Free A Heart Revealed by Josi S. Kilpack Page A

strands of her long hair.
    “I put this on the affected areas?” Suzanne asked, her eyebrows pulled together in concern.
    “Is that not what I already instructed you?” Amber snapped, concealing her nervousness with irritation. She could not expect Suzanne to have confidence if Amber did not show an increased amount herself.
    Suzanne stepped closer and extended her paste-covered fingers toward Amber’s head.
    Amber startled as the slightly cool substance first touched her scalp, then wrinkled her nose as a stink of camphor and rotting leaves assaulted her. It was strong enough to clear Amber’s lungs and nasal passages, and it turned her stomach. She attempted to breathe through her mouth as Suzanne covered the baldness with a liberal amount of putrid ointment.
    Suzanne put the jar on the dressing table—the smell further assaulting Amber’s nose due to its nearness—and pulled back the hair covering the space on the back of Amber’s head. She dug out another handful of the vile mixture and applied it accordingly. The cooling sensation alerted Amber to how much hair was missing in the back, and to her surprise, Suzanne parted her hair again on the right and applied more of the mixture to two smaller areas of baldness Amber did not know existed.
    When Suzanne finished, she replaced the cap on the jar and asked permission to leave the room in order to clean the ointment from her hand.
    Amber excused her and then attempted to plait the remainder of her hair in such a way as to disguise the bald patches. There was no concealment of her appearance any longer. The mixture was greasy and yet sticky too, and she wondered if it would be absorbed into her skin or if there was an amount of time she should leave it before wiping it off? She would surely have to wash her hair to facilitate the removal and feared that a washing would cause even more hair to fall out.
    The coolness of the salve’s application was beginning to change into a heat, and Amber shifted uncomfortably on her stool, avoiding her reflection. She wanted to cover her head with the cap, but worried about soiling it with the ointment.
    In need of distraction, she recovered the most recent copy of The Ladies’ Monthly Museum, which she had already read through four times, and flipped through the pages as she waited for Suzanne to return. The heat of the ointment became more pronounced, and Amber’s discomfort increased. She tried harder to distract herself with an article about increased fashion for lace and ermine trim.
    The uncomfortable heat turned to burning and then sharp pains began to shoot through her scalp. She paced back and forth across the room and took deep breaths, waiting for the discomfort to pass. Surely it would pass!
    It did not.
    Finally, she ran for the bellpull. She did not reach it before there was a quick knock and the door to her bedchamber opened. The itching and burning felt fit to boil her skin.
    “Miss?” Suzanne said from the doorway.
    “Where have you been!” Amber yelled a moment before she noticed that Suzanne was holding up the hand she had used to apply the monstrous mixture. The fingers and palm were red as though scalded, raw and blistering. Amber met Suzanne’s frightened eyes. “What is this?” she asked, her voice edged with sincere concern even as the pain of her head seemed to intensify.
    “Mrs. Yarrow is preparing a salve she feels certain will soothe us—she uses it for kitchen burns,” Suzanne said. “She fears there is something amiss with that ointment.” Her eyes moved to look at Amber’s head and went wide. “We must get all we can from your head as quickly as possible, Miss.” She hurried to the bellpull. “But I’m afraid I shan’t be able to do it alone.”
    A chambermaid and Nelson were soon attending Amber, and although it upset her to have other servants involved, she was without any other recourse. It took all of Amber’s genteel breeding not to show the increasing level of her pain and