“He is. Thanks to Miss Loveday here.”
“Thanks to my father’s eardrops,” Anne corrected. “Poor boy has an earache. A daily application should set him to rights over the next few days. At least, if my half sister who regularly suffers from the same is any indication.” Anne set the bottle on the table. “I shall leave it with you.”
“Oh, thank you, Anne. And thank God. How I worried when I arrived back at Painswick Court and learned you two had gone charging off together. I feared the worst.”
Dr. Finch rose from the chair. “I feared it too. Thankfully, all is well.” He handed the sleeping child to his mother.
“Oh, my dear one.” Rosa gathered the boy in her arms and nestled him close. “Come to Mamm—” She broke off, looking at her uncle in alarm.
“It’s all right,” he said. “I told her.”
Rosa turned to Anne, expression pleading. “You won’t tell Lady Celia, will you? Please.”
“I will promise not to tell her, but Idon’tpromise not to interfere if I see her nephew mistreating you under her roof.”
“Hear, hear,” Dr. Finch said. “Now you see why I pressed you to serve as nurse at Painswick Court.”
“Did you? I thought Dr. Marsland proposed it.”
He nodded sagely. “Exactly. I’ve learned it’s easier to get one’s way if you make it seem like the other person’s idea.”
“Crafty!” Rosa said, eyebrows high.
He grinned. “I preferwise.”
Anne decided not to dampen his satisfaction by telling him Miss Lotty had thought of it before either man.
16
The next day, Anne and Rosa helped Lady Celia into her new banyan gown and watched as she donned the fine lace cap. “Very nice,” she said, eyeing her reflection in the dressing table mirror and clearly pleased with the purchases Rosa had made on her behalf.
After breakfast, when Anne took Louie for his walk, she stopped by Mrs. Baylis’s once more.
The woman welcomed her inside and said, “I haven’t heard much from the little lamb today. Is he all right now?”
“Better, yes. An earache. Very painful, but he is on the mend.”
“That is excellent news.”
“Dr. Finch and I are in your debt. Thank you again for letting us pass through your house.”
“Not at all. If anything, I owe you. Do you know, my neighbors have been delivering gifts ever since the rumor reached them that I had finally taken ill? Hartshorn jelly, chicken soup, and seed cake. I have been richly rewarded for my slight part in that ruse, and we shall say no more about it.”
“What did you tell them was ailing you? In case someone asks?”
“A mysterious ailment.” She waggled her grey eyebrows. “And one that has already passed.”
Later that afternoon, Anne read to Lady Celia fromNorthanger Abbey. Despite the woman’s earlier protestations against romances in general, she enjoyed the tongue-in-cheek jabs at the Gothic romance genre so popular with swooning young ladies. And while Catherine Morland’s dramatics made her roll her eyes, Henry Tilney made her laugh.
“I like him,” she said. “Reminds me of my Herbert.”
Rosa came in and sat with them, listening as she sewed. Suddenly something Dr. Finch had said to Anne in the circulating library came rushing back to her,“My sister and her daughter both lovedNorthanger AbbeyandPersuasion....”She’d not realized it before, but here was that daughter.
As the day was nearing its end and it was almost time to retrieve Lady Celia’s dinner tray, another thought came to Anne. “Rosa, you look exhausted.”
She glanced up in surprise. “Do I?”
“Yes. Perhaps it was the trip to Gloucester. Why don’t you retire early? Consider yourself off duty for the rest of the night? Do you need anything else before she goes, Lady Celia? I shall remain with you and will help you prepare for bed when you’re ready.”
