Part 56 (1/2)

”Yes. Dr. Mackenzie is away, but there's another there, and he must come.”

He nodded, and he did not see her go, for he was in the stable harnessing the horse and shouting to a man to get the cart.

”You've got to drive to town like h.e.l.l, William, and the sooner you bring the doctor the better for you.”

”I'll have to change my clothes.”

”You'll go as you are, G.o.d d.a.m.n you, and you'll go now.”

He waited until the cart was bowling towards the road before he followed Helen so swiftly that he saw her dress whisk through the garden door. He used no ceremony and he found her in the kitchen, where Miriam was sitting stiffly on a chair, her feet on one of its rungs, her neck and shoulders cream-coloured above the whiteness of her under-linen. He hardly looked at her and he did not know whether she went or stayed. He spoke to Helen:

”Do you want me to carry her upstairs? William's gone to town. I've come to help you.”

”Then you've spoilt the game, George. It's always you who go to town and bring the doctor. Never mind. Yes. Carry her up. Don't step on the rolling-pin.” She looked at it again. ”She's not dead, is she?”

”No.”

”What is it, then?”

He stooped to lift the heavy burden, and she heard him say a word mumblingly, as though ashamed of it.

She moved about the room, crying, ”A stroke! It's ugly. It's horrid. A stroke! Why can't they say a blow?”

He could not bear the bitterness of her distress. ”Don't, don't, my dear,” he said, and startled her into quiet.

The doctor came and went, promising to return, and a nurse with large crowded teeth a.s.sumed control over the sick-room. There was little to be done; she sat on a chair by the window and, because of those excessive teeth, she seemed to smile continually at Mildred Caniper's mockery of death.

Outside, a cold rain was falling: it splashed on the laurel leaves by the gate and threw a s.h.i.+fting curtain across the moor. The fire in the room made small noises, as though it tried to talk; the nurse bent over her patient now and then, but Mildred Caniper did not move.

Downstairs, in the kitchen, Miriam sat on her feet in the big armchair: she was almost motionless, like one who has been startled into a posture and dare not move lest her fear should take shape. The rain darkened the room and filled it with a sound of hissing; a kettle whistled on the fire, and there was a smell of airing linen.

Helen turned a sheet. ”The nurse must have Christopher's bed,” she said at last. ”We must carry it in.”

”Who?”

”You and I.”

”I can't! I can't go in. I should--I should be sick! I can't. Helen, after last night--”

”Very well. Can you manage to go to Brent Farm and tell John? They ought to be at home now.”

”But there's George.”

”He won't hurt you.”

”He'd speak to me if he saw me.”

”No. He took no notice of you this morning.”