Alec finished tending her wounds. “Would you like to sit up?” he asked.
“I’ve been dying to!” she said. “Not literally, of course.”
Alec laughed at the pun as he slid an arm beneath her and began to raise her torso, while she placed her arms around his neck to hold on. He grabbed and bunched pillows behind her and lowered her back so that she was upright.
“Who’d ever thought sitting would be such a big event?” she asked with a smile.
Alec sat on his bed next to hers and they began to each talk and listen, as he told her about all that had happened from the time he and Leah had docked at Gim’s wharf until he had treated the Duke.
The door to the infirmary opened, and the stretcher bearing the Duke entered the room. The Duke appeared pale, and said nothing until he was back in bed and the extra guardsmen were gone. Colonel Ryder remained in the room.
“How did it go?” Inga asked.
“It went mostly well,” The colonel replied, an angry look on his face.
“Judging by the look on your face, something didn’t go right,” Inga ventured. “Sir,” she added.
“That son of mine almost had the opportunity to grow a head shorter,” the Duke said wearily.
“The prince entered late, brought his goons, and tried to suggest that he should take his father under his care because he implied there was no telling what we were doing to him here at the regimental infirmary, perhaps with an evil ingenaire casting demonic spells,” the colonel reported. “Fortunately, his faction of the court was poorly represented at the presentation, and we had no problem winning the argument. We’ll have to remember to schedule important meetings in the morning, when the ball-dancers can’t get out of bed.”
Alec sensed that the confrontation had wearied the Duke, although he wasn’t very worn out physically. “You need a dose and some rest this afternoon if you intend to meet with your advisors tonight,” Alec told him. “Let me prepare something for you and then you may rest.”
“And what about me?” Inga interjected. “Are you going to put me to sleep too, or will I be allowed to leave the infirmary this afternoon?”
Alec walked to the back room without responding, while he thought about her question. As he mixed a sleeping dose for the Duke he decided that Inga could sit in a wheelchair for the afternoon, provided she was back in the infirmary for dinner and the evening.
She brightened visibly at Alec’s offer. “Will my captain husband be on duty this afternoon?” she asked Colonel Ryder.
“No, I expect he’ll only be assigned to invalid care,” he replied laconically.
Alec brought the infirmary wheelchair out of the back room while the Colonel sent one of the guards to find the captain. The Duke fell asleep, and moments later Alec and DR watched the light on the faces of the injured guard and her husband as they rolled out of the infirmary with one another. “There was considerable discussion about the impact on military discipline when those two considered marriage, and to this day I wish in some ways an officer hadn’t married an enlisted guard. But her wounds defending the Duke will quiet any criticism for a long time,” DR confided to Alec.
“What about me? Can I also be let out this afternoon?” Alec heard himself ask.
“To do what?” Ryder asked in response. “Alec, I don’t think more than a handful of people know who you are or what you’ve done. We made no mention of you to the audience today, despite the prince’s fantastic accusations. I’d like to keep you as hidden and safe as possible until I know better what’s going on and I know the Duke has completely recovered. This is the safest place for you right now.”
Alec felt his hackles rise as he remembered how he had feared becoming a captive of the ingenairii. He suddenly felt that he had slid far down the slope towards the same type of imprisonment, kindly meant though it was, here with the Duke’s guards.
Watching Alec’s face, and perhaps realizing how confined the infirmary could seem, especially to someone so young, Colonel Ryder decided to relent. “If you’ll wear a hat or otherwise stay discrete, and allow a guard to go with you, I suppose an afternoon attending to your affairs would be okay. Do you need to pack anything?”
Alec hurriedly stuffed his things in his pack, now much lighter after he’d used so many of his supplies, and stood at the door.
“I’m going to assign guardsman Ellison to go with you,” the colonel pointed to a muscular man in a guard uniform. Alec took comfort at the thought of having someone who looked like Ellison go with him. “Ellison, take him out through the Inn,” Ryder commanded.
