Page 42 of Lady of Charade
He paused for a moment, looking up to the sky as if the right word would fall down upon him, and David chuckled ruefully. “Discreet? I only want to get to the heart of the matter.”
“What are you going to do, walk up to the man and ask him if, around twenty or so years ago, he had an affair with a woman who then walked out of his life forever? And that you are asking because he now may have a daughter with whom you are rather enamored?” Clarence shook his head. “Allow me to determine what I can.”
“Very well,” David said, tapping his hand against his leg, realizing he didn’t have many other choices but to accept the help. “Keep me apprised of what you find out.”
* * *
Sarah was contemplatinghow lovely it was to take tea out of doors. She had never been one who enjoyed the process of simply sitting and doing nothing but sipping from her cup, though she enjoyed the opportunity to converse with her friends. This was certainly better than being ensconced in a drawing room, though it did seem rather unnatural for servants to have to carry everything out of doors in order to serve them.
She had just lifted a pastry to her lips when there was a loud commotion from the bottom of the hill beneath them. The back of Lord Berkley’s estate overlooked the valleys below, where the woodland was thick and the men were currently hunting.
They all looked up to see a horse thundering up the hill toward them, others beginning to climb the rise from far behind, moving slightly slower.
Eddie was the first rider, the fastest of them all, of course, being a jockey, his horse a former racer. He dismounted before the horse had even stopped running, a display that would have properly impressed Sarah were she not so worried about just why he had needed to race back to the house so quickly.
“We must send for a physician,” he said, his breath coming in great huffs. “Lord Upwell has been shot.”
“Shot?” Phoebe gasped as they all stared at him in shock.
“An accident,” Eddie said, “But dangerous all the same. We believe the bullet went into his shoulder. Where is the closest physician? In the meantime, Miss Jones, are you able to help him?”
Eddie needn’t have even asked. Sarah was already standing and determining exactly what she needed to treat a gunshot wound. Nearly before Eddie had even finished speaking, she was already beginning to provide orders.
“Phoebe, can you help — or arrange for help? I need clean linens, my bag from my chambers, and a bowl of boiling water. To which bedroom will you take him?”
Phoebe went to work as quickly as Sarah, and before long she had some of her servants beginning to prepare in the man’s bedchamber, as she too helped herself. Sarah honestly had no idea who he was, but when he was settled upon the bed, she saw he was an older gentleman, who had likely traveled here with Lady Alexander’s party. He was groaning in pain as he clasped his hand around the top of his left arm, where Sarah saw a bullet was still embedded. She took a deep breath. Bullet wounds could be difficult cases. Sometimes they came out easily, without causing any further issues, and all was fine. Other times, it could be extremely difficult to find the bullet and could have lingering effects. It was why limbs were often amputated during combat.
“Can I help you?” Elizabeth asked, coming to her side, and Sarah nodded. Of anyone, Elizabeth was the least likely to lose her head in a traumatic situation. Sarah had no idea how she would respond to the bloody mess that could ensue, but then, if there was ever anyone she would trust to handle all that came her way, it would be Elizabeth.
Sarah located her bag, looking through it until she found what she was looking for. First, a powder she had made of Cleavers. She had trouble, at first, determining which English plants would substitute for those she had used in America, but Sarah had found enough women in London to advise her.
After convincing Lord Upwell to remove his hand from where it clutched the wound, Sarah cut off his jacket and shirt at the shoulder and tied a long piece of fabric she had ripped from a towel around the top of his arm. She then sprinkled the powder over the wound, which she hoped would staunch the bleeding. Sarah found another jar and passed it to Elizabeth.
“Give him some laudanum, will you?”
Elizabeth complied despite the man’s attempt to refuse, and he finally took a spoonful.
“Is the boiling water here?” Sarah asked, and when Elizabeth answered affirmatively, Sarah found her long instruments, which she would use to try to pinch the bullet, and placed them in the water.
“What are you doing?” Elizabeth asked, and Sarah turned to find her friend watching her quizzically. Sarah shrugged.
“My mother always told me that anything touching the interior of the body should be put in boiling water first. She never determined exactly why, but it had been taught to her by another, who was convinced it prevented infection from settling in. To this day, I am not entirely certain if she was correct, but I’m not about to test otherwise right now.”
Elizabeth seemed interested in asking more, but their patient groaned and so they turned their attention back to him. Sarah took out the long metal pincers and looked at Lord Upwell’s face to see if the laudanum had begun to take effect. She figured not entirely, but she didn’t want to wait any longer.
The bleeding had mostly stopped, thank goodness, and she dabbed at the wound with a wet towel to clean away any blood so she could see what was beneath. He gave a slight yelp at her touch, and she cringed when she brought the pincers to the arm.
She paused.
“Elizabeth, can you please ask one of the gentlemen to come in here?”
Elizabeth, though not one to typically follow orders, seemed to understand the importance of the request and she complied, coming back in moments with her husband in tow.
“What do you need?” he asked, and Sarah bit her lip for a moment in contemplation. Should she really be asking a duke to assist her in this? But, then, she supposed, Elizabeth was a duchess and Sarah hadn’t thought at all about any issues in asking her.
“Just hold him down,” Sarah said.
“Hold him down?” the Duke repeated her words as he looked down at the man for a moment as if contemplating whether or not to comply, but then Elizabeth nudged him and he braced his hands upon Lord Upwell’s shoulders.
