Chapter 2
To Check on Family
Helena stopped at Miss Jacqueline’s door first. She pushed it open and saw her sister sitting upright on her bed. The Baroness was sitting opposite and talking to her.
“You look much better,” Helena said.
Miss Jacqueline nodded.
“I feel better,” she replied.
“There it is,” Helena said.
“There is what?” their mother asked.
“Her voice is still very weak, cracking. That’s the sign she is still recovering,” Helena replied.
“Oh,” the Baroness said softly, “I thought it was something serious.”
“Do you still feel weak?” Helena asked.
“Just a bit; my head still aches,” her sister answered.
Helena walked to her sister’s side and sat on the bed beside her. The heat from her fever radiated to Helena.
“Where is Melanie?” she asked her mother.
“She went off with her friends. They went to one of their houses. I’m not sure which one,” the Baroness replied.
“I hope they took a coach and a driver.”
“Of course, they did.”
Helena placed her palm on her sister’s neck. It was as hot as she expected.
“Why are you up? I expected you to still be lying in bed,” Helena said to her younger sister.
“I am tired of lying down. That’s why I haven’t used the potion the doctor gave me. He said it’ll help me sleep,” Miss Jacqueline responded in a tired sounding voice.
Helena nodded her head and reminded herself to force her sister to drink it before she left the room.
“I wanted to ask, Mother, how did we come to hire this particular physician?” Helena asked.
Her mother smiled.
“He was Dr Terry’s assistant. Dr Terry Agar? Do you remember him?” her mother asked.
“The doctor who was really old. I think you told me he had passed away.”
“Yes, he has. He died a few months back. Well, Dr Frederick Cooper was his assistant. He was already a doctor, but I think he wanted to gain expert knowledge from a trusted doctor who had spent decades treating people of the ton. The few times we needed a doctor, you will remember that we used Dr Terry. Well, he had advised that in the event he wasn’t around, we use Dr Frederick,” her mother said.
Helena nodded her head.
“He’s pretty young right?” Miss Jacqueline said.
Helena nodded again. The Baroness smiled.
“Why are you smiling?” she asked her mother.
“I like it that you are so taken with the doctor,” her mother said.
There was a loud gasp from Miss Jacqueline. Helena rolled her eyes and shook her head vigorously.
“I am not,” she contended.
“I guess you think I’m too straitlaced to admit that to me; you wouldn’t be shaking your head if Lavinia had said that.”
“I daresay I would,” Helena said.
Miss Jacqueline giggled, which drew a look from Helena.
“Well, my point is this. He is a highly thought of physician. He is cultured and behaves himself in accordance with the mannerisms of a man high ranking. If you brought a man like that to scratch, there wouldn’t be too much harm done,” the Baroness said.
Helena studied her mother’s wriggling brows as she finished speaking. She had gotten her white skin from her mother, they all had. But her mother now had small, red patches on parts of her skin. There were creases in some spots where Helena’s was smooth.
This is how I’ll look in a few decades, not too bad.
“Did you hear a word I said?” the Duchess said, her eyes hardening.
“I did, Mother. You know my views on the issue of marriage. I am not totally against it, but I am yet to meet a man that deserves such from me,” she replied.
“You haven’t because you do not give any chance for them to spark up a topic with you, or to even compliment you. That was why I was surprised that you took the doctor’s flattery so well. I think we need to get rid of your father’s books. We’ll move them out of your reach in the least. We’ll keep them for your brothers when they get older,” the Duchess said.
Those boys do not care much for books.
“Men do not want a woman who can challenge them. I am not out to challenge men, but they want a woman who will agree with all they say, right or wrong,” Helena said.
“I don’t much care what you think, Helena. I do know you are my first daughter. I have two more behind you,” her mother said, looking at Miss Jacqueline.
“I need you to find a man with great social standing. If he is a man of peer, even better,” her mother concluded.
Helena was tired of getting into arguments with her parents over marriage.
I’ll marry when it’s time.
“So where is Father?” Helena asked her mother. She looked directly into her mother’s eyes. She wanted to detect any hidden truths in them.
Miss Jacqueline lay back down on the bed.