Ellison shook hands with Alec and then led him into one of the regimental buildings. Down a hallway they entered a room, in whose closet Ellison removed a panel that led to a steep set of stairs. They climbed impossibly far down below the castle, Ellison bringing a lantern he had lit at the top. When they reached the bottom, an arched, brick-lined tunnel led off to the left.
“Are we going under the river?” Alec asked, although the answer seemed obvious.
“Yes. The Guard has a way to enter and leave the island without visibly crossing the bridge,” the soldier replied. “Many folks suspect this exists, but you’re only the second non-Guard I’ve known to go through. The Colonel must think very highly of you.”
Alec felt warmed by the trust Ryder had placed in him. He felt a reciprocal sense of commitment to the Duke and the Guard strengthen in his heart.
The tunnel began to rise, switched back twice, and ended in another long ladder. The top of the ladder placed them in a closet in another room. “Let me go show my face first,” Ellison commanded and went out of the room briefly. “Alright, come along.”
Alec followed him down a hallway that led to a modest tavern located on a busy street. Ellison stopped abruptly at an empty table and sat down, motioning Alec to do likewise. “Okay, now tell me where we’re going,” Ellison suggested as he signaled to the serving girl for a drink. “What would you like?” he asked. Then he grinned, “I figured as long as we’re here we might as well play the part of tavern patrons.”
Alec received a glass of berrywater, while Ellison sipped a mug of ale. “I’d like to go to Bakers Street, to my shop there to check on things. That’s probably the only place I need to go today,” Alec explained. “I left there in a hurry and I’d like to make sure everything is alright, plus I need to get some clean clothes to wear while I’m at the palace.”
Ellison set his ale down after drinking only a small portion of it. “That’s all of that I need. Let’s get going,” he stood up to head out the door. They were on a street Alec didn’t recognize, but he followed his escort closely, and in a few minutes they were on Church Street passing a market Alec recognized. Soon after that two more turns put them at the end of Baker Street.
Alec almost ran to the shop with green shutters, but forced himself to maintain a steady pace. The door was open and he could see that someone was inside. He stepped through the door. In the waiting room a half dozen folks were sitting patiently, while Leah was talking to someone near one of the examination room doors. She glanced up at the shadow of the new entrants.
“Alec!” she shouted, and ran across the room to hug him, holding on fiercely for a long time. She stepped back from him slightly, and kissed him. “I am so glad to see you here!”
Alec grinned at her, until he heard Ellison quote, “’I’m just going to check on my shop,’ he said,” in a mocking, singsong tone.
“Leah, this is Ellison,” Alec introduced. “Can we go talk for a while?” he asked looking at the watching people sitting around the room.
Leah looked around the room at the people who had witnessed the tableau, judging there to be no apparent critical needs for care. “Everyone, I’m sorry, but we’re going to close this afternoon,” Leah announced. “Please come back tomorrow.” One groaned, but the rest nodded and took their leave, so that the room was quickly empty.
“Have you been practicing medicine satisfactorily on your own?” Alec
asked curiously.
“If they have a headache, I give them the willow bark tea infusion. If they have constipation, I give them the pattern leaf powder. If they have just about anything else, I tell them to go elsewhere or come back when the doctor is back from his trip,” Leah said with a smile. “Was that alright?”
“I’m sure you did fine,” Alec said. “I’m afraid I can’t stay long this time. Let’s go upstairs so I can pack. Ellison, will you stay here?” Alec asked.
“I’ll stay at the foot of the stairs, if you don’t mind,” the guard replied, indicating that he was going to no matter what.
“That’s fine,” Alec agreed, and he and Leah went upstairs.
“Welcome back Doctor Alec,” Ellen greeted him in the hallway, Hannah standing silently by her side.
“Hello Ellen,” Alec replied. “Would you go downstairs for a few minutes and keep our guest company? His name is Ellison. We’ll be back down soon,” he requested.
