He did not stir and seemed to be asleep or unconscious. His breathing was stilted, and his chest rose and fell with a shocking rattle. I took a step backwards, not wanting to disturb his slumber. Perhaps I should come back later ... I turned to open the door, and the floorboard under my foot creaked.
‘Felicityyy,’ a voice rasped from the bed. ‘Is that you?’
I swung around to find Dorian with his head turned on the pillow, looking straight at me. So I couldn’t escape.
‘Harry said you were here.’ He struggled to sit up, and alarmed by this, I rushed to the bed in case he made himself worse.
‘Please lie still, I beg you.’
He collapsed back against the pillow with a low moan,his dark eyes unfocused, rivulets of sweat running down the side of his face.It is the fever,I thought.That might kill him before his injuries!
There was a basin of water with a cloth next to the bed. I wrung out the cloth and gently wiped away the grimy perspiration from his face and neck. When I had finished, the water looked none too clean as there had been streaks of dirt on his neck. It appeared he had been plucked from the street after his accident and unceremoniously deposited into the bed without anyone giving him a wash.
I got up with the basin, feeling purposeful, and poked my head out the door. ‘Maurice, can you fetch me some fresh water? Boil it over the fire first. And also get me a clean rag and some bandages. A bar of soap would be good too.’
Maurice stared at me and held up his hands helplessly. ‘I have no money for luxury items like soap, let alone bandages or anything else. I have barely been able to make broths and stews to keep us both alive. Luckily, the butchers at the market have given me offcuts, and a few of the local ladies have been kind enough to give me some vegetables.’
Harry instantly jumped to his feet. ‘I will go with Maurice and procure everything you need, Felicity, if you think it will help.’
‘Thank you,’ I said gratefully. ‘It would make him more comfortable to be clean at least.’ I thought for a moment. ‘Actually,while you are out, can you also get some new linens, a decent pillow, and an embroidered coverlet? Oh, and a couple of towels and new nightshirts as well.’
Harry didn’t look convinced that these things I was ordering would make a difference to Dorian’s declining health but dutifully nodded nonetheless. ‘We will take a hackney to Cheapside.’ He and Maurice left the room on a shopping mission, and I returned to the patient.
Dorian was awake again and moving his legs about fitfully. But he stopped when I sat on the bedside. He stared up at me in wonderment.
‘Is it really you, Felicity? Or am I dreaming?’ He seemed to have forgotten that he had just seen me.
‘You are not dreaming,’ I said gently. ‘You have a fever and may be slightly delusional.’
‘Oh.’ His eyes fluttered closed, and he tried to breathe, but it obviously pained him. Did he have a broken rib? Maurice had not given any details about his injury. Despite his past wrongs, Dorian looked so vulnerable and helpless lying there, and I could not help but feel sorry for him. Surely, with the proper care, he could heal and get well again? A broken rib was not too life-threatening if attended to properly.
After a short time, Dorian opened his eyes again.
‘You are still here,’ he said weakly.
‘Yes. How areyou feeling?’
‘I’m dying,’ he said, sounding mournful. ‘Nothing can be done. The doctor said so. I heard him telling Maurice.’
‘Doctors don’t know everything,’ I replied, attempting to be cheerful. I patted his hand. ‘Who was this doctor? He sounds like a quack to me.’
A glimmer of a smile touched his mouth. ‘Quack or not, I am at his mercy. For he attended me for free, and I cannot afford anyone better.’
He tried to sit up again but fell back with a gasp.
‘You must not move, Dorian.’ I pressed his shoulder lightly for emphasis. ‘We will make you more comfortable very shortly. But for now, I need you to stay calm and lie quietly.’And be a good little boy,I felt like adding but did not want to be condescending.
He muttered something about me being bossy and seemed to pass out again. At least when he was unconscious, he wasn’t moving. I was no doctor, but I suspected that he did indeed have a broken rib, and it was moving freely around inside his chest. The fever also signalled an infection of some kind.
I sat with Dorian, keeping an eye on him, until Harry and Maurice returned laden with the items I had requested.
Harry and I spoke in hushed tones in the ‘parlour’ while Maurice stoked the fire and hooked up a smallerpot and poured in water he’d collected in a bucket from an outside pump. The conditions people had to endure living in these London houses were rudimentary to the point of being primitive. It was all rather shocking. Dorian was a human being, and I was determined that he should not die because of filthy sheets or grubby bandages—not on my watch.
‘He needs a thorough wash with soap and warm water,’ I said to Harry. ‘Otherwise, he’ll start attracting lice and fleas.’
I supposed I could do it if Harry did not want to. But washing Dorian’s naked body ... I shook my head. No. He was ailing, but he was still a rogue, and I was a married woman.
‘You and Maurice must do it. I cannot, for it is not proper. When you do so, look for discolouration around his chest area. If there is purple bruising, then I suspect he has a broken rib. You will have to bind his chest tightly with clean bandages. It will be painful for him, but it will help the bones knit back together and keep everything in place.’ I gestured to my corset. ‘Like one of these. Hopefully, that will bring the fever down. Bathing his forehead and neck plus sips of cool boiled water will help with that too.’
