I was too weak to resist because I knew in my heart that she was right. The ground still swayed and my head was now throbbing like billy-o. I thought I might be sick again. Liam whined and wanted to come to me.

“Mommy is resting,” Miss Pinkerton said, holding onto him firmly. “She’ll be fine in a minute. Just be a good boy.”

The women were wonderful. Although they only spoke a few words of French they managed with gestures and sheer determination to have us loaded into a large open carriage and taken to a pension on the waterfront. Miss Hetherington inspected the rooms and pronounced them clean if simple and unadorned. I was half dragged up the stairs. Someone else brought my bags and I was placed in a small room with shutters half closed. Already exhausted by this amount of activity, I lay back gratefully with Liam beside me. They then had the proprietor summon a doctor and gave me pen and paper to draft a telegram to Sid and Gus. I wrote, Delayed in Le Havre. Unwell. Pension Bellevue. Will travel as soon as able.

Off went the stalwart Miss Hetherington to have this sent to Paris. Miss Pinkerton stayed with me while the other women went for a stroll along the seafront. A doctor arrived and pronounced Liam on the road to recovery but instructed me to confine his diet to breast milk and boiled sugar water to give his stomach time to heal. Then he patched up my head, and recommended that I get plenty of good nourishing food and fresh air. It would be foolish and dangerous to think of continuing my journey until I was stronger, he said, wagging a finger at me. To do so might put me and my child in danger of a relapse. Then he gave me a prescription for a tonic and bid me adieu.

I lay in my narrow bed, feeling like a limp rag and so glad that I was not facing an almost three-hour train journey. I don’t think I could have sat upright for that long. The proprietress came in with a tray of fresh rolls and peppermint tea. I sipped the tea, managed a whole roll, and felt a little stronger. Liam nursed, then fell asleep beside me. I lay back too, feeling the fresh sea air coming in through the shutters.