This is totally fiction, and based on the C.S. Forester Hornblower novels and the A&E miniseries of the same name. Okay, it's almost totally miniseries, and I've thrown some things out the window entirely. What can I say.... I wanted a chance at Ioan Gruffudd helpless 8^) (I AM shameless!) And Archie and Horatio both go through a lot in this... if you don't like seeing either of them slightly beaten up upon, consider yourself warned. Meridith, Julia, Ms. Brummel, and 'The Wharf Girls' belong to me.... okay, Meridith IS me, but Horatio Hornblower and Archie Kennedy and any other characters from the miniseries that meander through are not mine, they belong to C.S. Forester, A&E and their respective actors. And, at the risk of this being totally timelineilly inaccurate,(it's fiction, live with it!) yes, Meridith Martin is the daughter of Benjamin and Charlotte Martin from The Patriot, and her brother (gasp!) is Gabriel Martin as played by Heath Ledger... how's two lickable characters in one fanfic strike you? So, at the risk of sending C.S. Forester spinning in his grave and all the people associated with the Patriot running away screaming, here's my wishes for the Hornblower universe. And the paranormal? Blame it on Angel.
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It has been determined that the theme song for this story is Dante's Prayer by Loreena McKennitt on her Book of Secrets C.D. The white mice subjected to both this story and the music shredded the story to use for bedding and ignored the music. Ain't science great.
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It was the fifth of July in Spithead. The only reason Meridith knew this was that she had been expecting fireworks yesterday and was rather disappointed when she realized that the losing country in the war was not likely to be celebrating the colonies' freedom. Aah well. She grabbed her cloak and thumped down the stairs, snagging the marketing basket from the landing table on her way to see who was manning the kitchen today. Putting her ear to the door, Meridith listened for a cue to enter. With all the banging and clanging and swearing from the other side, it could be none other than Julia, bad-tempered and hot-headed as usual. Pushing through the swinging door, Meridith crept behind Julia's turned back and took a seat on the stool in the corner of the kitchen to wait for Julia to come out of her rage and give her the market list. Knowing Julia, it could take a while before she was even recognized as being in the room.
A pot struck the floor near the stool and Meridith looked down at it. Julia looked over at the same pot and realized that Meridith had "snuck" in. With a screech, she launched into Meridith, harping about all sort of things that Meridith really had no need to hear. Julia thought she owned the house, and all the girls in it. In reality, the brothel was owned by Ms. Brummel and all the girls, Julia included, paid part of their weekly earnings to her in return for their own room for 'entertaining'. It was quite the vicious circle. Meridith was the only one who didn't pay any rent. Instead she was kept on as 'the poor Patriot girl'.
Granted, she had come from America after the Revolution and the wars and the Declaration, but there was nothing poor about her sprit and heritage, only her monetary value. She was the only child of Benjamin and Charlotte Martin but had seven other siblings. It was a complicated family, her father's first wife having died after having seven children, and her father had marrying his wife's sister, making both wives both aunt and mother to the now eight children. Two of her brothers had died before she was born, both at the hands of the same man during the Revolution in the colonies. She had small drawn portraits of them stored away up in one of the trunks in the corner of her attic room. Occasionally she took them out to sit and wonder what they had been like. The elder had had messy blonde hair and dimples, and brown eyes that you could fall into. Her father had said that he was quite the lady's man and Meridith could understand why. The younger of the two had on a tricorner hat at a cocky angle and his fine brown hair was loose around his face. He had a goofy smile plastered on his face, showing charmingly crooked teeth and his blue eyes sparkled.
"Meridith!" Julia snapped, and struck the side of Meridith's face with a towel to get her attention. Meridith started, waking up from her daydream of the plantation back home and looked alert for Julia's benefit. Julia was in a cracking bad mood and taking it out on anything near her.
"I guess I have to trust you with this." Julia thrust a hastily scrawled marketing list at Meridith, barely letting the other girl get ahold of it before dropping the small money sack in her hands as well. Meridith settled both things safely in the pocket of her cloak and let Julia screech at her about being civil to the shopkeepers and polite to the men, because it wouldn't do if the girl who was only the healer in the house and almost the hired help at that to be scaring away the customers for those girls in the house who actually had to work! Meridith shrugged her off, waving her a goodbye as she went out the back kitchen door into the alley. Pausing, she hung the basket on a nail sticking from the wall of the next house and threw her cloak over her shoulders against the persistent English morning fog.
Hooking the basket over her arm, she poked through the money bag as she moved out of the alley and down the street, her attention focused on the list and the amount of money she had been given rather than the crowded street. Meridith smiled as she reached the first store. It looked like Julia had been kinder than intended and given her the chance, if she was thrifty, to have money left over to purchase the herbs she had been running out of. As the door opened the bell tinkled above her and the shopkeeper, Mr. Siebleman looked up.
