Page 124 of I Thee Wed
While he was standing to find his cousin, Phillip appeared with a stack. Elizabeth snatched one and threw it to Charlotte, then took a second and wrapped it around Mr. Seton’s legs. He continued to shiver violently.
Abby had drawn near. “Lizzy, can I help?”
Elizabeth said, “Ask the housekeeper to send for a doctor.”
Abby left, and then Elizabeth saw Mr. Seton’s lips. They were blue; his face was ashen. He had stopped breathing.
Suddenly, she could no longer hear the people around her, and her vision constricted to a narrow, dark tunnel. How was this happening again? Elizabeth’s mind slipped into terrors she had long forgotten. His eyes were closed, and he was sinking. She was frantic and felt the panic rise to her throat, and then felt as though she was suffocating. Alexander had fallen off the jetty and was now in the water, sinking into the dark depths of the pond. She started screaming.
Charlotte had turned to her, and then she saw him too. His face was underwater. His bright golden hair was moving with each ripple. It was a ghostly sight. His eyes were closed. Alexander was unconscious. He would die unless she saved him.
She dove into the water, and in the periphery, she saw Charlotte dive in as well. Elizabeth reached him, clutched the back of his collar, and then paddled as hard as she could, struggling to keep his head above water. She was beginning to tire when Charlotte reached them. She clutched his other side, and together, they pulled him to shore.
They crawled out of the pond and dragged him out onto the dirt. Alexander was blue. He was not breathing.
“Get the doctor.”
Charlotte ran to get help, but Elizabeth saw her fall; her wet skirts, clinging to her legs, had tripped her up and were slowing her down. Elizabeth was crying.
“Alexander, do not die.”
She threw herself on top of him, clinging to him, begging him not to die. Then she saw water draining out of his mouth. His lungs must be full of water. she pressed down on his chest again, this time on purpose, and more water drained out. She continuedto apply pressure until no more water drained, and then she remembered something she had read. A Scottish surgeon had used a procedure to revive a coal miner who had suffocated. He blew air into the coal miner’s mouth.
She crawled to Alexander’s head, bent down, and placed her lips on his cold, lifeless ones, and blew. His chest rose. She took another breath and blew again. His chest lifted again. She kept breathing for him until she heard him gasping and coughing.
Then she rolled him onto his side, and more water drained out of his mouth, but now he was breathing on his own. She cried over him as she held him clutched against her breast, both of them shivering. She moved beneath him and lifted his head and shoulders onto her knees and watched him breathe until Charlotte returned.
“The doctor is on his way. I sent Maria to find Mamma at the butcher’s shop, and Robby is riding out to find Papa.”
“Charlotte, he is shivering, bring blankets.”
Her friend ran back for blankets, and when she returned, Lady Lucas was with her. Elizabeth continued to hold him while they wrapped him in blankets. Alexander was still blue, but he was breathing. Both Charlotte and Elizabeth wrapped their arms around him to keep him warm, and within a few minutes, Sir William arrived with two footmen, and they lifted him into the cart. Elizabeth clambered in first, and they laid his head on her lap. She held him all the way back to Lucas Lodge. Alexander survived. He caught pneumonia, and all three women took turns at his bedside, applying hot compresses and periodically performing percussion on his back. These were the doctor’s orders, and the treatments worked. He recovered. And to look athim now, one would never know he had stopped breathing and then nearly died from pneumonia.”
“Lizzy! Lizzy!” Abby held her elbow and was shaking her.
Mr. Seton was going to die if someone did not breathe for him. Elizabeth shook her head to clear it of the memories that had flooded her mind. She grabbed Charlotte’s arm and shook her. Charlotte was screaming. She, too, had seen that Mr. Seton had stopped breathing.
“Breathe for him, Charlotte.”
Elizabeth pushed her friend to focus, to do what had to be done.
“Breathe for him, Charlotte. Put your lips on his and breathe into his lungs.”
Her friend looked at her as if she had lost her mind. Elizabeth moved to his head and bent over him.
She put her mouth over his and breathed into it. She was facing his chest. It did not rise. She felt pressure, as if there were an obstruction. She breathed again but blew harder this time. Still, his chest did not rise. She blew a third time. Elizabeth was getting tired.
Darcy yelled, “His chest rose.”
Elizabeth sat back on her heels. “You take over, Charlotte.”
Her friend bent over and breathed into her husband’s mouth.
Abby said, “His chest rose.”
Their friends began to encourage her.
“Breathe again, Charlotte. Keep breathing for him.”