Ellen put her broom down. “It will be my pleasure,” she said and lifted Hannah down the stairway.
“Oh Leah, I can’t believe all that has happened!” he said when they were alone. They sat down on the bed together, Leah slightly awkward as her pregnancy seemed to Alec to have jumped in advancement in the past couple of days. Alec told her all he could remember about the whirlwind of events in the palace.
“Well, I knew something was going on,” Leah told him. Yesterday a servant from Natha came by and dropped off a note saying that you were well, treating someone who needed your help, and not to worry. He also brought a bag full of silvers, enough to last a year!”
“I can’t stay long,” Alec told her as his story-telling ended, getting up to pack clean things to take back to the infirmary. “I have to get back. Please don’t tell anyone where I am or who I’m treating until we know more about what is going on.”
“We haven’t seen anyone suspicious,” Leah informed him. “We’ll keep an eye out. Having Ellen and Hannah helps the place feel safer anyway. I’m lucky you invited them in when you did.”
“I miss you,” he told her.
“I miss you too, Alec,” she rose and hugged him again.
He walked away and opened the door. “I need to go.” He shouldered his pack, then took her hand in his and went down the stairs.
At the bottom he found Ellison and Hannah wrestling and laughing, while Ellen looked on with a smile. “It’s the first time I’ve seen her laugh with a man,” Ellen said happily.
“I’ll be back soon, and I’ll try to bring Ellison again,” Alec told the women as they were leaving. The men walked out the door into the afternoon sun and retraced their steps back to the tavern with the tunnel. Half an hour later Alec was back in the infirmary, and his time back at the shop seemed like an illusion.
Chapter 19 – The Duke Makes Plans
Shortly after his return, Alec saw Inga’s wheelchair being pushed back to the infirmary by her husband. “I think you’ve bewitched my wife, Alec,” Captain Lewis said with a smile. “She spent half the afternoon talking about you when she should have been devoting all her attention to me!”
Alec wondered if the Captain were giving him a subtle signal that information about him was being transmitted through the Guard, or if the captain was just making the light conversation it appeared.
“Oh darling, there’s nobody but you,” Inga looked up at him and batted her eyelids several times. “But,” she added in her conventional voice, “you’re old news, and he’s the new news!”
The captain picked her carefully up and laid her on her bed. “Thanks for taking care of her doc,” he said. “I’ll be back tomorrow morning. Do you think she’ll be ready to move out of the infirmary tomorrow?”
Alec thought about it. “Probably not tomorrow. Her dressings definitely need to be changed again tomorrow, so we might as well keep her here, where I can easily do it. The day after that maybe though.”
“Very well. It’s just as well that you do the dirty work, and then I’ll swoop in and receive the fruits of your labors. Good bye, love,” the captain said with affection towards his wife, and then was out the door.
“So, I hear you had an adventure as well,” Inga said to Alec, keeping her voice low to avoid awakening the Duke. “We were told you and Ellison took the tunnel. You must rank high in the colonel’s regard, Alec. Ellison is his own trained guard, and no one who is not in our uniform ever goes through that tunnel – I hope they told you to keep it secret.”
“They did, although Ellison said he knew one other who had gone through,” Alec answered. He once again felt proud of the apparent trust the colonel had in him. These people, this city, were presenting him with opportunities and responsibilities to start a life better than he’d ever dreamed of.
“Would you two keep it down, so that I may rest my noble head,” the Duke’s voice told them he was awake.
Alec responded to the Duke’s questions about future care as he had to Captain Lewis, telling him probably one more day in the infirmary and he might be discharged. “In the meantime, I think you’re both ready for some solid food. Shall I order some for us all?” he asked.
“Doctor,” Inga replied, abashed, “The Duke doesn’t eat with commoners. Feed him first, and I’ll eat later.”
“We won’t stand on ceremony under these circumstances dear, unless the doctor orders something I don’t like, then I’ll exercise my prerogative to order my own dinner,” the Duke assured her.
