A Love Beyond Time by Penelope Talbot

Author:Penelope Talbot
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Daisy Chain Publishing

CHAPTER FIVE

It was late afternoon before the doctor came to Darcy’s home, and much to Elizabeth’s joy, it wasn’t the same doctor from the garden party. He had seemed convinced Elizabeth was some destitute woman who was trying to sneak a piece of Darcy’s obvious fortune. This doctor at least appeared willing to listen to her, though she hadn’t decided yet if she was going to tell either of them the full truth about her situation.

As Elizabeth sat silently in the drawing room of Darcy’s beautiful home, the two gentlemen walked in, looking equally concerned.

“Miss Elizabeth Bennet, this is my personal physician, Doctor Reginald Winston. He will look at your head injury and ensure there will be no lasting damage,” Darcy said with a gentle smile that seemed reserved only for her.

Elizabeth could not help but laugh. No lasting damage? She was currently living the most realistic hallucination humanly possible. Not only was she sure she was in some sort of coma, but Elizabeth was starting to think she was never going to wake up. When she glanced over at Darcy, however, she didn’t feel like she was in much of a rush to wake up, either.

“Are you in pain of any kind, Miss Bennet? Does your head still ache? Have you any bright spots or strange images clouded your eyesight?” the doctor asked as he examined Elizabeth’s eyes. She knew she couldn’t be honest with him, because Doctor Winston would have her committed immediately.

“I do have a bit of a headache, Doctor, but it’s nothing I can’t handle. Sometimes I get so dizzy I feel like I’m half-seas over, but it passes quickly.”

Doctor Winston and Darcy were both staring at her again like she was crazy and she realized they didn’t know what she was talking about. It was 1813. She needed to stop using the slang of her time.

“What I mean is, I get light-headed, as if I’ve had too much… port?”

Is that what they drank in Regency England? Yes, I’m sure of it, Elizabeth thought nervously, confident they were going to start to ask her more probing questions. But the doctor only hummed thoughtfully and wrote something in his notebook with a pencil.

“What do you suggest, Doctor Winston?” Darcy asked nervously. The doctor tapped the pencil against his notepad.

“Well, I suppose we could bleed her. Or I could fetch my jar of leeches from the office.”

Elizabeth gasped so loudly, she lost her breath for a moment and thought she might fall out of her chair. But then the men started to laugh and the doctor patted her gently on the shoulder.

“Unlike many of my colleagues, Miss Bennet, I do not subscribe to such medieval medical practices. There is little we can do for a bump on the head, unfortunately, but I am going to leave you some laudanum in the event you have trouble sleeping. I will leave instructions on the dosage as well. In the meantime, please do not engage in any activities that could result in a second bump on the head.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.