Mud and Gold (35 page)

‘Papa!’ she screamed. ‘Papa!’

Frank dropped the bridle, ran to Maudie and
caught her up in his arms. ‘What’s wrong, Maudie?’

‘Mama. Mama falled down,’ Maudie wailed.

Frank ran for the house carrying Maudie,
feeling sick with fear. He burst into the kitchen to find Lizzie
lying on her side on the floor, clutching at her middle and
groaning horribly, her face in a pool of vomit that was already
matting her hair. Joey was howling from the bedroom, but Frank had
attention for nothing but Lizzie.

He dropped to his knees beside her, let go
of Maudie and took hold of Lizzie’s hands. They felt hot and clammy
to his touch. ‘Lizzie! Lizzie, what’s wrong with you?’ he pleaded,
trying to loosen her hands from their convulsive grip on each
other. But it was obvious that Lizzie was beyond hearing him. She
kept making inhuman groans as her body writhed.

‘Mama’s sick!’ Maudie wailed from close to
his ear, dragging Frank clear of the wave of panic that had
threatened to overwhelm him. ‘Papa, make Mama not sick!’

‘That’s right, Maudie. I’ve got to help
Mama.’ Frank forced himself to think clearly. He had to make Lizzie
as comfortable as he could, then fetch the doctor.

He lifted Lizzie from the floor and carried
her to the bedroom, hardly noticing the weight. He pulled back the
covers and laid her down on the bed as gently as he could before
wiping her face with his handkerchief. Lizzie seemed a little
easier once she was lying on the soft bed; she still moaned and
tossed her head from side to side, but her body’s convulsive
twitching subsided. Frank took off her shoes and undid the buttons
of her bodice, but he was reluctant to risk giving her more pain by
rolling her over so he could unlace her corset. He put the covers
over her and knelt beside the bed for a moment, stroking her
unresponsive face.

He stood up again and thought over what he
should do next. Noticing Joey’s distress properly for the first
time, Frank picked him up from the cradle and paced around the room
to try and settle the baby, Maudie trailing along clutching at his
trouser leg. Joey’s yells abated for a few moments, but he soon
began roaring louder than ever when he realised there was no food
to be had from that source. Frank felt the baby’s napkin gingerly,
and was dismayed to find it damp; changing napkins was a mystery he
had always left in Lizzie’s capable hands.

‘You stink a bit, Joey, I think you’ve done
more than just pee in that nappy. And you’re hungry, aren’t you? I
can’t do anything about that, boy. You’ll just have to hang on for
a bit.’ He put the baby back in his cradle and tried to ignore
Joey’s indignant protests to concentrate on the real problem.

Lizzie desperately needed help, but the
thought of leaving her alone tore him in two. ‘Don’t be frightened,
Maudie,’ he said to the little girl who still held fast, gazing up
at him with tears pouring down her small, bewildered face. ‘Mama’s
going to be all right, you’ll see. Papa’s got to go and get someone
to look after her.’

‘Papa!’ Maudie wailed. ‘Don’t go away,
Papa.’

‘I’ve got to, Maudie.’ He looked helplessly
at her distraught face, and knew he could not leave her alone. But
he could not possibly ride all the way into town at the speed the
crisis demanded with Maudie perched in front of him. In any case,
he could not bear to be away from Lizzie not knowing what was
happening to her for as long as it would take him to fetch a
doctor.

He made a sudden decision and swept Maudie
up from the floor. ‘Come on, Maudie, you and me are going for a
ride.’ He gave a last glance at Lizzie tossing about on the bed
before he set off down the passage at a run, holding Maudie close
while Joey continued to howl with frustrated hunger.

Belle had moved only a few steps from where
Frank had left her. She looked up from cropping the grass in mild
surprise as Frank ran towards her. He perched Maudie on the mare’s
neck before vaulting into the saddle.

He pulled Maudie close to him so that she
was firmly held between his thighs. ‘Hold on tight to her mane,’ he
told Maudie, coaxing her chubby little fists to take a handful of
mane each. ‘We’re going to go really fast.’

Maudie was distracted from her fear for a
few minutes by the excitement of galloping as Frank set off down
the valley. The Aitkens were his closest neighbours as well as
being nearer town and the doctor, so it was to their house that he
rode. The sound of hooves thudding up the track brought Rachel
Aitken to the door even before Frank had dismounted and lifted
Maudie from the horse.

‘Frank! Whatever’s wrong?’ Rachel asked.

‘It’s Lizzie. She’s really sick. Can you
help?’

‘Of course,’ said Rachel. ‘What do you need
me to do?’

