The Wedding Affair (Rebel Hearts series Book 1) by Heather Boyd

Author:Heather Boyd [Boyd, Heather]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: LLD Press
Published: 2016-05-23T18:00:00+00:00

~ * ~

Felix pulled at his cravat to gain some air but to no avail. The duke kept his private study damned hot, and on top of the accursed fever that was building again, he could not concentrate on the conversation. He wished to escape the heat and the endless questions. A cooling ocean breeze was just the thing to help on such a day. Perhaps even a dunking in the nearby sea to cool his body and clear his mind. However, Sally’s aunt Penelope was taking notes today with a diligence usually reserved for a court-martial, so he sat and did his best to be cordial.

“Tell me more about the day William was wounded. I understand you took an injury to the leg during the skirmish. The left leg, was not it?”

The duke was uncomfortably well informed. He brushed over the spot. “Yes. A flesh wound that has long since healed. A piece of the ship splintered during cannon fire from the enemy, and I was in the way as so often happens.”

“And Laurence was injured in that skirmish too,” the duke said. “Explain how that happened.”

“A minor cut to his sword arm,” he murmured, wishing the duke would make him stop reliving battles in so much detail. “A few of the enemy boarded the Selfridge, and he and his men had to defend the ship. He made a full recovery.”

At night when he was alone, he could not banish the deaths of his enemy to allow for peaceful sleep. Sometimes not even the memory of Sally could banish them from his waking thoughts.

He had not slept after Sally had left his bed last night. He had been too full of her, too distracted by her passionate response, to settle down for the night. Her ridiculous arrangement with Ellicott infuriated him and remained a source of discomfort even now. Men in love did not willingly share their wives. Felix might have had the opportunity to keep Sally with him till dawn, but the idea that he would have done so with Ellicott’s blessing made him ill.

“Yes, so I understand.” The duke pursed his lips. “The injury to your leg, was it received before or after William’s wounding?”

“Before we had truly engaged.” He grimaced as he rubbed his leg, remembering how it had dragged toward the end of the engagement. His boot had filled with blood and his thigh had burned with sensation. He wiped his brow with the back of his hand. “I barely noticed it at the time, which is often the way of things during battle.”

The duke sat forward, peering hard at him. “Is something the matter, Captain?”

“No.” Felix was only burning from the inside out. He had hoped to hide his affliction, an irregularly recurring fever he could not be cured of, but it seemed the damned fever could not be stopped or delayed enough to protect his career. There would be ample witnesses this time round unless it passed quickly—which it rarely did. There would be no hiding it unless he could get away.

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