A Warriner to Tempt Her Page 14

  He had no idea what she was up to, but he was grateful for it nevertheless, as the presence of Lady Isabella Beaumont—and she most definitely was Lady Isabella Beaumont this morning—seemed to have a calming effect on the crowd. Ingrained politeness caused many to be embarrassed by their behaviour in front of one of their betters, and a lady to boot, and one by one they stopped shouting under the weight of her imperious and outraged glare.

  She turned towards the crowd and shouted, ‘You should all be ashamed of yourselves!’

  ‘Yes, you damned well should!’ The constable’s loud roar cut through the chaos. ‘Next person who raises his fists will spend the next week in the gaol house.’ Eyes dropped to boots at the admonishment.

  ‘If you don’t mind, Mr Mellor, I have something to say.’

  ‘Listen to the lady!’

  Bella smiled sweetly at the constable, then began to address the fractious crowd. ‘There is a plague hurtling towards us and you think shouting and fighting like savages will help you?’ Her tone, her manner, held their attention and the crowd began to still. Just ahead, Jack and Jamie finally managed to separate the last of the fighting men and stood forming a human barrier between the protesters and the rest of the people in case anyone dared to start it up again. Curiosity had got the better of the majority and they turned to stare at the small, yet formidable woman glaring down at them, her fists planted on her hips like a stern schoolmistress admonishing a naughty class. Even Reverend Reeves had ceased ranting about the devil to stop and watch her.

  Bella turned to Joe with her head held high and her voice strong enough to carry across the crowd. ‘I do not wish to die, Dr Warriner. I am quite decided on that. And none of this silly, unfounded scaremongering will deter me. I have read the facts and am satisfied in the validity of Dr Jenner’s research. Therefore, I should like to be the first to take up your generous offer of a free vaccination against smallpox.’ Joe blinked at her, a little astounded and unsure as to what to say or do next. Fortunately, the formidable Lady Isabella was in no doubt. She held out her hand and Mrs Patterson placed his vaccination pouch in it. Within was the small knife needed to make the tiny incision, a vial of gin to clean the skin to prevent the wound from becoming infected, metal tweezers and fresh bandages. ‘Now. If you please. In front of all these people. Perhaps then they will see their fears about sprouting horns, cloven hooves and udders are ludicrous. Why, I shall even sit in the square for a fortnight afterwards to allow people to examine my scalp and check I am not filing them down or hiding any bovine adornments under my bonnet.’

  As she was already rolling up the sleeve of her dress and at least a hundred pairs of eyes were watching them intently, he didn’t dare disappoint. With slightly shaking fingers Joe took the package his brother was holding in his outstretched palm and began to prepare for the procedure. By the time he held out the blade he felt sick, until he glanced up at her solemn dark eyes and saw the trust in them. Bella believed in him and was prepared to incur the wrath of the entire town and her father to prove it. ‘You might feel a tiny scratch.’

  She nodded brusquely. ‘Better that than smallpox.’

  How right she was. Joe felt an eerie calm wash over him. Bella was trying to help him prove the vaccine was safe and every face in the square was watching them carefully. If ever there was a time to be a competent and confident physician it, was now. He tried to block out the audience and the protesters, as well as Bella, as he made the tiny scratch-like incision in her forearm. Right this minute, she was a patient and not the woman who had been keeping him awake at night for over a week. Then he carefully removed one of the threads from Jake’s parcel, each covered in several dried droplets of Jenner’s vaccine, and gently used tweezers to remove one. He took a calming breath, then inserted it into the wound.

  All around them, people were craning their heads to get a better view. Nobody spoke as Joe wrapped a small strip of linen bandage around her arm and tied it with a knot. ‘It’s done.’

  ‘How do you feel, my lady?’ Mellor asked in a voice loud enough to carry across the square and Joe realised the constable, at least, was on his side.

