All Bedlam Courses Past (part one hundred forty-eight)

All Bedlam Courses Past

Chapter Six

Short Days

(part one hundred forty-eight)

“However. Two deaths from typhoid. Typhoid is a matter for the county health officer, and that is what I will tell Dr. Magnusson. He is required to make his report to the state.”

Mary was left in her bed, while Lawrence rode to Snedden’s.

Snedden’s daughter, greeting at the door: “I will fetch Mr. Snedden at once. You have my deepest condolences, Mr. Everard.”

Snedden entered the family chapel, a room with four sofas and velvet drapes to divide them, Lawrence sitting nearest the door. “This is a great time of trouble for you, Mr. Everard. May I extend my deepest condolences? Is there anything I can have brought to you for your comfort, while you wait?”

Lawrence nodded, to the wait. Unexpected.

“Yes? Any refreshment you would care for, only name.”

“No.” A fretsome feeling came at once, that this no was over-quick. The kitchen must be well clear of the works. “No, sir, I’m not wanting, thanks.”

“Are there children at home?” Snedden asked.

Lawrence shook his head, Samuel not even occurring.

Snedden’s nephew ended the wait, to explain that the Cookesville premises did not undertake for the people of Dominionville.

“And environs, Mr. Everard, I apologize. As a matter of business priorities, as we hope you will understand.”

He had asked Lidah, while Mary lay quiet, if her father was named Andrew Paton.

Her hands clenched at the waistband of her skirt, the girl on pins and needles that her mother’s spouse lingered, asking her things. She aimed a wrinkled brow at Mary’s face, the cheeks rasped red by pillowcase starch.

Why didn’t you find it out from her if you wanted to?

But fevers break in the night. It was a phrase of Mary’s with her children, not used with special cruelty, but to mean don’t lie to me, come back when you have a better answer.

“Get out of my sight.”

Lidah turning, grabbing for the bottle. A terrible noise from her throat, Mary struggling in bed, her words paying her back at once.

She died too, heart given out.

He had been asleep in the barn. It had gone that way, or it had not. But the vision Lawrence had of this scene was vivid.

159

Bedlam

All Bedlam Courses Past (part one hundred forty-nine)

(2024, Stephanie Foster)