Chapter II
Anne was left to herself, more confused than when she had woken up. The last Anne remembered was that she had been beaten up on the Lightcliffe road, there wasn’t a horse anywhere near there! Why did they think she had been thrown of a horse? Who had found her?! Had said person, or persons told a fib and made up the bit about the horse to cover up the truth? Did that then entail that whoever found her had something to do with the ambush? Nothing made sense to her, nothing seemed plausible. Anne groaned again from the pain in her head, this was in all too much for her to process at the moment. She needed answers, and rather immediately. To be in the unknown wasn’t her cup of tea at all, and she wondered where they all were.
Anne needn’t wait for too long, the door opened, and Dr Kenny appeared making Anne’s eyes almost automatically flutter upwards, he was ridiculous. Why had they called on him? Anne made a mental note to talk to Marian about that later as she assumed it was her doing. Marian thought him a good friend of hers, and Anne thought of him as the creep who liked the touching part of his job far too much when it came to ladies, and to be frank – he wasn’t especially good. He was fine but could do with a bit of improvement.
“How are you feeling, Miss Lister?” Dr Kenny asked her as he approached her bed,
“I think I might have bruised my ribs; the back of my head hurts and I feel a bit sore. It’s a wonder though at my nose not causing me any pain, or my eyes…” Anne trailed off, thinking to herself that it was quite strange, her lip didn’t hurt as she spoke either – she was certain that the thug had managed to cut her lip open, and her nose had definitely taken a blow – and her eyes should be black and blue. But she couldn’t feel any pain to her face – only to the back of her head. Dr Kenny was eying her with worry evident on his face,
‘Not a great thing to show one’s worry so clearly as a doctor’ Anne thought annoyed.
“Your nose? Eyes? Miss Lister the injury was primarily done to the back of your head, and as you say – one or two ribs managed to get a bruising.” Dr Kenny spoke slowly as if he was afraid to say the wrong thing, after all he had been at the wrong end of Miss Lister’s stick before and didn’t want to anger her, even if she could hardly do too much harm to him in the state she was in presently.
“Primarily? I only knocked the back of my head against the stone.” Anne wanted to know what he meant by that, she was confused, it had hurt when he had pushed her up the wall, but not as much as the damage he had done to her face, then again Dr Kenny was quite lousy.
“Erhm… Miss Lister, I should clean your wound and change the dressing.” He stuttered; he didn’t want Miss Lister to get upset with him and yell at him again.
Anne was just about to open her mouth to repeat her question when he touched her head and the pain rendered her of all speech and she hissed. Dr Kenny removed the bandage used to keep the dressing in place and he was relieved that Anne stayed quiet. She did stay quiet because she was focusing hard on not whimpering from the acute pain to her head – she knew Dr Kenny was a gossip and she sure didn’t want him running around telling all of Halifax that she was a weakling. He finished cleaning and dressing her wound again and Anne was a good patient for the time being.
“Now, Miss Lister, I wouldn’t recommend anything but bedrest for at least another three days. Your rib needs to heal, even if it’s only bruised, and you shouldn’t overexert your head.” Dr Kenny ordered her, though with little authority in his voice, she suspected he didn’t dare to command her to anything. She was a little amused at this, but no smile grazed her features, instead she gave him a serious look, completely bewildered,
“Did you say for another three days?”
“Yes?” Dr Kenny looked apprehensively at her, his forehead seemed to get shinier by the second,
“As in, an additional three days?”
“I’m not sure I follow you, Miss Lister. You’ve been unconscious- well in and out for the past three days and what I meant was that you need to rest for another three days. At least.” Dr Kenny explained, and Anne’s eyes widened in shock, as she processed what he was saying. Had she been unconscious for three days? Had the man snuck up on her and knocked her out when she bent down to pick up her hat? – It just didn’t make sense! Anne was starting to get really frustrated.
“I’d recommend you drink lots of fluid and to stay in bed – don’t physically exert yourself for the following three days, I will come back and examine your head then.” Dr Kenny told her hurriedly, she suspected he wanted to be on his way, or rather not stuck in a room alone with her. She unnerved him, frightened him. She smiled pleased. He was an odd little man, and she didn’t trust him. She would ask her sister to call for Dr Day in three days and not Dr Kenny.
“Thank you, Dr Kenny.” Anne dismissed him and he left her after bowing awkwardly her way. Anne was left alone again, and she felt even more insistent on knowing what had happened now than before.
Dr Kenny had helped her up against the pillows, and Anne was glad to be sitting up against something. She brought her hand up to her face and touched her lip, running her fingers over it but it was entirely smooth, a bit dry but no cut. Her fingers trailed from her lip up to her nose, but she couldn’t detect bruises, and her nose wasn’t swollen at all. She felt around for the wound she knew had been made on her cheek – but nothing! Anne was beginning to be really creeped out now, though she couldn’t see, she touched the area around both her eyes, but she wasn’t sore – there were no black eyes. It was uncanny, and she didn’t like it one bit. She desperately needed to know what had happened.
‘Surely, someone must know?’ Anne thought.