A/N: There's some consternation in the reviews, so a couple things:
* If you're worried about the outcome, I'll briefly suspend my no spoilers rule at the very bottom of this chapter if you scroll far enough. I just caution you that it's now been a week for those following the story, but less than twelve hours for the characters.
* I address the compromise issue in detail in Chapter 13.
As I said, this one is kind of freewheeling, but it's settling down and I have a good idea where it's going. The 20 chapters was a pipe dream, but my long-time readers never believed it in the first place. I'm now guessing 30 or so. There's a lot more introspection, details, and backstory in this than my usual. No idea if that's a feature or bug.
Wade
While Max made a nuisance of himself and Cecil gathered wood for the cookfire, Mr Elkins and the Colonel finally entered the cabin.
Miss Elizabeth was still asleep, but restless. Elkins checked her forehead and frowned. "The fever is becoming concerning. When young Cecil gets some hot water, we shall brew willow bark tea. We may end up bathing her in vinegar as well. Its effect is marginal but worthwhile, and it is good for wounds anyway."
Neither man mentioned the obvious, that it was a job that would be better served by a woman, both understanding that embarrassed beat dead by a wide margin.
Wishing to allow her to sleep just a few minutes more, Elkins laid his tools out on a table the colonel had wiped down and cleaned them with a bottle of some liquid the colonel did not know.
His patient was lying on her back and covered with a blanket, so the apothecary moved it aside here and there to check her injuries.
The colonel tried not to look too much, but a glance showed the man had earlier stripped her down to a chemise for obvious reasons, and even that was unlikely to be intact. He wondered how that was accomplished quickly without harming her leg until he saw a pile of her blood-stained clothes in the corner. They were obviously cut to pieces with scissors. He took them outside to hide under the porch so they would be available for examination by the coroner.
True to his earlier suggestion, Elkins was wiping down her whole body with a rag soaked in vinegar. Fitzwilliam thought he would shy away from the wounds, but much to his surprise, the apothecary not only cleaned them with the rag, but he poured even more on each one and gave it what looked like a good scrubbing.
The first few produced no results, but the fourth such example woke the lady up with what Fitzwilliam expected to be a mighty scream. He found himself slightly disappointed when she only hissed, though she was obviously feeling it.
"I apologize, Miss Elizabeth, but we must clean these if we are to prevent infection."
"I understand."
Fitzwilliam asked, "Can we increase the laudanum?"
"Not as yet. I believe I will wait on Doctor Nott to set the leg, and she will need it then. Unfortunately, it depresses breathing, and we cannot have that until there is no more blood in her breath."
He turned, "I apologize for speaking about you as if you were not here, madam."
"Not offended," she said through gritted teeth, since the apothecary had not only continued his ministrations, but increased them.
Fitzwilliam thought it might have been smart to defer such things so she could sleep a bit more, and that anyone who knew how loud she could scream might have woken her up first—but what did he know?
"Is there anything I can do for your comfort, Miss Bennet?"
"Not at the moment, but I may need your help when they set the leg."
"It will not be my first time assisting such an operation, so I shall endeavour to do my best."
"I appreciate it," she said, then stared at him.
He knew her concern. "I have not forgotten my promises, madam. You probably do not wish to hear this right now, but Darcy is in complete agreement, and is working on your behalf as we speak."
"His own behalf, more like," she muttered.
"Why would you assume that?" he asked, genuinely confused by her level of animosity.
"This debacle will be a huge embarrassment for your family, and it will become a conflagration if someone smarter than your cousin does not work to manage the rumours. Failing to protect me would reflect badly on him, and I cannot imagine he would abide that. My hope is that he is smart enough to engage someone more skilled in the dark arts."
Fitzwilliam thought Darcy had a far tougher row to hoe than he might have previously imagined, but he obviously would not be able to help if she was not in a mood to listen.
"I will not argue the point, but I would beg you to give him a fair chance."
"I always do," she said with what sounded like resignation.
The distraction seemed to work, because when Fitzwilliam chanced another look at Elkins, he noted a few bandages and a pot of salve.
"Miss Bennet, I will need to put these bandages on the cuts I cleaned earlier. You can thank the colonel for distracting you. Perhaps you might enter into a detailed discussion of this Darcy fellow when we finally set your leg."
She laughed again, and though it seemed to hurt a bit, Elkins used the delay to place bandages on the cuts and start wrapping them around her chest and arms.
Fitzwilliam maintained eye contact with the lady, partly to distract her, and partly to let her know he was not ogling her.
A few minutes later, she started coughing, and it turned somewhat violent.
Elkins was there with bandages to catch the output, and guided Fitzwilliam in trying to help her sit up enough to get a good bit of the phlegm out.
Once she was done and laid back down, he compared the cloth to one he had used on his initial examination.
Seeing that the lady was not likely to panic and observing that it seemed better to engage and distract her than not, he said, "Less blood, so I suspect that problem is curing itself. If it has less when we set your leg, I believe we can give you a bit more laudanum.
"That would be lovely," she said with the same sort of snooty voice a first circle matron would use when describing the awful refreshments at Almacs, which sent Fitzwilliam into fits of laughter and herself into giggles.
"You are killing me, Miss Bennet," he said, and began to see what his cousin found so appealing.
For just a moment, he wondered if he should be trying to dig his cousin out of the mess of his making after all.
Perhaps redeeming Darcy was a solution in search of a problem?
A knock on the door startled them, so Fitzwilliam opened it, but blocked the opening to protect what little modesty the lady still had.
"Cecil, you never came for the brand," he said, wondering about the fire that he had entirely forgotten about.
Simpson was right behind the boy. "The men already made a fire up top, so I brought a brand down. Did not want to disturb."
While Fitzwilliam had enjoyed young Cecil, he was happy to see someone more responsible taking charge.
Seeing the look of his thoughts, Simpson added, "Young Cecil has been a right good help, so I think Mrs Collins might have to get by without him for a while."
Cecil seemed to be practically jumping up and down with the praise, and Fitzwilliam hoped we had nipped his aping of Mr Collins in the bud soon enough. The young lad offered a pot of hot water, and Fitzwilliam was somewhat surprised to find there had been sufficient time to brew it.
Elkins called out for Fitzwilliam to bring in the pot and close the door, so he thought it might be time to quit messing about.
"Food when you are ready, sir," Simpson said to the closing door.
On Elkins' instruction, he prepared the willow bark tea, adding a dab of honey to try to make it taste slightly less vile, and some laudanum to reduce the lady's pain. They would give her even more when they set the bone, but Mr Elkins thought it time for a touch more.
He was just thinking they would need to lift her again, but Elkins suggested the invalid feeder.
Miss Bennet hated the idea, but went along with the scheme, apparently deciding it would be less humiliating than screaming again.
They gave her a few minutes of peace and quiet for the medicines to take effect, while Elkins continued wiping her down with vinegar, though not particularly aggressively. Fitzwilliam assumed they might get to dosing her more as her fever increased, but it was not alarming yet.
The lady seemed to fall lightly asleep, and they decided to step out for a bite to eat while they awaited Doctor Nott.
A/N: Spoilers below
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HEAs: Elizabeth/Darcy, Colonel/Jane
I promised my readers a long time ago I would never do a non-canon pairing without warning.