The fact that he could marshal so many arguments against his love persuaded him that his emotions were not deeply committed. He had caught himself in time, and now that he was aware of the danger, he would be on his guard. Absence, of course, would be the best defence. He realised that if he were prepared to acknowledge hordes of servants able to spare him every least exertion, he could leave at any moment.
The reasons for his reluctance to pursue that course were the same as ever. If Hester found out that he had been deceiving her all these weeks, she might turn from him in distrust. That might be desirable in view of his determination to detach himself from her, but he could not regard the prospect with equanimity. Besides, he had promised Mr. Stevens to keep his secret as long as possible.
So he must stay here for another month. He must rely on his return to society to cure him of his infatuation. Perhaps he had better look about him seriously for a wife, a lady of impeccable lineage, of undeniable beauty, and with all the sophistication and countenance that Hester so noticeably lacked. He thought of her dishevelled appearance a mere few minutes ago, and a tender, reminiscent smile crept onto his face as he remembered her glowing cheeks and sparkling eyes.
Before the vision could undermine his determination, the tea tray arrived. He did not have to face Hester, who had gone to change and tidy herself, and the others were lively enough to cover any reticence on his part.
The rest of the week seemed endless. Unable to avoid Hester except by staying in his chamber, which would have worried her and caused unwanted speculation, he did his best to look at and speak to her as little as possible. Inevitably, his troubled gaze rested often on Alice, and soon nothing could have persuaded Hester that he was not in love with her sister. To assuage his unrequited pangs, she redoubled her kindness and attentiveness to all his needs, and he soon realised how impossible it was to hold himself aloof. He must just hope that time would undo all the damage the next few weeks might inflict upon his already wounded heart.
On Friday morning, Dr. Price arrived with a newly carved pair of crutches. Inexorably, he dismissed all but his patient and Geoffrey from the back parlour. James retired to his books, and Hester sent Alice and the children into town to make a few purchases. She tried to busy herself with the preparation of a celebratory luncheon, but at frequent intervals she found herself staring with painful expectancy at the closed parlour door and straining her ears to hear the murmur from within. Dr. Price had not mentioned the possibility of a limp since the first day, but she could not dismiss it from her thoughts. She dreaded what a disability of that sort might do to a handsome, athletic young man, and all Ivy’s horror stories returned to torment her, of lads crippled in the wars who had lost sweethearts and livelihood and all hope.
By the time the door opened, she hardly dared approach. Geoff called her.
“Hester! Come quickly. Mr. Fairfax wants you to see the result of your nursing before he sits down.”
He was standing by the couch, a little pale but with a triumphant grin on his face.
“I took three steps,” he boasted, “though I confess I have by no means yet mastered these instruments of torture. Without Geoff s aid, I’d have measured my length more than once.”
Looking at him standing there, tall and proud, Hester was suddenly shy. The invalid she had cosseted and scolded had vanished, and in his place was a stranger whose magnificent physique and noble bearing were unimpaired by the crutches he leaned on.
“Congratulations, sir,” she murmured with downcast eyes.
Sensing her withdrawal, he put out his hand toward her. A crutch slipped, and he sat down suddenly. Starting forward anxiously, Hester became aware of his pallor and the lines of exhaustion around his mouth.
“Two steps too many,” she commented tartly. “Geoffrey, help Mr. Fairfax lie down. You have quite worn him out, I see, between you.” She turned to Dr. Price.
“Ye’ll not be disputing my treatments, I trust, Miss Hester?” he queried with mock belligerence, a twinkle in his eyes. “I see I’ll be having to explain myself to you. First, look you, the poor lad has a sense of achievement and progress that will help his recovery. And second, he knows his limitations and will not be trying to gad about before he’s ready. He’s tired now, but he’ll recover soon enough, I’ll warrant you, and ye’ll have a hard time keeping him down.”
“Not at all, sir,” contradicted Mr. Fairfax cheerfully. “I obey Miss Godric in all things.” Already the colour was returning to his face.
“After an argument,” Hester added. “Dr. Price, you had best leave precise instructions with me, for otherwise I foresee endless disputes. If you are finished here, perhaps you would come into the kitchen for a glass of ale before you go. Mr. Fairfax, can I bring you something?”
