The River Charm (16 page)

‘Woohoo!' Charlotte cried, elation pumping through her body. ‘I did it!'

Mr Ash nodded and grinned as he saw her trotting back, the cows looking uncharacteristically docile as they rejoined the group. ‘Took your time, didn't you, Miss Charlotte,' he quipped. ‘What have you been doing?'

‘Just admiring the scenery,' Charlotte retorted, rolling her whip onto her saddle. ‘The mountains are going to be lonely with no cattle.'

‘Yes, but orders are orders, Miss Charlotte,' replied Mr Ash. ‘Let's get these beasts into the yards.'

The next morning, Bluey, Jim and Mr Ash set off to deliver the cattle to Goulburn. Only Mr Ash would be returning.

 

17

Croup

 

Budgong, Winter 1840

In July, the little hut was bitterly cold. The winds swept up from the Snowy Mountains to the south and whistled through the cracks in the slab walls. At night-time, Mamma warmed stones in the fire to put in their beds and added a rug sewn of sun-dried possum skins on top of their bedding.

One bitter night, Charlotte was woken by a barking cough. Emily was asleep beside her, tucked into a tight ball like an echidna. By the flickering firelight, Charlotte could see Mamma moving around the hut, adding timber to the fire and rummaging through her medical chest.

‘Mamma?' asked Charlotte, yawning.

‘Hush, my dearest,' whispered Mamma. ‘Go back to sleep.'

The barking, racking cough came again, and Charlotte realised it was Louisa, who was tossing and turning in the tangled sheets of Mamma's bed. Her hair, damp with perspiration, stuck to her neck in curled tendrils. Mamma felt her fiery forehead with her hand, frowning at its warmth.

‘Louisa is ill,' Mamma confessed. ‘She's burning up with a fever.'

Charlotte bit her lip. Louisa had been delicate from birth and was prone to terrible croup, which more than once had been life threatening.

‘Is it bad?' asked Charlotte.

‘I pray not,' Mamma replied. ‘I hope that if we can treat it swiftly, it will not progress.'

Mamma filled a bowl from a pitcher of warm water and added a few drops of lavender oil. She began to bathe Louisa gently, wringing out the wet cloths. The fresh scent of lavender filled the room, banishing the stuffy smells of the night. Louisa moaned and coughed.

The comforting scent helped Charlotte drift back to sleep again, but her dreams were haunted by the hacking barks that continued all night.

When she awoke again, it was the dreary half-light before dawn. Mamma was sitting up, fully dressed and wrapped in shawls, in a chair beside the sleeping Louisa. Her face was pale and furrowed with concern.

‘Are you awake, Charlotte?' whispered Mamma. Charlotte nodded sleepily. ‘I need you to help me – I dare not leave Louisa. She is worse. Will you get dressed and fetch Mr Ash from the other hut for me, please? Ask him to come as quickly as he can.'

Charlotte moaned inwardly. It was freezing. The tip of her nose, sticking outside the warm nest of the blankets and furs, felt like ice. Emily rolled over and burrowed deeper under the covers. Louisa coughed again and cried out deliriously. Charlotte sighed and wriggled out of the warm blankets. Her bare feet touched the dirt floor and she recoiled in dismay, shivering. She quickly reached for her petticoats, stockings, dress and shawl. She found her boots by the door and slipped them on.

Outside was even colder. Frost crusted the grass with an icy sheen. Wraiths of mist swirled around the huts and huddled in the creek bed. Charlotte crunched across the grass to the other hut and knocked on the rough-hewn door.

‘Mr Ash?' called Charlotte. ‘Mamma has asked me to fetch you quickly. Louisa is ill.'

There was a grumbling noise from inside, but soon Mr Ash appeared at the doorway, hurriedly dressed with his coat and cabbage tree hat in his hands.

Inside their own hut, Mamma was bending over Louisa again, bathing her burning skin with cool, wet cloths.

‘Is Miss Louisa unwell?' asked Mr Ash. ‘Can I do something?'

Mamma stood, and squared her shoulders.

‘She is very ill with croup,' Mamma said. ‘I have never seen her as bad as this. I was hoping, Mr Ash, that you might be able to ride for a doctor?'

Mr Ash baulked. ‘The nearest doctor is a two-day ride away,' he protested.

Mamma glanced at Louisa, who was struggling to breathe, the veins on her neck protruding with the effort. When she coughed, her whole body was racked, then she collapsed back on the pillow, exhausted.