"Ahh, Meridith. I was wondering when you would be through again." Most of the storekeepers knew Meridith and her story and didn't scorn her the way they did the rest of the brothel girls like Julia. After she had turned fourteen, Meridith had decided that she wanted to go to England and see what she could do for herself there. Her father was less than happy, remembering the battles between the Americans and the British, but her mother had just smiled and said something about the 'adventurous Martin spirit." So her father relented, and she was packed off to England in less than a month, with the warning that if she hadn't found a way to support herself in a proper way by the time she was twenty, she was coming home and being married to Thomas Moore, the boy from Apple Hollow. In reality, that was part of the reason she had come in the first place... he was a nice enough boy, but a little, well... slow, you might say. And so far, she was doing all right for herself. All she had learned about healing had been taught to her by Silvia, one of the free Negros that worked on the family plantation. After she had come over here to England, Meridith had fallen in with a group of other healers, and taken the job at the brothel when nobody else would. It was a place to live while looking for something her mother would consider proper. Ah well. It was a start, at least. And if she was lucky, she would find a nice rich boy over here and marry him and then 'proper' would be the least of her mother's worries. Meridith smiled back at Mr. Siebleman.
"Good morrow, Mr. S. I'm here looking for your finest fresh strawberries. Which farm is bringing the sweetest this week?"
Mr. Siebleman, or Mr. S, as people called him, led her over to a low crate of strawberries. "These are just in from the Morgan farm, and I've been hearing nothing but good about them."
Meridith picked one up and held it in the light, squeezing gently. "I think we'll take one box of these, and then a crate of the Fillmont apples and a half-flat of the McKenna oranges."
Mr.S smiled. "You always do know the best bargains, don't you Meridith?"
"That's what they keep me around for, Mr. S. To make sure that old shopkeepers like you don't sell them the bruised fruit from the bottom of the barrels." Meridith replied gamely.
This produced a deep belly laugh from the shopkeeper. "Fillmont, McKenna and Morgan it is, Meridith. Is there anything else I can get for you this fine day?"
"I do think that's it, thank you. How much are you depriving me of this time?"
Mr. Siebelman did a few quick calculations on the paper at the front of he store. "Five pounds and twopence, if you please Meridith."
She dug into the moneybag and produced the required sum. "Thank you Mr. S. And those will be brought around later this morning? Julia will be expecting them."
The old shopkeeper nodded. "Don't worry, your Julia will have nothing to be upset with you about."
Meridith smiled. "Thank you Mr. S." The bell on the door tinkled again as she left and she waved on her way out.
The rest of the shopping too took less time than usual, even though there seemed to be more than ever to carry back and her basket soon got heavy and unwieldy. The very last stop she made was at Glouster's Apothecary for her herbs. Mrs. Glouster greeted her on her way in and took her into the back room to look at the newest batch of dried herbs that had been gathered earlier that morning.
"This is the latest batch of feverfew. Mary gathered it out in Hampshire's field, and it's not as young as I'd have liked it but it was all she could find." Mrs. Glouster held out a bundle of small green plants bound together with a waxen string. Hurriedly putting her heavy basket aside, Meridith crushed the tip of one of the leaves with her fingers and held it to her nose. The pungent odor assured her that although it might have been young feverfew it would still be a potent headache remedy.
"'Twill be fine, Mrs. Glouster. I'll be able to use less and save more with the younger leaves." She put the feverfew in her basket and glances around at the other fresh drying herbs. "Do you have any witch hazel? Alianora has a few nasty bruises she's itching to get rid of."
The apothecary took a small blue bottle off a shelf and handed it to Meridith, who put it in the basket, thinking out loud to herself. "Aloe I have plenty of, and wheatgrass. I'm getting low on coneflower and anise, and comfrey."
Mrs.Glouster put three more bundles into Meridith's hand as she thought, and then as Meridith was putting them into the basket, she remembered which other he was in dire need of.
"Wintergreen! Two bundles, if you please, Mrs. Glouster. It's for the girls' hangovers you know."
Mrs. Glouster clucked her tongue as she handed Meridith the wintergreen.
"I don't like you staying in that place, Meridith." The older woman began tallying Meridith's price as she talked. "Those girls, they'll come to no good, the lot of them, when it comes to Judgment Day. I do wish you'd come stay with me. You and your knowledge of herbs, we could be a wonderful team. That will be six shillings and fivepence."
