The Maid with a Good Pair of Lungs

Chapter 3: The Maid with a Good Pair of Lungs

As Fanny briskly followed her master down the hill, she marvelled that another man would be allowed to enter Baysdale Manor. Since the family had moved in, the only male allowed even to knock on the door had been her twin brother, Francis. Francis and Frances, what were their parents thinking of? Naturally the girl had been insistent on being called Fanny from an early age. They had both lived in the nearest village, Castleton, but now Fanny spent weekdays as a maid at the house being dropped off on Monday and picked up on Friday as Francis Bell made his twice weekly deliveries. Once a month she would travel to Whitby with him to buy things for the girls.

For many years now the maid/cook had looked after all members of the Hawksby family as well as their animals and almost acted first as a mother and then elder sibling to the 3 young women. She felt sorry for them but a job was a job, so she contented herself with making sure they had a few special things. As for her relationship with Sir Nathaniel, that was for the moment purely as an employee.

With the sky considerably clearer the search was as short as the doctor predicted. Fanny thought his face looked familiar but could not quite place the sufferer and oddly the 2 men’s paths had never crossed. Nathaniel revived the bedraggled man enough to tell him to put his arms around their shoulders.

“What is wrong with him?” inquired the maid as she helped haul him to his feet.

“Hopefully just exposure but … wait a minute, do you smell burning?”

“Yes, and it’s coming from him.”

“Look his boots are damaged, melted perhaps, and his breeches are charred.”

“And his hair is singed!” exclaimed Fanny as she gazed upwards. “Fine clothes he is wearing.”, which seemed to trigger some memory of a time in Whitby.

Just beyond the half-way point of their journey, the man’s feet were no longer able to aid his assistants and the brave pair summoned all their might to carry him the last few hundred yards up the hill. Such a feat of endurance was highlighted by the fact that the sun was about to drop below the horizon. The master and the maid placed their cargo on the stairs and collapsed exhausted onto the floor.

“Well done, Fanny.”

“Well done, yourself.” reciprocated his servant “Although I do not understand why we did not take Thunder.”

“I told you earlier that a fall from a horse could have been fatal.” he re-emphasised.

Caroline appeared at the top of the stairs, having changed into clean clothes and announced “I’ve prepared Fanny’s room.”

“What?!” cried Fanny. “My personal things are in there”.

“Well I’ve moved them to my room. You will have to share with me. The patient should be close to the doctor and you could hardly share with him.”

“Caroline, I make the decisions in this house.” chided the already irritated parent. “You know you should have waited. I would have placed him in my room and slept in my study. However what’s done is done but I am most displeased. Attend to your sisters. I will knock to collect you, if I have any energy remaining.”

Nathaniel and his nurse gathered themselves for the final part of their journey. Fanny took the head. Temporarily jolted into semi-consciousness, the man stared up and whispered “Goddess.”

“What was that?” asked the doctor.

The maid shrugged “He’s delirious, sir.”

Caroline had done a good job but Fanny did not know whether to be relieved or worried when she felt under the pillow. While she prepared some hot water, Hawksby undressed and examined his charge and had his diagnosis of lightning confirmed. It was a hazard of the moors and he had treated cases before. When he turned over the patient, the doctor saw the terrible injury to the back. A huge bruise and a deep cut indicated to him that the man had taken a major blow no doubt related to the strike. Nathaniel realised the man was incredibly lucky not to have broken his back.

With Fanny, he sponged the body, dressed the wound and prayed that the man would make it through the night. He left the maid to take the first watch while he went to deal with his disobedient daughter.