‘Please, Mr Ash,' begged Mamma, her voice cracking. ‘We need a doctor as quickly as we can. Four days may be too late.'

‘I will do my best, ma'am,' Mr Ash promised. ‘I pray I can fetch the doctor in time.'

Everyone looked at Louisa, lying there so crumpled and small. Charlotte felt a wave of panic surge through her.
Is she dying? Is my baby sister dying? Children die of croup all the time. But please, God, don't let it be Louisa.

‘I'll go and saddle a horse,' said Mr Ash.

‘Charlotte, help me prepare a pack of food for Mr Ash, please,' asked Mamma.

Mamma and Charlotte packed up a loaf of damper, salt beef, tea and flour, which Charlotte took to Mr Ash. He stowed the provisions in his saddlebag, touched his whip to his hat and galloped out of the clearing, heading towards the track that wound over the mountains towards the sea.

Slowly, sadly, Charlotte walked back. Mamma was bustling around the house now. She had even woken Emily and James, who were dressed and ready to help.

‘We need firewood, lots of wood,' Mamma ordered. ‘And buckets of water.'

Mamma had dragged a tin hipbath in front of the fire and was boiling up the kettle to fill it with hot water. James scoured the forest for fallen timber, dragging it back to the hut to keep the fire roaring. Emily and Charlotte lugged buckets of water back from the stream to be boiled up for the bath.

When the bath was full of steaming water, Mamma added eucalyptus oil. Louisa, her breathing laboured, was carried over in her nightgown and slowly lowered in up to her throat. She moaned and wheezed, her dark head lolling back against the side of the bath.

Louisa's breathing became a little easier in the fragrant steam. Mamma kept topping up the bath with hot water. When Louisa was breathing more easily, and the bath was getting cold, Mamma sent James to fetch more firewood.

‘Emily, you watch Louisa and make sure she does not sink below the water,' Mamma ordered. ‘Charlotte, help me change the sheets on the bed.'

When the bed was freshly made, Mamma and Charlotte lifted Louisa from the bath, wrapped her in sheets and changed her into a fresh nightgown before tucking her back under the blankets. Mamma carefully spooned some water down Louisa's throat along with a concoction made of honey and vinegar.

Mamma hardly left Louisa's side, leaving Charlotte to take on the role of looking after the family. Charlotte and Emily washed the damp sheets and nightgown, wrung them out by hand and hung them in the wintry sunshine to dry. Charlotte then made tea and damper, which no one could eat.

‘Mamma?' Charlotte whispered. ‘She will be all right, won't she? She won't . . . die?'

Mamma breathed deeply, shaking her head. ‘Shush, dearest.' Her eyes darted to the shrunken body in the big bed. ‘I pray she will recover quickly. We are doing everything we can.'

That night, Charlotte was kept awake by Louisa's coughing and tossing, and Mamma moving around the hut, administering tea and water, sponging Louisa down. Mamma eventually collapsed back in the chair and Charlotte could hear the sound of muffled sobbing.

Charlotte crept from her bed and knelt beside Mamma, hugging her legs and burying her head in her mother's lap. ‘Don't cry, Mamma,' she begged. ‘She'll be all right.'

Mamma hugged Charlotte, huddling over her and stroking her hair. ‘You need to sleep, Charlotte,' said Mamma finally. ‘I need you to be strong to help me tomorrow.'

Charlotte reluctantly went back to bed.

The next day's treatment followed much like the day before: hot steam baths, medicine and sips of water. On the third day, Louisa seemed a little better – she even smiled wanly at Mamma. Charlotte and Emily took turns to read to their sister and watch over her while Mamma snatched a quick sleep.

In the late afternoon, Mr Ash cantered into the clearing, followed by a stout, whiskered older man on a dappled grey gelding. The horses were foaming at the mouth and dark with sweat.

Mamma rushed from the hut. ‘Mr Ash,' she called. ‘Thank goodness, you have come at last.'

‘This is Dr Mackenzie from Nerriga,' explained Mr Ash, his face white with exhaustion.

‘Thank you for coming, Dr Mackenzie,' said Mamma. ‘My little girl is in here.'

Dr Mackenzie smiled reassuringly. ‘We'll know soon enough whether I will be able to help or not.'