Meridith handed her the money, smiling. "You know that 'those girls' would go absolutely mad if I left them, Mrs. Glouster."
"And what would be the matter with that?"
"Because then I would be out of a place to live."
"You could live here with me. Over the store."
Meridith shook her head. Every visit here ended like this. "I appreciate it, Mrs. Glouster, and I'll keep your offer in mind." The apothecary gave Meridith the appropriate change and shooed her out the back door after slipping a bundle of lemon drops amongst the items in her basket.
Meridith was smiling as she walked back to the brothel. At least she was being well-looked after. Her mother had nothing to worry about. Her mother Charlotte would love to meet Mrs. Glouster and Mr. S, and all the other shopkeepers who watched over Meridith like a small army of guardian angels hovering just slightly over the girl's head. This image rather entertained Meridith, seeing in her minds eye miniatures of all the shopkeepers and townspeople that knew her with rather large white wings growing our of their backs creating a glowing halo around her head. She was so entertained with it in fact that she wasn't watching her footing as she reached the brothel. Her foot fouled on something in the street gutter and sent her sprawling, basket flying, and goods spilling into the muddy street.
"Devil take it!" Meridith cried and turned her basked upright again, trying to salvage as much as she could before the mud soaked into everything and ruined it for good. As she reached for the last cone of sugar, her eyes turned to the gutter and she realized what it was she had tripped over.
She gasped, and all but threw the muddy purchases into the basket, scrambling forward to make sure she wasn't seeing things. She wasn't.
All she could see was his back, and it was rather unremarkable. Obviously at one time he had been at least somewhat important. He wore a blue jacket and white breeches, both now covered in grime. The white stockings were torn and shabby and the shoes had seen better days. His hair was long and wavy, and at one time had probably looked quite remarkable, but now the ever-present grime had matted it and snarled it around itself, giving his queue a rather ratty appearance. Hesitantly, Meridith pushed at his shoulder until he limply fell over onto his other side and exposed his front.
Eyes wide, Meridith recognized the cut and fashion of the coat. He was a lieutenant in the navy. She recognized the white lapels of the coat from her four year-elder brother's books of military stories. She brushed the hair out of his eyes and he stirred ever so slightly under her touch. She jumped back as if burned, having thought he was dead. Well, then, this put a whole new spin on things! If she could get him up to her room in the brothel, she might be able to nurse him back from death's doorstep. And if she could get him up and about again, he could go back to sea. And if he happened to win a prize ship and get the money he might think kindly on her and give her just even an eighth of it and she might be able to become her own self sufficient girl. Her thoughts were broken into by a hacking cough and the body in the gutter spasmed. Silently chiding herself for letting her thoughts run away with her again, she hooked both arms under the man and pulled him up until he was sitting. His eyelids opened slightly, revealing deep chocolate brown eyes and he looked at her muzzily.
"Mariette?" he croaked. Meridith shook her head.
"Sir, can you stand? Can you help me get you inside?" she asked. He reached out and put his hand on her shoulder then struggled to his feet, leaning on her rather heavily and unsteadily. Grabbing the marketing basket, she threw his arm over her shoulders in an attempt to help keep him upright and started leading him towards the house. The door presented a bit of a problem, but she managed.
Once in side she mentally kicked herself. She had forgotten totally about the three flights of stairs up to the top of the house and her room. *Well, hell's bells* she thought to herself, then took the plunge.
"Sir, you're going to have to go up some stairs here. Just lift your feet sir. That's it, you can make it." With much coaxing, she managed to keep him upright until the first landing. Foolishly, she paused, presumably to let him gather his strength for the next flight, and he crumpled to the ground again. No amount of pleading, prodding or pinching could wake him up. *It's a good thing the other girls are in their rooms with ale-head problems or I'd never hear the last of this.* Finally, Meridith gave up and picked the man up with her arms locked around his chest. For a full grown near-six-foot man, he was amazingly light. And smelled amazingly rancid. She paused only briefly on the second landing to stretch out her arms before dragging him in a most uncivilized way up the last rickety flight to the garret room she called home.
Draping the unknown man unceremoniously over her thin mattress, she pulled the recently purchased herbs out of the basket and ran back down the stairs, basket swinging from her elbow to burst in through the kitchen door and deposit her purchases in front of a still peeved Julia.
"What took you so long?!" Julia screeched.
"I can't talk now Julia, I'm sorry, let's just say I stumbled over something that needed my attention." Leaving the basket and her purchases and Julia with her mouth hanging open like a fish, Meridith tucked up her skirts and dashed back up the three flights of stairs to her room and mystery man.
