A Lady for Ludovic by Sarah McCulloch

Author:Sarah McCulloch
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781626814455
Publisher: Diversion Books
Published: 2014-09-30T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

How Kate came to fall down the stairs was a mystery. She had never done such a thing in her life before—was not as a rule in the least bit inclined towards clumsiness—indeed, just the opposite, she had always been used to be complimented on the extreme lightness and quickness of her movements. Fall she did, however, and from the top to the very bottom. It was her pride which was the most immediate part of her to feel the hurt. Hugh, hearing the sounds of her precipitous descent and coming bursting into the hall with a ‘Good God! What has happened?’ took one look and ignoring all her protests of being ‘quite all right’ and ‘quite able to walk’ swept her up bodily and carried her through to the drawing-room, where she found herself laid upon a couch with a cushion placed behind her head.

‘Do not move! I will send Sedgewick at once for Dr. Bryan.’

‘No! Pray—’ She struggled to sit up. ‘There is no need to be going to all that trouble! I am just a little shaken—I shall be as right as rain in a second or so. How I came to do such a thing I cannot imagine! It is not at all like me.’

‘You caught your foot, perhaps, in the hem of your dress—it is very easily done. I still think that Dr. Bryan should be fetched.’

‘No—please! I assure you! There is nothing broken.’

‘There may be nothing broken, but—’ He looked at her, earnestly. ‘Who knows what other damage may have been sustained? It would surely be wise—I know that Ludo would agree with me! You cannot afford to be taking chances at a time like this.’

For a moment she did not understand; and then it dawned on her. The colour came to her cheek. He noticed it, and said swiftly: ‘Forgive me! I could not help but guess, when you wished to be alone with my uncle—and then Mrs. Pinney, when she left, inadvertently let slip—oh, she did not intend! She naturally assumed, I daresay—not that that is any excuse—’ He stopped. ‘I beg your pardon! I would not have mentioned it, but for this most unfortunate incident. Pray do allow me to send Sedgewick to the village!’

‘Indeed it is not necessary. There has been no harm done.’

‘But you cannot tell … I entreat you! Allow Dr. Bryan to come and reassure us.’

She bent her head. ‘There is nothing Dr. Bryan could reassure us of except that—that I am not in the condition you think me.’

‘Not—?’

‘What I said to your uncle was said solely in order to bring him some small degree of comfort at the last—it was also said in what I mistakenly took to be privacy! Mrs. Pinney ought not to have been listening, and if she was, ought never to have mentioned it.’ Indignation suddenly gripped her. ‘It was something that was strictly between Lord Ringwood and myself—and Ludovic, of course, because he is my husband. But Mrs. Pinney had no right! No right at all!’

There was a silence, then: ‘She had not indeed.

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