“He’s inside his chamber, as always. Why do you ask?” the Baroness asked.
Helena shook her head. She shifted closer to the edge of the bed to allow her sister space to spread herself.
“Nothing, I just noticed I haven’t been seeing a lot of him lately,” Helena replied.
The Baroness smiled.
“He is your father, Helena. If you want to see him, all you have to do is go to his chamber. He has been really busy with affairs of the barony, a lot of official assignments he has to plot out,” the Baroness replied.
Her mother dropped her eyes as she said the last statement. Helena knew she was hiding something.
Justina was right.
Helena stretched and used her left hand to pick up the bottle of a dark looking potion the doctor had brought for Miss Jacqueline. She opened it and gestured for Miss Jacqueline to sit up. Miss Jacqueline hesitated, but only for a brief moment. Helena smiled.
She decided it was useless arguing with me on this.
Helena moved closer to her sister and poured a bit of the liquid into her open mouth. She stopped, put the cover back, and dropped it on the table. Meanwhile the faces her sister was making told her the liquid must have been very distasteful. She stood up and turned to leave.
“Distasteful?” she said, looking back at her sister.
“As bitter as bile,” her sister said while making funny faces.
Helena laughed as she walked out. She heard her mother stand up after her. Helena walked outside the room and stayed just outside the door, waiting for her mother.
When the door opened to let her mother out, she waited till her mother closed the door to her sister’s room. She stood in front of her mother.
“So now really, what is wrong with Father?” Helena asked her mother.
The Baroness smiled, the smile breaking into a small laugh.
“I knew you knew more than you were letting on when you asked,” the Baroness said.
“Is he sick?”
“He is not feeling too well. He told me not to tell any of you this, but I am guessing you heard this through Justina. I need you to keep this a secret. He will get better,” her mother said.
“Why do we need to keep Father getting ill a secret?” Helena asked.
The Baroness covered her mouth with her left hand.
“I cannot tell you, Helena,” the Baroness said. “I have told you enough. Your father is a very proud man. He will not take it lightly that I confirmed his illness, much more giving you more information. I have to ask you to go and ask him.”
Helena didn’t see that as a daunting task. She was very close to her father. If she met him at the right time, he would tell her. She nodded to her mother and walked down the passage to her father’s chambers.
“If you meet him sleeping, Helena, please do not wake him up. He needs to sleep,” her mother shouted to her.
Helena heard her footsteps on the wooden floor. Her shoes made small tapping noises on the floor, breaking what would have been a rare serene quiet in the Sinclair mansion. Her father would always know someone was approaching his chambers before the person even got there this way. When she got to his door, she knocked. No one answered, so she turned the doorknob and went in. The first room was just as she remembered. The walls were entirely covered with shelves full of books. Helena wondered how many books her father regularly bought since she always came here to steal his books and they never seemed to reduce in number. She had gotten her reading habits from her father.
The man is a ferocious reader.
The walls were made from the same Lebanese wood that constituted the walls of the corridor. A huge landscape painting hung over the door to his bedroom. She loved the way the river poured into the delta, making bubbles and ripples. The painter brought the picture to life at that point. The painting was enchanting.
Helena looked at his table. It was still beside the window, but there was no book on it, which was strange. Helena had never come into the room without seeing what her father was currently reading on that table.
He isn’t reading anything?
She noticed that the second door was open, the door to the balcony. She went to the door and looked into the balcony; there was no one there. She entered the balcony and walked to the balustrade. Her grandfather had built the house in a way that the Duke’s chambers had a balcony looking over the entire house and over the whole barony.
“Your eyes are more accurate than the best reporter,” her father always said.
He could be found many times looking over his barony from the balcony. The house was built on the tallest hill in the middle of the barony so the view was a fair reflection of it. The wind pushed Helena’s hair back; red strands whipped into her face. Helena pushed the strands behind her ears and turned back to go inside, closing the door behind her. She walked to the door to her father’s bedroom which was also open. She didn’t enter but just leaned inside. Her father was on the bed, sleeping and snoring loudly. He had his blanket over half of his body, but the uncovered upper half was naked. She could see grey strands mingled among the dark bush that gathered on his chest. She saw a cup on the stool beside his bed.