He had gone from being draped face down over the bed to curled in the corner sweating and shaking in the time it took Meridith to get downstairs and back again. Kneeling beside him, she put a hand on his forehead. Even though he flinched and pulled away, she could tell that he was burning up with fever. Somehow, Meridith managed to wrestle the sweaty shivering body into the thin, lumpy bed. He seemed to calm a little and go from deleria to true sleep, giving her the chance to assess the situation a little better. Brushing the loose hair away from his face she got her first look at this man from the gutter. He was young, with wavy dark hair, thick eyelashes, a strong chin. Meridith laughed out loud. He was easily the most handsome young lieutenant in England. And he had chosen *her* doorstep to collapse on. The irony wasn't lost on Meridith. Meridith Martin who had the family Martin nose that took up more than its fair share of the owner's face, Meridith with the American accent as wide as a street and almost as murky, Meridith with the unruly curly hair that she had chopped short to save her having to fuss with it daily, short infuriating Meridith who didn't have any of the attractive qualities her brothers did or the amazing blonde hair of her sisters. No, the irony was entirely not lost on her.
With a smile, she stood and went over to the small trunk under the slit window. Opening it, she rummaged through the dried herbs and small bottles before producing a small envelope. Opening the envelope she let three small pink meadowsweet flowers fall into her hand. Closing the trunk, she took a tea ball and a mug from the side of the trunk and placed it on top. Letting the flowers fall into the tea ball, she took a chunk of willow bark from a hanging basket in the window and added a few drops of peppermint oil to the mug. Glancing at the lieutenant once more, she dashed down the stairs to coax a pitcher of hot water from Julia, and hurried back up as quickly as she could without spilling steaming water all over Ms. Brummel's precious oak staircase. She pushed her door open with her foot and set the hot and dripping pitcher down on top of the trunk. Wiping her hands dry on her skirt, she took her apron down from its nail beside the door and wrapped her hand in a corner of it to lift the hot pitcher and pour water into the mug of plant remedies.
She did remarkably well with the heavy pitcher, only spilling a little onto the top of the trunk. Mixing the herbal concoction with the wrong end of a hatpin, Meridith sat down on the side of the bed. Holding the warm mug in her apron-wrapped hand, she put one hand on the lieutenant's forehead. It was still burning hot and he moved slightly, turning his face towards her. Since he was still asleep, Meridith decided that the willow tea could wait and set it down on the crate that acted as her bedside table. It was better that he was actually getting rest than she was pouring her brews into him, no matter how much they might help.
"Hot...." it was barely a whisper. "Archie... so hot...." He was lying on his stomach, making it simple for Meridith to gently shrug him out of the heavy blue woolen coat. She hung the muddy coat over the back of her chair, brushing the white lapels off. She could only guess that it was his pride and joy, showing the whole world that he was indeed a lieutenant in the King's navy. Meridith smiled, and then turned back gently rolling him onto his side so she could get his threadbare waistcoat unbuttoned and off and untie his cravat. Having undressed him down to his shirt and breeches, she slipped his scuffed and thin shoes off, and followed them with the holed white stockings. Hell, she smiled, he even had handsome feet. Fearing he might be uncomfortable without the many layers he was accustomed to, Meridith pulled the sheet from the foot of the bed up to his waist. He had rolled onto his front again and had his head pillowed on his arms. His eyes were fluttering open and closed as he tried to stay semi-awake. Meridith put her hand on his forehead again. He already felt a little cooler, but that could just have been her imagination.
Standing up, she took the pitcher once again and poured part of the water out into her washbasin. Taking a clean handkerchief, she dipped it in the basin and then gently sponged the grime off of the young man's face. The dirt came off easily, and she hadn't realized it before, but he was bruised up as if he had been in a fight of some sort, or at least gotten on someone's bad side. His lip had a small split in it and there was a dark bruise at the top of his left eye, right under his eyebrow. Smaller and less serious bruises were scattered over the rest of his face. Sighing, Meridith dampened the handkerchief one more time and then folded it, putting it on his hot forehead. He had been watching her periodically, when he could muster the strength and or presence of mind to keep his eyes open. Now he let them close with a sigh. Meridith smoothed the hair back from his face before getting up from the side of the bed. She picked up the mug of fever herbs and moved it over under the window to wait for later. Tying her apron around her waist, she opened the door to go downstairs and see what she would be doing that night to help the girls with their 'work'. Usually it was just keeping the wine flowing, a tireless and thankless job. Sighing, Meridith ran her hand through her hair and turned to go.
There was a small sound from the young man on the bed, and Meridith turned around. He was still lying down, but she could see his eyes were open. He licked his lips.
"My.. name......" he croaked. "My.. name... is... Hornblower.... Horatio... Hornblower..."
