The Suspiciously Wet Daughter

Chapter 2: The Suspiciously Wet Daughter

Ever since Sir Nathaniel Hawksby, formerly a physician to the court of King George III, had been abandoned by his wife who ran off with his best friend, his daughters had been denied male distractions as far as possible. To this end the lustrously locked Nathaniel had built a manor house on top of the moor between the valleys of Westerdale and Baysdale, a mile from any other house, 2 miles from any hamlet and 4 miles from the nearest village. There, his family maintained an isolated existence with a maid, a horse, a cow and some chickens.

On this day the eldest daughter was returning from washing her face in Stockdale Beck, their favourite of several nearby brooks, knowing but not caring that she had been instructed not to go near the water, when she heard a splash behind her. When she reached him, the prostrate man appeared in a terrible state with torn clothes and a fever. Heart pounding with fear and excitement, for he was nevertheless pleasing to her eye, she decided to pull him on to the bank and run like the wind to her father.

Nathaniel watched Caroline panting as she stopped several times before reaching the house and opened the door to admonish her. Sometimes he thought that she deliberately got into trouble, but there was no logical reason he could think of for her wanting to feel the flat of his hand.

“Your face is all wet and yet it stopped raining hours ago. You’ve been down to the brook again. Don’t you know how many people drown every year in the shallowest of water? I am most displeased. Go to my study and await your punishment.”

“Father … father” her breast heaved “There is a man … a man in the river.”

“Oh!” he said as his anger rose, noting a muddy dress and the slightly dishevelled blonde hair she had inherited from him, “Is there?!”

“No … you don’t understand … he’s sick. I’ll show you.”

“You wait in the house.” Then he shouted “Fanny! Fanny!”

The buxom maid hurried down the stairs. “What is it? Oh Miss Caroline, you look exhausted.”

“Fanny, are you feeling strong?” her employer enquired.

“Always, sir.”

“Strong enough to help carry a man up the hill?”

“Sir?” questioned the shocked maid.

“Exactly as I said.”

“But father, I need to show you where he is.” appealed the daughter.

“How long do you think it will take 2 people to search a stream? Feed your sisters and then make sure they stay in their room.”

“But father …” she started again, to no avail.