Page 82 of Sir Hugo Seeks a Wife
“She could,” Stannard said somberly.“Lucky the driver wasn’t going at full clip and he only knocked Athene to the side.She’s got a broken arm and a couple of cracked ribs, but she took a bad blow to the head and that’s the worst of it.”
The dread in Hugo’s stomach sharpened.The news of her head wound was devastating.Guilt stabbed him, agonizing as a cut from a saber.Why the devil had he let this happen?He should have bloody well been with her.He’d been appallingly neglectful.
It required an almighty effort to speak.“What did the doctor say?”
“That she might wake up and she might not.He bled her and tended her other injuries, but only time will tell whether she comes back to us.”The earl stopped outside a closed door.“If you’re a praying man, I’d start praying.”
Hugo frowned, as he struggled to come to terms with what he heard.Impossible to believe that Athene, with all her passion and determination and courage, might die.By Jupiter, he refused to accept it.“She’s a fighter.”
“Aye, she’s that.In those prayers, remind the Lord that she’s always grabbed at life with both hands.”
The words struck Hugo as significant.He should have picked up the gist earlier.He would have, if his mind had been on anything except Athene’s condition.“You know her well?”
“Of course I know her well.”
“The inn staff said she’s your sister.”
The earl looked offended.“Because sheismy sister.”
Dumbfounded, Hugo gaped at the man.“You don’t look like her.”
It wasn’t the most important point, but it was the first thing he thought to say.Stannard had light brown hair and was conventionally handsome.
The man shrugged.“She takes after our father.I look like our mother.”
“So you haven’t seen her in more than ten years?”
His lips turned down.“I had no trouble recognizing her.”
Devil take it, Athene was an earl’s daughter.She was, in fact, Lady Athene Colton-Heath and a member of one of Yorkshire’s greatest families.Compared to her, Hugo was a peasant.While he’d recognized that she came from the upper classes, he’d never expected her to hold such exalted rank.
“Take…take me to her,” he said in a gruff voice.
The earl cast him another of those searching looks, then pushed the door open.“Very well.”
Hugo dashed through a sitting room to a darkened bedroom, where a middle-aged man bent over a bed containing a terrifyingly still figure.“Athene?”he asked, as the weighty silence crowded around him, threatening a permanent silence to come.“Athene, darling?”
“Dr.Marsh, this is Athene’s betrothed, Sir Hugo Brinsmead,” Stannard said.
The doctor straightened and bowed.“Sir Hugo, your servant.”
Hugo paid no attention.He couldn’t take his eyes from Athene’s haggard features, as white as the pillowcase beneath her head.“Can she hear me?”
The doctor looked disapproving at the lack of politeness.“I don’t know.She’s been insensible since his lordship saved her on the street this afternoon.”
Hugo should have saved her.Hell, Hugo should have kept her out of danger in the first place.He’d known something was wrong.He should have stayed to have it out with her and let his family obligations go to blazes.
A fire raged in the grate and with the curtains closed, the room was stifling.He sucked in a breath redolent of herbal ointments and tinctures.“Can’t we open a window?”
“I advise against it.With the lady so frail, she’s liable to take a chill if exposed to the weather.”
There was a bloodstained bandage wrapped around Athene’s head.Hugo took a few moments to realize that someone – Dr.Marsh, he guessed – had cut off her mane of black hair.
Her eyes were closed, and her dark lashes lay unmoving on colorless cheeks.Her splinted left arm rested on top of the sheets.His heart cramped, as he struggled to see if she was breathing.She’d always bristled with energy.It was sinfully wrong to see her like this, so still, so quiet.
“Athene, my love, don’t die.For the love of heaven, don’t leave me.”As he made his broken entreaty, he hitched a chair next to the bed and took hold of her right hand.It was cool and unresponsive in his clasp.
She’d never failed to react to his touch, yet now her hand remained slack.It was as if the life had already drained out of her.He couldn’t face the idea that she’d never wake up.