Meridith smiled and went back over to his side.
"Well met. My name is Meridith Martin."
"Meri..dith?"
"Yes." She put her hand on his forehead and then the back of it on his cheek. "Sleep now, Horatio Hornblower. Sweet dreams." She tucked a stray lock of hair behind his ear. He closed his eyes and sighed, shifting a little. Meridith pulled the blanket up and tucked it around his shoulders before getting up. She took the lantern from it's usual place beside the bed and hung it on a nail in the rafter above the bed. Lighting the candle stub in it, she took one more look at 'her' lieutenant, and slipped out the door.
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It has been determined that the theme song for this story is Dante's Prayer by Loreena McKennitt on her Book of Secrets C.D. The white mice subjected to both this story and the music shredded the story to use for bedding and ignored the music. Ain't science great.
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It was the fifth of July in Spithead. The only reason Meridith knew this was that she had been expecting fireworks yesterday and was rather disappointed when she realized that the losing country in the war was not likely to be celebrating the colonies' freedom. Aah well. She grabbed her cloak and thumped down the stairs, snagging the marketing basket from the landing table on her way to see who was manning the kitchen today. Putting her ear to the door, Meridith listened for a cue to enter. With all the banging and clanging and swearing from the other side, it could be none other than Julia, bad-tempered and hot-headed as usual. Pushing through the swinging door, Meridith crept behind Julia's turned back and took a seat on the stool in the corner of the kitchen to wait for Julia to come out of her rage and give her the market list. Knowing Julia, it could take a while before she was even recognized as being in the room.
A pot struck the floor near the stool and Meridith looked down at it. Julia looked over at the same pot and realized that Meridith had "snuck" in. With a screech, she launched into Meridith, harping about all sort of things that Meridith really had no need to hear. Julia thought she owned the house, and all the girls in it. In reality, the brothel was owned by Ms. Brummel and all the girls, Julia included, paid part of their weekly earnings to her in return for their own room for 'entertaining'. It was quite the vicious circle. Meridith was the only one who didn't pay any rent. Instead she was kept on as 'the poor Patriot girl'.
Granted, she had come from America after the Revolution and the wars and the Declaration, but there was nothing poor about her sprit and heritage, only her monetary value. She was the only child of Benjamin and Charlotte Martin but had seven other siblings. It was a complicated family, her father's first wife having died after having seven children, and her father had marrying his wife's sister, making both wives both aunt and mother to the now eight children. Two of her brothers had died before she was born, both at the hands of the same man during the Revolution in the colonies. She had small drawn portraits of them stored away up in one of the trunks in the corner of her attic room. Occasionally she took them out to sit and wonder what they had been like. The elder had had messy blonde hair and dimples, and brown eyes that you could fall into. Her father had said that he was quite the lady's man and Meridith could understand why. The younger of the two had on a tricorner hat at a cocky angle and his fine brown hair was loose around his face. He had a goofy smile plastered on his face, showing charmingly crooked teeth and his blue eyes sparkled.
"Meridith!" Julia snapped, and struck the side of Meridith's face with a towel to get her attention. Meridith started, waking up from her daydream of the plantation back home and looked alert for Julia's benefit. Julia was in a cracking bad mood and taking it out on anything near her.
"I guess I have to trust you with this." Julia thrust a hastily scrawled marketing list at Meridith, barely letting the other girl get ahold of it before dropping the small money sack in her hands as well. Meridith settled both things safely in the pocket of her cloak and let Julia screech at her about being civil to the shopkeepers and polite to the men, because it wouldn't do if the girl who was only the healer in the house and almost the hired help at that to be scaring away the customers for those girls in the house who actually had to work! Meridith shrugged her off, waving her a goodbye as she went out the back kitchen door into the alley. Pausing, she hung the basket on a nail sticking from the wall of the next house and threw her cloak over her shoulders against the persistent English morning fog.
Hooking the basket over her arm, she poked through the money bag as she moved out of the alley and down the street, her attention focused on the list and the amount of money she had been given rather than the crowded street. Meridith smiled as she reached the first store. It looked like Julia had been kinder than intended and given her the chance, if she was thrifty, to have money left over to purchase the herbs she had been running out of. As the door opened the bell tinkled above her and the shopkeeper, Mr. Siebleman looked up.
