The Captain's Daughter (26 page)

During the
next few days,
Emma slowly improved, but only slightly. Her temperature had quickly returned
to normal, but she was still very weak, in fact, her condition could rightly be
described as frail. When Sunday rolled around, she still wasn’t up to going to
church.

The family was
deeply concerned because she was not the Emma they all knew and loved, so Amy
volunteered to stay with her while everyone else was at church. Her mother
readily agreed.

As Emma
slumbered, Amy sat reading a book from her father’s library which her mother
would not have approved of if she knew what it was. Fortunately, for her two
rogue daughters, Lady Sibbridge had little awareness of the contents of Sir
Anthony Sibbridge’s library. That was not her way, nor of Mattie for that
matter.

“Where is everyone?”

Amy had thought
Emma was asleep so the question was a surprise.

“You’re awake,
Emma.”

“Could you read
to me from the Bible?”

“You want me to
read to you from the Bible?”

“Everyone is at
church so that seems the thing to do.”

“All right,
Emma, I’ll go to father’s library and get the Bible.”

When she
returned with the Bible, Emma had propped herself into a somewhat slouched
sitting position.

“You want me to
read to you?”

“Yes, please,”
said Emma.

 “Is there
anything special you would like me to read? The beatitudes?”

“Please read
Psalm 22.”

Amy quickly
found the scripture in her father’s Bible.

“My God, my
God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me...”

Amy abruptly
stopped reading and looked at her sister.

“Please
continue reading,” said Emma.

Amy looked at
Emma for a few moments, and then resumed reading.

“O my God, I
cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not
silent.”

Amy stopped
reading again, and looked at Emma.

“I know you
don’t feel yourself, at the moment, but you
will
get better.”

“Will I? What
about those who will never get better?”

“We can weep
with those less fortunate, but we cannot let it dominate us. Give yourself a
few days. It is no sin to feel happiness and joy. It fact, we owe it to others.
I think you will see it more clearly as you get older, but at times we must be
a beacon in a world of sadness.”

That evening,
Mattie offered to take dinner to Emma to relieve Amy of the burden she had
carried almost alone for several days now. And Amy was grateful for her
sister’s kindness.

The family ate
mostly in silence for about ten minutes, deprived of Mattie’s exuberance.
Finally, Amy after glancing around at the silent ensemble, broke the silence.

“Mother, I know
our funds are limited, but is there any possibility we could visit London. It
would be good if Emma could see a London physician. She is not improving as she
should, and she is not herself. Her mood is...”

As Amy
struggled to find the right word, her mother broke in.

“I do not think
so, my dear. London would not be a good place for Emma, what with the smoke,
disease, dirt, and the hordes of disease-ridden...uhh...rapscallions and the
poor.”

Amy realized
there was a measure of truth in what her mother said so she left it at that
until a later time.

Dr. Chisolm
came by the next morning. He dutifully examined the somewhat morose Emma.

“How is she,
Doctor?” Lady Sibbridge asked anxiously.

“She checks out
all shipshape, Ma’am.”

He looked at
Emma and shook his head.

“What you need,
young lady,” he informed her jovially, “is fresh air and sunshine. This is a
fine Monday morning this second day of September, and you need to be outside,
not wasting away in your gloomy room.

As the doctor
looked on, they helped her out of bed and down to the garden. Emma was weak and
frail. Even if his outward demeanor was jovial, Amy could see concern in Dr.
Chisolm’s eyes.

She spent about
an hour in the sun that day and a little longer the next two days. But Emma
needed a lot of assistance in all that she did and her recovery, if she was
recovering, seemed painfully slow. Their mother kept saying it was because the
fever had been so depleting, and Amy hoped her mother was right and that it was
not just wishful thinking.

Everyone was
concerned, but her mother was obviously increasingly worried. Perhaps for that
reason her mother’s resistance to the London visit seemed to be wearing down.
But Amy was growing more and more discouraged. She anxiously felt something
must be done, and soon.

