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Elizabeth thought of Cora that morning on the stairs going up to the nursery with the children’s breakfast, and then immediately coming back down to answer the front door. “I shall have my aunt inquire of Mr. Hinshaw.”
“You said you would see what might be done about the mattress.”
“I shall.”
Somewhere just above, there was a thump and an indignant cry. Miss Bingley huffed. “Are they never quiet?”
“They are children, Miss Bingley, and they are in their own home,” Elizabeth replied. Her voice did not betray her feelings. She commended herself for that, for it was no easy thing. She escaped into the passage and closed the door behind her. At almost the same moment, someone knocked at the front door. Cora hurried down the stairs carrying a basket of folded linens.
“Allow me,” Elizabeth said, taking the basket. “You see who has called.”
“But miss—”
Another wail came from the nursery, this one louder.
“I had better go to see what that is about. Nurse is almost as beset as you are.”
Cora hurried to the door.
Just as Elizabeth reached the top of the stairs, her aunt emerged from the nursery.
“I will take that, Lizzy.”
As Elizabeth returned downstairs, Cora admitted a delivery boy with a parcel from the apothecary. While she dealt with him, the bell rang in the sickroom. It rang a second time, then a third, then kept on.
Cora paid the boy, accepted the parcel, and shut the door. “I shall go.”
“No, I shall.” Elizabeth held out her hand for the medicine. “You have other duties.”
“But Miss Elizabeth—”
Her aunt came downstairs and heard the bell. “Elizabeth is correct, Cora. In fact, Miss Bingley shall need you tonight, so you ought to go rest until dinner.”
Cora appeared torn.
“Miss Bingley can wait a few minutes,” Elizabeth told her, “despite the urgency of her bell. I shall see to her.”
Her aunt’s lips turned up into a little smile. “You came to London for pleasure, Lizzy, not to wait upon an invalid.”
“I came to London to escape Mr. Collins and help Jane,” Elizabeth said. “I have already achieved the first, and the second requires that I help that impatient invalid rather than Jane doing so.”
The bell stopped, and they all looked at one another.
Then it started again.
Elizabeth took the medicine. “Cora cannot continue in this way without help. Miss Bingley has requested a nurse. For now, Cora is required in the sickroom, but the nursemaid also requires her upstairs, and someone must answer the door.”
“I have been trying to engage an additional maid,” Aunt Gardiner said. “But the agency says that every respectable girl in London has been secured by a household giving three dinners and a ball before Christmas. Mrs. Pembroke recommended someone yesterday, but the girl has already promised to remain with her present mistress until Twelfth Night. I shall inquire of Mr. Hinshaw for a nurse, but I rather doubt we will have more luck there.”
“Then we must manage on our own.”
Jane came down the stairs carrying Henry on one hip. His hair and the front of his pinafore were wet.
“What happened?” Aunt Gardiner asked.
“Edward attempted to pour Henry a glass of water,” Jane said.
“He was thirsty,” Edward explained from the landing.