"Ahh, Meridith. I was wondering when you would be through again." Most of the storekeepers knew Meridith and her story and didn't scorn her the way they did the rest of the brothel girls like Julia. After she had turned fourteen, Meridith had decided that she wanted to go to England and see what she could do for herself there. Her father was less than happy, remembering the battles between the Americans and the British, but her mother had just smiled and said something about the 'adventurous Martin spirit." So her father relented, and she was packed off to England in less than a month, with the warning that if she hadn't found a way to support herself in a proper way by the time she was twenty, she was coming home and being married to Thomas Moore, the boy from Apple Hollow. In reality, that was part of the reason she had come in the first place... he was a nice enough boy, but a little, well... slow, you might say. And so far, she was doing all right for herself. All she had learned about healing had been taught to her by Silvia, one of the free Negros that worked on the family plantation. After she had come over here to England, Meridith had fallen in with a group of other healers, and taken the job at the brothel when nobody else would. It was a place to live while looking for something her mother would consider proper. Ah well. It was a start, at least. And if she was lucky, she would find a nice rich boy over here and marry him and then 'proper' would be the least of her mother's worries. Meridith smiled back at Mr. Siebleman.
"Good morrow, Mr. S. I'm here looking for your finest fresh strawberries. Which farm is bringing the sweetest this week?"
Mr. Siebleman, or Mr. S, as people called him, led her over to a low crate of strawberries. "These are just in from the Morgan farm, and I've been hearing nothing but good about them."
Meridith picked one up and held it in the light, squeezing gently. "I think we'll take one box of these, and then a crate of the Fillmont apples and a half-flat of the McKenna oranges."
Mr.S smiled. "You always do know the best bargains, don't you Meridith?"
"That's what they keep me around for, Mr. S. To make sure that old shopkeepers like you don't sell them the bruised fruit from the bottom of the barrels." Meridith replied gamely.
This produced a deep belly laugh from the shopkeeper. "Fillmont, McKenna and Morgan it is, Meridith. Is there anything else I can get for you this fine day?"
"I do think that's it, thank you. How much are you depriving me of this time?"
Mr. Siebelman did a few quick calculations on the paper at the front of he store. "Five pounds and twopence, if you please Meridith."
She dug into the moneybag and produced the required sum. "Thank you Mr. S. And those will be brought around later this morning? Julia will be expecting them."
The old shopkeeper nodded. "Don't worry, your Julia will have nothing to be upset with you about."
Meridith smiled. "Thank you Mr. S." The bell on the door tinkled again as she left and she waved on her way out.
The rest of the shopping too took less time than usual, even though there seemed to be more than ever to carry back and her basket soon got heavy and unwieldy. The very last stop she made was at Glouster's Apothecary for her herbs. Mrs. Glouster greeted her on her way in and took her into the back room to look at the newest batch of dried herbs that had been gathered earlier that morning.
"This is the latest batch of feverfew. Mary gathered it out in Hampshire's field, and it's not as young as I'd have liked it but it was all she could find." Mrs. Glouster held out a bundle of small green plants bound together with a waxen string. Hurriedly putting her heavy basket aside, Meridith crushed the tip of one of the leaves with her fingers and held it to her nose. The pungent odor assured her that although it might have been young feverfew it would still be a potent headache remedy.
"'Twill be fine, Mrs. Glouster. I'll be able to use less and save more with the younger leaves." She put the feverfew in her basket and glances around at the other fresh drying herbs. "Do you have any witch hazel? Alianora has a few nasty bruises she's itching to get rid of."
The apothecary took a small blue bottle off a shelf and handed it to Meridith, who put it in the basket, thinking out loud to herself. "Aloe I have plenty of, and wheatgrass. I'm getting low on coneflower and anise, and comfrey."
Mrs.Glouster put three more bundles into Meridith's hand as she thought, and then as Meridith was putting them into the basket, she remembered which other he was in dire need of.
"Wintergreen! Two bundles, if you please, Mrs. Glouster. It's for the girls' hangovers you know."
Mrs. Glouster clucked her tongue as she handed Meridith the wintergreen.
"I don't like you staying in that place, Meridith." The older woman began tallying Meridith's price as she talked. "Those girls, they'll come to no good, the lot of them, when it comes to Judgment Day. I do wish you'd come stay with me. You and your knowledge of herbs, we could be a wonderful team. That will be six shillings and fivepence."
Meridith handed her the money, smiling. "You know that 'those girls' would go absolutely mad if I left them, Mrs. Glouster."
"And what would be the matter with that?"
"Because then I would be out of a place to live."
"You could live here with me. Over the store."
Meridith shook her head. Every visit here ended like this. "I appreciate it, Mrs. Glouster, and I'll keep your offer in mind." The apothecary gave Meridith the appropriate change and shooed her out the back door after slipping a bundle of lemon drops amongst the items in her basket.
