Abigail's Cousin (2 page)

Mrs Chudleigh
turned in triumph to Abigail: "See mistress! It's not everybody as
cares for their folk like her ladyship."

Sarah said
modestly: "Now Mrs Chudleigh enough of that. Tom, you must have
given up on us ladies, you are so patient. Shall we be on our
way?"

Tom Sawyer spoke his commands to the
horses and the wagon turned out of the garden through the derelict
wooden gates and into Cottonmill Lane, and both women at the back
needed to hold on tight as the wagon bumped along the rutted road.
There were potholes which the recent rain had filled with muddy
water and both women bent inwards in an attempt to
d
odge the worst of the
splashes.

Mistress
Chudleigh eyed Abigail askance. She was getting above herself. In
all her years with the gentry she had never dared to say anything
untoward and this woman had shamed her. She repeated her earlier
complaint: "Indeed Mistress Abigail, it's not everybody as cares
for their folk as does her ladyship. Such ungraciousness!"

She had
whispered the reproof but unfortunately for her the wagon went over
a short patch of grass and Mrs Chudleigh experienced the ignominy
of a reproof from her mistress: "Now Mrs Chudleigh, enough of
that." Then she turned to Tom to ask: "How far be it, Tom?" getting
no immediate response as Sawyer was talking to and encouraging his
team.

Finally
satisfied with them he turned to Sarah: "Funny beasts they be. You
need to encourage them from time to time. I should say, as soon as
we get atop this rise ma'am, Holywell House be about half a mile
distant as the road be dead straight ahead."

Abigail eyed
her fellow passenger with amusement and as if to rub salt in the
wound said loudly: "We could have saved mother's box. She treated
so many of the local people while living at Cottonmill Lane. And
cured many! Who is to see to their needs now? "

Then as nobody
deigned a comment, she continued, with an amused look at Mrs
Chudleigh: "I think I know why, perhaps. Doctor Glanville wanted it
destroyed. All the remedies and cures gone for ever."

Tom said
caustically: "Didn't do 'er much good, mistress." He shared Mrs
Chudleigh's distaste for Abigail's brazenness feeling that her
ladyship ought to be defended, but Abigail retorted: "Nor did
Doctor Glanville; for all his expensive fees. He's near five
guineas better off and mother lies dead."

Tom called:
"Whoa up, my beauties!" and the wagon came gradually to a halt and
he jumped down to lead the team by the bridle into the yard of
Holywell House stopping beside a hitching post before turning to
his mistress, offering his hand as she climbed down, while saying:
"Undo the backflap for the ladies, there's a good man,"

He did as bid offering his hand first to
Mrs Chudleigh who got down with his help whereupon he walked away
to attend to his horses, but Sarah addressed her housekeeper: "Help
my cousin down, Mrs Chudleigh!" followed mome
nts later by a scream from her:

"Ahhhhh! She
has the small pocks. I knows it. Me own sister 'ad it. Don’t no-one
go near 'er!"

Sarah rebuked
her, now irritated: "What mean you, mistress?" who somewhat miffed
said defiantly:

"Look at them
spots missus, I mean, ma'am. And, the rash on her neck." Then
addressing Abigail still seated in the wagon, said to her:

"Show her
ladyship, mistress!"

Sarah not
waiting for Abigail approached the rear of the wagon and walked
round to Abigail, asking: "Let me see!"

Tom, taking
also an interest in the proceedings told his mistress:

"Don't let her
speak. That's how contagion spreads."

Sarah mindful of her driver's words yet
wanting to keep control
of the situation told Abigail:

"Lord! Heed what mister Sawyer says, but
gi
ve me your hand,
cousin. Come!"

Tom was almost
panic stricken, shouting: "No, don't ma'am. Don’t touch her!" Now
Sarah cast a disdainful look at Sawyer, as if to imply, her
separation as mistress from that of servant:

"Come cousin!
Give me your hand! Hold on to the side to steady yourself. Jump!"
Then she turned to Chudleigh:

"What think
you, Mrs Chudleigh, a bedroom on the second floor. She cannot share
with anyone now. Off you go. Make the arrangements!” Then, as an
afterthought called to her departing figure:

"If the
children be back, keep them well away from the stairs."

