Hunting for Silence (Storm and Silence 5)

Both Edmund and I started forward at the same time. I beat him to the punch, but only because he tripped over his own legs while trying to scramble to his feet. Falling to my knees beside the bed, I grabbed Ella’s hand.

‘Lill? Is that really you?’

I hardly recognized her voice. It was rough and dry like old sandpaper. Schooling my face to not betray a hint of my shock, I leaned over her.

‘You really needn’t have gone to all this trouble, you know,’ I told her. ‘You could have just sent me a postcard saying how much you missed me. You needn’t have caught yourself some silly illness just to get my attention.’

Ella laughed. Or at least she tried to. Rapidly, it devolved into a rattling cough. I winced.

‘I’m so glad you’re back, Lill.’

‘So am I. I’ve got big plans ahead of me, and I’m going to need you. So you’d better stop all this silly lying about and coughing right now and get better. That is an order, understood?’

She gave that dry laugh again, obviously thinking I was joking.

Well, aren’t you?

Hm…

Maybe I had spent just a little too much time with Mr Rikkard Ambrose.

‘I’m glad you’ve got plans for the future, Lill.’ Ella squeezed my hand. ‘But I’m afraid you’ll have to manage without me. It’s getting worse day by day.’

‘What does the doctor say?’

Silence pervaded the room.

‘Ella? A doctor has been to see you, right?’

She glanced down at her hands. ‘Well…’

‘I tried!’ Edmund stepped forward, his eyes fastened to Ella like romantic superglue. ‘But there’s an epidemic in the city! Doctors’ prices have shot through the roof. All I could afford was some quack from the East End who wanted to bleed her. Besides, even if I did have the money, I would have no idea whom to ask! Good doctors are few and far between. I don’t have the kind of funds or connections you’d need to get someone from Harley Street.’

‘You’re right,’ I agreed, rising to my feet. ‘You don’t.’

‘Lill?’ Ella eyed me suspiciously. ‘You’ve got that look on your face. What are you planning?’

‘Well, let me put it like this…if there were a way to get you away from here—not just you, Ella, but Edmund, his mother, his father, Lisbeth, Gertrude, oh, and Anne and Maria, curse her rotten eyeballs, and find all of you a nice place in the country for the time being with doctors to look after you, and all you could possibly need to get well again, what would you say?’

Ella blinked up at her. ‘Well, I’d say that is a nice fantasy, but—’

‘Good. We leave in half an hour.’

Turning, I marched out of the room. I suppose I should have stayed, should have explained, but I couldn’t stay a second longer in that room. Seeing Ella like that, her cheeks sunken in, wrinkles around her eyes as if she had aged ten years in a day…

Don’t think about it! Not now! Action now. Thinking later. Crying never. Because tears won’t be necessary. Nothing is going to happen to Ella.

At least not if I could help it.

‘Leadfield!’

Slow footsteps approached. After a moment or three, the aged butler stuck his head out of the kitchen.

‘Yes, Miss?’

He didn’t seem particularly surprised I was back. Well…that was about to change.

‘Call the family. We’re leaving.’