Dr Mackenzie bustled into the hut carrying his leather medical bag. He examined Louisa, listening to her laboured breathing, taking her pulse and feeling her skin. Charlotte, Emily and James stood back in the shadows, away from the bed, observing with bated breath.

‘She has croup,' the doctor confirmed. ‘The medical treatment is bleeding, followed by an emetic to induce vomiting, then blistering to remove the toxins.' The doctor removed a glass jar full of wriggling, worm-like creatures from his bag. ‘Leeches would be best, I think.'

‘Are you certain, doctor?' asked Mamma, her voice trembling. ‘She is already very weak.'

‘Undoubtedly,' he replied. ‘Bloodletting is essential to reduce the body's toxins and rebalance the bodily fluids.'

Louisa struggled to breathe, her eyes wide with fright. Mamma took the child's hand and stroked her dry, hot skin.

First, the doctor washed Louisa's neck with a wet, soapy cloth. Using tweezers, the doctor placed one, then another leech on Louisa's neck.

Louisa's breathing became faster and shallower. ‘No,' she begged, her voice croaky and desperate. ‘Please, no.'

Charlotte felt her eyes fill with hot tears. Emily clutched Charlotte's hand and squeezed it till the bones crunched. Samson came to the doctor's side and growled, deep and low. James had to drag him away.

Through blurry eyes, Charlotte could see the repulsive black leeches twisting and writhing on Louisa's pale skin.

‘They are not attaching,' the doctor complained, drawing out a scalpel. ‘I will need to make a small incision to draw the blood. A taste of blood will help the leeches to attach.'

Charlotte looked away – she could not bear to watch. Louisa gave a muffled scream, then there was silence.

‘She's fainted,' Mamma cried, her voice breaking. ‘She's barely breathing!'

‘That is a blessing,' replied the doctor calmly. ‘Children do get very anxious when we have to bleed them.'

There was silence while the doctor watched the leeches sucking on Louisa's neck. At last, one by one, they dropped off, sated. The doctor returned the bloated creatures to his glass jar.

‘Now, we need to administer the emetic to induce vomiting,' Doctor Mackenzie explained, taking a small bottle from his bag. ‘Calomel will do the job. Fetch me a bowl.'

The doctor woke Louisa with cold water and smelling salts. She began to sob softly. Charlotte took the doctor a bowl because Mamma was holding fast to Louisa's hand. The doctor administered the syrup, and then in moments Louisa was vomiting violently, hunched over the bowl.

Charlotte and Emily clutched each other in horror. James ran from the room to wait out in the darkness on the verandah. At last, Louisa was finished and lay weak and limp.

‘Now we need to blister her,' the doctor continued calmly. ‘I will apply the blister powder to her throat.'

‘Surely, doctor, that is enough,' begged Mamma, her voice strong. ‘The poor child is fading away.'

‘Madam, I assure you that medical science has proved the complete efficacy of purging the body,' reproved the doctor. ‘I understand that, as a woman and mother, your nerves are fragile and you don't wish to see your child suffer. But I assure you that if you don't follow my recommendations to the letter, this malaise will surely prove fatal.'

He liberally sprinkled a caustic powder on a bandage, which he then applied to Louisa's throat. She moaned and whimpered as the chemical burned her skin, causing it to bubble and blister.

‘Mamma,' Louisa begged. ‘Mamma, take it away.'

Mamma bent over Louisa, stroking the child's hair back from her forehead. ‘My brave, brave poppet,' she murmured.

‘The blisters will draw out the toxins from the skin,' the doctor assured her.

Finally, when he had broken the blisters and cleaned away the seeping fluid, he dressed the wound with linen bandages spread with lard. Louisa was limp and motionless after these administrations. Mamma tucked her under the coverings and kissed her forehead.

‘There we are,' the doctor pronounced, packing up his medical bag. ‘All finished. Now I shall write up my bill, as I must leave to return home at first light.'

Mamma stood up straight and proud. ‘Thank you, doctor, for coming,' she replied. ‘I must confess that I may be a little tardy paying the bill. I have not yet received my allowance for the quarter. I could give you a piece of jewellery to cover your time and trouble?'

Mamma pulled out the gold locket that she always wore, the one that held a locket of all their hair, and began to unclasp it.

‘No, Mamma,' cried James. ‘Papa gave you that locket.'

The doctor smiled kindly. ‘Not to worry, my dear lady. I do understand your situation. Please pay me when you are able.'