Death of a Stranger - Anne Perry [48]
She picked up her knife and fork and started to eat again. “If I hear anything more about Nolan Baltimore, I’ll tell you,” she promised.
CHAPTER FIVE
Hester had spent a strange, unhappy evening after Monk’s return, aware that there was something powerful in him that she could not reach. He was either unwilling or unable to share it. She had missed him while he was away, and taken the opportunity to put in as much work as possible at the house on Coldbath Square, and she would have been happy to go there far later, or even not at all, had he said only once that he wished her to stay.
But he did not. He was brittle, absorbed in thought, and he seemed almost relieved when she said good-bye just before ten o’clock and went out into the lamp-lit darkness and took the first passing hansom to Coldbath Square.
The night was chill and she was glad of the warmth that enveloped her when she pushed the door of the clinic open and went inside. Bessie was sitting at the table stitching buttons onto a white blouse, and she looked up, her face filling with pleasure when she saw Hester.
“Yer look pinched,” she said with concern. “Nice ’ot cup o’ tea’ll do yer good.” She put the sewing down and rose to her feet. “Like a drop o’ the ’ard stuff with it?” She did not even reach for it, knowing Hester would refuse. She always did, but Bessie always offered. It was a sort of ritual.
“No, thank you,” Hester replied with a smile, hanging her damp coat on the hook on the wall. “But don’t let me stop you.”
That was ritual also. “Now that you mention it,” Bessie agreed, “don’t mind if I do.” She went to the stove to make sure the kettle was on the boil, and Hester went to look at the patients.
Fanny, the girl who had been stabbed, was feverish and in a great deal of pain, but she appeared to be no worse than Hester had expected. Wounds like that did not heal easily. Her fever seemed to be down.
“Have you eaten anything?” Hester asked her.
Fanny nodded. “Nearly,” she whispered. “I had some beef broth. Thank you.”
Bessie was coming toward them, a wide, benign shadow between the beds, away from the light of the far end of the room.
“Mr. Lockhart was right pleased with ’er,” she said with pleasure. “ ’E come about midday. Sober as a judge.” She added that last bit with pride, as if it were partially her achievement. Perhaps it was.
“Did you give him luncheon?” Hester asked without looking up at Bessie.
“What if I did?” Bessie demanded. “We can spare’im a bit o’ bubble an’ squeak, an’ a sausage or two!”
Hester smiled, knowing Bessie had brought it out of her own meager pantry. “Of course we can,” she agreed, pretending she did not know. “Small enough reward for all he does.”
“Yer right!” Bessie said vehemently, darting a slightly suspicious look at Hester, and then away again. “An’ ’e looked at Alice, an’ all, poor thing. Said as she’s doin’ as well as yer could expect. Spent a fair time talkin’ to ’er. ’E an’ Miss Margaret put arnica poultices on ’er, jus’ like me an’ yer did, an’ it seemed ter ’elp ’er some.” There was fear in Bessie’s voice. Hester knew she wanted to ask if Alice was going to live, and yet she was too afraid of the answer to do it.
The fact that Alice had already survived three days since her injuries was the most hopeful sign. Had there been the internal bleeding they feared, she would have been dead by now.
Hester went to her and saw that she was half asleep, dozing fitfully, muttering under her breath as if troubled by dreams. There was nothing to do to help her. Either her body would heal in time, or she would develop fever or gangrene and die. In a while, when she was more wakeful, they would give her a little more to drink, then sponge her down with cool water and give her a fresh nightgown.
Hester returned to the table at the far end of the room where Bessie was allowing the tea to brew and putting a generous dash of whiskey into her own mug.
There were still police on every street in the Coldbath area, harassing people, asking questions.