The Tree of Love

by Barbara Cartland

  A butler, who bowed to the Duke, opened the door.

  “I am afraid, Your Grace, that the Captain is asleep at the moment.”

  “I thought that he would be at this hour,” the Duke replied, “so I would like to speak to Higgins.”

  The butler showed them into a room that was very expensively furnished, although Shenda thought it needed a female touch, as there were no flowers and everything in it seemed too formally arranged as if it was seldom used.

  The Duke walked to stand in front of the fireplace.

  She was just about to ask him some more questions when the door opened and a man came in.

  As he advanced towards them, the Duke asked him,

  “Good morning, Higgins, how is your patient?”

  “He’s ’ad a bad night, Your Grace, tossin’ about he were and I ’ad to give ’im some of that medicine you don’t approve of what knocks ’im out.”

  “I have told you not to give it to him too often,” the Duke said. “I dislike anyone feeling pain, but at the same time I think the drugs the doctors supply to those who can afford them are often a grave mistake.”

  “I agree with you,” Shenda came in. “My mother was very much against any form of sleeping pill and when she became ill, she refused to take them even though the doctors tried to press them on her.”

  “They do so if the patient is at all troublesome and I have told Higgins, who looks after his Master admirably, that he is to avoid using those drugs unless it is absolutely essential.”

  “I’ve followed your instructions, Your Grace, but ’is shoulder be ever so painful after it’s been bandaged that I thinks, although it ain’t for me to interfere like, that what them doctors put on it stings it rather than ’eals it.”

  “I would not be surprised, Higgins, but I am hoping this lady I have brought you to look after the Captain will be able to help his shoulder to heal fully without too much further assistance from the French doctors.”

  The way he spoke told Shenda that he had no use for any doctor.

  She remembered reading in a newspaper report,

  “Many of the wounded being treated in hospitals in France are worse when they come out than when they went in.”

  “Now what I want you to do, Higgins, is to let Miss Linbury, who is the daughter of a friend of mine and who I am sure is most competent, do what she thinks best for the Captain. I was not at all happy the last time I called to see that he was not improving as he should be.”

  “I agrees with Your Grace, but as I don’t speak the language them doctors speak, I just can’t tell them what I thinks.”

  “I am sure Miss Linbury will be able to do so –”

  As he spoke he looked questioningly at Shenda and she responded,

  “I speak French quite fluently, Your Grace, and I am sure that you are right in thinking it is a great mistake to drug a patient into insensibility too often.”

  The Duke gave a sigh of relief.

  “Then I can now leave the Captain in your capable hands and I will be interested to hear how he progresses. I am sure that Higgins will look after you too.”

  He turned to Higgins,

  “Miss Linbury’s luggage is in the carriage, will you have it taken up to the best room available?”

  “At once, Your Grace.”

  He left the room closing the door behind him.

  Shenda realised that the Duke had dismissed him so that he could speak to her privately.

  “I am hoping that you will not find it too difficult here. You are very young, Miss Linbury, but I suggest you make it clear from the beginning that you are in charge.”

  “I am sure that, as you have brought me here, they will accept me, but I am only afraid of disappointing you.”

  “I have a feeling and it is a strong one, that you will not do so, but if things get too difficult and if your patient is truculent, then you know where to find me.”

  “Thank you so much again, more than I can possibly say, Your Grace, and I will do my very best in every way to make this gentleman better as quickly as possible.”

  “You can take your time. I shall always be glad to have him back with me, but I feel it is going to be hard for him to return to work, so to speak.”

  “Miracles can and do happen. My mother helped a great number of people who had been given up on by doctors, simply because she believed so much in natural medicine, rather than that manufactured by the medical profession.”

  “In other words,” the Duke smiled, “your mother had a herb garden.”

  “Naturally, Your Grace.”

  “And my mother had one too,” the Duke admitted.

  As he was speaking he was thinking that his mother had not been especially interested in the herb garden, even though it had been flourishing for generations before she had married his father.

  But he knew from everything he had already heard that the French doctors were completely determined to use the new synthetic medicines, come what may.

  They had been specially produced for the wounded without, he considered, being properly tested before being put on sale, but he did not want to complain too much at this stage in case he frightened off Shenda.

  He could not help reflecting that in his usual lucky way he had found exactly the right person for young Ivan to put him back on his feet again.

  Especially so that he would be then ready to accept the award he had so deservedly earned on the battlefield by his outstanding bravery in the face of the enemy.

  “I must now return to my house where there will be people waiting for me and I must not be late for the dinner party I am giving this evening for a very beautiful lady.”

  To his surprise Shenda laughed and as he looked at her enquiringly, she remarked,

  “I am sorry if I may sound rude, but from all I have heard about you, Your Grace, I would be very disappointed if you were not in the company of a beautiful lady when not fighting a battle!”

  It was the remark the Duke might have expected from Madame Grassini or from Henriette Wilson, certainly not from anyone as young and as innocent as Shenda.

