The Story of Lucy Gault

‘What we’ll have is a bath,’ she said when she had made the bed as best she could without disturbing the limp form that lay there. But the bath would have to wait until the doctor had been, and she ran hot water into a basin in the bathroom and carried it back. She could hear a clattering outside and guessed that Henry had put a ladder up and was removing the window boards from Lucy’s bedroom before he went for Dr Carney. You’d think he’d know better than to waste time over that. Her crossness came as a relief.

‘Would I boil you an egg when we have you washed? Egg in a cup, Lucy?’

Again Lucy shook her head. The ankle could have a bone broken the way it looked, black more than blue, swollen up like a big ball. The whole leg had gone useless, trailing like something dead.

‘Wait till I take your temperature,’ Bridget said. There was a thermometer somewhere, but she couldn’t think where and wondered if, anyway, it had gone from the house. They’d have to leave it to Dr Carney. ‘We’ll get you nice and clean for him.’

The child was dirty all over, her feet, her hands, her hair tangled, scratches on her arms and face. Her ribs stood out, the flesh of her stomach loose beneath them. A boiled egg mashed up with toast in a cup was what she always loved. ‘Maybe the appetite’ll come back when Dr Carney’s been.’

The water in the basin went grey at once. Bridget poured it away in the bathroom and filled the basin again. What had he meant, sugar sandwiches? That cottage had fallen down. Had the child been in it ever since? Was it some childish thing, wanting to stay there for ever because she didn’t want to go away? Was it only that that had caused this terrible commotion, and grief like you wouldn’t witness in a lifetime? She should have told him to send a wire to the address they’d left. Then again he’d have to call in at the gate-lodge for the bit of paper and she hoped he wouldn’t think of it himself, because of the delay.

‘Mama and Papa have gone away,’ Bridget said. ‘But they’ll come back now.’

She put one jar halfway down to warm the cold sheets, the other at the bottom. She undid the window catch and pulled the top window down a little. Henry had wrenched off several of the boards, but some remained.

‘Dr Carney won’t be long,’ she said, not knowing what else to say.

*

‘Sure, it’s all there.’ In the hall Henry gestured with his head, vaguely indicating the bedroom he had taken the window boards from. ‘There’s nothing else only what she’ll tell you.’

‘Nothing else? And she after walking back from the dead!’

She couldn’t have walked an inch, Henry said. She’d have walked too much as it was, getting to where he found her. He wouldn’t have found her at all if he hadn’t been thinking to fix the place where the sheep were getting in again.

‘What’s that about sugar sandwiches?’

There were pats of butter in a bit of newspaper, and grains of sugar left. There were apples she’d have taken off the trees, not ripe yet but she’d eaten them, because the cores were thrown down. She’d managed rightly, Henry said.

‘Is the child away in the head, Henry?’

‘Arrah, not at all.’

‘Did she know what she was doing when she went off?’

‘She did of course.’

‘We need get word to Mr Sullivan. And word sent to England.’

‘I was thinking that.’

The doctor diagnosed a broken bone that would have to be investigated further, and damage to the surrounding ligaments, internal bleeding, fever, a high temperature, lack of nourishment. He advocated beef-tea or hot milk, no more than a slice of thin toast to begin with. Henry returned with him to Kilauran, to send the necessary telegram. In the kitchen Bridget toasted a single slice of bread at the bars of the range.

They’d have to sleep in the house tonight. Henry reached that conclusion on the way back to Lahardane; it occurred to Bridget while she carried the tray upstairs. They couldn’t leave the child on her own, not the way things were, never mind another attempt to set the place on fire. Until whatever arrangements could be made, until the Captain and Mrs Gault returned, they’d have to be there.

‘What did you say in the wire?’ Bridget enquired when Henry returned.

Lucy found alive in the woods, the message had gone to England.

4

They stayed in Basel, calculating there the kind of life Heloise’s legacy would support. There was some anxiety at first in case she had been more optimistic than the facts allowed when she’d anticipated there would be money enough; in fact there was. The Captain’s only assets, being the house and land they had left behind, would remain untouched unless some unforeseen circumstance dictated otherwise. Employment in a shipping office or something similar would not be easy to find abroad; fortunately it would not be necessary.