Bound by One Scandalous Night by Diane Gaston

Author:Diane Gaston
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2016-08-15T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

When Amelie woke the next morning, it was like swimming through a dark, murky sea into the light. Even her room was bright with sunlight. She remembered strange dreams and a feeling like floating in water, bobbing along like a fish caught in a current too strong to swim against. Her head ached and she felt a little dizzy, but at least the objects in the room remained still and did not alter their appearance.

Was she alone? Any time she woke before, when the room was dark, someone was sitting with her. Or at least she thought she’d been awake. She rolled over to see.

Edmund was with her. Sleeping on the chair as he had done the night before. She’d thought he’d left her! That is what her muddled mind and frantic dreams had told her. Yet here he was.

She checked herself. Her bleeding was not so alarming now. Mrs Bayliss said it was normal, and even the accoucheur told her to expect bleeding for a week or so. She need not stay in bed. She longed to be out of it, longed to be anywhere but this room, this bed, with the memories of what had happened here.

No reason why she could not rise now, put on a wrapper and sit by the window. She glanced over at Edmund, still sleeping, and moved as quietly as she could. Her legs seemed weak, and her head spun as she tried to stand. Steadying herself on the bed, she reached the trunk upon which her wrapper was folded. She sat on the trunk to put it on and then slowly rose and moved as if she were Madame Saqui, the Vauxhall Gardens tightrope walker.

She was surprisingly weak for just being in bed a day. Perhaps that was what happens when... No, she did not want to think of why she felt this way. She only wished to look outside at the street and reassure herself that carriages still rolled by, that trees and grass still grew. Her world seemed so changed, why not all of it?

She stood at the glass and discovered the same street, the same row of houses as always. A cat crossed the road and that small thing felt even more reassuring.

‘Amelie?’

She turned. Edmund had risen from the chair, his hair mussed and his face again in need of a shave.

He walked over to her. ‘Are you feeling better?’

She nodded. ‘Merely a little weak.’

‘Hungry?’ he asked.

Food seemed so utterly unimportant, but his mention of it made her stomach growl. ‘Yes. I suppose I am.’

He buttoned his waistcoat. ‘I will have some food sent up to you. Shall I summon Sally, as well?

Her heart started to race. ‘Are you leaving?’

‘I should,’ he said. ‘But I will be back. I’ll come in the afternoon and look in on you.’

She could only stare at him. He smiled, but whether it was in reassurance or apology, she could not tell. Perhaps it was pity.

He walked out the door, and she was helpless to stop him.

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