Meridith was smiling as she walked back to the brothel. At least she was being well-looked after. Her mother had nothing to worry about. Her mother Charlotte would love to meet Mrs. Glouster and Mr. S, and all the other shopkeepers who watched over Meridith like a small army of guardian angels hovering just slightly over the girl's head. This image rather entertained Meridith, seeing in her minds eye miniatures of all the shopkeepers and townspeople that knew her with rather large white wings growing our of their backs creating a glowing halo around her head. She was so entertained with it in fact that she wasn't watching her footing as she reached the brothel. Her foot fouled on something in the street gutter and sent her sprawling, basket flying, and goods spilling into the muddy street.
"Devil take it!" Meridith cried and turned her basked upright again, trying to salvage as much as she could before the mud soaked into everything and ruined it for good. As she reached for the last cone of sugar, her eyes turned to the gutter and she realized what it was she had tripped over.
She gasped, and all but threw the muddy purchases into the basket, scrambling forward to make sure she wasn't seeing things. She wasn't.
All she could see was his back, and it was rather unremarkable. Obviously at one time he had been at least somewhat important. He wore a blue jacket and white breeches, both now covered in grime. The white stockings were torn and shabby and the shoes had seen better days. His hair was long and wavy, and at one time had probably looked quite remarkable, but now the ever-present grime had matted it and snarled it around itself, giving his queue a rather ratty appearance. Hesitantly, Meridith pushed at his shoulder until he limply fell over onto his other side and exposed his front.
Eyes wide, Meridith recognized the cut and fashion of the coat. He was a lieutenant in the navy. She recognized the white lapels of the coat from her four year-elder brother's books of military stories. She brushed the hair out of his eyes and he stirred ever so slightly under her touch. She jumped back as if burned, having thought he was dead. Well, then, this put a whole new spin on things! If she could get him up to her room in the brothel, she might be able to nurse him back from death's doorstep. And if she could get him up and about again, he could go back to sea. And if he happened to win a prize ship and get the money he might think kindly on her and give her just even an eighth of it and she might be able to become her own self sufficient girl. Her thoughts were broken into by a hacking cough and the body in the gutter spasmed. Silently chiding herself for letting her thoughts run away with her again, she hooked both arms under the man and pulled him up until he was sitting. His eyelids opened slightly, revealing deep chocolate brown eyes and he looked at her muzzily.
"Mariette?" he croaked. Meridith shook her head.
"Sir, can you stand? Can you help me get you inside?" she asked. He reached out and put his hand on her shoulder then struggled to his feet, leaning on her rather heavily and unsteadily. Grabbing the marketing basket, she threw his arm over her shoulders in an attempt to help keep him upright and started leading him towards the house. The door presented a bit of a problem, but she managed.
Once in side she mentally kicked herself. She had forgotten totally about the three flights of stairs up to the top of the house and her room. *Well, hell's bells* she thought to herself, then took the plunge.
"Sir, you're going to have to go up some stairs here. Just lift your feet sir. That's it, you can make it." With much coaxing, she managed to keep him upright until the first landing. Foolishly, she paused, presumably to let him gather his strength for the next flight, and he crumpled to the ground again. No amount of pleading, prodding or pinching could wake him up. *It's a good thing the other girls are in their rooms with ale-head problems or I'd never hear the last of this.* Finally, Meridith gave up and picked the man up with her arms locked around his chest. For a full grown near-six-foot man, he was amazingly light. And smelled amazingly rancid. She paused only briefly on the second landing to stretch out her arms before dragging him in a most uncivilized way up the last rickety flight to the garret room she called home.
Draping the unknown man unceremoniously over her thin mattress, she pulled the recently purchased herbs out of the basket and ran back down the stairs, basket swinging from her elbow to burst in through the kitchen door and deposit her purchases in front of a still peeved Julia.
"What took you so long?!" Julia screeched.
"I can't talk now Julia, I'm sorry, let's just say I stumbled over something that needed my attention." Leaving the basket and her purchases and Julia with her mouth hanging open like a fish, Meridith tucked up her skirts and dashed back up the three flights of stairs to her room and mystery man.
He had gone from being draped face down over the bed to curled in the corner sweating and shaking in the time it took Meridith to get downstairs and back again. Kneeling beside him, she put a hand on his forehead. Even though he flinched and pulled away, she could tell that he was burning up with fever. Somehow, Meridith managed to wrestle the sweaty shivering body into the thin, lumpy bed. He seemed to calm a little and go from deleria to true sleep, giving her the chance to assess the situation a little better. Brushing the loose hair away from his face she got her first look at this man from the gutter. He was young, with wavy dark hair, thick eyelashes, a strong chin. Meridith laughed out loud. He was easily the most handsome young lieutenant in England. And he had chosen *her* doorstep to collapse on. The irony wasn't lost on Meridith. Meridith Martin who had the family Martin nose that took up more than its fair share of the owner's face, Meridith with the American accent as wide as a street and almost as murky, Meridith with the unruly curly hair that she had chopped short to save her having to fuss with it daily, short infuriating Meridith who didn't have any of the attractive qualities her brothers did or the amazing blonde hair of her sisters. No, the irony was entirely not lost on her.