“A glass of ale would be delightful, ma’am, if it is permitted,” teased the gentleman, apparently quite recovered.
“If you are good,” promised Hester.
Dr. Price was unable to reassure Hester as to whether Mr. Fairfax would regain full strength in his leg.
“The bones have knit straight,” he told her. “That’s a good start, Miss Hester bach, but we’ll not know for sure till he’s able to walk without aid. And even then, time and exercise might cure any lingering weakness. I do not believe the bones have shrunk, which is most to be feared. He’s a fine, healthy gentleman. Make sure he walks daily and does not overstrain himself, and do not worry, my dear.”
In a very few days, Mr. Fairfax was able to take a turn about the room unassisted, and the end of the month saw him discard one crutch. On All Hallows’ Eve, he bobbed for apples with the children, and then sent Alice into hysterics when he appeared unexpectedly in a sheet, thumping his stick, rattling Skipper’s chain, and moaning horrendously. Hester thought him curiously unconcerned at Alice’s fright, but she dismissed it as one of the inexplicable facets of the male sex.
Mr. Fairfax was looking forward to leaving the house for the first time to see the Guy Fawkes bonfire in the river meadows. For a week both town and farm children had been collecting wood and brush, and the huge pile could be seen over the hedgerows from the boys’ bedchamber. However, on the second day of November clouds blew in from the west, October’s crisp sunshine vanished, and before midday the skies opened and rain fell in torrents.
Tarpaulins were hurriedly spread over the heap of firewood, but knowledgeable farmers shook their heads and muttered:
“It be set in for sure . . .Won’t see sun agin afore middle o’ month . . . Hear tell as how it’s bin rainin’ like this over to Oxford nigh on a week . . .”
Undismayed, children continued to beg pennies for the guy. When the downpour ceased at noon on the fifth, they were ready, and a magnificent creation appeared, miraculously finding its way to the very top of the bonfire. No one knew for sure who had made it, and no one mentioned the fact out loud, but it bore a striking resemblance to the Prince Regent, his corpulence dressed in tattered purple and lavishly adorned with tarnished tinsel finery. Since the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act, men had been jailed for less. Better to pretend one had not noticed.
The clouds remained threatening, but no rain fell. At five o’clock crowds began to gather, in a festive mood. Peddlers were selling parkin and gilt sweetmeats, and swarms of boys poked potatoes into the bottom of the woodpile, to be retrieved, hot and delicious, the next morning.
Geoff had borrowed a gig, to which he harnessed Mr. Fairfax’s resty pair. Mr. Fairfax felt sure he could walk the short distance to the merrymaking, but Hester overruled him, so he was helped in, and joined by Alice, who wished to observe the scene from a safe distance. Hester insisted on walking, to keep an eye on Rob and Susan. She made them promise to stay close beside her.
They reached the field just as a flaming torch was thrust to the base of the bonfire. It sputtered a bit, then caught, and flames soon flared up the dry wood in the centre. Mr. Fairfax, eager to see the guy before it charred, begged Jamie’s assistance and approached the fire. Geoff,
to his disgust, was left guarding both the gig and Alice, who, seconded by Mr. Green, refused to move.
The huge bonfire roared and hissed, and the crowd gradually moved back, faces scorched. Suddenly the middle collapsed, Prinny dived to his fiery doom, and cheers and catcalls rose. Sparks were flying in all directions as the breeze eddied and veered. Susan pulled her hand from Hester’s and clapped it to her face.
“Hester, it burned me!” she cried.
Anxiously, Hester examined her sister’s forehead. There was no mark, and the pain had already subsided, but she decided it was time to leave. Parts of the crowd were growing rowdy, and groups of the more respectable citizens were picking their way homeward.
They reached the gig without incident, and Geoff set Susan beside Alice. Hester turned to help Robbie. There was no sign of him.
“Take the girls home at once,” she instructed Geoff. “I’ll find Rob and walk him back. I see Jamie and Mr. Fairfax over there. I expect they have seen him.”
“Shall I come back for Mr. Fairfax?” asked Geoff.
“Stay with Alice and Susan till I get home, then you can come back to fetch him.” She turned and hurried away, and the gig moved off.
