Page 64 of Calling on the Matchmaker
They entered into a narrow hallway with several doors on either side, their footsteps on the plank floor tapping an ominous rhythm.
Bellamy led her to a far room, and as he stepped in, he motioned for her to keep to the hallway.
She held back, her chest tightening with the need to find an excuse that would take her into the room.
“Thank you for staying, Doctor.” Bellamy and the doctor stood in front of the bed and blocked her view of Riley. All she could see were his legs stretched out underneath a blanket, motionless.
Was she too late?
“I’ve done all I can to make him comfortable.” The doctor spoke in a hushed tone as he reached for his bag. “Now there’s not much more to be doing.”
Finola bit back frustrated words and tried not to show her impatience. Already her mind had been at work trying to remember everything the Sisters had said about the last cholera outbreak in St. Louis. A few of them had come to St. Louis specifically to provide aid to the suffering and dying.
They’d indicated they’d saved many people with their methods, including getting their patients to drink large amounts of a liquid containing sugar and salt.
As the doctor exited the room, he nodded at her, his aged face haggard with both despair and exhaustion. Even though she had a dozen questions, she swallowed them, sparing the poor man a delay when there were likely many more suffering people he needed to tend.
Besides, now that she had a full view of Riley, her attention had shifted to his face. His eyes were closed and his face pale and lifeless.
“Holy mother, have mercy,” she whispered, pressing trembling fingers against her mouth and blinking back sudden tears.
How was it that just two days ago he was skating with vigor and strength, and less than forty-eight hours later he was lying at death’s door?
A wave of despair crashed through her. She clutched the doorframe to keep from sinking to the floor.
Bellamy was at her side in an instant, holding her up. “You need to sit.” He stretched for the chair positioned next to the bed and dragged it into the hallway. Then he guided her to it.
She had no intention of sitting in the hallway, but she allowed Bellamy to assist her into the chair until she could come up with a plan for getting into Riley’s room and staying with him.
At least Riley’s skin wasn’t blue yet. Surely that was a positive sign that he still had time to recover. “Can you help me find a supply of salt and sugar? I’d like to give Riley a liquid the Sisters concoct when treating cholera patients.”
Bellamy rummaged around the first room and located smallcontainers of both. It wasn’t enough, but she joined him in the kitchen-like room and mixed equal parts into a pan of water she brought to a boil on the cast-iron stove.
From outside Riley’s room, she instructed Bellamy on how to rouse Riley and get him to drink the sugar-salt water solution. Riley woke in a haze, hardly having enough energy to lift his head. But Bellamy managed to coerce Riley into taking several sips.
She forced herself not to rush in and take over. If she tried, Bellamy would likely drive her right back home. Instead, when Bellamy finished, she convinced him to make a trip to a nearby general store to purchase more sugar and salt. As he dashed off, he warned her that he’d only be gone a short while and that she shouldn’t go into Riley’s room unless she absolutely really needed to.
The moment she heard the gig pull away, she went directly in. She absolutely had to be by Riley’s side. It was the truth. And she wouldn’t let anything keep her from him.
22
She lifted the tin cup to Riley’s mouth again and simultaneously raised his head. Though he didn’t open his eyes or respond to her, she slowly and steadily made him drink the remainder of the liquid.
She was just finishing when Bellamy returned. At the sight of her at Riley’s side, he only shook his head. Thankfully, he didn’t demand that she leave.
He helped her make more of the solution, and when she insisted on being the one to give it to Riley, he didn’t object, clearly realizing that she’d had more success in getting their patient to ingest the liquid than he had. And when he made mention of the need to go out and find another person to take Big Jim’s place in caring for Riley, she’d claimed she would do it and that they needed no one else.
Bellamy only quirked a brow. And when she asked him to deliver the word to her family’s butler to leave for the country house without her, he argued with her for a few moments before sighing and acquiescing.
He left to carry out her instructions, as well as to attend to his duties at the pub. Evening was settling when he returned, and she refrained from asking him about Winston’s reaction toher decision to stay, knowing her da would discover what she’d done and would come to collect her soon enough.
For a short while, Bellamy assisted her in fetching and boiling water, making more solution, and tending to Riley’s more personal needs. Riley awoke once when Bellamy was with him. But he didn’t notice her presence, which was for the best. He was certainly doing better; his color was returning, and he didn’t seem to be in any pain.
At the very least, she could watch over him tonight, continue to spoon-feed her concoction, and then be on her way in the morning.
As if hearing her unspoken thought, Bellamy stepped up to the brass footboard. The light from the lantern on the side table cast a warm glow over the sparsely furnished room. “I’ll be gone for a wee bit to find someone to sit with Riley through the night.”
“I said I’ll be doing it, so I will.”
