Summerset Abbey: Spring Awakening (Summerset Abbey Trilogy) (28 page)

“I think so. Miss Eleanor was awfully tired this evening, but she wanted to go check on the Wilkeses before turning in. She may have called for the motorcar.”

Victoria hurried to the telephone. She had left the motorcar and driver at Eleanor’s disposal while she was gone. Eleanor had done so much for her, Victoria felt it was the least she could do.

Dialing the telephone she’d had installed in her driver’s flat, much to her uncle’s disapproval, she prayed for two things. That someone would pick up and that whoever it was would know where Eleanor was. The phone rang and rang and Victoria was just despairing when someone answered.

“Hello? Hello?” Mr. Peters always sounded suspicious, as if the phone were going to blow up in his hands. Inanely she wondered if he ever got calls from anyone else.

“Yes, Mr. Peters, it’s Miss Buxton. Did you take Eleanor anywhere this evening?”

“Miss Victoria, welcome home! When did you get in?”

Her driver’s leisurely tone drove her mad. “Just now. Please, it’s important. Did you take Miss Eleanor anywhere?”

“Well, yes. Yes, I did. I took her to Mrs. Wilkes’s flat. I asked her if she wanted me to linger and she said no, she was going to stay on for a bit and would take the tube home. I didn’t like it, but what am I supposed to say? It’s not my business if you young ladies go gadding about on the streets by yourselves.”

Victoria’s shoulders slumped. Well, that was that. She’d been so hoping that she’d be able to find out something.

“So I was very relieved and surprised when I got home and my wife told me she had called again and needed to be picked up right away.”

Victoria clenched the phone. “And did you? Where did you take her?”

“Mrs. Wilkes was in a bad way, and in her condition Miss Eleanor wanted her to go to the hospital—”

Victoria’s breath caught, and she cut him off. “I am very sorry, but I am going to need you to come pick me up as soon as possible. I am going to meet Miss Eleanor at the hospital.”

“Yes, miss.” He sounded less than enthusiastic. She had no doubt interrupted his supper. But her solicitor paid him every month to be at her beck and call, and right now she was calling.

“Susie!” she yelled the moment she got off the telephone.

Susie came in, wiping her hands on her apron. “Yes, miss? Did you find out something?”

“The driver took them to the hospital, so he knows where Prudence and Eleanor are. He’ll be picking me up in a few minutes. Get my coat.”

Susie hurried back to the closet she had just put the coat into.

“Should I have anything?” Victoria looked around wildly. She was just so scattered.

“Do you have money in your handbag?” Susie asked.

Victoria nodded.

“Then you’re good. Let me know as soon as you hear something. How many biscuits should I bake?”

“As many as you can,” Victoria said, hurrying out the door. She only hoped they would be taking the treat to a happy family and not as an offering for grief.

M
r. Peters was just pulling up to the door when Victoria ran out of the building.

She got in the backseat and leaned forward, her hands clutching her bag. “Which hospital is she in?”

“West End Hospital. We stopped at London City, but it was full up with soldiers and they told us to try West End.”

Victoria lapsed into silence and concentrated on keeping her breaths even to loosen the tightening in her chest.

They reached the hospital in record time, and after telling Mr. Peters that she would ring him if needed, she sent him home and hurried into the building. The familiar scent of urine, ether, and bleach greeted her nostrils. Supper had already been served, and Victoria saw aides wheeling carts of trays down the hallway. She gave the nurse at the front desk her name and was sent to the third floor. Ignoring the lift, she ran up the stairs, only to realize her mistake halfway up. Her chest tightened further and she struggled for breath. She stopped on the second landing and rested. When would she ever learn? How could she help Prudence or anyone else if she killed herself with reckless stupidity? She sat on the second-floor landing until she could breathe regularly, then made herself take the rest of the steps slowly.

The third-floor matron nodded when Victoria told her Prudence’s
name. “Yes, she came in several hours ago. The doctor is with her now, but Mr. Wilkes is in the waiting room. Right this way.”

Victoria followed the nurse, who waved her into a small, bare room with a couch, a chair, and a table with several books and periodicals. Andrew sat on the table, resting his face in the palm his hand.

Panic rushed over Victoria upon seeing him looking so defeated. The past months had taken a toll on the man she had always seen as filled with quiet strength. But not today. His jacket drooped about his shoulders and his skin hung. All she had thought about was what losing Prudence would mean in her own life. She hadn’t given a thought to what Andrew would do without her.

He won’t have to
, she thought fiercely, shaking a mental fist at God.
None of us will. Prudence is going to be fine
.

He was so lost in his thoughts that he didn’t seem to hear Victoria approach. “Andrew,” she said softly, putting a hand on his arm.

He looked up at her, his hazel eyes so shadowed they looked almost black. When he focused on her face, his shoulders heaved, and for a moment his face looked as if it were going to crumple. Then he took a deep breath and put his hand over hers. “I’m so glad you’re here. She would want you to be here.”

Victoria pulled a wooden chair closer to where he sat. “What happened?”

“She hasn’t been feeling herself all week. Eleanor was coming almost daily, and Prudence was laying down a lot, which didn’t seem normal to me. The baby isn’t supposed to come until May.”

He paused and scrubbed a hand over his face. “She started complaining about having pains this afternoon, and we didn’t notify the doctor because we didn’t think it was time. Well, that
and the fact that it isn’t easy for me to go anywhere. We figured we would wait for Eleanor.”

He buried his face in his hands. “By the time she came, Prudence was doubled over in pain. Eleanor ran to the pub to telephone the driver. I felt so helpless. When he came, I couldn’t even help my own wife down the stairs.”