On Friday
afternoon, Amy went on her charitable rounds. Her last stop was Mae Bickford’s
cottage. That would be a difficult and painful stop. She was glad when Reverend
Howley stopped her trap and asked to accompany her. She rather suspected he
didn’t want to go alone either.

At Mae’s
cottage he helped her carry in the hamper with the sweetmeats. It wasn’t as
full as it had been last month. And in truth it didn’t matter. Mae was much
more in need of Howley’s words of encouragement than Amy’s foodstuffs. It was a
troubling visit, but it seemed to do some good.

She arrived
home just as the family was sitting down to dinner.

“The Ramseys
came by for a few minutes this afternoon,” her mother told Amy. “They
recommended that we take Emma to London to see Doctor... Oh, I can’t remember
his name but Frank wrote it down.”

“Can we afford
it mother?” Amy asked, desperately hoping they could.

“Frank and Esty
said we could stay at their London house. They absolutely insisted. I had to
agree. Just as they were preparing to leave, Dr. Chisolm came by to see Emma,
and he thought it was a very good idea. He has a great admiration for the
doctor they suggested and said that if anyone could get Emma back to normal he
was the person. We will leave Monday for London.”

Back up in her
room after dinner, she sat down to write to Ben. He had been gone for about two
weeks doing whatever it was he was doing. She didn’t know what it was but she
rather supposed it involved a good deal of danger. Her letters to him had gone
unanswered which was beginning to concern her a little. So she told him she was
coming to London and where she would be while she was there.

Amy glanced at
her clock. It was a little after eight. The Royal Mail night coach from
Cambridge to London passed through Stockley-on-Arne about eight-thirty each
weekday night, briefly picking up the mail. If she hurried, she could get the
letter on its way to Ben.

It was early
Monday afternoon when they arrived at the Ramsey’s townhouse in London. The
Ramseys had told them that their nephew, Leonidas Ramsey, currently lived at
the townhouse while studying in London, and indeed, he was there to meet them
when they arrived. Amy suspected that he had a keen interest in a family with
three daughters coming to stay for a period of time in the same house where he
himself resided.

He proved a
most charming young man that pleasantly resembled his aunt and uncle in their
friendly demeanor. After helping them to settle into their temporary abode, he
volunteered his services to escort them around the city.

“I am relieved
of my studies for the next few days and would be most willing to take you
wherever in the city you need to go.”

He was
addressing the whole family, but making a very futile attempt to cast what he
thought were furtive glances at Mattie. One skill that Mattie was very
accomplished at was somehow making any young man taken with her charms aware
that she appreciated his interest. It is doubtful than any of the famed femme
fatales of history could outdo Mattie in this regard, and certainly none of
them were as truly innocent of any guile as she was. Leo, as he wished to be
called, absorbed Mattie’s subtle signals and as he did so he became more and
more nervous and started stuttering. Amy found this entertaining, and was
disappointed that she had to break in on a more serious matter.

Leo, perhaps
because his attention was distracted by Mattie, had barely noticed how Emma had
to be helped into the house and seated in the drawing room.

“We need to
take my little sister to the doctor your aunt and uncle recommended,” said Amy
breaking the spell so sweetly spun by Mattie.

“Uh...oh yes,”
said Leo snapping back to reality. “Uncle Frank already contacted the doctor
and he wishes to see your sister in the morning. I’ll be most honored to take
her there, and while she is with doctor you and your sister, and any other
members of your family who wish to accompany us, are most welcome to come
along.”

“I want to stay
with Emma at the doctor’s office,” said Amy, adding with hidden mischief, “but
I am sure Mattie and mother would love to go along with you on your guided tour
of London.”

Before he could
answer, Lady Sibbridge interrupted.

“Nonsense. I’ll
stay with Emma. You go along with Mr. Ramsey and Mattie. Anyway, I’ve seen
quite enough of London in my lifetime. The city is all right for going to balls
and the gardens, but that’s because they take place at night and you don’t have
to see its dirty sooty buildings and the suffering poor people. All-in-all, I
find it quite disturbing.”

