as well. One certain death if they stayed here. Two possible deaths if they made for Dublin. A certainty against a possibility. Put like that Garrett decided they must take the risk. He grasped the iron handle, thrust it down and pushed the door open.
The inn’s best room was a cramped affair of clammy plastered walls with a chest, a washstand, and a large bed above which hung a plain cross. To one side of the bed was a table and on it rested a pewter candle stand. Three half-melted candles wavered ever so faintly from the draught of the door’s movement. Anne stirred beneath the folds of the covers and her eyes flickered open.
‘My love,’ she murmured, ‘we have a son, see.’
Easing herself up on the bolster she nodded gently to the bundle in the crook of the other arm.
‘I know.’ Garrett forced himself to smile back. ‘The midwife told me.’
He crossed to the bed and lowered himself to his knees beside his wife, taking her spare hand in both of his.
‘Where has she gone?’
‘To give word for our carriage to be readied.’
‘Readied?’ Anne’s gaze flickered towards the shutters, but there was no fringe of light around the edges. ‘It’s still dark. Besides, my love, I’m tired. So very tired. I must rest. Surely we can spare a day here?’
‘No. The child needs a doctor.’
‘A doctor?’ Anne looked confused. She removed her hand from her husband’s grasp and carefully drew back a fold of the soft linen cloth wrapped round the baby. In the warm glow of the candles Garrett saw the puffy features of the infant - eyes closed and lips still. Only the rhythmic flaring of the tiny nostrils indicated any sign of life. Anne stroked a finger across the wrinkled forehead. ‘Why a doctor?’
‘He’s weak and needs the proper attention as soon as possible. The only place we can be sure of that is Dublin.’
Anne frowned. ‘But that’s a day’s journey from here. At least.’
‘Which is why I’ve given orders to ready the carriage.We must leave at once.’
‘But, Garrett—’
‘Hush!’ He softly pressed a finger to her lips.‘You mustn’t exert yourself. Rest, my dear. Save your strength.’
He rose from the bed. Beyond the shutters there were sounds of stirring from down in the coach yard; one of the grooms cursing as the gates squeaked on rusty hinges. Garrett nodded towards the window. ‘I must go. They’ll need a firm hand to get us on the road in good time.’
Down in the inn’s cobbled yard, two lanterns had been lit and hung from brackets outside the coach house. The doors had been wedged open and inside dim figures were harnessing the horses.
‘Hurry up there!’ Garrett called out as he crossed the yard.‘We must leave at once.’
‘But it’s still night, my lord.’ A man emerged from the servants’ quarters, pulling on his overcoat, and Garrett dismissed his coachman’s protest with a curt wave of his hand.
‘We leave the moment my wife is dressed and ready to travel, O’Shea. See to it that our baggage is loaded. Now get those horses out here and harnessed to the carriage.’
‘Yes, my lord.As you wish.’The coachman bowed his head, and strode into the stable. ‘Come on, lads! Move, you idlers!’
Garrett’s gaze flickered up to the window of his wife’s room and he felt a pang of guilt at not being by her side. He glanced back towards the stable and frowned.
‘Come on there, you men! Set to it!’
Chapter 2
The carriage rumbled out of the yard in the last hour of darkness. Turning on to the roughly cobbled street of the village, the iron-bound wheels rattled harshly, shattering the silence of the night. On either side the dark mass of the houses packed along the length of the street were momentarily illuminated by the two carriage lanterns. Inside, the coach was lit by a single lamp fixed to the bulkhead behind the driver. Garrett sat with his arm around his wife and stared down at the still form of their son, cradled in her lap. The midwife was right. The baby looked weak and limp. Anne glanced at her husband, reading his concerned expression accurately.
‘The midwife told me everything before we left. I know there is little enough chance that he will survive.We must put our trust in the Lord.’
‘Yes,’ Garrett nodded.
The carriage pulled out of the village and the rattle of cobblestones gave way to the softer rumble of the unpaved turnpike that wound through the countryside towards Dublin. Garrett flicked back one