Neither James nor Mr. Fairfax had seen Rob recently.
“I’ll help you look,” offered Jamie, “and tan his hide when I catch him, the little devil. Can you manage on your own for a few minutes, sir?”
“Of course. I am in fine fettle and quite ready to throw away my crutch and join the hunt.”
“Pray do not,” begged Hester, “for then I should have two to worry about.”
“I shall await you at this spot,” he promised.
They had scarcely left him when a cry arose above the general hubbub.
“The river’s rising! The Thames is in flood!”
There was a sudden silence, followed by complete chaos. Half the crowd swirled around, searching for missing relatives, friends, sweethearts. The other half stampeded for the only gap in the hedge on the townward side of the meadow. Shouts and screams rose above the crackle of the bonfire, whose flickering reddish light turned the scene into a vision of Hell.
Mr. Fairfax climbed atop the stump he had been seated on and tried to see the Godrics. On the far side of the field, firelight glinted on water where no water should be. The towpath was already submerged and, as he watched in horror, the river, meeting no resistance, poured over its banks and across the grass. Before he could move, the bonfire was being dispersed by the floodwaters and the last feeble light was nearly extinguished. A hand grasped his sleeve.
“I have Robbie, sir,” shouted Jamie, “and Hester is coming. I can’t help you.”
James was knee-deep in black water, and Robbie hung around his neck, his eyes alive with excitement. Beyond them Hester staggered, weighed down by her wet skirts, her white face standing out in the near darkness.
“Take Rob home,” snapped out Mr. Fairfax as he scrambled down from his perch. “We’ll manage.” His abandoned crutch floated away unnoticed. “Hester!” he called desperately as the last burning brand went out, plunging the meadow into night.
Currents swirled around his legs as he fought his way toward her. As his eyes adjusted to the dark, he saw her close beside him. She was too exhausted to protest when he picked her up and holding her close in his arms, turned to make for the gate.
His heart singing, he strode through the icy water as if it were an open road. Hester clung to him trustfully, her head against his shoulder. For a timeless moment, they were alone, no thought of danger intruding; then willing hands urged them through the gate, and cheerful voices bade them hurry home and dry off.
“Think that be all now, Ted?” queried one.
“Din’t see no more, afore light went,” grunted Ted.
“Best wait a bit,” suggested another. “Here come Willy wi’ another torch.”
The lane was high and dry.
“Put me down, pray,” said Hester. “There’s no water here; I can walk. Think of your leg.”
“How can you say there is no water when you are dripping all over me?” Mr. Fairfax smiled down at her teasingly. “My leg is quite at your service, ma’am.” Ignoring her fading protests, he carried her home.
Chapter 9
Dr. Price was kept busy the next day. As always after the celebration of Guy Fawkes, there was a stream of small boys with burns, to which this year were added any number of bruises, cuts, twisted ankles, chills, and fevers. There were no serious injuries, however.
He found a moment to drop in on the Godrics, though they had not sent for him. Several patients had reported seeing Mr. Fairfax on his feet, and he was anxious to see what effect the exertion had had on the injured leg.
None of the Godrics were any the worse for the alarms of the evening, and Mr. Fairfax had offered his remaining crutch to Geoffrey as the foundation for a scarecrow. He paced up and down the parlour to demonstrate his total recovery to the physician.
“You see, Doctor, I have been an obedient patient, and I have my reward. And you shall have yours as soon as I am returned home and can set my affairs in order. No London bonesetter could have done a better job. I thank you with all my heart.”
“Indeed to goodness, lad, I do my best and it’s a pleasure to see a leg so nicely knit. I see no reason why you should not be on your way. Ye’ll not ride nor drive yourself for a sennight though. I expect ye’ve someone can fetch you, or the mail runs daily. May you arrive safely this time!”
Mr. Fairfax was eager to be gone. He had awakened at intervals throughout the night, teased by the fading remnants of dreams in which Hester always eluded his questing hands as he sought to rescue her from indistinct, nameless perils. Another week in her company would destroy his resolve. Away from her constant presence, he would surely regain his objectivity, and she would become a pleasant memory, a friend to whom he would always be grateful, and whom he would greet with a casual welcome when and if they met in town.