  ‘Well, I don’t feel like mooing.’ Her fingers went to her head and probed. ‘No sign of horns either. And frankly, I feel wonderful. I’m not going to die from smallpox and that is such a relief.’ She beamed at him and then the crowd. ‘I shall be in Dr Warriner’s office for the rest of the day helping him to help all of you. I hope to see a great many of you there. Now if you will excuse us, Dr Warriner has urgent business to attend and I need to set up his surgery.’ Like a queen, she dismissed the crowd and began to glide down the steps, leaving him with no words and no further need of any. She had sprinkled enough doubt on Dr Bentley’s and the pious reverend’s arguments to allow the people to mull it all over themselves.

  Dutifully, many of those assembled began to turn away as there was an air the meeting was now concluded. Joe supposed it was. What else was there to say? The sea of people parted to allow her to walk through and he felt himself smiling. When she wanted to be, Bella was fearless and formidable, and right now that was exactly what everyone, including him, had needed. A dose of logical sanity in a sea of nonsense.

  ‘Wait a minute!’ Dr Bentley shouted to her retreating back. ‘Stop right there, madam! Do not force me to tell them the truth about you.’

  Her step faltered, but she kept walking.

  ‘What truth?’ someone shouted from the crowd. ‘We deserve to know the whole truth!’

  ‘Do not put your trust in Lady Isabella Beaumont. I’d sooner trust the word of a Warriner than her!’

  She stopped abruptly and turned around. Where Joe expected to see outrage, the formidable Lady Isabella who had just silenced the masses, he saw a small, timid woman instead. One he barely recognised. Instead of fearless, he saw fear. Her face was suddenly pale, like a ghost, as her terrified eyes locked with the aged doctor’s. The smile with which he answered her terror was pure evil. ‘This girl is quite mad. Deluded. Her wits have gone. Isn’t that right, Lady Isabella?’

  She took a step backwards as if she had been slapped, but met the old fool’s eyes bravely. ‘I am not mad, Dr Bentley.’

  ‘Then why are you here in Retford, pray tell? Your father rented that house in the hope a change of scenery would return you to yourself. He also engaged my services to try to cure your addled mind.’ He turned to the gawping onlookers and shook his head sadly while Bella stood frozen. ‘Services, I might add, she continues to refuse, so deep rooted is her hysteria. None of the doctors in London could cure her. For over a year now she has been insensible, the poor dear. Rendered quite irrational and frigid after being molested by a villain.’

  ‘Stop.’ Her voice was so small it tore at Joe’s heartstrings and he knew, there and then, Dr Bentley had power over her. ‘Please stop.’

  ‘Stop what? Telling them the truth? Do you deny it, Lady Isabella? Do you deny the months you spent locked inside yourself? Your irrational fear of the outside world? Of all men save your father? Do you deny the steady stream of London’s finest head doctors despairing of you? The failed treatments?’ He turned to the crowd again. ‘She imagines things. Her mind plays tricks with her. Half the time she cannot discern fantasy from fact. She belongs in an asylum, not in your admiration. A creature to be pitied...’

  The Reverend Reeves began to drone in his menacing monotone. ‘The Lord will smite you with madness and with blindness and with bewilderment of heart...’

  Joe knocked the Reverend to the floor. ‘That’s enough.’ At some point during the cruel assassination of her character Joe must have leapt from his platform, because he found himself striding towards Bentley and grabbing him by his lapels. ‘You will apologise to the lady now!’

  ‘I will never apologise for telling the truth.’

  ‘Yes. You. Will.’ The older man’s head snapped back as Joe lifted him briskly from the ground and shook him. ‘If I have to beat the apology out of you, you will apo
logise!’

  It was Jake who stopped him slamming his fist into the physician’s face.

  ‘We rise above the nonsense, Joe, remember. The people here need you. Bella needs you, too.’ Through the red mist of anger he forced himself to listen. Knew the fury and his irrational need for violence would only serve to strengthen Bentley’s words. The Warriners of old used their fists to get their point across. They were better than that. He was better than that. With a growl, he let go of the man’s coat reluctantly and stepped back, his whole body trembling with the roiling need to tear the malicious old fool limb from limb.