He broke down then. Victoria had seen men cry before, many times, but this was different. This was someone she knew and cared about and who had always been so strong. His sobs testified to his love for Prudence, his fear, and his helplessness. Victoria had learned that when men cried this way, it was because they needed to, so she didn’t try to stop him, but merely let him know she was there by keeping a hand on his shoulder.

When he finished, he nodded at her. “My apologies. I shouldn’t have broken down like that.”

“It’s no wonder,” she said in her nurse voice. “You have had a horrible scare. Have the doctors said anything?”

“Just that the baby is coming and there is no way to stop it.” He paused and his jaw tightened. “It’s too early and there’s a chance, a strong chance, the baby won’t survive. They . . . they don’t know about Prudence.”

For a moment the room swirled before Victoria’s eyes, and she closed them quickly as if to shut out the ugly truth he had just given her. The urge to cry out rose up inside, and she pressed her lips together tightly to hold it back.

Her eyes flickered open. The strong electric light overhead, the ugly heavy furniture, and the bare wooden floor, all took on a surreal quality that made her dizzy. She sprang up and paced back and forth, her head spinning. “There has to be something someone can do. I am not just going to stand here and leave the fate of my nephew in someone else’s grasp.”

She whirled around. Andrew’s helplessness showed in the defeated slump of his shoulders. But simply accepting the way things were went against every fiber of Victoria’s being. No matter how intimate she’d become with loss and death while nursing in France, a lifetime of fighting against her asthma had left her unable to admit defeat.

“It’s my fault,” Andrew said, his voice so quiet, she barely heard him.

Shock ran through her. “Of course it’s not your fault! How could you say that?”

“It’s true. I let her take care of me, instead of taking care of myself. I took my own misery, my own pathetic sense of worthlessness, out on her while I should have been assuring her of my love and affection. I should have tried harder. I should have been there for her, supporting her, loving her. If our child dies, if she dies, I will know exactly who to blame.”

Victoria shook her head and sank down at the table next to him. Exhaustion permeated every bone and muscle of her body. She’d spent last night packing and then traveled all day. She could barely think coherently, let alone find a way to help Andrew.

“I don’t know exactly what is going on between you and Prudence, but I do know that after what you have been through, what you’re describing isn’t unusual. And no one is more understanding than Pru. Plus, add a coming baby into the mix and no wonder you both were having a hard time. Whatever happens, Andrew, please know that it isn’t your fault. You mustn’t think that way or you will be no good to her at all.”

Andrew stared off into the distance, and Victoria wondered if he’d heard her at all. Or if her words could make a difference.

“I was so surprised when she said she would marry me,” he said as if talking to himself. “Someone like her, so fine and
beautiful. One could tell she was a real lady, born and raised. So smart and refined. It didn’t matter that she was sitting there in the servants’ hall, I could just tell. Everyone could.”

He looked over at Victoria. “That’s even before I knew about her blood. It seems obvious now, looking at her and Rowena together.”

Victoria nodded, smiling at the image of Ro and Pru together. She’d grown up with them under the same roof and still never seen what was right before her eyes—they truly were bonded by blood.

Andrew continued, “I thought I was going to lose her. Lord Billingsly was smitten, I know he was. It would be hard, I know, for a lord to marry someone with Prudence’s background, but I know he would have. Someone like Prudence? Of course he would. So when she sent me a note . . .” He shook his head. “I was the luckiest man on the earth the day she married me. And I always tried to make it up to her for marrying beneath herself. To be worthy of such a woman. To take care of her, to provide for her. I didn’t even care that she couldn’t cook. But I never felt good enough for her, and when she went behind my back to ask for your help, it was such a blow. She doubted me.” He paused. “It was as if she had finally realized what I’ve known all along . . . that I’m unworthy of her.”

Victoria tried to interrupt, but Andrew shook his head. “And then I lost my leg and I wasn’t even a whole man, let alone a worthy one.”

Victoria put her hands on the table to keep from hitting him in the arm. He wasn’t Kit. He probably wouldn’t understand. But she was so angry. Why were men so stupid? “You’re right. You’re not worthy of Prudence. But I don’t know any man who is. She is one of the best women I know.”

She leapt up from her chair and paced again. “But she chose you, and you can’t just give up because you don’t think you’re worthy or you lost a leg. What do you—” Victoria was about to give him a good tongue-lashing when the door opened. “Eleanor!”

Seeing Andrew struggling to get to his feet, Victoria leapt to his side and helped him up. She understood. Whatever the news was, he didn’t want to be seated when it came.

“How is she?”

Victoria shivered at the stark naked emotion in his voice. This man would be destroyed if anything happened to his wife.

Eleanor frowned and shook her head. “The baby turned and, thank God, seems to be coming normally. It’s strange that a baby would turn this late in labor, but there you have it. But if the doctor’s calculations are right, the baby is still much too early. But she is quite large so it may be all right.”

Victoria detected the uncertainty in Eleanor’s voice and fear shot through her.

“
May
be?” Andrew asked.

Victoria swallowed and glanced at Andrew, who had turned white. Eleanor squeezed his arm. “Andrew, there’s nothing you can do right now and Prudence is a strong woman.”

“Can I see her?” Victoria and Andrew both asked at the same time.

Eleanor shook her head. “No. The doctor said no visitors, and that Prudence needs to rest as much as possible. If it were up to me, I would let you both in, but it’s not. I’m lucky he is allowing me to stay as I don’t work here, but luckily I went to school with his nurse.”

Victoria’s heart sank.

Eleanor regarded the two of them and her mouth twisted.
“Okay. I will wait and see if the doctor takes a break. If he does, I will let you both in for a moment.”

Victoria gave her an excited hug. “Thank you so much.”

“Thank you,” Andrew said simply.

“No promises, though,” Eleanor warned as she left the room.

As she opened the door, Prudence’s screams echoed through the hallway and Andrew cried out and started for the door.