  However, he just laughed and commented,

  “I am glad I don’t disappoint you! But if you are in any trouble you know where to find me. I feel sure your father will be very pleased that you are safe here and will, I hope, not get into any trouble.”

  “I can only thank you again and again, Your Grace.”

  They moved into the hall and the Duke took his hat from a footman and Shenda followed him outside.

  As he climbed into his open carriage, he raised his hat to her as the horses started off.

  She had the sudden feeling that she was losing her only friend in Paris as she stood watching the carriage till it was out of sight.

  Then, Higgins, who had joined her, piped up,

  “That be a great man and it’ll be somethin’ to tell your children when you ’as them that you’ve met ’im and he’s ’elped you as he’s ’elped so many others.”

  “You are so right and I will always remember his kindness even if I never see him again.”

  As she spoke, she hoped with great sincerity that she would indeed see him again.

  Then Higgins added,

  “You’ll see ’im right enough. He be really fond of the young Master and he’s in almost every other day since we’ve been ’ere.”

  Shenda felt no one could be kinder than the Duke and, as she followed Higgins upstairs, she was praying that she would please him.

  And that entailed restoring Captain Ivan Worth to good health.

  Higgins led her into what she soon realised was the Master suite.

  The bedroom was vast with a huge four-poster bed against one wall where she could see a man asleep.

  The damask curtains were tightly drawn across the windows and Higgins without saying anything drew them back.

  Now she could see the man lying in the four-poster bed clearly and he was extremely handsome.

  Dark hair was brushed
back from a square forehead to reveal fine, almost classical features.

  There was a deep frown between his eyes as if he was suffering pain and she could see that he was heavily bandaged on one shoulder.

  Higgins came and stood beside him.

  “That there shoulder,” he murmured, “ought to be healed by now, but the stuff they’re puttin’ on it seems to make it worse.”

  “Let me see what it is,” asked Shenda.

  She was speaking only a little above a whisper but she was well aware that the man she was looking at was in a drugged sleep and would not hear her.

  Higgins walked towards a beautifully inlaid chest of drawers that was obviously used as a dressing table.

  There was a pair of hairbrushes, a tie box, a candle and numerous bottles and pots.

  Shenda guessed that the doctors must have ordered these.

  She picked up one of the pots and realised that it was a grease to be applied to a wound and it smelt of some harsh ingredient that was almost repulsive.

  She put it down and took up the others. Each one was more or less the same.

  She was quite certain that even if they cleansed the open wound, the stinging that the greases would cause on bare flesh would be very painful.

  She looked from one to the other and then she said to Higgins,

  “Would it be possible without waking the Captain for me to see his shoulder?”

  “He’ll not wake whatever us do to ’im now. He be out for the count, so to speak, and whatever us says or does he’ll not know it.”

  He walked towards the bed as he spoke and then he undid the bandage that covered the Captain’s shoulder.

  Although Higgins was fairly gentle, Shenda could not help thinking that she would be more so. If he was fully awake, Higgins’ movements would definitely hurt him.

  Once the bandage was taken off she was able to see his shoulder and that the wound was still inflamed and red.

  But Shenda was sure that, as it happened some time ago, it should have subsided by now.

  “There, you can see for yourself what them doctors are givin’ ’im ain’t no good,” volunteered Higgins.

  “I do agree with you, Higgins, and what I want you to do now is to go down to the kitchen and ask them if they have any honey.”

  Higgins stared at her.

  “ ’Oney! What do you wants ’oney for?”

  “I am going to use it temporarily on that wound. Then I want you to find me a great number of natural herbs that I am certain will take the inflammation out of it much more quickly than what is currently being used.”

  “Did you say ’oney?” Higgins asked again as if he could hardly believe his ears.

  “The very best honey they have and I will watch our patient while you are fetching it.”

  Higgins drew in his breath as if he would argue and then without another word he walked to the door.

  Shenda sat down on the end of the bed and gazed at the man lying asleep.

  There was something overwhelming about him that told her without words that he was suffering intensely.

  Not physically – but mentally as well.

  She did not know why this thought occurred to her.

  Except that she had always believed, although she never talked about it, that she possessed the same gift of intuition as her mother.

  It always told her when things were right or wrong – especially if it concerned the health of another person.

  Now she was absolutely certain that the Captain’s wound was not healing as quickly as it should.

  Not only because it was being wrongly treated by the French doctors, but because something was concerning him inwardly and that meant a wounded mind.

  It took a little time for Higgins to produce what she required and bring it back.

  He did not tell Shenda that they had laughed in the kitchen when he had asked them for honey.

  “If you has to sweeten up the young lady as soon as her arrives with honey,” one of the women had chided him, “you must be losin’ your touch!”

  She had spoken to him in very broken English, but Higgins had understood what she was saying.

  “ ’Oney be sweet,” he answered tartly, “and that’s more than you’re bein’ to me at the moment!”

