Well. There was nothing she could do about it, so she resolved to do nothing, and to forget about it until he returned to explain.
Richard’s intention totell Evangeline was thwarted almost from the start.
A frantic message from Clemency had arrived before breakfast the day after his disastrous dinner with Lord Allen. Gabriel, who had gone with a school friend to Lyme Regis, had come down with a fever after swimming in the ocean. The friend’s mother, Mrs. Putney, had written to her that he was asking for her, and Clemency had flown into a state of pure terror.It’s just how Daniel died,she’d written in her tear-stained letter.I must go to my precious boy. Oh, Richard, you must take me to him!
Of course he would. Of course he must.
He’d planned to call on Evangeline and disclose all his sins of the night before; now he had only a few hours. He went to Wyndham House as soon as he’d made the directions for his hasty departure, but she was out. He waited as long as he dared, then was forced to leave a letter begging her to give him a chance to explain.
There hadn’t even been a chance to explain to Clemency on the drive to Lyme Regis. Her fears for Gabriel had driveneverything else from her mind, and he wasn’t about to upset her further by telling her he’d likely offended not only Allen, but several other gentlemen as well. That knowledge had lodged like a stone in his heart as his sister worried and wept over something far more important: her son’s life.
After driving his horses harder than he should have, and changing teams at every available posting inn, they reached Lyme Regis at twilight the next day. The Putneys received them with relief. Gabriel had been ill for three days now, and the doctor was worried. Clemency ran into the sickroom, where Gabriel opened his eyes and smiled weakly at her, and didn’t even protest when she gathered him into her arms as if he were still an infant and stroked his hair and called him her little lamb.
Mr. Putney ushered Richard into his study. “The lad didn’t seem that poorly for the first day,” he explained. “The two of them were at the shore with my son’s tutor, young Gabe and my William. They came home pink from the sun but nothing worse, both of them tired unto exhaustion. But Gabriel woke early in the morning complaining of a headache, and stayed in bed. When my wife looked in on him, she discovered he was hot with fever. We summoned the doctor, of course, but he said it looked mild and not to be alarmed unless it persisted more than a day. Well, the moment it did, my wife wrote to Mrs. Murray. We’ve been worried fair out of our minds.”
Richard nodded. The man did look anxious and worried. “It sounds as though you did everything correctly. Boys get fevers. I am sure my sister would have done precisely the same, with the same effect.” He paused. “Do not tell her I said that. All the way here she wept of him needing his mother’s care.”
Putney smiled in relief. “And so he does! I would never suggest otherwise. If there is anything she requires or wants for his care, you have but to ask.”
“Thank you.”
He went to the sickroom. Gabriel looked small and pale in the white bedlinen, with Clemency almost lying next to him. At the sound of the door, Gabe opened his eyes. “Ahoy, Uncle,” he said in a whispery-soft voice.
“Shoals spotted,” returned Richard. “Steer carefully, Captain.”
The boy grinned. “Hard to port, mate.”
Richard laughed quietly. He came to sit beside the bed. Clemency looked at him with anguished eyes, and he tried to exude calm in reply. “It seems you’ve run aground, Captain Gabriel.”
“I have, sir.” The boy looked at his mother. “But I’ll come about, Mama. I promise.”
“Oh, Gabriel.” She petted his hair and he closed his eyes. “Of course you will, my darling.”
Richard picked up a cup sitting on a nearby table and sniffed it. Weak tea. “Have you been eating and drinking?”
Gabriel made a face without opening his eyes. “Some. I’m tired of tea. And my stomach hurts.”
“Perhaps you would like some switchel,” Richard said.
The boy forced his eyes open. “What’s that? Is it from a foreign land?”
“Naturally,” said Richard, knowing this would make it appealing. “A ship captain taught me the receipt, and said it was the best thing to drink in hot climates. But I also found it excellent for settling an unruly stomach. Would you like some?”
Gabriel nodded. Clemency stroked his hair a moment more, then rose and took herself into the hall, motioning for Richard to follow. “Will it help him?” she asked anxiously.
“It can’t hurt him, and the more he eats and drinks, the stronger he should be. He is awake and lucid, Clemency. Those are very promising signs.”
She seemed to wilt with relief. “They are, aren’t they? But he’s still so pale and weak?—”
“So let us get some food into him. The switchel should calm his stomach and allow him to eat more.”
She nodded. “Thank you, Richard. I know you think I am worried excessively?—”
“Nonsense,” he soothed. “He is your child.”
“But after Daniel...” She bit her lip, tears welling in her eyes. “I know you have no wife or child, so perhaps there is no way to explain it to you... It’s as if a piece of my own heart lies in that bed, and I feel his suffering like a physical pain here.” She laid one hand on her bosom. “It’s not like when Father died, or Mama, or anyone else. I think it was only because of Rafael and Gabriel that I survived it when Daniel... But it would be so much worse ifGabriel—” She choked back a little sob, and Richard put his hand on her shoulder in comfort. “Thank you,” she whispered, and ducked back into the room where her son lay.
Richard stood there for a long moment. Of course he didn’t know a parent’s anguish, with no children of his own. And he had no wife, but he’d seen enough marriages to know that didn’t always indicate strong attachment.
