“You are certain you do not wish your post back?” Charlotte asked Sally over tea in the Taylors’ sitting room a few weeks later.
“No. My place is with Dickie now.”
“How does he fare?”
“He’s fully recovered, I am happy to say. Thanks to your Dr. Taylor.”
“He is not my Dr. Taylor.”
The look Sally gave her said she begged to differ.
“And how is your Thomas?”
“’Tisn’t mine.” She hid a toothy grin behind her hand. “Yet ...”
Charlotte smiled. Soon after her return to London, Thomas had arrived to begin his apprenticeship to Dr. Taylor. The young man slept either in one of the manor’s upstairs chambers or on a cot in the offices on the street level, depending on where Dr. Taylor needed him on a given day.
“Why not come out with me and Thomas sometime?” Sally asked.
“Thomas loves going to hear lectures and concerts and the like, and he is determined that I should learn to like such as well. Come along with us. You’d enjoy a night out now and then, wouldn’t you?”
“You are thoughtful to include me. But Anne ...”
“My sister would watch her and Dickie both. I know she would.”
“Anne is still nursing. It is difficult to get away. You remember how it is.”
“Aye.” Sally’s eyes clouded.
“I did not mean ...”
“’Tis all right, Miss Charlotte. I remember my blunder whether anyone reminds me of it or not.”
“It is forgotten, Sally.”
“Not by the Harrises, ’tisn’t. And not by me.”
“Oh, Sally ...” Charlotte reached over and squeezed her friend’s hand. “Someday soon I should be delighted to accompany you for an evening out.”
Charlotte glanced up and saw Dr. Taylor standing in the doorway, his expression dour. How much of their conversation had he overheard?
A few days later, Dr. Taylor approached Charlotte as she sat spooning porridge into Anne’s open, bird-like mouth. When she glanced up at him, he cleared his throat. “I’ve been wondering,
Miss Lamb, if it might not be time to wean Anne? She has begun eating other foods now.”
She glanced at the spoon in her hand. “Yes, I know. But I had thought to nurse her for a full year or more.”
“Ah, well. As you wish.” He started for the door.
Charlotte turned, spoon still poised midair. “But if you want me to cease, then, of course, I shall.”
“I was only wondering ...”
Then it struck her. He wanted to be rid of her. Her heart pounded dully, painfully.
She would not overstay her welcome.
She had not expected the process to be so difficult. In fact by the next morning, breasts full, she had already resigned herself to continuing on. But Anne was fussy and restless and wouldn’t nurse properly. She pulled off again and again as Charlotte encouraged her to latch on.
