Nellie wasn’t surprised. Any laudanum the doctor might have possessed would be used for his own private consumption and was unlikely to ever be dispensed to a patient.
‘But for now, Nellie, help me remove his clothes so I can get these bandages on.’
Nellie rushed forward and slowly and carefully the two of them eased Mr Lockhart out of his jacket and shirt. The bruises were just as bad on his back. It seemed there was no part of his torso that had avoided a pounding from boots and fists.
The doctor wrapped his chest in bandages, then they gently lowered him back to the bed.
‘Just let him rest, that’s the best you can do for him,’ the doctor said. ‘And you might want to clean him up a bit.’ He looked back at the patient. ‘We should be grateful his assailants just used their fists and no knives. The cuts don’t look too deep, so I don’t think he’ll need sutures. The cuts will heal on their own, just keep them clean. Bacteria, you see.’ He looked over at Nellie and thrust out his chest. ‘Do you know about bacteria? They cause disease, you know. Have to keep things clean. Didn’t do that when I was a young doctor, but that’s what we do now. In my day it was a badge of honour to have a bloodstained apron, showed how hard you worked, but these days it’s all cleanliness. They can actually see bacteria down a microscope, you know. Do you know about microscopes?’
‘Yes, good, right, thank you, Doctor. I can take if from here.’ Nellie pulled up her patchwork quilt and tucked it in, as much to cover Mr Lockhart’s chest from her gaze as to make him more comfortable.
The doctor remained standing in the middle of the room, smiling at Nellie. She thought he was going to continue his talk on the wonders of modern medicine, then realised her mistake.
‘Oh, yes, I’ll be right back.’ She rushed through to her small kitchen area, took some money out of the jar she kept at the back of the cupboard and removed enough for a bottle of gin.
‘There you go, Doctor. And thank you for coming so quickly.’
He counted out the coins in his hand. Nellie knew exactly what he would do now. He would head straight from her rooms to the nearest gin palace and drink away whatever it was he was trying to forget, and he wouldn’t be much use to anyone else for the next few days.
She followed him out, taking with her a wooden pail so she could fetch some water from the nearby pump. When she returned, she lit the stove and put some water on to boil, then went through to her bedroom while she waited for the water to get warm enough to tend to his wounds.
Once again guilt coursed through her. This was all her fault. She had wanted to teach him a lesson and she had certainly done that, but he had done nothing wrong. He was wanting to offer her work, for goodness sake, and now he was beaten and bloody.
‘I’m so sorry about this,’ she murmured.
He shook his head, then grimaced. ‘No need,’ he muttered through his swollen lips, his eyes still closed. ‘Not your fault.’
Nellie also grimaced, but not from physical pain. He was wrong. It was all her fault. Everything that had happened tonight was her fault and she had to make amends as best she could.
She returned to the kitchen, filled a large china bowl with warm water, carried it through to the bedroom and placed it on the bedside table. Sitting as carefully as she could on the edge of the bed and using a piece of soft flannel, she wiped his face.
‘I’ll try to be as gentle as I can,’ she said, wincing every time he flinched. ‘If the pain is too much to bear, I’ll get some laudanum as soon as the pharmacy opens tomorrow.’
He shook his head. ‘No, it’s not too bad and I’d rather not take that drug, I’ve seen the damage it can do.’
Nellie nodded her agreement. Laudanum certainly put an immediate end to all pain, both physical and emotional, but it created a dream-like state that became intoxicating. She’d seen many a person come to enjoy that state too much, until they were no longer interested in reality and preferred to live in their own befuddled world.
As slowly and gently as possible she cleared away the dried blood, turning the water a deeper shade of red with each rinsing. She leant down to remove the stubborn blood beside his lips and felt his warm breath on her cheek. A shiver ran through her body. She paused in her work. Her gaze moved upwards to look into his eyes. Despite the pain he was in, or because of it, he was staring at her with a disturbing intensity. Nellie couldn’t look away. Her face was so close to his they could be about to kiss. She looked back down at his lips and realised the ridiculousness of her thought. His bottom lip was split. His face was swollen and he was in pain. The last thing he would be thinking about was kissing anyone and she shouldn’t be thinking that way either.
She sat up straight, tightly wrung out the flannel, then gently ran it one more time over his face. It looked slightly better now that the blood had been removed and she was pleased to see that the doctor was right, none of the gashes was deep enough to require
