Page 32 of Mending the Baron's Sins
“I trust my niece is continuing with my regime for you. The laudanum?”
Orla’s hand tightened around the candle. Her uncle’s response to dropping the laudanum the last time she had suggested it had been so bad. She had not told him that she had managed to persuade the baron out of taking some of his doses.
“Yes, she has.”
He lied to me. Why has he done that?
“I like her thoughts on other things too,” the baron continued on. “Perhaps she’s right that I should try to take more exercise, as long as I don’t overdo it.”
“Yes, by all means. I’ll leave your next dose of laudanum here for this evening. Take it before you go to sleep.”
“Thank you.”
Orla bit her lip. The baron had not said he would take it. Would he? Or would he do as she suggested and stave off for a while?
“Your niece is a good healer, Mr. Byrne. I admit, I may have been worried at first.” He made a soft sound, like half a laugh, dismissing himself. “But that was my own lack of knowledge and experience in healing. She’s very capable indeed. I can see that.”
“I’m glad you think so.”
“If you need to attend to more of your patients in town, you can by all means leave me in her care,” the baron assured him. “I trust her.”
Trust. He trusts me!
Orla’s stomach fluttered at the words. She placed her hand to it, trying to calm that feeling of a hundred butterflies in her gut.
“As you wish, my Lord. Now, I will leave you to your rest.”
Orla darted away as quickly as she could, moving on her toes as she hastened down the corridor, in order not to make a sound or reveal the fact that she had been listening at the door. She didn’t stop moving until she was in her bedchamber, with the door shut tight behind her. She leaned on the wood, her eyes on the bed, thinking of what she had done before in that bed, and what she had imagined doing with the baron there too.
“He trusts me,” she murmured aloud. She also knew from what Colm had said at dinner that he’d had even more requests from people in town for his treatments. It meant he might be away from Ingleby Hall every day. She would have to become the baron’s primary caregiver, away from the prying eyes of her uncle.
“Oh no.” Despite her words, she felt it was a very good thing, and she allowed herself the smallest of smiles.
Chapter 10
“Are you sure you’re up for this?” Walter leaned toward Horace, his dark hair falling across his forehead. “If you want to stop at any point, we can.”
“I’m up for it. I’m sure. Let us do this,” Horace said with determination. He sat as straight as he could in the library. “I don’t know what it is, but since our dinner on Saturday, I feel a littlerenewed.”He chose the word very particularly.
He was hardly healthy. He was still dizzy, still nauseous at times too, his body weak, but he had managed to make it to the library today without needing any assistance. He’d thrown open the windows and the curtains all alone, much to the delight of Orla when she had walked in to deposit his latest herbal tea just as Walter had arrived.
The taste really is rather better than the laudanum.
He had been taking the laudanum less and less over the last few days.
He sipped the tea now and used the cup to gesture to Walter.
“Come, tell me all. Tell me everything I do not know.”
“Excellent.” Walter smiled broadly. He shrugged off his tailcoat and rolled up his sleeves, though he was careful to sit by the fire to still stay warm. Reaching into the leather satchel he carried, he pulled out a myriad of papers and placed them all neatly on the writing bureau in front of Horace.
Taking a minute just to breathe, Horace looked between all the papers.
“This is everything I have not seen? Everything you’ve done in my absence?”
“It is.” Walter smiled, pleased with himself. “I think you’ll like what I’ve done. Much has changed for the better.” He clapped his hands together, then reached for the nearest file, opening it wide. “Ah, here. I want you to see this first.”
“What is it?” Horace took the paper fast.
