bent to kiss her bare shoulder. She had been trying to seduce him for weeks. Now, the damage done, why not enjoy his wife while he could? He kissed her clavicle and slid the gown off her other shoulder, his hand moving lower to stroke her exposed skin. His lips moved lower as well.
“Non.”
She shoved him with startling strength and he fell away from her. Stunned, he looked up at her, surprised to see tears streaming down her face.
“Can you not see how I suffer? And yet you force yourself on me!”
“I ... I thought you wanted ... I am sorry.”
“Yes, you are sorry indeed.”
The next night, Daniel found Lizette sitting alone in the dark parlor, weeping. He lit a lamp, forcing optimism into his voice. “Dr. Kendall sent this tea for you. He thinks it might help.”
“There is no use in doing anything, as I shall die soon.”
“Please do not say that. Think of Anne.”
“Why? Is it not she who ruined my body and my mind?”
“Lizette. It isn’t her fault.”
“Nor is it mine! You behave as though it is all in my mind. As though I am insane!”
“Shh ... calm yourself. I know what ails you is real. And you are not the only woman to suffer from it.”
“Do you think that helps me? Do you think that makes me want to live?”
“No, you live for us, for Anne and for me and for the babe to come.”
“I do not care about any of you.” She rubbed her forehead roughly. “I just want this to end.”
“My dear. I think it’s time we thought about returning to London.”
“Non!I will not go back to that place. That hospital, that dark little room.”
“Only until the baby comes.”
“Non!Please, Daniel, I beg you. I shall be fine. I will get better. I like it here by the sea. I can breathe here. I can smell France.”
Daniel looked at her beautiful, pleading face. “Very well. For now. But you must try to calm down, to control yourself.”
“Oui, mon amour. I shall.”
But a few days later, Daniel heard Lizette and Marie shouting and swearing in French. He leapt up from his desk and sprinted into the parlor.
His wife held a large brass candelabra in her hand and was about to strike the windowpane. Marie tried to wrest it from her.
“Lizette! Put that down!” he shouted.
