Page 12 of Lady for a Season
They finished, grinning at one another.
“You have kept secrets from me,” Maggie said. “Now that I know you can play and sing so well, we must do so more often.”She wanted to ask when he had been taught to play, but mindful of not bringing up his past, she refrained.
“Ihave kept secrets? When you sing like a… a nightingale?”
When Maggie awoke the next morning, she could hear a familiar man’s voice and when she made her way into the parlour, she found Doctor Morrison eating breakfast.
“Ah Maggie, good morning to you. I have arrived for Edward’s treatments. We will spend most of the day on them, and I will return to Leamington Priors this evening when we are done.”
She made a curtsey. “Yes, sir. He is better than when last you saw him, I think. He still has nightmares, but he has been taking more exercise in the garden and I believe –”
Doctor Morrison interrupted. “There is no need for changes to his routine, Maggie,” he said. “Today, he will receive his regular treatments.”
“Yes, sir. Shall I fetch Edward?” She was still unsure of what the treatments might be.
“No, we shall prepare the treatment room first. Let us go there now.”
He rose from the table and strode up the stairs, carrying a leather bag, Maggie following.
“Now,” he said, once they were in the third room. “Let us set up the chair.”
He stepped briskly to the corner and pulled the chair into the centre of the room. It seemed ordinary enough, a solidly built wooden chair with arms, but now that it was out of the shadows Maggie saw that it had large metal rings secured to the sides and back, and leather straps with buckles attached to the arms. She frowned but the doctor was already opening the drawer of the table, from which he removed sturdy chains, which he proceeded to fasten to the chair’s rings. The chains rose to a single large metal ring connecting all three of them.
“Wind down the ceiling hook, Maggie.”
Maggie stared at where he was indicating. Behind the second chair in the far corner of the room was a large handle, which connected to a windlass on one of the ceiling beams. Tentatively, she turned it.
“The other way,” instructed the doctor, engaged in taking several items out of his bag, including a bleeding bowl and various glass bottles.
Maggie tried the other way and the ceiling hook slowly lowered.
The doctor nodded approvingly and attached the hook to the metal circle. “Now wind it back up to tighten the chains.”
She did so.
“Excellent. You may fetch Edward now. And call down to Agnes, tell her to come up.”
Dread settled in Maggie’s stomach. Edward was to be bled, that much she could see, but what was the purpose of the chair? What was in the many bottles that the doctor had brought with him?
In the corridor, she hesitated, unwilling to bring Edward into the room, which now felt ominous. Putting off the moment she called down the stairs.
“Agnes?”
“Are you ready for me?”
Maggie did not know what she meant, but evidently she had expected the call. “Yes.”
There was a clatter of footsteps and Agnes came up the stairs carrying two empty brass buckets and a handful of cleaning rags, as well as a pail of fresh water. She edged past Maggie and went into the third room, putting the items down as directed by the doctor., Coming back out, she looked inquiringly at Maggie.
“I’m to fetch Edward,” said Maggie helplessly. She wanted to ask Agnes for reassurance that nothing terrible was about tohappen, but the girl only nodded and clattered back down the stairs.
Maggie stood for a moment before she raised her hand and knocked.
“Come in.”
She opened the door. Edward sat opposite the door on his bed, fully clothed.
“Doctor Morrison is here, for your… treatments.”
