Total pages in book: 125
Estimated words: 116547 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 583(@200wpm)___ 466(@250wpm)___ 388(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 116547 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 583(@200wpm)___ 466(@250wpm)___ 388(@300wpm)
“What do you believe she could have eaten?” The duke quickly looked to him. “This doctor has gone on and on about poison. I knew it could not be so. Clementina can be a bit of a glutton sometimes and will eat whatever looks the sweetest. She used to have stomachaches all the time as child.”
The instant deference and respect the duke gave to Sir Grisham did not go unnoticed. I waited for him to ask me to step away from his daughter, but instead it was his wife who spoke.
“I wish for Dr. Darrington to stay,” she said sternly.
“But dear, Sir Grisham—”
She turned to them both, her head high as she held on to her daughter’s arm. “I know my daughter. I know what it looks like when she has a stomachache and this is not that. She told me many times she felt ill after taking your tonic, Sir Grisham, but I trusted your wisdom to be greater than hers. Now see where we are.”
“Your Graces, I assure you—”
“Thank you for coming all this way, Sir Grisham, do please take care on your journey home!” She squeezed her daughter’s hand even tighter and turned back to me. “Dr. Darrington, I shall have no excuses from you later either.”
“Yes, Your Grace.” I nodded and did not look back at the duke or Sir Grisham.
What a night this was.
Verity
“My lady?
“My lady!”
“Ugh!” I gasped out, all of me shivering as my eyes snapped open.
“My lady?”
It took me a moment, because all the world felt as though it were spinning, but as my vision steadied, I looked at the freckled face of Bernice, who knelt beside my bed, watching me with wide eyes.
“Are you all right, my lady?” she asked as I slowly began to sit up.
“I—” I jumped at the flash of lightning and sound of rippling thunder that quaked outside the window. It only added to the splitting ache that spread through my head.
“I shall tell her ladyship—”
“No!” I grabbed her arm desperately. Seeing her startled expression, I sought to calm myself, releasing her and taking in a deep breath. “It is nothing, truly. I believe I might have gotten a bit foxed last night. I surely do not wish her ladyship’s concern over it.”
I tried to smile, but my head still hurt, so I quickly rose from the bed. Bernice lifted a robe for me to step into. Typically, the medicine prescribed by Dr. Cunningham, our family’s physician in Everely, worked perfectly. Yet two nights in a row, I had awoken to cold sweats and worried glances.
“I will draw water for you, my lady,” Bernice said.
I merely nodded as I sat by the window. I had no clue what to do if the medicine did not work. It was not as though I could call for Dr. Cunningham. I thought of writing to Evander, but I doubted he’d even be able to read it for days, if not weeks, while he tended to his new wife. Also, it would be in poor taste for me to be writing to him now. He’d think me a bother—well, maybe not, but he would be concerned, and the last thing I wished to do now was disturb his peace.
“My lady, what would you like to wear?” Bernice asked me.
“Anything is fine. I doubt we shall be going out in this weather.”
“Yes, the rains have been terrible this season.”
I knew that to be a fact. Upon coming to London, the wheel of our carriage had gotten stuck in a rut, and part of me believed it was a sign for us to turn back. But coincidentally, at that very same time, a carriage belonging to the Du Bells drove past, and Evander had stared at it as though it had wings. It made me wonder at the time if there were always two forces at work, one willing us to go forward and one trying to keep us stuck in place.
“My lady, is this all right?”
I glanced back at Bernice to see the simple lavender dress she held up for me. I nodded and rose to my feet again.
It took us about thirty minutes for me to get ready, and in the process, I heard the rest of the family rise. It was like one moment there was utter silence, and then the next, a rumbling of feet and voices in the hall.
“Abena!” I heard someone—Hathor—yell as soon as I opened my door. I glanced down over the railing to see the little girl run from one room into another, a box of ribbons and a single shoe in her hands.
“She truly loves to drive her sister mad.” I smiled as I walked down alongside Bernice. “Is she not worried her mama will be angry at her?”
“Lady Abena seems to forget about consequences while in the act of having her fun,” she replied just as Hathor opened her door, still in her nightdress and nightcap…and her cheeks excessively painted with rouge.