Page 74 of Taken By the Broken Duke
He had a metal instrument in his hand, resembling a horn.
“May I listen to your heart, Miss Semphill?”
“Who are you? And where are we?” she asked.
“I am Doctor Malcolm Carmichael. You are in a room of the Swan Inn at Carlisle. Your fiancée came to find me in fear of your life. And rightly so. If I had not reached you when I did, I think you may have breathed your last.”
“Carmichael…?” Juliet said wonderingly. “My mother was treated by a Doctor Carmichael...”
“My father! He knew too little about her condition to save her, I gather. But from his notes and my own research, I believe we will fare better.”
“So, am I... cured?” Juliet whispered this last, unable to quite believe it.
Malcolm had pressed the cold metal horn to her chest and was listening intently. Then he shifted its position and listened again. Finally, he pressed two fingers against her left wrist and consulted his pocket watch for a moment.
“Cured? I am afraid not. His Grace gave his blood to restore you, to give you the strength to fight. I have a medication that my father devised. It will stave off the symptoms while you are taking it. Your lifespan will be dictated by the supply of the medicine.”
Juliet was amazed. She was not cured but if she was understanding Malcolm fully, she was all but cured. Provided she took the medicine he gave her. The only question left was...
“And how much of this medicine do you have?”
Malcolm smiled ruefully. “Very perceptive. My father manufactured it using some very rare ingredients. I have enough for two years, I believe. Possibly three.”
Juliet felt crestfallen. She could not help but think that two or three years might not be long enough to be happy with Horatio and to give him a child. For then she would be gone and he would be mourning. She shook her head suddenly.
“No,” she said aloud, “I will not live in fear of death. I will live for today, not for what might happen tomorrow.”
Malcolm smiled. “An admirable philosophy, Miss Semphill. One I wholeheartedly endorse. I have known grief after losing my beloved wife. I would consider it a betrayal of her memory for me to wallow in grief. Besides, there is hope.”
“There is?” Juliet said, looking at Horatio, wishing he would wake.
Malcolm followed her gaze and lowered his voice.
“We should not wake him until he is ready. The procedure sapped a great deal of his strength.”
Juliet nodded. She pushed herself up in bed, putting her pillows behind her back and pulling the tray towards her.
“Do you mind if I eat while you tell me what hope we have? I apologize for being brusque, but I am simply ravenous.”
“I insist,” Malcolm smiled.
Juliet helped herself to a brimming cup of milk, then cut herself a chunk of cheese to take with a piece of bread.
“Thehopeto which I referred is that I have my father's notes on the production of the medicine. I believe I can reproduce his work and make more of the medicine. Provided I can source the key ingredient. That has, so far, been beyond my means.”
“Where is it to be found?” Juliet asked, taking another mouthful.
“In a remote region of the southern American continent. An area of jungle reached only by weeks of travel upriver along a tributary of the Amazon. My father made the expedition andreturned, though the malaria he contracted there eventually killed him. Such an expedition is expensive, and I have not been able to raise the funds to attempt it. No other sufferer of what I have calledCarmichael Syndromehas been found. I did not know of your existence until His Grace arrived at my door. It is hard to raise funds when there appear to be no victims.”
“If it is funds that you seek Doctor, you will have them,” Horatio murmured drowsily.
Juliet jumped. Malcolm turned a beaming smile on Horatio who was stretching in his chair, rubbing at bleary eyes.
“Your Grace! You are back with us. Please help yourself to food, you will need it.”
Horatio ran a hand through his hair and gave a rather lengthy yawn. He was looking at Juliet and there was astonishment on his face.
“You look... renewed,” he breathed. “You are radiant.”
