The Fire's Center (31 page)

"I must have fallen asleep, and for that I apologize. Riona didn’t take the drugs. She also saved that mother and those two children without any thought for who they were or where they came from. It wouldn’t have mattered if they were the filthiest beggars on the streets. Riona would help anyone. I know you've lost Dr. O’Carroll, but with his sort of attitude, he didn’t really belong here.

"I promise you I'll work extra shifts, and will talk to some of my friends who graduated with me to see if they would be willing to spare a few hours to help out here. Once I tell them about all the great work you're doing, I am sure they'll be only too glad to lend a hand."

Lucien's brows knit. "Thank you. But first, would you mind telling me what you and O’Carroll were doing on duty all night? I made the duty roster only the other day, and I'm quite sure--"

"Dr. O’Carroll switched with O’Shea because he had a dinner engagement with Ursula the day nurse, and I switched with Dr. Briggs because his mother is ill at the minute. No doubt O’Shea has probably debauched Ursula. I heard them taking bets on his chances with her and all the other women on this staff," Dr. Kennedy revealed, blushing.

Lucien scowled blackly, but said nothing.

"Only for Riona being here this morning, I don’t know what would have happened."

"You’re just saying that to diminish my anger," Lucien accused.

"No, I'm saying it because it’s true," Dr. Kennedy said with the nearest thing approaching emotion Lucien had ever seen from him. "Riona is a good woman, a natural healer. Just because she doesn’t have a medical certificate doesn’t mean she isn’t a good doctor. She behaved better than me and Dr. O’Carroll in the face of a crisis. Please don’t punish her for trying to help."

Lucien sighed as he gazed at the earnest young man’s worried expression. "I won’t. Don’t worry, please. Now you go off home and get some sleep. I’ll see what I can do about getting us some more colleagues for this place, and possibly a few more nurses."

"Will you let Riona stay on as nurse at least?"

"She was meant to be the apothecary, as you well know. But I think perhaps in light of all that's happened today, we're going to have to undergo a few staffing changes, now aren’t we?" Lucien smiled thinly.

Dr. Kennedy, satisfied, said, "Thank you, Dr. Woulfe," and disappeared out the door, leaving Lucien alone with his confused thoughts.

Much as Riona would have loved to obey Lucien’s orders about going straight home to rest, the clock on the top of Trinity College struck three just as the carriage rounded the corner and began to head for Merrion Square West.

Only then did Riona recall that she should have been heading for Mrs. Allen’s house, and so she gave instructions to the coach driver to head to St. Stephen’s Green instead of Lucien’s house.

Though she debated in her mind the wisdom of her course, Riona elected to go to Mrs. Allen’s her house exactly as she was.

 
Let the old biddies be horrified, she thought with a toss of her dishevelled hair,
as she rode on through Nassau and Dawson Street, across St. Stephen’s Green to her destination at Fitzwilliam Square. The clinic was about life and death, not social superiority and tea parties.

An immaculately turned out butler opened the door to Riona, and raised one eyebrow when she refused to remove her cloak.

"Ah, there you are, Miss Connolly!" Mrs. Allen called across the drawing room as she called the meeting to a halt. Then she frowned.

"My dear, won’t you take off your cloak?"

"I’ve just come from the clinic. I didn’t have time to change."

"No matter, dear, no matter."

"No really, Mrs. Allen, you don’t understand...."

"Don’t be silly, dear, I'm sure we’ve seen an untidy gown before." Mrs. Allen waved away her objections airily.

Shrugging, Riona stood up, and with a lift of her chin, she tossed the cloak off her shoulders and onto the back of the chair.

"Oh my!" Mrs. Sturgess and several other ladies gasped in unison.

"I had to help a woman with a breach birth, but both mother and babies are doing well," Riona informed the shocked assemblage.

"But why didn’t the doctors..." Mrs. Allen gaped

"Dr. Woulfe wasn’t there, and there were other patients to see, and only Dr. Kennedy and Dr. Briggs are worthy of the title anyway," Riona declared loudly, causing more gasps of shock, and this time outrage as well.

Riona defended herself by arguing, "What good are most doctors when it comes to women’s troubles? Most poor women give birth without any doctor being present, and birthing was always women’s work. It is only now they tell us they have better qualifications, and that midwives are no use. If they are no use, they should be trained properly, in the same way a doctor is trained, that’s what I say."

Many of the women looked shocked at the indelicacy of what had just been mentioned, but others nodded their heads in agreement.

"I remember when my first one was born, the doctor told my mother and husband I would die, but she got one of the old midwives who had delivered the servants’ babies, and I was fine," Mrs. Sturgess revealed, much to the astonishment of the others.

