Page 78 of The Duke's Inconvenient Bride
He rang the bell and asked Daisy to summon Dr. Edmund, who’d spent the night in one of our rooms. He just prayed the doctor hadn’t left yet.
He stayed by Emma’s side, attempting to wake her. Several minutes passed, and then the doctor hustled into the room. He paled as soon as he set eyes on Emma.
“How long has she been like this?” he asked.
“I don’t know.” He felt useless. He should have checked on her sooner. No, he should never have left her alone last night.
Dr. Edmund hurried to Emma’s side. He tested her temperature, as Vaughan had done, and then pressed his fingers to her neck.
“She has a fever,” he said. “Was she injured anywhere other than her ankle?”
“Not that I know of. Certainly none of her skin was broken.” He’d have noticed that when he’d bathed her.
“Then it must be a result of being so chilled.” He clucked his tongue. “Shut the window. She may have opened it if she began to feel warm, but it will have only worsened the situation.”
Vaughan strode to the window and closed it immediately, chiding himself for not having done so sooner.
“What can we do?” he asked. “Is it serious?”
Dr. Edmund’s weathered face scrunched. “It is impossible to know for certain. All we can do is monitor her and control her temperature.”
Vaughan’s stomach dropped. There had to be another way to help her. “Will you stay?”
“Of course, Your Grace.”
“Thank you.” His shoulders slumped with relief. “Once the weather has cleared, I will have a footman sent to collect a change of clothes for you, if that is amenable.”
Dr. Edmund bowed. “That would be most appreciated. Never fear, I shall remain here until the duchess is through the worst of the fever. Now, let’s see what we can do to make her comfortable.”
Vaughan couldn’t takehis eyes off his wife. He’d been afraid to so much as doze since Dr. Edmund had retired to bed for the night. Poor Emma did not look peaceful in sleep. Her face was scrunched up, and her forehead was damp. She had yet to wake, but nor had she taken a turn for the worse.
He reached for a fresh cloth and dunked it into the bowl of cold water on the nightstand beside her bed, then wrungthe water out. He folded the damp cloth and pressed it to her forehead. She murmured something, but her eyes never opened.
The back of his neck prickled, and his heart skipped a beat as fear coursed through him. What if she never recovered?
No, he couldn’t let himself think like that. She would heal. And then she’d give him a verbal bollocking for allowing this to happen.
When the cloth grew warm, he tossed it aside and wet another, placing it on her forehead to keep her cool.
“What else can I tell you?” he mused.
Her silence and stillness had unnerved him, so he’d been sharing stories from his youth. He’d never have told her any of this if she’d been conscious, but he didn’t seem to have the same problem when he knew she wouldn’t remember any of it.
“Since I didn’t have many friends, I spent a lot of time with the horses. In hindsight, I probably caused trouble for the stable master by getting in the way and slowing down their work, but he was always welcoming. He answered all of my questions patiently, and when one of our mares foaled, he convinced my father to let me keep the foal.”
He lifted the cloth and touched her skin. She was still warm, so he replaced the cloth with another one.
“I spent hours with that horse. At first, I would help care for him, and eventually I was allowed to take him for walks on the estate. We had such great adventures.” He smiled to himself. “I still have him now. In fact, he was the horse you rode with me on the way back from the folly. I’ll have to introduce you properly some time.”
He stroked her hair back from her face, then caught himself and stopped.
No.
He could care for his wife. That was the gentlemanly thing to do. But he shouldn’t be affectionate with her. That was inviting trouble.
“You know that I’m friends with Longley,” he said. “We met as boys at Eton. I was shy, but we arrived at the same time on our first day, and he took me under his wing. He didn’t mind that I didn’t talk much. When I asked him about it, he laughed and said that it meant he got to talk more about himself, which was his favorite hobby.”
He stretched, hoping to ease the kinks in his back. His spine popped and cracked, but his shoulders were still tense from sitting for so long, and his legs were twitching with the need to move.