Alec ended up ordering simple fare and went back to mix medications while awaiting its arrival.
When he heard the door open he went out to distribute the food. He found that Colonel Ryder has returned with the dinner tray. Together, the four ate their food, the two patients lying down and the other two sitting on the bed between them. Alec told the Duke that he appeared healthy enough to sit again during the planned evening meeting.
Shortly after the trays were sent out empty, a group of men filed into the infirmary. Darkness had set outside, and the colonel had the guards close the shutters and curtains for every window. Several came in: Noah Rastall and Lord Kelvin, who he had met earlier, the colonel and an officer with a different uniform on, two other civilians who were advisors or ministers, and a man who Alec could tell was a ingenaire, which made him very nervous, and at the end of the group came Natha.
“Natha, I’m glad to see you again. Thank you for taking care of Leah for me,” Alec told him.
“And I’m glad to see you too, Natha,” the Duke said. “You’re a good man to have and to listen to, and I’m doubly glad to see the colonel had the wisdom to recognize that.”
“Is this all there will be tonight?” the Duke asked Colonel Ryder, obviously expecting to see more.
“We felt these were the right ones for tonight,” Ryder replied, looking at Kelvin.
“Very well, your judgment is good,” The Duke said. To lighten the mood he turned to Alec, who was standing quietly to one side. “Doctor, we’re meeting in your premises, so I suppose you’re the host. What do you have to offer your guests for drinks?”
Alec must have looked panic-stricken at the unexpected question, because the Duke quickly said, “Just some humor, Alec, don’t worry. Colonel, we are going to need some wine though. Send your guards out for some good Goldenfields wine and glasses, and then they can keep guard outside the building thereafter.”
Ryder looked at the guards for a moment, and they all left the room immediately. In less than a minute there was a knock at the door and a case of wine was handed in.
“Very good. Now, let’s not waste time, or my doctor will sedate me,” the Duke said. “I want to hear your reports on what happened. And I want to hear what is happening now, and what we are going to do.” He wore a look of seriousness and command Alec had not seen yet. He looked and sounded like someone worthy of following into battle at that moment.
Ryder spoke first. They had determined that the assassins had ridden boats down the river, used grappling tools a
nd come up to the Duke’s porch while he was there with a minimal guard. Two boats had apparently been involved, and had escaped. How long they had been in the city no one was sure. They had apparently staged at an old warehouse near the Coopers Street, where a watchman was found dead.
“They killed Gim,” Alec said, as he realized why the old man had failed to answer his and Leah’s repeated attempts to contact him. The faces in the room turned to look at him.
“As a matter of fact, the dead watchman was named Gim,” the officer said, looking at Alec. “How do you know that?”
Alec took a stricken breath. He knew he had to tell the truth, or face severe consequences. The question was how much of the truth to tell. He saw Colonel Ryder looking at him.
“When Leah and I arrived in the city, we asked a watchman to keep our things secure while we looked for a place to stay. That’s when we went to Annalea’s,” he said to Natha. “We told the watchman we’d be back to get our stuff. But every time we returned, we never were able to raise Gim at his warehouse.”
“I noticed one time there were two small, shallow boats tied up to the wharf by the warehouse.”
“Eventually we went to someone who Gim had told us he knew, to see if she had heard from him. She was going to try to find him. I never had the chance to get back in touch with her because all this came up.”
“I had started to treat Gim for some ailments, and told him I’d take care of him when we came back if he’d keep our goods secret. That’s why I was so surprised we were never able to raise him,” Alec finished.
“His story fits pretty well,” the officer said. “It was a woman who alerted the local constables that she couldn’t find her brother-in-law, whose name was Gim. When they went to the warehouse he stayed in, they noticed the smell, and found him murdered inside. We came into it when they found an abandoned Guard uniform, which they figured meant an AWOL Guard had done it.”
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