The Forget-Me-Not Sonata(42)

‘You’re so right, Nelly. At least I bred a daughter with a fine mind. Isla’s got the cunning of a fox but her mind is filled with goodness knows what. Young men these days respect women who think. To choose to embark on a secret liaison with Louis Forrester is to choose social suicide. Yes, it is, mark my words. The stories that have made their way across the Atlantic, and I suppose he thought his past would never catch up with him.’ She raised her eyebrows again to insinuate all sorts of horrors. ‘A woman’s virtue is her greatest asset, she loses that and she loses everything,’ she said solemnly, clearly reinforcing her daughter’s education on the matter. Nelly was unable to meet her mother’s eyes.

‘Are you suggesting that Louis is only after one thing, Mummy?’ she asked, blushing deeply at the sensual thoughts that entered her head and served only to make him more attractive.

‘I’m afraid that’s exactly what I’m suggesting. Thank goodness you and your sisters have too much class to catch his roving eye.’ But Nelly longed to catch his eye and secretly she admired and resented Isla’s courage. If it were her, she would find him irresistible too.

It was raining hard as Louis and Cecil arrived at the Garnets’ house for drinks. Cecil was eager to see Audrey and hopeful for an answer, while Louis was desperate to finish with the whole charade and tell everyone the truth. Isla languished in her bed, her fever rising with such speed and viciousness that Rose had called the doctor. The wind of Fate rattled the window as if threatening to fight its way in and carry Isla off into the darkness.

She heard the rain pound against the glass and in her fragile state of mind, debilitated by fever, she believed the scratching to be the clawing of a hideous beast and cried out for her mother. Rose was too distracted by her younger daughter to give any attention to the brothers who shuffled in out of the cold, shaking their wet shoulders like dogs. So Henry discussed business with Cecil in the sitting room by the fire while Louis sulked on the sofa, wishing that Audrey would end his nightmare by telling everyone the truth. But Audrey waited anxiously for the doctor with her mother. Cecil felt it wasn’t the moment to press her for an answer and Louis realized that they’d just have to wait to drop their bombshell.

When the doctor arrived the two women fell on him, Audrey taking his soaking coat while Rose almost pushed him in the direction of the stairs. ‘She’s delirious, doctor, the fever is vicious, vicious,’ she repeated, shaking her head with worry. ‘She’s sweating profusely and mumbling things about a monster. I hope there’s something you can do to alleviate the poor child’s suffering.’ Doctor Swanson, an old Englishman with the thick woolly head of a sheep and the ruddy round face of a man who liked a few strong drinks after a heavy day’s work, followed Rose up to Isla’s bedroom, clutching his black doctor’s case which had always fascinated the sisters as children. Now it merely looked ominous and Audrey was gripped with fear.

When he saw Isla’s burning eyes he put down his case and walked to the side of the bed, frowning gravely. ‘You have quite a fever, my girl,’ he said, placing his cold hand on her forehead. Isla blinked at him mutely, overwhelmed by the force that was sucking the energy out of her with such velocity.

‘She was just off colour when she came back from school this afternoon,’ said Rose, wringing her hands. ‘It’s been very quick. One minute she had a temperature, the next minute she was on fire.’ Doctor Swanson pulled up a chair and sat down, drawing his black bag onto his knee.

‘Am I going to die?’ Isla asked suddenly.

Doctor Swanson chuckled in amusement. ‘Not from the flu, my dear. No one here has ever died of the flu,’ he said reassuringly, taking out a long black stethoscope.

‘Really, Isla, don’t say such things,’ cried Audrey, looking to her mother for support.

‘Trust Isla to be such a dramatist,’ said Rose, feigning amusement. But she felt uncomfortable as if her instincts were trying to tell her something. ‘Come, Audrey, let’s give the doctor some room,’ she said, leading her eldest onto the landing.

‘You go down and talk to the boys, Henry must be boring them with business. That’s not why they came over, they have all day to talk business,’ she said. But Audrey didn’t want to go.

‘I want to wait with you.’

‘No, dear, Cecil will be disappointed if you don’t go down.’

‘Isla’s more important,’ she protested.

‘And she’ll be fine. She’s got a bad case of the flu. As the doctor said, no one’s ever died here of flu.’