The
housekeeper suddenly stopped having spotted a young woman whom she
recognised turning round to Sarah to comment almost
reproachfully:

"I understood
mistress Alice was away in service, ma'am. She be here." Sarah
commented: "She starts tomorrow, and just as well. Tell her to keep
to her room for the time being."

Then it was
Tom's turn: "And Master Jack, ma'am!"

Sarah was
momentarily taken by surprise falling back on her favourite
exclamation: "Lord! Master Jack. When be he home from school? Tom,
be a good man and keep him with you until we have mistress Abigail
settled. Is that alright?"

Sawyer said
grudgingly: "Have to be ma'am."

As both
servants vanished from sight about their duties leaving Lady
Churchill and Abigail alone, the latter looking very disconsolate
at the dread news she had just heard, as well she might, for in the
matter of moments, her life expectancy had just diminished by a
factor of seven to ten.

It was her
cousin who demonstrated both self assurance and open heartedness in
trying to put her cousin at ease:

"Cousin
Abigail. The Hills, your family, are now part of my family.
Holywell House is your home, like it be ours."

She pointed at
the House just yards away indicating the pathway saying: "I'm going
up the path to the house now. You just follow me. I'll be taking
you to your room which Mrs Chudleigh is now getting ready. The room
will be your home for a little while, but be of good cheer. We'll
soon have you on the mend. I'll send for the doctor tomorrow to
come and see you."

It was not lost upon Abigail that it would
probably be Doctor Glanville, the same physician she had railed
against only moments before, but Sarah appeared not to
have considered it. She
added:

"Do you feel
hot? Oh, lord! Like Tom said don't say a thing. I'll walk in front.
Keep a little distance. Ready? Off we go!"

------------------------------------------

Lady Churchill stood at an upstairs window
looking out over the fields where there was much activity; two
workmen were rebuilding a hedge, another swept over the grass at
daisy level cropping tall grass with his long scythe while she
watched a man in gaiters emerging from a copse with a bundle of
sticks under his arm. In the next field a herd of cows either
chomped grass or stood chewing their cud occasionally letting out a
roaring moo. Sarah could not but wonder at the activities of two
men armed with measuring devices, the one holding a stick
vertically in the air while the other seemed to observe him through
an instrument waving his hand at the
other who moved left or right.

Yet she was
not particularly interested in any of the activities but was
standing because she was experiencing pain on her behind such as on
sitting for breakfast. She concluded that the hard seat of
yesterday's wagon ride was responsible. It was one more reason to
speculate on the availability of their carriage and whether or not
she could bring strong arguments before her lord and husband to
allow her the carriage for a projected visit to London.

Yet reflecting upon L
ord Churchill's almost exclusive use of
the carriage, she had no doubt of his need. It was important
business for Churchill having been invited to become a shareholder
of a company with the grand title of the Bank of England. It was an
idea he had originally brought himself back from the Netherlands
where he had been commanding the army on behalf of King William
III.

It had been a
puzzle to John Churchill as to how the Dutch had maintained a stout
resistance for months and upon capturing a Dutch general, he had
learned the Dutch army was financed and funded by an institution
called the Bank of the Netherlands. Churchill, on cessation of
hostilities, upon his return to London, had made a proposal for
such a bank in England discussing it long into the night over many
dishes of tea or coffee in the numerous coffee houses opening in
and around financial centres such as Threadneedle Street,
Eastcheap, and the recently named King William Street. It seems he
found common cause with a Scottish entrepreneur by the name of
William Paterson.

Lady
Churchill, along with her peers, wondered about the haunts but
contented herself by the convincing argument that the longer he
spent in such spots, the further he was from other temptations, for
her lord was a handsome man, a former lover of Barbara Castlemaine,
before she, Sarah, had caught his eye convincing him where his
future lay.

