New Love Springs

Chapter 17 - Fragmented Sentences

It seemed as though a white veil had passed over Victoria, she was in such shock. Her usual rosy complexion had been replaced with a face the colour of snow. She opened her mouth, as if to say something, but no words came out. She was in pure shock. Sweeney knew that he had to leave her be, so carefully made his way out of the room without drawing attention to himself.

On the way though, out of the corner of his eye, he stole a glance at the body lying on the floor. She was a woman, lying peacefully with a slight smile on her face, as if she was simply having a nap after doing strenuous housework upstairs, not lying dead. There was no blood around her which wasn't a common occurrence to Sweeney's eyes; it almost felt liberating for him to see the body of a person who had obviously died content.

He carefully took a step towards the woman when Victoria had her back turned. She was very old, her hair pure white, but spread with tight, unruly curls, which she had obviously attempted to straighten out and neaten, with no success. Her face seemed stress free and relatively non-lined aside from etched on laughter lines, displaying happiness. 

The old woman reminded him too much of Nellie. Her hair, her nose, and the caring look she gave out, even when dead. That must have been something.

Thinking of Nellie was beginning to physically hurt him. He needed to get away from the woman. He left the room and tried to muster up happier thoughts from the very depths of his brain.

He needn't have bothered. Victoria came bustling in from the other room, panic stricken. She needed help now, Sweeney knew that. He had become closed off again though. He couldn't bring himself to do the good deeds he had become accustomed to. He just wanted to run away, so he could be rid of the new problem that had occurred.

He didn't have a chance though, as Victoria saw fit to ramble on to him, barely even able to string a sentence together, just for the sake of having someone to ramble on to.

'Mother...must find help...should have seen this coming... can't do this alone...must call Nellie, Nellie needs to know...I need to call the carriage back'

When Sweeney was able to comprehend that rushed fragment of a sentence, he knew that that was something he was unable to deal with. He cared about Victoria, of course, and knew he had to help her somehow, but waiting around for Nellie to turn up would not give that help. 

Meeting the sister of the love of his life was one thing, seeing her alarming representation of Nellie that was contained in her mother's appearance and the home which had moulded her credible upbringing was another, but actually being plonked in front of her, in the flesh, after what he had put her through was something else altogether.It would be a painful reminder and he was not ready for that at all.

With that thought rotating ceaselessly around his brain, he burst out the door onto the nearly deserted street and began to run as fast as he could in search of the nearest hospital. They wouldn't be able to revive her, that much was obvious, but they could help as much as possible with any luck.

Meanwhile, Nellie had just finished a thoroughly enlightening conversation with the beautiful stranger she had previously encountered, Edward. Whilst Sweeney and Victoria had been travelling, Nellie, Edward and Toby had visited the maternity wing of the hospital and found that all was well with her unborn child.  She had no grasp of how long they had been together for. He made her troubles melt away. She loved Sweeney, of course, but Edward provided a comfort to the dark days that lay before her.

She was deep in thought as she sat down onto her comfy armchair with a cautious smile on her face. Maybe things are looking up, she thought as she snuggled down for a doze.

This didn't last long, however. Toby burst in, with a panicked look on his face. This didn't worry Nellie. She assumed it was simply a petty fight between Toby and some of the boys he played with at the beach. She soon realised that this was not the case.

Toby began to speak in a breathless flurry of words 'Mum... I'm sorry...I know you're trying to sleep...you've had a busier day than normal times I know...but there was a carriage...the driver wanted you to come...says it's a matter of urgency...don't know what for...all I was told is that there has been an accident...I need to come with you...You might not be able to trust this driver, Mum'

Like Sweeney had felt with Victoria, the words were barely understandable. From what she did hear, however, Nellie was compelled to think only of one person.

Sweeney.