Page 142 of The Secret Love of a Gentleman
‘I cannot, Uncle Robert, I am too afraid.’
Then from above, there was a cry that was not a woman’s but a child’s. Rob looked at the ceiling. His heart stopped.
Footsteps hurried down the stairs. ‘The child is here!’ Beth called. ‘You may come up, Mr Marlow!’
Rob ran from the parlour, flying up the stairs to the bedchamber.
‘How are they?’ he asked his Aunt Jane as he entered the room.
‘The child is healthy. But Caroline is weak.’
But alive.She looked up and smiled at him. He had never thought joy could be such a hollow thing.
The sheets had been changed, and Caro wore a clean nightdress that hung open as the small child, wrapped in swaddling bands, sucked at her breast. Caro’s skin was grey beneath her eyes. She looked like his phantom again, so pale. ‘Rob,’ she said weakly. ‘She is here. You were right. It is a daughter. Sarah.’
Aunt Jane touched his arm. ‘The doctor wants to speak with you.’
He kissed Caro’s temple, then kissed the soft skin of hisdaughter’s forehead. ‘I will return in a moment. I need to speak with the doctor.’
She nodded.
The doctor lifted a hand so Rob might walk from the room before him and then followed Rob downstairs. Rob led him to the dining room, where they could speak privately.
‘How is she?’ Rob asked in a low voice.
‘Mrs Marlow has lost a lot of blood. She should drink pigs’ blood for a month and eat liver daily. I would also recommend using a wet nurse. It will slow her recovery if she is feeding the child herself. I am able to recommend a woman who has a child a year old and would be willing. But there is another risk. Sometimes mothers who experience bleeding may die if the internal wound becomes infected. You must send someone for me if there is any sign of a fever.’
Rob nodded. If there was a fever, though, there would not be a way to help her.
He left Mr Birch to show the doctor out and returned to Caro.
She and the child were sleeping.
Aunt Jane and Beth left him alone with his wife and daughter, and finally he let his own fear flow in tears as they slept.
79
A noise breached the windows of the dining room, where Rob and Caro were eating breakfast. An arrival, a lone horse-rider.
Rob stood as the footsteps of their visitor crunched on the gravel outside.
A knock sounded on the door before Mr Birch reached it. ‘Lord Barrington,’ he said when he opened the door.
‘Uncle! In here!’ Rob shouted.
Caro moved to rise, but Rob pressed a hand on her shoulder. ‘You need not stand.’ She had recovered from the birth, but even so, she still easily became tired.
‘What is wrong?’ Rob asked as his uncle joined them in the room.
‘Have you seen a newspaper?’
Rob shook his head.
‘Here.’ His uncle held out a copy he had withdrawn from the chest of his morning coat.
Rob took it.
‘Look at the obituaries.’