  ‘What sort of a physician are you?’ Joe had never been a violent person. He was the most placid Warriner and now he was proud of that. If being placid meant he did what was right, then so be it. However, he had never wanted to hurt another person as he did the man in front of him today. He had betrayed Bella. Humiliated her. He had to pay and soon he would. But that was not today when Joe was needed. Jake was right. She needed him more right this second. He allowed himself to loom over the frightened man and enjoyed the sight of him cowering. For once, diplomacy could go to hell.

  ‘You disgust me, Bentley. Everything about you disgusts me, but I am thankful to you. Because of you I know exactly what sort of doctor I want to be and it’s not you! I swore an oath to help people. To heal the sick to the best of my ability and to protect the dignity of all of those in my care.’ He allowed one finger to prod the man’s bony chest menacingly. ‘You do whatever it takes to feather your own nest. Whether that be to line your greedy pockets with coin or to ignore the poor because they cannot pay you or to shamelessly destroy the reputation of an innocent woman. A woman who cares more for this community than you ever have. Spread your malicious lies and disparagements about me. Do your worst. I don’t care. My deeds will shout louder than your poisonous words—but if you ever utter another vile word about Lady Isabella, be warned. You will pay!’

  Joe spun on his heel to go to Bella, only to see she was not there, and the fury burned afresh as he worried where she had run to. ‘Go home! The lot of you! She was right. You should all be ashamed of yourselves! How dare you all stand there in silence while an innocent woman, a brave and selfless innocent woman, is bullied by these malicious old fools who are supposed to help people!’ He snatched a placard from one of the protesters and snapped it across his knee, then tossed it to the ground. It did nothing to calm his temper. ‘Take this nonsense and turn it into kindling for bonfires, and pray for your souls, you are going to need both. Although mark my words, there are no fires hot enough or strong enough to stop this disease if it comes here, and if it does and you are not protected, then I sincerely hope God helps you. Because by then, he is the only one who will be able to!’

  * * *

  Bella had no memory of stumbling up the deserted lane towards her house. How could she when all she could think about was the dreadful public shaming Dr Bentley had subjected her to. For over a year, her family had done their best to shield her from gossip and censure while they had frantically tried every means to get her better, even moving away to the back of beyond to allow her to find herself again. Yet in the end it had all been for nought. Today all the people of Retford knew she had been violated and gone mad, by tomorrow that delicious piece of gossip would be dashing down the road to London, where it would bring shame to her father and render her permanently damaged in the eyes of society.

  Eyes which would now look at her like a curious specimen under a magnifying glass. Her legs suddenly unsteady, she sank down on to the grass at the edge of the lane and buried her head in her hands. Everything was ruined. Even if, by some miracle, the scandalous truth failed to make it all the way down the Great North Road, they would have to leave Retford immediately. Bella could hardly quietly convalesce in a town which now saw her as addled. The longer they dithered here, the worse the humiliation would be—however, that meant leaving the infirmary, too. Not that she thought for one second she would be allowed to stay. Irrational girls who could not discern fantasy from reality could not be trusted with the care of children or with dangerous medicines. These blissful weeks of learning and healing, both herself and those children she adored, had been cruelly ripped from her hands. The one thing she had found the strength to live again for, and in doing so had found the part of herself she had thought lost for ever, was gone. The pain of losing it almost impossible to bear.

  With a sob, she remembered Joe’s face as he had learned the awful truth. Saw the incredulity contort his face as his eyes had sought hers, Bella’s inability to meet his gaze confirming his worst fears. Because he was decent, he had been angry on her behalf, but she had witnessed the way he had lurched backwards as if he had been struck by a blow when he’d heard the vile but truthful words spat at the crowd. Insensible, rendered irrational and frigid. Addled. Belongs in an asylum. In trying to help him she had inadvertently brought shame to Joe, too, but worse. Thanks to her, he would now command even less respect in front of the town. His plans to protect them from smallpox shredded to confetti alongside her own pathetic façade of a reputation.

  How was she ever going to face the poor man again? Hopefully her mother would whisk her back to London in the carriage today and she wouldn’t have to.

  ‘Bella.’

