Of Silk and Steam by McMaster Bec

Author:McMaster, Bec [McMaster, Bec]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca
Published: 2014-12-16T08:00:00+00:00

Fifteen

Pacing outside the door, Mina felt every hair on her body lift. She was no longer alone.

The Devil of Whitechapel appeared at the top of the staircase, his face pale and his eyes as black as Hades. There was no sign of the man she’d seen earlier; this was a predator, tight with tension and the need to kill. Prepared to defend every inch of the place he called his own.

A muffled sound of pain echoed from inside the bedroom. Blade’s attention shifted, and for a moment, his face contorted. Not a blue blood, not a predator now, just a man listening to his wife cry out and completely helpless because of it.

“Lark said the baby’s coming,” he said, his words strangely lacking any hint of his usual accent.

Mina took a deep breath as he strode closer. “It’s not going well. The child’s in a breech position, and the midwife seems to feel that Honoria is too narrow through the hips to give birth successfully. However, if we don’t get the baby out soon…”

Those black eyes stared at her, then he scraped a trembling hand over his mouth. “No. No, this can’t be happening.”

Mina reached out and touched his arm. He tensed. “There is a chance we could perform a cesarean on her. Mrs. Parsons has performed such operations before and—”

“Cut it out of her? What about Honoria? What about—”

“We’ll use my blood to heal her wound. It will significantly lower the risk of scarring and infection, and I’ve already tested her to see if her vaccination will interfere with the craving virus’s ability to heal. It doesn’t.”

He looked lost. “Is there no other way?”

“None of us are obstetricians and we cannot wait to find one. I feel we must take this chance or lose it forever.”

Blade rubbed his mouth again, his gaze staring at something she couldn’t see. “And you want my approval?”

“Your approval,” Mina said, “and your help. Your wife is very frightened right now. With her scientific background, she knows too well the risk of this pregnancy. I know it’s hardly the done thing for a man to attend his wife, but if you could be there…to hold her hand, to talk to her and calm her fears—”

“I’ll do it.”

Thank goodness. She didn’t fully understand the relationship between Honoria and her husband, but he seemed to care very strongly for her, enough to overcome a man’s instinctive fear of the birthing room.

“Let’s do this then,” Blade said. “Before I lose me nerve.”

“Wait.” She caught his arm. “How is the battle faring?”

A dangerous look from those green eyes. “You ain’t about to be rescued, princess. Barrons and Rip are ’oldin’ the wall. Morioch’s only playin’ with us for now.”

The familiar sound of his accent let her breathe a little easier. There was something entirely too intense about him when his inner demon held sway. A sense of…danger.

“Barrons,” she murmured, her mind flashing to the hints of fire she’d seen in the distance and the sounds of shouting. He’d be right at the forefront of the fighting, no doubt.

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