Chapter 3

Chapter

Three

Nigel

" D octor Beille! At last, I have been waiting on your visit." Lady Georgiana Bingley's high-pitched tones rang around the house.

Nigel walked in through the corridor, nodding at the butler in thanks for showing him in. He passed through the corridor and followed the high voice, into the vast garden room at the back of the house. The great windows looking out onto the garden revealed bright sunlight and a formal lawn that had been made beautiful, with great swathes of cottage flowers, with purple and pink lupins, and white roses. Nigel's eyes darted over those flowers as he searched the room, looking for his patient.

Lady Georgiana Bingley sat in a vast wicker chair in one corner of the room. In her hand was her usual lady's magazine that Nigel knew was published by her daughter-in-law, the Countess of Bingley. He'd spent many a visit checking on Lady Georgiana to be inundated with information about the Countess of Bingley and her impressive magazine, though in truth, Nigel paid little attention. He had other concerns to concern himself with.

"Lady Georgiana." He bowed in greeting to her and moved to her side. "Now, how do you far today since our last visit?"

"I am perfectly well," she insisted, though she fiddled with the pearls at her neck in her way that let him know not everything was as well as she suggested. Tall and slim in nature, he'd often worried she carried too little weight in her older age. Her hair was turning white these days, and was pulled sharply back across her sloping forehead, ridiculously neatly. That white color contrasted the sharp green eyes all the more.

He'd heard some people call her eyes cold, though he had judged them to be warm enough, just like her countenance, once he had gotten to know Lady Georgiana. She was a formal and proper lady who on first meeting could seem rather intimidating.

"Shall we do a full check just to be sure?" he asked, placing down his leather medical bag on the table beside her.

"Well, if you insist it of me. I do declare I don't know what all this fuss is about now. I am in peak physical form." She held her arms open wide. "Yet my son insists on your visits."

"The Earl worries for you, my Lady," Nigel said nonchalantly as he pulled out a wicker stool to sit in front of her. "He is eager I come to see you regularly."

"Yes, hardly surprising with your record." She cocked her head to the side and examined him. "You have not lost a patient in years, Doctor Beille. That is indeed a record in this part of London when you consider what strife and diseases are on the rise. Goodness, I have been reading about it just now." She thrust a finger down at the magazine she had dropped into her lap. "The ladies are most panicked."

"There is nothing to fear. I can keep you well, my Lady." He winked at her, encouragingly, and she laughed. "Besides, all of us running wild in panic like headless chickens in London will help, will it not?" he said wryly.

Lady Georgiana tipped forward her chin and laughed, covering her mouth.

"You are sarcastic indeed, Doctor. Not everyone will like you for it, you know."

"At least you put up with me." He smiled and took her wrist, tapping out her heartbeat on his knee as he calculated the rhythm. She was cold to the touch, but she always was, and it was hardly unusual in women of her advanced age. Her circulation was not that of a much younger woman. "Any aches or pains to declare?"

"None. Well…" Lady Georgiana paused before she went on.

Nigel hurried to gather a notebook and pencil, ready to write down her complaints. It was always the way with Lady Georgiana. She would insist she was in perfect health, then with a little pushing would reveal what actually was wrong. He supposed it was down to her sense of propriety and being used to her station. She hated to be thought of as weak.

She is strong indeed. I have seen it many times.

He'd been with her once after a fall where she had broken her wrist. She had recovered faster than any other woman her age with such brittle bones.

"I keep getting this fluttering in my chest." She made a wave at her hand and avoided looking him in the eye, clearly not wishing to speak of it so much.

"And do you get dizzy with this feeling?"

"Sometimes. Other times not. It can calm down very quickly, as if it is a butterfly's wings beating in my chest. Other times, it can last for many minutes."

He noted down her symptoms. He'd recognized many times when taking her heartbeat that there was the occasional bump that did not fit with the rest of the rhythm. Sadly, there was little he could do for such things other than keep her calm.

"Let me see what I can do." He perused his notes, coming up with a tonic of laudanum and chamomile which should help to keep her calm if such events came on again. "Any other complaints?"

"None." She declared happily once again but turned her eyes out to the garden. There was a distance in her eyes that Nigel had recognized the last few times he had been here.

As a doctor, he was trained to look after a person's body, but it had not escaped his notice that there was something bothering Lady Georgiana's mind as of late. Whenever he visited these days, he usually found her alone, staring into the garden or at one of her magazines.

Her son and his wife were very busy and had lives of their own with their children. Though she saw them regularly, it still left plenty of time for isolation.

"How often do you leave the house?" Nigel asked slowly, taking hold of her wrist and turning her hand back and forth as he checked over her old injury.

"Occasionally." She shrugged, as if it was no great matter. "I like my home, and my garden, very much." She nodded out at the beautiful flowers. "If I venture far, then I fear…" She trailed off and swallowed, refusing to look at him now.

He knew that look.

She is so conscious of propriety that she is worried about confessing anything to me.

"We all fear things, my Lady," he said, softening his tone as he released her wrist, for it was healing perfectly fine. "What is it you fear?"

"I fear…" She cleared her throat before finding the courage to continue on. "I fear falling when I am out and about. I could not stand the thought of injuring myself again in public." She waved her hand pointedly in emphasis. "Imagine what people would say?"

"You should not think of what people say," Nigel deepened his voice. "You enjoy the outdoors, my Lady. It is good for your health, and I wish you would make the most of it."