Rachel’s capable manner calmed Frank a
little as she set to organising. Matt was despatched to fetch the
doctor, and Maudie was delivered into twelve-year-old Bessie’s care
to be kissed and fussed over. The Aitkens’ oldest son was to ride
up and let Edie and Arthur know what was happening, and would drop
Rachel off at Frank’s on the way.

‘You get back to Lizzie now,’ Rachel said.
‘You must be beside yourself worrying about her.’ Frank was back in
the saddle and urging Belle to a canter almost before she had
finished speaking.

*

When a loud knocking made Amy hurry to open
the back door she was surprised to see her aunt standing on the
doorstep, puffing from her haste.

‘Amy, I need you,’ Edie said, cutting
through Amy’s questions. ‘Can you come down to Lizzie’s right
now?’

‘I’d have to ask Charlie—what’s wrong, Aunt
Edie?’

‘The Aitken boy just came tearing up to our
place. Lizzie’s crook, I’m going down there to help Frank with
her—she sounds pretty bad.’ Edie looked over Amy’s shoulder as
Charlie walked across the kitchen to see what was going on.
‘Charlie, I need to borrow your wife. Lizzie’s crook, and I need
Amy to help me look after Joey.’

‘What do you want
her
for?’ Charlie
asked indignantly. ‘You can look after a pair of bairns yourself,
can’t you?’ Amy cringed at his rudeness.

‘I can look after them, but I can’t do Joey
much good. He’s still a little fellow, Charlie. He needs feeding,
and Lizzie must be too ill for that. Amy’s still nursing, I thought
she might be able to give Joey a bit, too. There’s only her and
Jane with little ones, and to tell you the truth I never even
thought about Jane until I was past their place.’

‘Jane hasn’t got much milk, anyway,’ Amy put
in. ‘She’s only just got enough for Doris. I’ve got plenty—please,
Charlie, can I go and feed Joey?’

Charlie looked doubtful. ‘You’re sure you’ve
got enough for young Dave as well as Kelly’s boy?’

‘Yes, I’ve got lots. Davie’s not taking much
now, anyway.’

‘Well… all right, then,’ said Charlie. ‘I
suppose there’s no harm in it.’

‘Thank you, Amy,’ Edie said with evident
relief. ‘I won’t wait for you to saddle up, I want to get down and
find out what’s happening to Lizzie.’ She managed to smile, but
strain was obvious in her face. ‘You just ride down as soon as you
can.’

‘I will,’ Amy said.
I’ll have to walk,
though
. ‘I shouldn’t be gone more than a couple of hours at the
most, Charlie, I don’t think Davie will wake up before I’m
back.’

Amy was ready to leave within a few minutes
of Edie’s visit. She walked as briskly as she could to Frank’s
farm, her heart pounding more from the fear of what might be
happening to Lizzie than from the exertion of the trek.
It’s
those stomach aches of hers, I’m sure it is. I knew she should have
gone to the doctor. Poor Lizzie. Oh, I wish I could ride—it takes
so long to walk
.

Rachel’s son was sitting on the doorstep of
Frank’s house while his horse cropped grass just outside the garden
fence. When Amy walked into the kitchen she found Rachel pacing the
floor with Joey, whose cries were now more pathetic than
outraged.

‘Oh, thank goodness you’re here, Amy,’
Rachel said. ‘Poor little Joey! I cleaned him up—he was in a
terrible state—but I’ve no milk of my own to give him. I tried
getting a bit of warm milk into him with a teaspoon, but he didn’t
know what to do with it, poor little mite. I was frightened he
might choke.’

Amy had sat down and was already unbuttoning
her bodice as Rachel spoke. She held out her arms for Joey. As soon
as she guided a nipple into his open mouth, his lips closed on it
and he began sucking greedily.

‘Poor Joey,’ she crooned. ‘You’re starving,
aren’t you?’ Once she was sure Joey was feeding comfortably, she
looked up at Rachel. ‘What’s happened to Lizzie?’

Rachel glanced anxiously at the open door
that led into the passage. ‘Doctor Wallace only got here a couple
of minutes before you did, they haven’t come out since. Amy, I
should be getting home now, can you manage without me?’

‘Of course,’ Amy assured her. ‘Thank you for
helping us.’

Joey was on to Amy’s other breast when the
bedroom door flew open. ‘Get that man out of here, for goodness
sake!’ Amy heard Doctor Wallace’s irritated voice. ‘I can’t examine
the woman properly with him hovering around.’

‘I just want you to tell me what’s wrong
with Lizzie! Is she going to be all right?’