That’s the potion Wallace went to get for him.
She wanted to go in to check but remembered what her mother said. Choosing between satisfying her curiosity and not risking waking him, she decided to allow him to sleep. She shut the door gently. Her hands released the golden doorknob which felt very cold. Her eyes spied the hinges of the door that were made of a particular metal she didn’t know, but they had four silver bolts. Father always said grandfather was dandy. Helena couldn’t confirm that, but she knew the man had spent a lot on building the house to his taste.
A door opened behind her. She turned around to look at her mother. The Baroness walked to the other door and went into the balcony. Helena followed her.
“How is he?” her mother asked immediately she shut the balcony door.
“Asleep,” Helena answered.
“Thank goodness,” her mother said, relief very evident in her reaction.
“What is it?”
“He hasn’t slept in the past four days. His head has been aching seriously, and he was starting to get a fever.”
“I thought you weren’t going to tell me what was wrong with him.”
“I didn’t mean this. You’d have to ask him for that,” the Baroness said.
The Baroness walked to the railings and hung her hands over the balustrade. Her brown hair stood stubbornly against the wind. She had tied it in a ponytail behind. Her hair was incredibly long; the end of the ponytail reached her lower back. Helena fingered her short red hair. Hers had a long way to go before it got to such a length. It fit the Baroness who was big with chubby arms and a wide waist.
“She was as slim as you were when I married her. After twenty-five years and five children, this is my wife,” her father would say.
Helena smiled and shook her head. She already missed her father.
Get well soon Pa, you still need to recommend books for me.
“Why are you smiling?” the Baroness asked.
Helena shook her head. She looked down and saw Lady Lavinia walking out of the front door. Miss Justina was with her, carrying a bag that probably contained her newly purchased dresses. Lady Lavinia walked to a steward and said something to him. Helena looked to her side; her mother was also watching them. The steward went around the back, and after a few minutes, Lady Lavinia’s coach rode out from the back. Miss Justina pushed the door of the coach open and placed the bag inside. Lady Lavinia went around and got into the coach through the other door. Miss Justina stood at the other door for a few more moments.
Lavinia must be telling her something.
The driver of the coach beat the horses with his whip, and they started moving. Miss Justina nodded her head and stood as the coach rode out of the compound. Miss Justina turned around and walked back to the house. Just as she was moving out of view, she looked up to Helena and her mother. She waved, and Helena waved back. Then she went in.
The sun had sunk to the horizon. Night was drawing closer. Helena was about to ask about her sister when another carriage rode into the compound. Before the carriage had properly stopped, the door was flung open, and her sister jumped out in typical character.
“You still have a lot of coaching to do,” Helena said.
The Baroness chuckled.
“I am thinking of getting her a tutor who will teach her music, arts, and generally coach her in the mannerisms of a woman of breeding. She still sees herself as a child, Melanie,” her mother said.
“A very playful child,” Helena added.
She turned around and walked to the door.
“I am going to my chamber, Mother,” Helena said.
“I am here with my husband. Do send Melanie to see me.”
Helena nodded and went out the door. She walked gently and noiselessly till she got outside her father’s chambers. She walked down the dark corridor, using her intuition to note where to turn. When she got to her room’s door, she saw a steward lighting the lamps hanging on the corridor walls. She walked into her room and met Miss Justina inside. She had already lit the two lamps in her room. Helena walked to her bed and eased her shoes off her feet. She lay her back down and stared at the dark ceiling.
“Get some warm water into my bathroom, Justina. I want to have a bath and turn in early,” Helena said.
“I’ll do that, ma’am.”
“Then do tell Melanie mother said she wants to see her tonight.”
Miss Justina nodded and walked out of the room. Helena stood up and loosened her dress at the side. She pushed the dress down her body, allowing it to pool at her feet. She removed her legs from the pool and lay back on the bed with just her shift and underwear while her mind wandered back to the handsome doctor.
“I hope to meet him at the Somerset ball. I would love a dance with him,” Helena said aloud.
One eyelid closed, she pushed it back up.
I need to wait for Justina to bring the warm water.