"Is this another of your recommendations, Doctor?" she asked with an amused smile. "Walk beyond my garden's walls?"

"Well, it helps if you do as a doctor asks. What are we here for otherwise?" His wryness brought another smile to her lips.

"I do not know." She shook her head, returning to her focus of the flowers beyond the windows. "I would feel nervous of going out alone." Her eyes shifted to the empty chairs around him.

Nigel looked at each wicker seat in turn, a thought occurring to him. By Lady Georgiana fearing going out, she was forcing herself into isolation. With so few people coming to see her, loneliness was only growing worse.

Sometimes a doctor's advice shouldn't just be about the body, but the mind too.

"Have you ever thought about taking on a companion?"

"A companion? What a notion." She laughed comically at the idea, resting her chin in her bony hand as the skin around her green eyes wrinkled. "Ladies who hire companions cannot make friends without paying for them."

"The words came from your lips, not mine, my Lady." He continued in the jest with her. "I know what you mean," he said, his tone turning serious, "but it is not always the case. Sometimes one just needs companionship."

Her brows raised across her cracked forehead.

"Do you take your own advice, Doctor?"

"I am sorry?"

"You are a successful doctor indeed, one of a position too," she gestured to him, and Nigel sat back. The matter of his birth wasn't something he discussed very openly, for it did not concern him. He preferred to be known as Doctor Beille and nothing more. "You are old enough to be married, are you not? Yet you have not taken a wife."

"No, I have not." Nigel's stomach knotted tightly as he turned away and fussed with his medicine bag, intent on suddenly looking busy with his work.

"You stare at your medicine bag the way I do my flowers, Doctor."

"As perceptive as you always are, my Lady." Nigel returned his focus to her with a sigh. "Yet my personal affairs are not what we are here to discuss. I am here to help you."

"And who helps you?" she asked, that amused smile still in place.

"I am not in need of help." He assured her. "Now, let me listen to your heart one more time. Let me see if I can hear this fluttering." He took her wrist and found her pulse, counting it out on his lap as he calculated the beats per minute.

She stayed silent the whole time, staring out at her flowers, with her smile quickly slipping from its place. More than once did Nigel lose count and have to start again as he was so distracted by his patient's expression.

More than anything did he wish to help her, to see Lady Georgiana full of life and happiness again.

There must be something more I can do.

The door opened before anymore discussion could take place between them.

"My Lady?" The butler, Mr. Trevor Hart, walked in, carrying a letter on a small silver card tray. "A letter has just arrived for you."

"Thank you, Mr. Hart." She took the letter and retrieved her wrist from Nigel, breaking the red wax seal as Nigel turned his focus down to his notes.

It seemed Lady Georgiana's heartbeat was regular enough, and the number of beats was similar to his last visits, but he made some extra notes to keep an eye on her condition and check the latest research on the matter of the heart. It was still a somewhat confusing thing, and the last time he had read up on the heart, there was little more to be learned.

"Oh, goodness." Lady Georgiana sat back, fiddling with her pearls once again as she read the letter.

"Is all well?" Nigel paused with his notes.

"It is from the daughter of one of my cousins, Lady Clara Aldington." She smiled softly. "I have not heard from her in many years." She turned the letter over, her eyes widening. "I suppose this is what some would call serendipitous."

"How do you mean?" Nigel asked, lowering his pencil down to the notebook.

"She has asked if her daughter can come and stay here for a while. She fears the girl has a lot to learn to become a young lady and hopes that introduction to my society and that of London can teach her much." Lady Georgiana smiled. "I have not seen the child for a few years, though I suppose she will no longer be a child but a young woman."

"You would have company, my Lady, and perhaps it would satisfy your need not to pay for a more formal companion." His humored smile made her laugh softly.

"Yes, I do not wish to be seen to pay for friends." She chuckled and waved the letter in the air before folding it up neatly in her lap. "I could consider it I suppose. I would infinitely prefer to make some use of my time. There is only so long one can sit here and stare at the flowers after all." She trailed off, doing exactly as she said and turning to look at the blooms.

In the silence that descended, Nigel wondered if she lost track of time a little, or even realized if he was still there as she was so engrossed in looking at those flowers.

Yes, this girl could be the way forward. She could keep Lady Georgiana company and draw her away from this room a little, give her something to occupy her thoughts.

"Well, I think it an excellent idea," Nigel declared as he stood from his seat. Lady Georgiana turned to look at him, slightly wide eyed as if shaken from her thoughts. "If you do intend to follow a doctor's recommendations, then I heartily suggest you accept your cousin's offer."

"Bold indeed, Doctor." She smiled. "Though I suppose I must do as you say."

"It's nice to know I'm listened to a little by my patients," he added with a wry tone and bowed to her. "Until next time, Lady Georgiana."

"Thank you, Doctor. As always." She smiled in parting and moved to stand, but he waved a hand, urging her not to exert herself so, though they both knew that in his position, many other men would expect her to bow.

As he took his leave of the house, Nigel paused on the driveway by his chestnut horse who snorted in greeting. He glanced back at the house that was tucked away from the main roads of London. Some might have styled it a cottage, with rose trellises up the walls and surrounded by flowers and fresh lawns, but it was far too large to be a cottage to Nigel's mind. The Dowager Countess had a fine home she had retired to, and as Nigel gazed at it, it struck him there was just one problem with this place.

It is too quiet. Perhaps this companion will do some good for Lady Georgiana after all.

He turned to his horse and climbed up into the saddle before riding away.