  So much for wishful thinking. He was here. She could see the dusty toes of his boots through the gaps in her fingers and her misery was complete. ‘I’m s-s-so s-s-sorry.’ Clearly it was not complete as she was now also snorting. Bella felt him lower himself to sit beside her on the verge and willed herself invisible, or dead. Perhaps dead would be better. At least then she wouldn’t be hurting so very much.

  ‘You have nothing to be sorry about.’ And now he was being kind when he had every right to be angry. For once, she was not going to let him get away with it.

  ‘Of c-course I do. I’ve ruined everything. I was t-t-trying to h-h-help and now I’ve made it...’ snort ‘...w-worse.’

  ‘There was already a serious bout of fisticuffs as well as a placard with my face on it complete with jaunty devil’s horns. It was worse before you came along and bravely showed them they were being foolish.’

  Bella didn’t want nice. She wanted him to be furious. The niceness was pure torture and she wanted to smack him for it. Vent some of her own anger at the gross unfairness of life. ‘Did you not hear what Dr Bentley said? It’s all true, by the way. Every single bit of it. Since the incident, I’m not right in the head. I’m terrified all the time. I imagine danger lurking around every corner. I’m scared to go out. I’m scared of men. I’m scared of crowds and I’m scared of being on my own. I continually refuse medical treatments because they terrify me, too. It’s been over a year and I’m still irrational. My head is filled with those brick walls. I’m not fit to be around decent people. Dr Bentley is one of a long line of physicians who has—’

  ‘Dr Bentley is a fool.’

  ‘Don’t interrupt me!’ Bella needed to be honest with him because at the very least Joe deserved that. She would tell him the truth about her condition because he had a right to know how his hard-earned good name came to be in tatters. Her selfish decision to try to fix her own addled mind with logic had now put an entire community at risk. What had she been thinking? ‘Dr Bentley is one of a long line of physicians who has been engaged to help me find myself, yet I continually think I know better and...’ His words seeped into her head and she risked lifting her covered face slightly so that she could see his expression. It was more remorseful than thunderous. ‘What did you say?’

  ‘I said he’s an arse. He sabotaged today, Bella. Not you. And right now I’d like to do nothing better than pummel his smug, wrinkled face with my fists for spouting all that nonsense about cows and even more so for what he did to you.’ He sighed and stared down at where his hands dangled loosely between his legs. His fists clenched, then unclenched. ‘I almost did as well, so I’m not feeling particularly proud of myself. Doctors should heal injuries, not c
ause them. Except I can’t help not feeling sorry for it and I still don’t regret it.’ He offered her the ghost of a smile along with a clean handkerchief. ‘Which is a first for me. I’m not used to losing my temper, let alone allowing it the freedom to rampage. I pushed the Reverend to the ground. Then when my brother prevented me killing Dr Bentley, I smashed up a placard and gave them all a piece of my mind. Once I started hollering, I couldn’t seem to stop. I told Bentley exactly what I thought of him, then went after that fool of a reverend again before turning on the crowd and spelling out in graphic language what the disease would do to them if they failed to listen to reason. I might have even called the Reverend Reeves an unwitting accomplice to Satan. I’m not entirely sure. I was so enraged at the time I can’t quite remember exactly what I said. I rarely lose my temper, perhaps once every decade, but when it goes it explodes. If I say so myself, I was quite terrifying. I left them all gaping in the square to come after you.’

  ‘You didn’t need to come after me. You have more important things to be doing than concerning yourself with...’ The tips of his fingers lightly touched her lips to silence her.

  ‘Right at this precise moment, there is nothing more important to me than you.’

  Chapter Fourteen

  Her heart gave a little skip in her chest and more tears fell unbidden from her eyes. Joe didn’t try to stop them. Instead, he wrapped his arm around her shoulders and gathered her close. Bella instinctively burrowed against him before she considered panicking at the contact. Once she was there, her face nestled against his chest, cocooned in his embrace, she decided she couldn’t be bothered to panic because being held by him felt too good and she needed his strength too much to relinquish it. She felt his lips brush against the top of her head and for a split second she was sorely tempted to tilt her face up towards them before she remembered she was terrified of male contact.