Mr Darcy agreed with a solemn nod as Captain Carter entered the room. The officer expressed pleasure in Elizabeth’s addition to the dinner party, enquired after Miss Bennet, and joined them in an agreeable discussion of the attributes of Netherfield which lasted until Bingley and Mrs Hurst were able to join them.
The dinner was not so pleasant as the first Elizabeth had enjoyed there, when only Jane was ill, but no one could have expected it to be so. Mrs Hurst was subdued and her brother distracted. With Mr Darcy’s conversational deficiencies only increased by the strained atmosphere, it fell to Elizabeth and the captain to conduct light and congenial discourse on unobjectionable topics, to which the others might contribute or not, as they chose. The other three did attempt to join in, spurred by the obligations of civility, but only Mr Darcy was even marginally successful. Elizabeth returned to Jane’s chamber soon after the gentlemen joined them in the drawing room, and her only reason to be glad that she had attended was the satisfaction of having offered some slight entertainment to those in need of distraction.
CHAPTERELEVEN
Mr Jones,
Pardon me, sir, for intruding into what little time you now have in your own shop and home, but I must beg a favour of you. Maria’s condition changed some hours after you left us this morning, and although my dear Charlotte assures us that it is nothing you had not taught her to expect, Lady Lucas has become quite frantic. If you will consent to visit us and put her mind at rest, and perhaps bring her a bottle of your marvellous nerve tonic, I will guarantee you not only your usual fee but a fine, hot meal and a glass of port as well.
Yours,
Sir William Lucas
Jones sighed softlyand shrugged his coat back on. Exhausted as he was, he was in no position to turn down either a fee or a good meal. So many of his present patients would not be able to pay him for months, if they paid at all, and the cost of a meal he need not take at the inn might be added to his savings. Miss Lucas had been kind enough to fill his flask and pack him a bite to eat on every visit. His professional duty compelled him to hie to Lucas Lodge, but it was the opportunity to visit with Miss Lucas that excited his anticipation.
He arrived at Lucas Lodge just as the swift-setting winter sun disappeared below the horizon, and was welcomed with much effusive thanks by the master of the house himself. When Jones had been divested of his winter garments and Sir William’s gratitude had run low on words, he concluded with, “I shall stay with my wife, if you do not mind, sir. You know the way.”
Jones bowed his assent and climbed the stairs to Miss Maria’s chamber, where he found that she had entered the most trying stage of the illness and was quite fatigued but, her case being so mild in general, was in little if any danger.
Miss Lucas accompanied him downstairs after a brief word with her sister, entering the parlour just behind him and wincing in mortification as her mother shrilly babbled her worries at him without even giving him a chance to speak. It was some minutes before Miss Lucas and her father managed to calm Lady Lucas enough for Jones to deliver his verdict, which he did simply and promptly, adding that a quiet and restful atmosphere would aid in her recovery.
Miss Lucas had fetched a cordial glass as he spoke, and Lady Lucas hardly had time to express her thanks before he had poured a dose into it and handed it to her. She drank it down eagerly and her husband took custody of the rest of the bottle, standing and bowing to Jones.
“I thank you, sir, for attending us again. I will see Lady Lucas settled for the night. Charlotte, please ensure he is well-fed before he leaves us.”
Jones followed her into the kitchen, where she sat him at the little table they had occupied on his previous foray into the kitchens. The cook bustled over with a plate, which she set before him, removing the cover to reveal an amount of pheasant, roasted turnips, thick brown gravy, and buttered bread that he was not certain he could consume over the course of two dinners. She moved away and shortly returned with a dish of custard that she set beside his plate with a smile.
Miss Lucas took the other chair and silently enjoyed a glass of wine as he tucked into his dinner. He found that he had quite an appetite after his first taste of the finely-roasted bird seasoned with savoury herbs, so different from the tough, indifferent bits of flesh scattered stingily through the Meryton Inn’s meat pies, his usual dinner. Only the presence of a lady prevented ill-mannered haste in his eating.
When at last he sat back, having devoured two-thirds of the heap of food and eying the custard speculatively, wondering if his stomach would accommodate just that bit more, Miss Lucas smiled at him. “Mrs Walsh is very good with pheasant, is she not? I shall have the rest of that wrapped up for you, if you like.”
Most of what remained was turnips and bread, which was still rather better than his usual morning meal. “If it is not too much trouble, I should be grateful for it,” he replied.
“Allow me to say, once again, how sorry I am that you should be called out on so slight a need.” She blushed, and while he said all the expected and commonplace words to deny any particular merit on his own part, he took the opportunity to study her.
She was not pretty by any conventional standard, but her high cheekbones and the look of uncommon intelligence in her expression lent her a kind of handsomeness few would trouble themselves to recognise. A careful practitioner of the medical arts is trained to notice those things which escape the attention of the masses, and to him, Miss Lucas grew more attractive by the day.
She increased this impression when she earnestly enquired after his relations. “My sister has fallen ill, but her case, like the children’s, is mild thus far,” he replied. “My niece and nephew showed the first signs of the rash today, while Mr Goulding, his parents, and the baby remain unaffected.”
“I should think it must be very hard, to be the only medical man in the area during such a crisis, and with your own family affected also,” she said. “How do you manage to visit all the ill, every day, as you have been?”
“With a reliable horse and the invaluable help of the gentlemen of Netherfield,” he replied frankly. “I should be quite overwhelmed if it were not for them. I certainly would not be able to monitor my patients so closely. I only wish I could do more for them.”
He took a deep breath, thinking of the decision he had earlier made but now ready to act on it.
“One day, perhaps, we shall understand how to defeat this and all the other diseases which so readily kill us now. Some day soon, all of what has occurred these past weeks will be behind us.”
When Miss Lucas nodded, he rushed ahead. “And when we reach that moment, when all of this is behind us, I hope you will allow me to call on you. I enjoy our conversations and your company, and have come to admire you.”
She blushed deeply, her mouth pulling into a pleased smile even as her habitually forthright gaze dropped to the scarred tabletop. “I would be…extremely pleased to receive you, sir,” was all she said, but that was enough for him.
* * *
Caroline,
You will reply to this letter, or as soon as Mr Jones declares the epidemic ended, I shall order my servants to put you in the carriage whether you like it or not and bring you here so that we might assure ourselves of your well-being in person.
Charles
