Page 50 of The Best-Kept Secrets
Chapter Nineteen
“It is important that younot overexert yourself,” Dr. Wilstead told Nia as he walked attentively at her side toward the drawing room. “But it is also important that you move about—sedately, mind—keep your spirits up, take some fresh air each day. The trickiest aspect of that will be striking the appropriate balance between rest and movement.”
“How does one go about discovering that balance?” To Eve’s relief, Nia didn’t sound as exhausted as she had before the doctor’s arrival, though she was certainly not her usual self.
“Unfortunately,” Dr. Wilstead said, “usually by getting the balance wrong and paying the consequences.”
“I do not like that methodology,” Nia said.
“I don’t blame you,” was the doctor’s kindly spoken response.
Eve plumped a cushion on the sofa, placing it in what she hoped was the exact right spot to give her sister optimal comfort. Eve had felt so helpless that morning, hearing the doctor diagnose Nia’s illness as rheumatic fever, worrying over what that meant, hoping Duke was right that the Greenberrys would pay the doctor’s fee whilst simultaneously feeling guilty about that.
Dr. Wilstead saw Nia seated and looked her over, no doubt checking her coloring and the clearness of her eyes and all the other symptoms doctors were forever studying in their patients.
“How long is this likely to last?” Eve asked.
“With rheumatic fever, duration is difficult to predict. Many people feel markedly better in only a few weeks.”
Hearing the wordsrheumatic feverfall from Dr. Wilstead’s lips in the room she shared with Nia had driven fear directly to her heart, but this declaration gave her hope.
Then he snatched it away by adding, “Many others are afflicted for years.”
For years.Nia might be illfor years.Heavens above.
To Nia, Dr. Wilstead said, “You are young but not a child, and healthy. And by your own recollection, you have not had rheumatic fever in the past. All of those things are marks decidedly in your favor.”
But was it enough?
“I am in a rather lot of pain,” Nia said, and her expression revealed the truth of that.
“I have sent down to the Fairfield kitchen a recipe for a very effective tisane that should relieve much of that without making you sleepy. Keeping your spirits up is important. At night, you can take the powders I will have delivered to your room to help you sleep.”
“But I don’t have to remain in my room for the entirety of the house party?” Nia pressed.
The doctor shook his head. “Your activity will need to be limited, but it needn’t be curtailed entirely. Rest whenever you feel you need to. I will be here at Fairfield for the next few days to make certain you are doing as well as you ought. After that, I will return as needed to check on your progress.”
“Thank you, Dr. Wilstead,” Nia said.
As he turned toward the door, he motioned for Eve to walk with him. “She is doing well,” he said in low tones, “but rheumatic fever is not to be taken lightly. Should she show any signs of heart distress, I am to be sent for immediately, even if I have already returned to Epsom.”
Heart distress.
For years.
Eve nodded, doing her utmost to hide the worry that surged at his firmly delivered instructions. Everyone knew rheumatic fever could cause tremendous damage to the heart, but no one seemed to know how to predict if it would or how to prevent it from happening.
Keeping her voice low, she asked Dr. Wilstead, “You said she could be ill for years. Is Nia likely, then, to need a doctor’s care after we return to Ireland?”
“When are you planning to return?”
“In about two weeks.”
Dr. Wilstead nodded. “She will not be recovered by then. She might still be too unwell to travel.”
Eve summoned the closest expression she could manage to calm and collected, while inwardly she was anything but. “I’ll not risk her health by forcing her to travel, but if the house party has ended...” She didn’t have an immediate answer to the dilemma.
“If you are unable to extend your time at Fairfield,” he said, “there are several very reputable inns in Epsom that you could remove to while she continues her recovery. I can look in on her there.”
