Page 61 of Elixir of a Duchess' Passion
Elijah, remembering their companions, glanced around to see them standing a little way off. It was clear from the looks on their faces and the fact that they were trying not to look in their direction that they were attempting to give them a little privacy.
As though she sensed their discomfort, Lady Belmont turned to her friend and called, “Please, go on ahead. I shall meet you back at the carriage momentarily.”
At that, both Lord and Lady Fenchurch appeared relieved. They both bowed and curtseyed respectively and called, “Good day to you, Lord Spurnrose.”
Straightening his hat, which had miraculously remained on his head, Elijah tipped it to them and said, “Good day to you both.”
Then he turned back to Lady Belmont, relieved that she had at least given him a moment to say farewell rather than hurrying off once more.
“You aren’t going to insist upon examining me before you go, are you?” Elijah asked as he turned back to Lady Belmont, hoping to buy himself a few extra moments in her company.
Amusement spread across the lady’s face, and she shook her head, pointing out, “We both know your pride would not allow you to accept my help either way.”
Elijah remembered then the day he had fallen from his horse and how she had insisted upon examining him practically top to toe before she deemed him well enough to leave the manor. His chest tightened to remember their kiss that evening also, and again, he felt himself starting to lean towards her.
Barely able to hold onto his willpower not to make her uncomfortable, he forced himself to stop, unwilling to push her away any further than he already had with his overeager marriage proposal.
“In any case, I am unharmed,” he assured her with a smile, which she mirrored.
“I am glad,” she said, laying a gentle hand upon his forearm for just a second before she seemed to realise what she had done. He thought she might quickly make further excuses to leave, but instead, she pushed herself up onto her tiptoes. Surprisingly, she pressed her lips to his cheek and whispered into his ear, “Goodbye, Lord Spurnrose.”
And somehow, Elijah felt that she was not simply saying farewell. It was a dagger to his heart, almost as though she was saying goodbye for good. Though he told himself he was imagining things, it still burned deep in his soul as he silently watched her walk away.
For once, her dog appeared to be behaving, though Elijah desperately wished he would play up just to keep her there a little longer.
Yet, she had not gone more than a few metres when Elijah watched her stop dead in her tracks. Looking just beyond her, he saw the reason why she had stopped.
Approaching her was one of the men that Elijah had come to know well in the last few months before he had quit London for Oxfordshire.
Doctor Wallis’ expression immediately suggested to Elijah that Lady Belmont was in trouble. Though he sensed deep in his soul that she would likely not thank him for intervening, he couldn’t stop his feet from carrying him forward just in time to hear the doctor hiss at her, “Lady Belmont, you truly have some gumption showing your face in London.”
“Doctor Wallis,” Lady Belmont responded in a friendly outward manner, though knowing her as he felt he did, Elijah was certain he noticed an edge to her tone that others might not have done. “It is apleasureto meet you again.”
The doctor, older though he was, appeared as though he might have liked to drag Lady Belmont right out of the park. It was almost as if she were an unruly child being confronted and scolded by a guardian about to drag her out on her ear.
“You shrew! You have no business here!” Doctor Wallis snarled at her, and the way his hands tightened into fists made Elijah fear for the woman’s safety. Yet she showed no sign of budging an inch as she stared down the man before her. “Your witchery is not welcome here, nor are you welcome in the medical field! You make us proper practitioners look foolish.”
Just then, Elijah reached her side and instinctively gripped her arm, pulling her back behind him.
“Doctor Wallis, I would warn you, step away.”
“Lord Spurnrose!” Doctor Wallis exclaimed, looking utterly shocked at the nobleman’s sudden appearance. He stepped away though Elijah suspected it was out of shock rather than obedience.
“Doctor, I would advise you to apologise to the lady,” Elijah said through gritted teeth, his hands tightening as he imagined planting his knuckles in the man’s face. “You have no business speaking to her in such a way.”
“Lord Spurnrose, I thank you, but I do not need you to defend me,” Lady Belmont announced, and she stepped between the two men as Elijah glowered at the doctor over her head. “Doctor Wallis, I can and shall defend myself against the likes of you who claim to be a healer when it is I and not you who have cured Lord Spurnrose of his so-called consumption.”
The words were spoken with such sweet venom and so loudly that several people around them turned to look in their direction. There was a time when Elijah might have been quite angry at her for announcing such a thing to half of theton,but knowing in his heart that she was right and that every doctor he had seen before her had been wrong, he couldn’t bring himself to chastise her.
In fact, he had to hold back amusement when he saw the look on the doctor’s face, a look of sheer startlement that quickly turned to disbelief and then anger once more.
“Perhaps, Doctor, you ought to focus more on the cause of symptoms than masking the symptoms themselves, and then perhaps you and your peers might have realised Lord Spurnrose was suffering a bout of stomach ulcers and nothing more!” Lady Belmont announced, and with that, she tugged on her dog’s lead and gave a gentle nod of her head in Lord Spurnrose’s direction. “Good day, gentlemen.”
Elijah opened his mouth to protest, to offer to escort her back to the carriage after all, but it was too late. She was already hurrying off with her head held high, and the eyes of almost everyone in the park followed her. Elijah’s stomach twisted painfully as he realised that soon word of what had happened would be all over London. And somehow, he wasn’t sure whose name would be worse off, his own or Lady Belmont’s.
It didn’t truly matter, not to theton, all that mattered was that they had something new to gossip about.
Chapter 27
