Page 103 of Her Duke's Second Chance

“Yes! I am sorry. I should have asked right away. Do you want something to eat?” Daisy asked with wide, anxious eyes.

Georgiana rubbed her stomach. “Yes. I think so.”

“Right away.” Daisy immediately reached for the bell pull.

Within a few minutes, Mrs. Green had returned, not just with a pot of willow bark tea, but also a bowl of broth and some soft, freshly baked bread to soak it up.

Georgiana grimaced when Daisy insisted on feeding her but saw that her hands were shaking too violently to hold a spoon. Her sister’s tongue was clamped between her teeth in an effort not to pour soup on her.

Georgiana stifled a small giggle.

“What is amusing you?” Daisy asked.

Georgiana shrugged. “Nothing.”

“So why are you grinning so hard?”

“I am?”

“Yes, you are.”

“Well, I suppose I could cry, but laughing is better.”

Daisy paused her feeding to stare at Georgiana with concern. “Why would you cry?”

She shrugged. “My husband has abandoned me. I feel quite unwell. My sister is having to feed me because my hands are too shaky and weak. Take your pick.”

“I am so sorry. You will soon feel better.”

“I pray that I will.”

Daisy took a seat on Georgiana’s bed and sighed deeply. “I am sorry he left. I tried to stop him, but he was hell-bent.”

“Why?”

“I do not know. He was just so adamant that he had to leave. Almost desperate, in fact.”

Georgiana sighed. “Perhaps he was tired of being here with an insensible woman. Maybe he grew bored.”

“No, I do not think so. It was more serious than that. He told me to tell you he would be back when you woke up.”

“It sounds like he was bored,” Georgiana insisted.

Daisy shook her head and sighed. “I do not know how to convince you otherwise.”

“Good. There is nothing of which you need to convince me.” Georgiana turned away, swallowing the lump in her throat.

It was too reminiscent of the day after her wedding, when she had watched from her window as Robert’s bags were loaded onto his carriage and he drove away.

At the time, she had told herself she was relieved to be left alone, but now she could acknowledge the sense of abandonment, loneliness, and embarrassment she had experienced. She remembered the humiliating feeling of inadequacy, of having failed in the one role every woman should be good at: being a wife.

If she had not found Selina shortly thereafter, Georgiana was doubtful that she would have survived it.

She wiped a lone tear from her face, and Daisy clutched her hand sympathetically. “I swear I shall kill him,” Daisy said angrily.

Georgiana huffed. “Do not. It is not his fault.”

“Whose fault is it then?”

---