“Yes, sweet, I am here.” He reached for her hand and squeezed it. To his shock, her fingers were limp, and she didn’t hold his hand in return.
A dismayed smile touched her mouth. “I can’t move my hands and feet anymore,” she whispered. “The sickness is creeping up my limbs.”
Horror filled him at the thought. “What do you mean?”
His daughter let out a shaky breath. “It started a week ago, with my feet. They were tingling, and I couldn’t feel them. Then it spread to my legs and my knees until I couldn’t walk. Now it’s up to my hands.”
David turned to Amelia, who was gripping her palms together.
“Papa, I don’t want to die. But I’m afraid of it spreading higher.”
“We’ll find the right medicine for you,” he promised. “If we have to hire the best physicians in London.”
“They couldn’t save Mother,” she whispered. “Why would they be able to save me?”
“Because you’re young and stronger than she was.” He leaned down to kiss her cheek. “Rest for a moment, while I talk to Amelia in private.”
David stayed with her a moment, until he was certain she had calmed herself. Then he reached for Amelia’s hand and led her outside the room. The fury of helplessness came over him, and as he guided her toward his own bedchamber, she winced. “David, you’re hurting me.”
When he’d closed the door, he demanded, “Why didn’t you hire every doctor in Yorkshire to come and see her? Why would you send our best physician away while you wait for a doctor who might not come? If she dies…” He couldn’t even grasp the thought for fear that imagining it would make it happen.
A flare of anger caught in Amelia’s eyes. “You weren’t here when she first got sick. You decided that going alone to one of the estates was more important. I had to make the best decisions I knew how, and I knew Dr. Greenford would kill her if I let him continue his ‘treatment.’”
“You don’t know anything about medicine,” he argued.
“And neither do you! But I know enough to see when a little girl is getting worse instead of getting better. He was heating up glass cups and searing her skin with them!”
Amelia was openly crying now, but he could make no move to comfort her. This was his only daughter. His last living piece of Katherine.
“I’m sending for Dr. Greenford right now,” he said.
But Amelia shocked him when she stood in front of the door, blocking his way. “She’s my daughter too, now. And I won’t let that man hurt her.”
“Dr. Greenford has been our family physician for over twenty years,” he argued.
“How do you know Katherine didn’t die at his hands?” She had her hands on her hips, glaring at him. It was a low blow, but he knew the doctor had done everything in his power to save his wife.
“She was too sick for anyone to cure.”
“Was she?” Amelia asked. “Or is that what you tell yourself?” She stepped aside from the door and warned him, “I trust Dr. Fraser to help her. He is one of the best physicians in Edinburgh. After he inherited his uncle’s title, the Viscount of Falsham, he’s continuedto write medical treatises and research the best ways to help his patients. He’s traveled through Scotland and England to meet with many doctors. If anyone can save Christine, it’s him.”
“But he’s not here,” David gritted out. And he wasn’t about to wait for a man who might not come.
“Hewillbe.” Amelia softened her tone and opened the door. “I don’t want to fight with you. Christine shouldn’t hear us snap at each other, not when she needs us.”
“She needsme,” he corrected. “Her father.”
With that, he left her standing in his bedroom while he returned to Christine’s side.
Amelia felt as if she’d taken a blow to her stomach. Did he honestly believe she’d behaved irresponsibly by sending the doctor away? In the past five years, she’d never known Dr. Fraser to be anything but a miracle worker. But her husband was treating her like a recalcitrant child who thought she knew best. It wasn’t that at all—she’d agreed to let the doctor examine Christine, but the moment he’d begun his “treatments,” she’d stopped him. The last thing her stepdaughter needed was to be weakened by bloodletting or cupping.
For a moment, Amelia leaned against the wall, letting out her heartbreak. No, she wasn’t the girl’s mother. But she wasn’t about to stand around and wring her hands. She needed a trustworthy doctor, not a man who would drain away the remainder of her stepdaughter’s strength.
Hearing David accuse her of negligence was like a knife slicing her courage into shreds. She wept harder, knowing that a good cry would give her the means to be cheerful later. Even though the young girl had been a trial to her, they had grown closer in the pastfew days. She was beginning to think of Christine as her own daughter, and the thought of watching her die was a nightmare she couldn’t bear to face.
The girl had slowly lost all feeling in her legs and now her hands. Amelia had never seen anything like it, and unless they found a way to reverse it, Christine would undoubtedly die or be left an invalid.
She wiped her eyes with her handkerchief and forced herself to return to the sickroom. But before she could take another step, she heard the voices of her sister and Dr. Fraser downstairs.