Leo obviously
liked that arrangement.

“My father will
not be accompanying us,” Amy broke in, “it would be best he remained here and
enjoyed your hospitality. I don’t know if your aunt and uncle told you, but he
had an accident last year and has not yet been restored to health.”

“Yes, my uncle
has told me a great deal about your father. He is deeply concerned about his
condition. I gather they have been close friends for many years. If you let me
know what he needs I will take care of it.”

“If you could
give him a writing table, some paper and ink, and a few books of a sort that
would interest an old soldier, he will be happy. He won’t use the paper and
ink, he might open the books, but I don’t think he reads them. I don’t think he
can read them. He’ll be happy all day long that way.”

And so the next
morning, after helping Emma into the surprisingly modest offices of the doctor
the Ramseys had recommended, Leo was all set to take Amy and Mattie on a grand
tour of the big city.

“Where would
you ladies like me to take you?”

“Would it be possible,”
inquired Amy, “to make a brief stop at a jeweler? I have a pendant I recently
became heir to and the silver is so tarnished it is almost black. I would like
to have it cleaned. I have not been successful in restoring it to a pristine
condition at home and I thought that a jeweler might have potions for doing
that.”

Leo knew of a
good jeweler and so Amy’s pendant was put into his care, and Leo took them on a
tour of the better parts of London. Late in the afternoon they picked up Emma
and Lady Sibbridge at the doctor’s office. Amy noticed her mother carrying a
large porcelain bowl, but refrained from asking about it at that time. When
they arrived back at the townhouse, she was anxious to find out if they had
received a letter from Ben. When told no letter had come, she consoled herself
with the thought that he might be on one of his missions and had not yet
received her letter.

The next
morning, which was Wednesday, Amy chose to stay home on a pretty slight
pretext, secretly hoping for a letter from Ben. Leo took her mother and Emma to
the doctor’s office, and surprisingly, Lady Sibbridge consented to Leo showing
Mattie some more of the city despite the lack of a chaperone. She possibly
decided that in the daytime with a coachman present, and no nosy village
people, that in the big city it was acceptable and within the realm of probity.

Mail did come
that day, but Amy’s excitement was dashed when it turned out to be an
invitation to a ball on Saturday and not a letter from Ben. Later, Wednesday
afternoon, when her mother, carrying another large ceramic bowl, her sisters,
and Leo returned. Mattie handed her a small package.

“The jeweler
was finished with your pendant,” said Mattie smiling. “You have to show me what
it looks like.”

Amy carefully
unwrapped it. The pendant was glistening and beautiful. She turned it over and
there, engraved on the back, was a large Scottish thistle. The pendant had been
so corroded she had not even noticed it before.

“Did you
receive a letter from Ben?” Emma asked weakly as they helped her into the
living room.

“No,” said Amy
sadly, “but we all received an invitation to a ball Saturday night.”

“Does that
include me,” asked Emma with a faint smile.

Amy went over
to her sister and hugged her tightly.

“Please don’t
crush me,” said Emma, “I’m feeling a bit better. I seem to be responding to the
doctor’s treatments, although I’m not quite ready for dancing. Maybe by
Saturday.”

If only Emma
could walk unaided by Saturday, Amy would be ready to set off fireworks.

Saturday was
the fourteenth day of September. Amy had last seen Ben on the twenty-third of
August. More than three weeks had elapsed and no letter had come from Ben. No
matter what he was doing, as long as he was in England, and she had no reason
to believe he was anywhere else, he could send a letter any day and he had not.
Amy did not know whether to be angry or scared, so she vacillated between both
emotions.

The only reason
she went to the ball that night was because her mother, Mattie, and even Emma,
urged her to put her feelings of fear and anger aside and enjoy herself. With a
flood of emotions tormenting her, she agreed. Had he just not seen her letter?
Was he ignoring her for some reason? Did it somehow get lost, or worse, was it
purloined? Had something happened to Ben? Was he deeply involved in something?
Was he injured? Was he...? No! She must put it out of her mind.