Young Bloods Read Free

watched in anxious silence as the doctor leaned over their child and examined the tiny body closely in the wavering glow of the candles in the chandelier. There was a faint cry from the crib as the doctor pressed lightly on the child’s stomach and Anne started in alarm. Dr Kilkenny glanced over his shoulder. ‘Rest easy, my dear woman. That’s perfectly normal.’
    Garrett reached for her hands and held them tightly as the doctor finished his examination and straightened up.
    Garrett looked at him. ‘Well?’
    ‘He might live.’
    ‘Might live …’ Anne whispered.‘I thought you could help us.’
    ‘My dear lady, there are only so many things a doctor can do to help his patients. Your boy is weak. I’ve seen many like this. Some are lost very quickly. Others linger for days, weeks even, before succumbing. Some survive.’
    ‘But what can be done for him?’
    ‘Keep him warm.Try to feed him as often as you can.You must also rub him with an ointment I’ll leave with you. Once in the morning and once at night. It’s a stimulant. It may well mean the difference between life and death. The child may cry when you apply it, but you must ignore any tears and continue the treatment. Understand?’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘Now, my coat, please. I’ll have the bill sent round in the morning. I bid you both good night, then.’
    As soon as the doctor had left, Garrett slipped down into a chair close to the crib and stared helplessly at the baby. Arthur’s eyes flickered open for a moment, but the rest of his body seemed as limp and lifeless as before. Garrett watched for a while longer, then rubbed his tired eyes.
    ‘You should go to bed,’ Anne said quietly. ‘You’re exhausted. You need to rest.You must be strong in the coming days. I’ll need your support. So will he.’
    ‘His name is Arthur.’
    ‘Yes. I know. Now go to bed. I’ll stay here with him.’
    ‘Very well.’
    As Garrett left the room, his wife stared down at the baby, stroking her brow wearily.
     
The next day Anne continued to try to feed the child, but he took little of her milk and shrank away before their eyes. At first the application of the ointment made the infant howl, but after a few moments, Anne discovered that he quickly sought out the comfort of her breast once smeared with the ointment, which smelled faintly of alcohol.
    Anne and Garrett kept his birth a close secret, not wishing to have endless visits from concerned friends and relatives. They did not even send word back to their home in Dangan to let their other children know about their new brother.
    Then, on the fourth day after his birth, an excited Anne burst into her husband’s study to tell him that Arthur was feeding properly at last. And slowly, as he continued to feed, he gained weight and colour and began to wriggle and writhe as infants should. Until at last it was clear that he would live. Only then, on the first of May, over three weeks after his birth did the parents announce the birth of Arthur Wesley, third son of the Earl of Mornington, in the Dublin papers.

Chapter 3
    Corsica, 1769
    Archdeacon Luciano had just begun the blessing when Letizia’s waters broke. She had been standing in a pool of light cast by a bright sun shining fully through the high arched window behind the altar of the Cathedral in Ajaccio. It was a hot August day and the light carried a searing heat with it, so that she felt warm and prickly beneath the dark folds of her best clothes, the ones she wore only for mass. Letizia felt perspiration trickle under her arms, cool enough to make her shiver. And, as if in response, the child inside the grossly swollen lump of her stomach lashed out with its limbs.
    Letizia smiled. So different from her first child. Giuseppe had lain in her womb so still that she had feared another stillborn baby. But he was a fine healthy little boy now. Meek as a lamb. Not like the one inside her, who even now seemed to be struggling to burst upon the world. Perhaps it was