  As he took the honey pot up the stairs to Shenda, he was still wondering what she wanted it for.

  He was thinking perhaps she intended to use it to counteract or perhaps just to mitigate the drugs the Captain had taken.

  To his great surprise she took the honey from him and very gently smoothed it over the Captain’s wound.

  Higgins watched her with growing astonishment as she covered all the inflamed flesh with sticky honey.

  And then she spread it round the side of the wound rubbing it gently in with her long fingers.

  After she had finished with the honey, she waited a few moments before she covered the wound.

  She laid clean linen carefully on top of it before she bound it again.

  Higgins noticed that she bound the bandages firmly and yet not as tightly as those applied by the doctors.

  Picking up the honey pot, Shenda put it on the chest of drawers.

  After a long silence she proposed,

  “Can we go somewhere so I can write out a list of my requirements?

  Higgins opened a communicating door at the end of the room and she saw it led into a boudoir also beautifully furnished.

  Yet there was something rather formal and orderly about the room as if no one relaxed in it.

  There was a secretaire near one of the windows and she sat down and started to write out a list.

  “I am sure there is a herb shop somewhere near us, Higgins, if not any shop that sells flowers and plants might be able to oblige you. And I am sure you will not get every one of these different herbs, only some of them.

  “I beg you, as they are so very important, to ask the shopkeeper to find them for you as soon as he can.”

  She handed Higgins the long list and he stared at it incredulously.

  As if she thought he could not read very easily, she read aloud,

  “Down, Daisies, Elmtree, Golden Rod, True-Love, Solomon’s Seal, Tansy, Yarrow and Maidenhair leaves.”

  “I’ve not ’eard of any of them,” Higgins remarked.

  “They are particurlarly recommended for wounds by Nicholas Culpepper. He was a very famous astrologer-physician in the seventeenth century.”

  “I never ’eard of ’im neither,” Higgins exclaimed, this time a little sourly.

  “He was well-known in his time and people still read his books and tracts, which you will not be surprised to hear were then all condemned by the medical profession, but they have, however, proved since to be wonderful for everyone who has used them.

  “Herbal remedies have the most amazing powers and I saw my mother cure sick children and older people almost immediately by herbs when the doctors had given up helplessly.”

  “Well us might as well move with the times,” said Higgins. “But this lot seems that strange to I.”

  “I don’t mind betting, Higgins, you will be saying something different in a week’s time.”

  “I’m not riskin’ losing a bet like that, miss. I’ve a feelin’ that you knows more than I and you be bettin’ on a certainty!”

  “Just wait and see and I feel certain that when your Master does wake up, although his head will be aching, his wound will not hurt him as much as it did before you sent him to sleep.”

  “All right, I believes you,” Higgins grunted, “but there be many as wouldn’t!”

  Shenda laughed.

  “I can believe that. But now will you show me my bedroom? And as I might be called on in the night I would like to be as near to the patient as possible.”

  “I was a-thinkin’ about that, miss, while you were writin’ down them strange things you needs.”

  “What had you decided?”

  “I thinks the best thing is if you be on the other si
de of this ’ere room. It be part of the Master suite, but as there ain’t no Mistress at the moment or likely to be, you might as well be in comfort.”

  “There I am prepared to agree with you, Higgins.”

  Higgins walked across the room and opened a door that led into a small room that Shenda thought enchanting the moment she saw it.

  It was obviously a woman’s room and its last owner had gracefully decorated it.

  The bed was a four-poster and the curtains were of the softest pale muslin to match the eiderdown.

  There were pink carpets, pink curtains and on the ceiling was a picture of Venus surrounded by cupids.

  This, Shenda decided, was a room designed by its owner for love – no woman could have slept in it without thinking she was being treated like Venus herself.

  “I would love this room,” she enthused to Higgins. “But is there someone important who should sleep in it?”

  “You needn’t be frightened of that. I understands the owner of this ’ere house be far away in the country and he’s no wish to be anywhere near the war.”

  “It is a lovely room and I am sure I will be happy here,” sighed Shenda.

  There was a slight hesitation before Higgins added,

  “That’s what I hopes you’ll be. Yet it be a mistake to count your winnings before you ’as them.”

  “I do know, Higgins. Please be very kind and bring my trunks upstairs. I will unpack before our patient requires my attention.”

  She felt he was about to say something and then he deliberately stopped himself.

  She knew instinctively that it concerned his Master and after what the Duke had said, although she tried not to think about it, she felt distinctly anxious.

  She was more than a little apprehensive that, when the Captain did wake, he might say he had no wish for her services.

  *

  Shenda was having her supper when Higgins came into the dining room.

  Before he even spoke she realised exactly what he had come to say.

  “I think I should tell you that the Captain be awake. But I thinks, miss, if you’ll forgive I for saying so, it’d be a mistake for you to see him just now.”

  “Why?” Shenda asked him.

  “ ’Cos he’s got an ’eadache and he ain’t in the best of tempers.”