The Swan Maid. Dilly Court

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СКАЧАТЬ have to leave you now,’ Lottie said in a low voice. ‘I’ll return as soon as I am able.’ She was not sure if he heard or understood. She would have liked to stay longer, but the sound of the post horn announced the arrival of the mail coach and there was work to do. ‘I’ll come back when I have a spare moment.’

      Mrs Filby was in the kitchen talking to Jezebel. They both turned to stare at Lottie.

      ‘Well?’ Mrs Filby fixed her with an enquiring look. ‘How is the soldier?’

      ‘He seems to have lost his memory,’ Lottie said carefully. ‘I think he ought to be seen by a doctor.’

      ‘Do you? And who are you to make decisions, I might ask?’ Mrs Filby bristled angrily. ‘I or my husband will decide whether or not to call in a physician. The lieutenant left money for the young man’s keep, although not sufficient to pay a doctor’s fees. You will look after him, Lottie, but only in your spare moments.’

      ‘Yes, don’t think you can wriggle out of your duties,’ Jezebel added fiercely. ‘Take the coffee and toast into the dining parlour, and be quick about it.’

      ‘Don’t stand there like a ninny, get on with your work.’ Mrs Filby sailed out of the kitchen, leaving Lottie to struggle with the coffee pot and a plate piled high with toast.

      Jezebel impaled a slice of bread on the toasting fork. ‘Hurry, girl. There’s another coach due any minute.’

      Snatching odd moments of calm in between the frantic turnaround of coaches and private carriages, Lottie visited Gideon as often as possible. She gave him sips of laudanum diluted in water to ease the pain of his bruised ribs and his persistent headache, and at midday she helped him sup some broth. He remained dazed and confused, but she was pleased to see a little colour creep back into his previously ashen face.

      Her frequent absences did not go unnoticed. Ruth was the first to comment when she passed Lottie on the first-floor gallery. ‘I dunno what makes you so special. Why were you given the job of nursing the soldier? I could have done it better.’

      ‘I expect you could,’ Lottie said calmly, ‘but I happened to be there at the time, and you were off flirting with Lieutenant Gillingham. Didn’t it go as you’d hoped?’

      Ruth tossed her head. ‘I ain’t interested in military men. Here today and gone tomorrow, that’s soldiers for you.’

      ‘I thought you fancied him, Ruth.’

      ‘To tell the truth I did, but then I discovered he was off to the Crimea. I ain’t interested in someone what’s going to get blown to bits. I think I’ll stick to Trotter; at least he comes here twice a week and he’s got the money to treat a girl now and then.’

      ‘And a wife and family to support.’

      ‘You don’t know that for sure. Anyway, I’m up for a bit of a laugh now and then. I don’t think I want to get hitched and end up like my ma with a new mouth to feed every year.’

      Lottie smiled and hurried on to the sick room to check on Private Ellis.

      Despite the Filbys’ refusal to send for a physician, Gideon began to improve. His memory returned gradually, and his headaches lessened. On the third day he was able to get up and sit in a chair by the window that overlooked the stable yard.

      Lottie was late bringing him his bowl of soup and a cup of tea, and she apologised as she set them on the small table in front of him. ‘I couldn’t get away sooner, Gideon. We’ve been even busier than usual.’

      ‘I thought they worked us hard in the army,’ he said with a wry smile. ‘But you never seem to stop.’

      ‘I’ve been doing this since I was twelve. I suppose I’m used to it.’

      ‘This smells good.’ He lifted the spoon to his lips, but the movement seemed to hurt him and he hesitated, pulling a face.

      ‘Are you ribs still hurting?’

      ‘Just a bit. Maybe you should stay and help me if I can’t manage to feed myself.’

      She hesitated, eyeing him suspiciously. ‘Are you saying that to keep me here?’

      ‘Of course I am. I get lonely, and you need to take a break every now and then.’

      ‘Mrs Filby wouldn’t agree with you, neither would Jezebel.’ Lottie perched on the edge of the bed. ‘I’ll get shot if they catch me.’

      ‘I’m a soldier. I’ll protect you.’

      ‘You can hardly stand,’ she said, chuckling. ‘But it’s good to see you looking so much better. I was really worried when your mates brought you here.’

      ‘I’ve got a hard head. It would take more than a tumble to put me out of action.’

      ‘You won’t get better if you don’t eat. I should go and let you get on with your meal.’

      ‘No, please stay. I’ll finish this up if you’ll stay and talk to me, Lottie. Tell me about yourself.’ He picked up the spoon and held it poised. ‘I’m waiting,’ he said with a wry smile.

      ‘You win, but I can’t stay long.’ Lottie frowned as she recalled the trials of her childhood. ‘There’s not much to tell. My pa is a soldier, like you. He’s a sergeant in the Bombay Sappers and Miners stationed in Poona, or he was the last time he wrote to me. I used to get a letter from him every now and then, but I haven’t heard from him for ages, and I haven’t seen him since I was six.’

      ‘So you come from a military family.’

      ‘I was born in India, but I don’t remember much of my time there, although I do recall a white house with a beautiful garden and sweet-smelling flowers. I often dream of walking up the path and knocking on the door, but I always wake up before it opens.’

      ‘Why did you leave? It sounds too good to be true.’

      ‘When Ma died of a fever, Pa sent me to England to be looked after by my Uncle Sefton. I’m sure I was a miserable little thing, and he didn’t want to be saddled with me in the first place. Anyway, as soon as he could, he packed me off to boarding school.’

      ‘So how did you end up slaving away in a coaching inn? It seems such a waste.’

      ‘Uncle Sefton married late in life and his wife didn’t want me around. I was just twelve when I was sent to work here. I didn’t have any choice in the matter.’

      ‘Didn’t your father have anything to say about such a decision?’

      ‘Of course I wrote to Pa, begging him to let me join him, but I had to wait months for a reply, and when it came he said he was stationed on the North-West Frontier, and that I’d be safer in London – so here I stayed. That’s my life in a nutshell. What about you?’

      ‘My father died some years ago. He was a soldier, and it was taken for granted that I’d follow him into the army. My mother lives in Whitechapel, close to the Garrick Theatre. She takes in lodgers, and I help her as much as I can financially. That’s me in a nutshell, too.’

      Lottie jumped to her feet at the sound СКАЧАТЬ