Chapter 16
Ophelia and Adrian returned home that night to the sound of crying.
When they walked through the doors together, it took Ophelia a few moments to understand what exactly it was that she was hearing. And that was because she was so distracted.
Adrian might have said little to her on the journey home, but it was not a silence brimming with the same level of awkwardness or tension that it might have once been.
There was comfort found in that silence, a sense that they both seemed to recognize just how important and consequential their first night out together was.
It is as if he is a new person to whom I married.
He did not smile as they rode home. He did not appear particularly thrilled or proud of what had happened that night. But Ophelia saw through the mask he wore, able now to understand him better than she had before. And because she could, she knew that deep down, he was happy.
The marriage was not perfect. Maybe it never would be.
But nights like that one proved without question that she was not alone in this world, or this marriage.
Adrian was there for her; he wanted her to feel safe and supported, and so long as she let him grow at his own pace, he might just turn into the man that she knew existed somewhere deep inside that hard shell.
So it was that they entered the manor together, in silence, but not awkwardness. As good as the evening had been, Ophelia knew not to push it. She would say goodnight, she would retire to her room, and she would sleep soundly because she had nothing to worry herself with.
That was when they both heard it.
“What on earth…” Adrian came to a sudden stop as the ear-piercing shrieks reached them.
Ophelia blinked in confusion. “It sounds like…” Her eyes widened, and fear swept her. “Harriet!”
It could be nothing else, and as soon as Ophelia properly registered the crying, she knew that it was Harriet. What was more, Harriet needed her.
“Oh, no!” She rushed across the foyer and up the steps.
“Ophelia!” Adrian called after her.
Ophelia’s heart thundered as the fear rose. Breathing heavy. She reached the upper landing and stumbled, nearly fell, but stayed on her feet and charged in the direction of the nursery.
Guilt swarmed her also. While she had been out enjoying herself, Harriet had been left behind, scared, alone, wondering where she was! She might not have been Ophelia’s child, but that mattered not. At that moment, each cry was like a knife through Ophelia’s chest.
“Your Grace!” Mr. Watley appeared from the nursery. “Thank God, you are home.”
“Harriet!” Ophelia hurried towards him. “What is wrong? What has happened?”
“She is fine,” Mr. Watley assured her as she ran into the nursery. “We believe it is just a fever.”
“A fever?” The shrieks crashed down on Ophelia as she entered the room, and they battered at her as she made for the cot. “This is… it is more than a fever!”
Harriet lay in the cot; expected, as her cries announced the fact well before she was seen. But she was wide awake, screaming her head off, her body red and her arms and legs fidgeting and kicking wildly.
“We have done everything we can for her,” Mr. Watley explained as he watched her lift Harriet into her arms. “And we have sent for a physician. He will be here at first light.”
Ophelia rocked Harriet in her arms, which softened her cries a little. “She is in pain,” she winced. “And she does not know why.”
Mr. Watley sighed with pity. “All we can do is make her comfortable and pray the physician can help.”
Ophelia’s heart broke for the baby. It screamed and kicked in her arms. Its body was so hot that it was felt through its clothes. And when it looked at Ophelia, as if in hope that she might help, she wanted to cry.
“There is nothing to be done?” Adrian walked into the room. “That cannot be true.”
“We have tried everything, Your Grace,” Mr. Watley said. “No doubt the physician will be able to recommend a remedy that might put Harriet to sleep. But without his advice, I would not dare risk making one myself.”
Adrian clicked his tongue with anger.
Ophelia watched him, certain that his frustration was on account of the noise. It was not very pleasant, and even in his room with the door closed, it could still be heard.
But as she watched him, as she saw his eyes fall on Harriet, Ophelia saw not anger for the noise she made, but anger at something else… he is upset that there is nothing he can do. Just as he was upset that Harriet was in such pain. Ophelia was certain of it.
Despite the situation, she smiled, truly touched that Adrian had it in him to care so much about a baby that he wanted nothing to do with.
“It is going to be a long night,” she said to Adrian as she nursed Harriet in her arms. “If the physician will not arrive until sunrise, there is no sense in you being here. I will watch her.”
Adrian’s brow furrowed as he considered. “No…”
Ophelia sighed. “There is no need to feel guilty, Adrian. Truly, there is nothing that you can do for her. There is little I can even do.”
“I said no, Ophelia.” His voice was hard and determined. “If you are to stay with her, then so will I. Better that we are both here to watch over her.”
