When trouble descended upon the household, Lady Ombersley forgot all Charles’s disagreeable ways and was much inclined to think him her only support. Her joy at seeing him walk into her dressing room was only allayed by her fear that he might catch the typhus. She was reclining on the sofa but heaved herself up to cast her arms about his neck, exclaiming, “Charles! Oh, my dear son, thank God you are come! It is so terrible, and I know she will be taken from me like my poor little Clara!”
A burst of tears ended this speech, and for some minutes he was fully occupied in soothing the agitation of her spirits. When she was calmer, he ventured to question her on the nature of Amabel’s complaint. Her replies were disjointed, but she said enough to convince him that the case was desperate, and the illness contracted perhaps at Astley’s Amphitheatre. He was so much appalled that he could say nothing for several moments but got up abruptly from the chair by the sofa and strode over to stare out of the window. His mother, wiping her eyes, said, “If only I were not so wretchedly weak! You know, Charles, how I must long to be beside my child! But the sight of her, so wasted, so flushed, brings on my worst palpitations, and if she recognizes me at all she cannot help but be distressed! They will scarcely allow me to enter the room!”
“It is not fit for you,” he said mechanically. “Who nurses her? Is Addy here?”
“No, no, Dr. Baillie thought it wiser to send the other children off to Ombersley. He sent us a dreadful creature — at least, I never saw her, but Cecilia said she was a drunken wretch — and Sophy sent her packing. Old Nurse is in charge, and you know how she is to be trusted! And the girls help her, so that Dr. Baillie assures me I need feel no uneasiness on that head. He says that dearest Sophy is a capital sick nurse and that the disease is running its proper course, but oh, Charles, I cannot persuade myself that she will be spared!” He came back to her side at once and devoted himself to the task of comforting her alarms with more patience than might have been expected in one of his hasty temper. When he could escape, he did so, and went upstairs to find his sister. She had just got up from her bed and was coming out of her room as he reached the landing. She was looking pale and tired, but her face lit up at sight of him, and she exclaimed in a hushed voice, “Charles! I knew we might depend upon your coming! Have you been to my mother? She has felt the need of your presence so much!”
“I have this instant come from her dressing room. Cilly, Cilly, she tells me Amabel began to ail within a few days of that accursed evening at Astley’s!”
“Hush! Come into my room! Amabel is in the blue spare room, and you must not talk so loud just here! We thought that too, but Dr. Baillie says it could hardly be so. Recollect that the other two are well! Addy sent up word only yesterday.” She softly closed the door of her bedroom. “I must not stay above a minute. Mama will be needing me.”
“My poor girl, you look fagged to death!”
“No, no, I am not! Why, there is hardly anything that I do, so that it chafes me dreadfully sometimes, when I see Sophy and that good, kind maid of hers carrying all the burden on their shoulders! For Nurse is growing too old to be able to manage, you know, and it affects her sadly to see poor little Amabel so uncomfortable. But if one of us is not continually with Mama she frets herself into one of her spasms — you know her way! But now you are here you will relieve me of that duty!” She smiled, and pressed his hand. “I never thought to be so glad to see anyone! Amabel too! She so often calls for you, and wonders where you can be! If I had not known that you would come, I must have sent for you! You are not afraid of infection?”
He made an impatient gesture.
“No, I was sure you would not think of that. Sophy is out walking. Dr. Baillie impresses on us the need for exercise in the fresh air, and we are very obedient, I assure you! Nurse sits with Amabel during the afternoon.”