Chapter 5
Upon finishing a report for any other station house, Julia would either have had one of her attendants deliver it to the lead detective, or one of their constables would have collected it. However, with Station House Four just around the corner, Julia usually delivered the file herself. The habit started soon after she began her position in the morgue. She initially used the excuse that she needed some fresh air, yet she was soon unable to ignore her true motives. The simple fact was that she looked forward to conversing with William Murdoch. This was true before she acknowledged any attraction to him. He treated her like an equal, valuing her opinion and input, while still expecting the most thorough of investigations on her part. After she married Darcey, her exchanges with William became strained, and she no longer felt a thrill of anticipation as she walked the short way to Station House Four. The recent few weeks had brought back this feeling.
That day, the short trip across to see William was even less than pleasurable than had become custom. Despite her best efforts at masking it, she walked with a limp; her lower back was quite bruised from her fall the day before. Added to that was soreness she had felt since dressing that morning. Her corset had felt more oppressive than usual. She fumbled with the button on her skirt, the wooden circle much more difficult to slide into its hole than normal. Eventually she secured the fastening, yet frowned at the tight band across her abdomen. Perhaps I have overindulged of late, she mused, plucking at the unusually uncomfortable item of clothing. Yet she had only worn it the week before. Bloating, then, she decided, hurrying to finish dressing before William had re-entered the room.
So it was, that Julia, final report in hand, made her way to the station house with some trepidation and a considerable amount of discomfort. When she came into view of his office, she noted that William's doors were closed, and that he appeared to be in deep discussion with Doctor Louisa Botham, the scientist and inventor involved in his most recent case. Knowing that he would likely loath an interruption, and given the unease in their relationship, Julia decided that passing the file to one of the constables to be the most prudent course of action. She spied Constable Crabtree typing away at his desk, and he greeted her warmly when he noticed her approach.
"George!" She smiled; at least the constable was always pleasant towards her. "Please can you pass this to Detective Murdoch? It contains my final report on both Mr Hurley and Henshaw." She had hurried to complete the report that morning, knowing that the politician, Mr Kirkham, was putting considerable pressure on the constabulary to finalise the case.
"Of course, doctor." From his seated position before his typewriter, he accepted the file from her.
She turned to depart when a sharp pain sliced through her abdomen. She gasped, hands flying to her middle.
"Doctor!" George was at her side in an instant. "Is everything alright?"
"I'm fine." Her smile was forced this time. "Just- Oh!" Another pain, stronger this time, caused her to double over.
"Doctor! Sir!" He directed his second call to the detective, but his door remained closed. He turned his attention to the inspector's office just as Julia sank to the ground in another spasm of agony. "Inspector! Sir!"
Out of his office in an instant, Inspector Brackenreid swore as he took in the scene before him. "Crabtree, have a carriage waiting at the entrance. Higgins!" He picked out the other constable from the crowd starting to gather around the doctor. "Fetch Murdoch."
Julia was only distantly aware of these barked instructions as she tensed her whole body against the pain wracking her insides. Never had she felt such pain, and as tears pricked her eyes, fear started to creep in.
William frowned at Constable Higgins when he entered his office without knocking, interrupting his fascinating conversation with Doctor Botham.
"Sir! You need to come. Doctor Ogden is unwell."
Probably just a headache, he grumbled uncharitably, despite the fact that his wife had never bothered him at work whenever she had fallen ill previously. In truth, the conversation with Doctor Botham about her chemical purification inventions was much more stimulating than anything else he had discussed in recent weeks, especially not with Julia, given their strained discourse of late. He was indeed disgruntled at the interruption, as Julia had guessed.
Still, when he left his office, all thoughts of the inventor escaped him as he laid eyes on Julia. Inspector Brackenreid had dispersed the constables by that time, so he was allowed an uninterrupted view of his wife's huddled form: knelt on the floor, folded practically in two, with her arms clasped around her middle. The low moans that emerged from her were barely audible with her head almost touching the wooden floor. The image scaring him so, Murdoch launched himself to her side, calling her name and hoovering his hands over her, not sure what to do for the best. "Julia, what's the matter? What's happened?"
"It hurts," she gasped.
"Where?" he prompted, finally laying a hand on her back.
"Abdo- Abdomen," she squeezed out, gasping again as another intense pain shot through her. And then she vomited. Thankfully, she missed all three of them, but the retching served to make her feel even more wretched. Weakened, she listed unsteadily to the side.
"Julia! Sir!" He looked up with helpless, wide eyes to this superior.
"We need to get her to a hospital, now" Brackenreid ordered, clearly taking charge.
She was dimly aware of being hauled upright by two men, and then her feet left the ground completely as she was swung up into the arms of another. There was a vague sensation of movement and her head drooped onto a shoulder. Only when a voice spoke, so very close to her ear, did she realise that it was William's arms within which she was held.
Outside, she was loaded into the carriage that Crabtree had commandeered. Once seated, she resumed her previous position: arms clasped around herself and bending over her legs, as if to hold herself together through the pain.
Feeling ineffectual in the face of his wife's agony, William placed a hand on her back, clearly feeling whale bone and contoured fabric beneath his palm. Surely this cannot be helping matters. "Would it help if I loosened your corset?"
He received a slight nod in response, so he shot a glance to Crabtree and Brackenreid sitting opposite. They immediately avert their gazed and William set to work. He untucked her blouse from the back of her skirt and rucked it up until enough of her corset was exposed. Well used by then to his wife's garments, he made quick work of the ribbons, slackening them enough that the garment lay looser around her torso. Then, with careful, trembling fingers, and at a loss of what else to do, he lowered her blouse to re-cover her, straightening it and smoothing out barely discernible creases.
At some point during their seemingly interminably long ride, the inspector leaned forward to place a hand on Julia's knee. "You'll be alright, doctor. We're almost there."
Brackenreid's kindly tone was not lost on William, but his attention was held by his wife. He bent his head so he could see her face, something that Brackenreid had a better view of from his position. Her cheeks were lined with tears and more were leaking from her tightly closed eyes. Julia did not often succumb to tears, and certainly not in the presence of anyone else, William knew. His heartrate ratcheted up a notch, as if it wasn't fast enough already; this was very, very bad.
A/N: Thank you so much to everyone who rebuilt my confidence after the previous chapter - you're all so lovely! :)