Again, Ophelia smiled. And again, she felt something touch her heart…
a tension releasing… a warmth spreading from it that swept over her body.
She knew he did not want to be there, just as she knew he did not truly care for Harriet.
But that he was willing to try, that he wanted to do the right thing, meant the world to her.
He really is changing. What is more, he wants to change…
It was a long night.
Harriet cried incessantly. There were moments when she stopped, managing to fall asleep for a few minutes, even an hour. But then she would wake again, and her screaming would continue.
Ophelia did not once put her down. She sat on the chair by the cot, getting as comfortable as she could. She held the baby close. She whispered sweet words into her ears. She rocked her gently. And even if she wanted to, she knew that sleep would not come.
True to his word, Adrian remained in the nursery the entire night. Rarely did he waste time sitting. He would stand with his arms behind his back, sometimes watching Harriet, sometimes watching Ophelia, and sometimes simply looking into the distance, his thoughts a mystery.
He did not speak. He did not look as if he meant to do so. But that did not matter. That he was there with her and Harriet, that he knew he needed to be, was what Ophelia focused on.
As promised, it was just as the sun began to rise through the window that Ophelia heard a knock on the door. It was followed by shouting, and Adrian strode from the room.
Ophelia perked up, which only made Harriet cry harder. But she climbed to her feet and was just settling herself as the physician finally walked into the room.
“Ah, so that is the source of the crying,” he said with humor, but was met with cold stares from both Ophelia and Adrian. He winced. “I take it that is has been a long night…”
“That is an understatement,” Adrian said, lurking over his shoulder.
The physician asked that Harriet be set down, at which point he looked her over. He touched her forehead. He checked her tongue. He did all manner of things which Ophelia did not understand. And always, Harriet wailed.
“Well, the good news is that she will be fine,” he said with a deep sigh once he was finished.
Ophelia scooped Harriet back into her arms at once. “What of the crying?” she asked. “She is in pain. There must be something that you can do.”
The physician hesitated. “For a fever as this one, with a baby so young, it is not always optimal to offer any sort of medication. The best thing to do is wait for the fever to break.”
“Try again,” Adrian growled from behind him.
The physician started in surprise, turned, and shrank back when he saw Adrian’s glower. “I… I am not trying to hurt the infant, Your Grace. I am merely giving you my recommendation.”
“Recommend something to ease her suffering,” he said without blinking, without looking away once. He stood over the physician, dark and menacing, and Ophelia honestly worried that he might do something violent. “Now!” he barked.
The physician did not argue. Faced with Adrian’s rage, he was rather quick to offer a tonic that he said would fight the fever, as well as numb some of the pain. It would not end it, and it would not put Harriet to sleep, but it would go some way toward making her comfortable.
“But I must insist that the dose be kept light,” he said to them both, unable to look at Adrian. “This is not a cure, and too much might be dangerous.”
Ophelia might not have agreed with the way that Adrian went about changing the physician’s mind, but she did not say anything to stop it.
Nor did she want to. There was little she would not have done to help Harriet in her time of need, and that Adrian was of the same mind…
once again, she simply could not believe how far he had come.
They watched Mr. Watley brew the tonic. Adrian watched closely as she fed it to Harriet. And they stood together for another hour as the tonic did its work, enough that soon Harriet stopped her crying and was able to fall asleep.
“Thank God,” Ophelia exhaled her relief once the crying stopped and Harriet was fast asleep in her cot. “That was…” A shudder. “It was a very long night.”
Adrian continued to watch Harriet, his expression severe.
“Adrian…” She took his hand, and he started in surprise. She laughed. “She is going to be fine. Likely, once she wakes, the fever will have broken.”
“She better be,” he growled. “Or that physician will wish he had fled the country.”
“I do not doubt it,” she laughed again. Then she squeezed his hand one more time. “And thank you. Not just for what you said to the physician, but for being there for her last night. Being there for me.”
“Ophelia, I…” He looked at her as if in pain; the struggle he was experiencing in his subconscious unmissable. “I told you, I would do right by you. Anything you need, you know that you can count on me.”
“I do,” she said. “I really do.”
And in those words, there was not so much as a hint of a lie, nor did Ophelia see the point in searching for one. She believed not only that Adrian meant to do what was right, but that he wanted to do it too. A huge change, as she saw it, and a welcome one.