‘Come on, Frank,’ Amy heard Edie trying to
soothe him. ‘Let’s leave the doctor to get on with his work.
Please, Frank, come with me.’ A few moments later she came into the
kitchen leading Frank by the hand like a child. Amy twisted away to
hide her exposed breasts, but it was obvious that Frank was in no
state to take any notice.

‘Why won’t he tell me what’s wrong with
her?’ Frank said, staring wild-eyed in the direction of the
bedroom.

‘He doesn’t know,’ Edie said, looking close
to tears and keeping a tight hold on Frank’s arm. ‘He’ll tell us
what’s wrong as soon as he can. Please, Frank, try and calm down.
You don’t want to disturb Lizzie, do you?’

Frank passed the back of his hand over his
forehead and gave a shuddering sigh. ‘Sorry, Ma. I just… it’s
driving me mad, not knowing what’s going on. If anything happens to
Lizzie, I don’t know what—’

‘Don’t talk like that,’ Edie cut in. ‘We’ve
just got to hope for the best.’

‘Yes, I know we do. She’ll be all right,
eh?’ Frank looked at Edie and Amy with a pleading expression, then
a scream from the bedroom rent the air. ‘Oh, my God, what’s he
doing to her?’ Frank flung himself towards the passage door while
Edie took hold of his arm and held on with all her might.

‘Don’t go up there, Frank,’ Edie begged.
‘The doctor knows what he’s doing… oh, Lord, what’s happening to my
girl?’ Edie broke into sobs. Her noisy loss of control distracted
Frank. He put his arm around her and the two of them sank into
adjacent chairs.

Amy disengaged an almost replete Joey from
her breast, hastily closed her bodice and sat the baby on Frank’s
knee. She curled Frank’s arm around his son and held it in place
until he noticed the warm bundle on his lap.

‘Joey,’ he murmured. ‘Poor little Joey.’ He
looked at Amy as if seeing her for the first time. ‘You’ve settled
him down. Thanks, Amy.’

‘He was hungry. He’s all right now.’

They sat in tense silence, Frank holding
Joey close as the baby drifted towards sleep. There was no more
sound from the bedroom until the door opened and Doctor Wallace
walked down the passage to the kitchen, to three expectant pairs of
eyes.

‘She’s very ill,’ the doctor said sombrely.
‘She has some sort of internal disorder. Perhaps a growth of some
kind, or possibly an infection in one of her organs. She seemed
very tender when I probed her.’

‘But… but she’s going to be all right, isn’t
she?’ Frank implored.

‘It’s too early to tell,’ Doctor Wallace
said. ‘All I can do for the moment is make her as comfortable as
possible, and try to find out just what the trouble is. She has a
high temperature, which suggests an infection, but I can’t be sure.
Now, she’s going to need proper care.’

‘What do we have to do, Doctor Wallace?’ Amy
asked.

‘Keep her warm and comfortable, that’s
important. Whatever’s wrong with her seems to be giving her a lot
of pain. I’ve given her a strong dose of laudanum, that should keep
her quiet for eight hours or so. If she seems at all restless, give
her another dose. A spoonful or two should suffice. Is she normally
a robust sort of woman?’

‘She’s hardly had a day’s illness since she
was a baby,’ Edie said.

‘That’s something in her favour. Now, she’ll
need to be kept clean—her bodily functions will continue, you
understand. One of you women should wash her at least once a
day.’

‘What about food?’ Edie asked.

‘You won’t be able to get solids into her. I
doubt if she’d keep down anything heavier than water today, see if
you can coax her into taking some. Then from tomorrow make up a
broth of some sort and give her a few spoonfuls. No warmer than
lukewarm, you don’t want to scald her. With the amount of laudanum
she’ll need to kill the pain she’ll be no better than
semi-conscious in the near future. Now, do you understand all
that?’ Doctor Wallace, observing the slender hold Frank had on his
self-control, ignored him and addressed the two women. Amy and Edie
both nodded solemnly.

‘Good.’ Doctor Wallace picked up his hat and
coat from the chair where he had placed them. ‘I’ll be back
tomorrow to see how she is.’

‘Can’t you do anything for her?’ Frank
begged. ‘Can’t you fix her up?’

Doctor Wallace stopped halfway to the door
and turned a grim stare on Frank. ‘Mr Kelly, if she has an
infection then proper care and her own strength will give her a
chance of pulling through. A chance, I said. Nothing’s certain. If
she has a growth… well, then there’ll be nothing I can do for her
except ease the pain. Good day to you.’