Even so the
debonair Lord Churchill, if not in the hunt himself, was a possible
prey to many scheming and beautiful temptresses living in and
around the fashionable meeting places in London though not, Sarah,
consoled herself, in the coffee houses, for, from these places, her
gender was strictly barred.

Such reflections did not improve her aches
and pains for she would dearly like to sit awhile, preferably
somewhere soft. A voice interrupted her reverie: "The boy is back
from the doctor, ma'am, and he says doctor Glanville will be along
later this morning." She thanked Mrs Chudleigh and began to look
along the road for the signs of an approaching carriage and was
surprised to spot a man in a long, grey morning coat with wide
pockets, matching grey stockings thrust into shoes of brown
buckskin. He carried a
cane with a large silver knob.

It was
undoubtedly Doctor Glanville and she could only surmise that the
boy had met him on his rounds and so he had arrived that much
sooner than she had anticipated. As if reading her thoughts the
doctor looked up and catching sight of her in the window, raised
his wide, black hat in salutation.

Thereafter he
maintained his gaze at their parterre and canal garden, another
import from Holland and for which she was very proud for it never
failed to impress visitors even after several calls, as, for
instance, the doctor who had made several to their house since they
had moved in. His pace had slowed somewhat giving her time to call
Mrs Chudleigh to the effect the doctor should be shown upstairs the
moment he arrived.

-------------------------------------------

Mrs Chudleigh
was feeling very pleased with herself and it is all on account of
the incident on the previous day when her cry alerted Lady
Churchill to Abigail Hill's condition for it has had an entirely
unexpected outcome. It seems Dr Glanville asked Lady Churchill
herself if he might talk to Mrs Chudleigh and his remarks proved
very reassuring.

It seems Mistress Abigail had just a very
mild infection which would clear up in a few days. This news was
very welcome as the small pocks
in her experience normally took weeks of isolation and left
the victim, should he or she recover at all, with a very bad pitted
skin. Yet in Mistress Abigail's case that was not her fate on
account of her previous service as a milk-maid, which she dismissed
as fanciful.

It was all
very strange but then medical matters were always a great mystery
to her and as long as the doctor was happy she would not breathe a
word abroad which also pleased Lady Churchill who had promised an
increase in her remuneration. All these thoughts passed through her
head as she mounted the stairs towards Abigail's room which
yesterday she would have been reluctant to do.

Her knock on the door brought no response
but not unduly concerned she entered and placing the platter of
food on an upturned box, Mrs Chudleigh opened the shutters and as
the morning light streamed in through the slats, she turned to see
a movement behind her. She approached the bed and stood a while
mo
tionless, then
ventured to say:

"Mistress
Abigail, I've brought e some breakfast. Won't e sit up! Come on
now! Ye'll soon be well enough to go downstairs, so I've been
told."

There is no
movement of the bedclothes and Chudleigh turns, picks up the
platter and sits down upon the box holding the platter on her
knees. She ventures some more coaxing talk, this time contrite:

"I have to beg
your pardon Mistress for some 'arsh words I may 'ave used when I
spoke to e yesterday. I meant no 'arm. Neither did Tom. Ye'll
forgive us mistress, I'm sure, ‘specially as the doctor assures me
you ain't got the pocks, leastways not the bad kind."

There is a
movement and a face emerges covering the eyes with one hand against
the strong light and a weak voice says: Can you close the shutter
again, mistress Chudleigh. It's the strong light on my eyes, which
feel very weak. Would you!"

Chudleigh places the tray back on the box,
and does as she has been asked, then picking up the platter, hands
it to
the patient,
excusing herself"

"Sorry about
that, mistress Abigail." and the patient who has already begun to
spoon soup into her mouth, says: "You cook a nice gruel, mistress."
who smiles at the praise saying: "That be right nice of e to say
so, mistress."

Abigail said
between mouthfuls: "I expected you to leave the platter outside the
door." at which Chudleigh replied, confidentially:

"Doctor
Glanville thinks your condition very mild and that I must not be
too concerned to catch anything, Miss Abigail. Mind you it were
different with my sister."