With a smile, she stood and went over to the small trunk under the slit window. Opening it, she rummaged through the dried herbs and small bottles before producing a small envelope. Opening the envelope she let three small pink meadowsweet flowers fall into her hand. Closing the trunk, she took a tea ball and a mug from the side of the trunk and placed it on top. Letting the flowers fall into the tea ball, she took a chunk of willow bark from a hanging basket in the window and added a few drops of peppermint oil to the mug. Glancing at the lieutenant once more, she dashed down the stairs to coax a pitcher of hot water from Julia, and hurried back up as quickly as she could without spilling steaming water all over Ms. Brummel's precious oak staircase. She pushed her door open with her foot and set the hot and dripping pitcher down on top of the trunk. Wiping her hands dry on her skirt, she took her apron down from its nail beside the door and wrapped her hand in a corner of it to lift the hot pitcher and pour water into the mug of plant remedies.
She did remarkably well with the heavy pitcher, only spilling a little onto the top of the trunk. Mixing the herbal concoction with the wrong end of a hatpin, Meridith sat down on the side of the bed. Holding the warm mug in her apron-wrapped hand, she put one hand on the lieutenant's forehead. It was still burning hot and he moved slightly, turning his face towards her. Since he was still asleep, Meridith decided that the willow tea could wait and set it down on the crate that acted as her bedside table. It was better that he was actually getting rest than she was pouring her brews into him, no matter how much they might help.
"Hot...." it was barely a whisper. "Archie... so hot...." He was lying on his stomach, making it simple for Meridith to gently shrug him out of the heavy blue woolen coat. She hung the muddy coat over the back of her chair, brushing the white lapels off. She could only guess that it was his pride and joy, showing the whole world that he was indeed a lieutenant in the King's navy. Meridith smiled, and then turned back gently rolling him onto his side so she could get his threadbare waistcoat unbuttoned and off and untie his cravat. Having undressed him down to his shirt and breeches, she slipped his scuffed and thin shoes off, and followed them with the holed white stockings. Hell, she smiled, he even had handsome feet. Fearing he might be uncomfortable without the many layers he was accustomed to, Meridith pulled the sheet from the foot of the bed up to his waist. He had rolled onto his front again and had his head pillowed on his arms. His eyes were fluttering open and closed as he tried to stay semi-awake. Meridith put her hand on his forehead again. He already felt a little cooler, but that could just have been her imagination.
Standing up, she took the pitcher once again and poured part of the water out into her washbasin. Taking a clean handkerchief, she dipped it in the basin and then gently sponged the grime off of the young man's face. The dirt came off easily, and she hadn't realized it before, but he was bruised up as if he had been in a fight of some sort, or at least gotten on someone's bad side. His lip had a small split in it and there was a dark bruise at the top of his left eye, right under his eyebrow. Smaller and less serious bruises were scattered over the rest of his face. Sighing, Meridith dampened the handkerchief one more time and then folded it, putting it on his hot forehead. He had been watching her periodically, when he could muster the strength and or presence of mind to keep his eyes open. Now he let them close with a sigh. Meridith smoothed the hair back from his face before getting up from the side of the bed. She picked up the mug of fever herbs and moved it over under the window to wait for later. Tying her apron around her waist, she opened the door to go downstairs and see what she would be doing that night to help the girls with their 'work'. Usually it was just keeping the wine flowing, a tireless and thankless job. Sighing, Meridith ran her hand through her hair and turned to go.
There was a small sound from the young man on the bed, and Meridith turned around. He was still lying down, but she could see his eyes were open. He licked his lips.
"My.. name......" he croaked. "My.. name... is... Hornblower.... Horatio... Hornblower..."
Meridith smiled and went back over to his side.
"Well met. My name is Meridith Martin."
"Meri..dith?"
"Yes." She put her hand on his forehead and then the back of it on his cheek. "Sleep now, Horatio Hornblower. Sweet dreams." She tucked a stray lock of hair behind his ear. He closed his eyes and sighed, shifting a little. Meridith pulled the blanket up and tucked it around his shoulders before getting up. She took the lantern from it's usual place beside the bed and hung it on a nail in the rafter above the bed. Lighting the candle stub in it, she took one more look at 'her' lieutenant, and slipped out the door.
