Splintered Heart (The Bentons and Northcutts 2) ✅

Chapter Four

The clinic was a smaller building than Rafe expected. He would have thought that the inn would have been converted into a clinic, and he knew that it was generous for one of the physicians to convert his own home into a clinic. Elisa had sent a footman with him as an escort, and Rafe nodded to the man. The footman hurried to the front door and knocked. A few moments later a weary maid emerged, and her eyes went wide when she saw the footman. "You're with House Northcutt!" she exclaimed. She looked behind the footman and saw Rafe. "M-Milord Northcutt!" she curtsied deeply to Rafe.

Rafe was surprised that she recognized him, but he supposed that she would have seen him when he came out to greet Magister Weaver. "Please pardon me for intruding," he said politely. "Are the physicians available?"

"D-Doctor Gray just finished his rotation, Lord Northcutt," the maid stammered, quickly motioning them inside. "Doctor Yarrow has just started his round. I-I will call him, please wait here!" The maid hurried off, leaving Rafe and the footman standing in the entryway.

Rafe quickly noted the beds in the entryway filled with sick people and he quickly pulled out his handkerchief to cover his mouth. His cousins did not know if the plague passed through the air or through contact, and he did not know if being near them would make him sick. After all, none of his cousins were sick despite being near Bernard when he died.

He craned his neck and looked around, seeing if he could spot Phoebe. He knew that there was no one else from House Benton who resembled the person that had been described to him, though he had resented the way Phoebe had been described as "plain". Phoebe was not plain; she was exceptionally beautiful, both inside and out.

"My Lord Northcutt." An older man dressed in white hurried over to Rafe, bowing respectfully. "I am honored by your presence and offer my condolences for the passing of Lord Bernard. We did all that we could to save him."

"I understand and I thank you for your care," Rafe told him. "I am here to see how the situation is going. I have also heard that a noblewoman arrived to help you?"

"Aye, Miss Benton," Doctor Yarrow said, but there was a bite to her tone. "She is not lacking in her opinions, I must say. Unfortunately the situation is dire, Lord Northcutt. Every day there a new sick person, and every day someone succumbs to the sickness. This plague is unlike any plague I have dealt with. I have treated patients afflicted with smallpox, rossalia, mumps, and the like. But this plague?" he shook his head. "It is abnormal."

Rafe leaned in close to speak to him. "Do you believe it to be natural, or related to poisoning?" he asked discreetly.

"As of now I cannot say," Doctor Yarrow said. "I have had experience of widespread poisoning, where a hamlet was afflicted with hemlock poisoning from a well. But that was an entire community who fell ill. Here, whole families have become sick but there have also been cases of singular people in a household being sick and no one else catching the sickness."

"That is...certainly unusual," Rafe said. "Have there been any physicians or servants who have fallen ill from this plague?"

"Not many, praise God," Doctor Yarrow said. "But truthfully Lord Northcutt, this is the most perplexing plague I have ever dealt with."

"Doctor Yarrow?"

That voice. Rafe felt an expected flush of heat rush down his body when a woman rounded the corner, and he suddenly found himself face-to-face with...her. Phoebe Benton. She looked tired and slightly disheveled, and she was dressed similarly to the servants, but her eyes were flashing and determined. "Doctor Yarrow, the elder gentleman—"

Phoebe's voice broke off as she looked at the newcomers, and her eyes fixed upon Rafe. Her strong and unwavering gaze made his heart pound. He could feel strength radiating from her. It was as powerful as her beauty. "Mister Rafe," Phoebe said after a  moment, curtsying politely. "I did not know that you were also here. I had heard that the Northcutt family lived nearby, but I have not gone up to their keep yet to greet them."