CHAPTER FIVEIt was strange, Hermia thought, what a difference it had made to the Vicarage having the Marquis there.
For two days he lay unconscious, only occasionally murmuring nonsense and turning restlessly from side to side.
The doctor, who was an old friend and came from the nearby market town, said,
“Let him rest and Mrs. Brooke’s magic potions are far better than anything I can prescribe.”
He laughed as he spoke and Hermia was aware that her mother’s fame for the herbs and natural ingredients she put together to cure almost every ill had spread all over the county.
He confirmed what Hermia already suspected, that the Marquis had fought violently against his assailants, only succumbing when they had hit him on the head with a heavy stick or perhaps a piece of wood.
Her mother’s
