Page 44 of A Christmas Miracle for the Frosty Marquess
Thomas, who had been silent until now, sidled up to Julian.
“Cousin, I would be happy to go with you to fetch the physician,” he said. “It is sure to be a taxing journey for one man. And time isn’t our ally, I fear. I can help you make the trip faster, should you meet any trouble.”
Julian nodded, his gaze reluctantly leaving Clara’s form.
“Yes, Thomas,” he said. “I would be grateful for your company.”
Thomas nodded; his eyes burdened with a similar distress that he imagined filled his own.
“Gladly, Julian,” he said.
As they made their way toward the door, Julian took one last glance at the room. Clara was bending over Agnes, whispering words he couldn’t hear, but their meaning was clear. It was a promise of help, a glimmer of hope. His heart clenched. It was a simple gesture but, in that moment, the room, dismal as it was, seemed to glow in the aura of her kindness.
He felt a knot of worry tighten within him as he stepped out into the waning daylight. Were he a man given to poetic thought, he might have compared the crumbling edifice behind him to his own carefully guarded emotional defenses.
Taking a deep breath, he squared his shoulders.
“We must make haste, Thomas,” he said, echoing his cousin’s concern about the time they didn’t have. “Every moment counts.”
Thomas nodded, and they embarked on their mission, the gravity of their task lending urgency to their strides. Julian’s thoughts churned as they detached the horses from the dogcart. He had seen much of life’s darker aspects, and he had become inured to them, or so he’d thought. Yet today, standing next to Clara amidst such wretchedness, he felt like scales had fallen from his eyes.
She had given his world new shades and contours. And as he quickened his steps, his heart wrestling with newfound emotions and anxieties, Julian realized that the most disquieting but also the most uplifting revelation of the day was not the squalor he’d seen, but the depth of his own feelings for Clara. She had been a flicker of light in his life for some time now, but today she was becoming a beacon, illuminating parts of his soul he hadn’t known existed. And so, fueled by this complex blend of concern and revelation, Julian and Thomas hurried through the cobblestone streets, their mission clear but the future as uncertain as ever.
Julian spurred his horse forward, the harsh winter wind biting at his cheeks as the animal’s hooves pounded rhythmically against the frozen ground. The world around him was swathed in a blanket of snow, the trees standing as skeletal sentinels amidst a monochrome landscape. It would take two hours to reach the physician. But with a relentless struggle against both the elements and his own roiling thoughts, he felt that it might as well be two days.
Thomas rode beside him on the other dogcart horse, his face set in grim determination as they navigated the treacherous road. Julian was grateful for the man’s taciturn nature. It offered him a brief respite from the whirlwind of his mind.
They had barely been riding for half an hour when they came upon a fallen tree, its massive branches sprawled across the pathway.
“Blasted weather,” Thomas muttered, dismounting to assess the obstacle.
Julian sighed, feeling the weight of their mission hang heavy upon him.
“We’ll have to move it,” he said. “There’s no time to find another way around.”
With grunts and groans, employing the levers of their hands and the fulcrums of their shoulders, they just barely managed to shift the tree enough to clear a path. Sweat trickled down Julian’s forehead, freezing at once in the winter chill. Remounting their horses, they continued on their way, the laborious task behind them serving as a physical allegory to the emotional labyrinth within him.
The next challenge presented itself in the form of a slick patch of ice that took up the entire width of the road. Both men stared at the glistening surface, each contemplating the danger it posed.
“It’s risky,” Thomas finally said, echoing Julian’s thoughts.
Julian nodded. His cousin was right. But as with the fallen tree, they had little choice.
“It is riskier to delay,” Julian said. He dismounted carefully, taking the reins in his gloved hands, and led his horse gingerly across the patch. Each step was a dance with danger, his boots seeking purchase where there was little to be found. Behind him, Thomas did the same. When they were both safely across, Julian felt a surge of relief so powerful it nearly took his breath away. He said a silent prayer of gratitude as Thomas and he mounted their horses once more. He also prayed that there would be no more obstacles in their path. Every hindrance was a threat to Agnes’s condition. If they couldn’t reach the physician soon, Agnes might not make it through the night.
As he rode on, the children’s faces and Clara’s worried yet determined gaze flashed through his mind. He found himself praying silently for their safety and welfare, as well as for more time for Agnes. The realization startled him. When had he become a man who prayed? He truly felt sympathy for Agnes, despite having been devoid of such sympathy for others since his mother’s death. But there was more, and deep down, he knew it. It was important to Clara that they help the poor woman and her children. And that was what kept him moving forward, even in the treacherous weather.
Is this what it feels like to care for someone?He wondered, surprised at himself.
He pushed the unsettling thoughts aside with a fervor that startled even him. No, this was not the time for introspection. This was not the time for the uncharted territories of his own feelings. This was a time for action to save a life, for the resolve to do the right thing for a family in need.
“We’re nearly there, Cousin,” Thomas said, barely audible over the wind that was now picking up, as if to challenge to their determination.
Julian nodded, though the gesture was lost in the layers of garments and the dimming light.
“Onward, then,” he said.
Though they had weathered the external trials that had come their way, Julian was acutely aware that the true odyssey was unfolding within him. And as he galloped through the winter-bitten landscape, he carried with him a disquieting blend of hope and trepidation.