"Please, ladies, I didn’t mean to break up the meeting!" Riona apologized, but the chatter of the women about their own childbirth experiences went on for quite some time until eventually they turned back to the main purpose of the meeting, what the women could do through the ball and other charitable works to help the clinic.

Some of the women left early to go home to their families, whilst Riona sat there taking notes, and praying she wouldn’t faint, so hot and stuffy was it in the room, and so disturbed was she by the trying events of the day.

Riona was certainly glad that Dr. O’Carroll had gone, but she had a feeling it would not be the last they heard of him.

Antoinette, though not at the meeting herself, soon got to hear of Riona’s exploits from one of the women who had left early, and gone over to her home just to tell her what decisions had been reached regarding the costume ball and fete.

 
Anger and resentment seethed with in her. How dare Riona disturb the meeting with such theatrics, or criticise her betters such as the handsome Dr. O’Carroll, she though furiously as she went upstairs to dress for dinner.

Ever since she had met Dr. O’Carroll at the opening to the clinic, he had called upon several occasions at her house, usually in the late afternoon or evening, when Quentin was often away on business or had a prior dinner engagement.

Antoinette wouldn’t be surprised if he stopped in that evening. On the other hand, she couldn’t resist the opportunity to blacken Riona’s reputation in Lucien’s eyes if she possibly could.

Dressing herself in her finest red silk evening gown, with a very revealing décolletage, and bedecking herself with emeralds from top to toe to match her cat-green eyes, she ordered her carriage to drive straight to Merrion Square West.

Lucien had already got to hear of the meeting by the time Antoinette arrived, but he then received her further melodramatic embellishments, and a tongue lashing for allowing the little chit to get above her station.

Finally, she urged Lucien to rid himself of Riona once and for all before she brought disgrace upon the whole family, and to reinstate Dr. O’Carroll at the clinic.

Lucien, immune as ever to Antoinette’s obvious charms, which he saw had no doubt been amply displayed for his benefit, avoided the temptation to throw her out on her ear, and merely asked in a pleasant tone, "Where do you suppose Riona is now?"

Though inwardly he was seething at the scene Riona had caused at Mrs. Allen’s, he was not going to give Antoinette the satisfaction of seeing his annoyance.

Also, there was at least some consolation from the fact that she hadn’t revealed to everyone in Dublin that Dr. O’Carroll was a thief, and most likely a drug user or seller.

"I suppose she must still be at Mrs. Allen’s," Antoinette said with a barely suppressed yawn as she slid closer to Lucien on the sofa.

Lucien stood hastily then and asserted, "I’ll go and fetch her home safely, then. Thank you for telling me the news, Antoinette."

"My pleasure." Antoinette smirked triumphantly as she swept out the door in a fog of perfume.

Lucien went around immediately to Fitzwilliam Square and asked the butler, "Is Miss Connolly still here?"

"Yes, sir, please come this way."

At the door to the drawing room he was greeted by Mrs. Sturgess.

 
She pounced immediately. "Dr. Woulfe, just the person I want to see."

Lucien prepared himself for a further tongue-lashing from another irate female, but she informed him, "Riona has been telling us all about that poor woman this morning. We would like to see if some of the money for the clinic can be set aside for women and children, to train nurses and midwives in the community so they can help the poor themselves, perhaps even pass on the skills they gain to others," she revealed, explaining some of their ideas as she conducted Lucien into the drawing room.

Riona, still in her ruined dress, was surrounded by a host of sympathetic women.

Lucien had to shout above the din to catch her attention, and Riona smiled gratefully at her rescuer.

"Excuse me, ladies, but I think you will all agree that Miss Connolly has had quite enough excitement for one day."

"Won’t you stay to supper, both of you?" Mrs. Allen offered graciously.

"Really, Mrs. Allen, thank you, but no. I'm sure Riona is completely worn out after her exertions," he countered, with a tight smile which barely contained his suppressed fury.

Mrs. Allen beamed. "Of course, Dr. Woulfe."

But Lucien’s anger at Riona gave way to concern as he could see her hands shake as she attempted to pick the cup up off her lap and put it down on the small table beside her.

She’s exhausted, has hardly any sleep, and has been working in this terrible heat all day,
he thought, relenting in his anger.

"Come, my dear," he said, taking her hand firmly in his own, and then supporting her under the elbow as she stood.

He tucked her cloak around her and then said his goodbyes and he hurriedly led her to the door, worried lest she pass out in front of everyone.

He could feel that she was none too steady on her feet, and thought she resembled a fragile china doll, so white and frail did she appear.