The Lost Garden (The Purchas Family Series Book 5) by Jane Aiken Hodge

Author:Jane Aiken Hodge [Aiken Hodge, Jane]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Agora Books
Published: 2020-06-30T18:00:00+00:00

‘You sent for Dr Martin!’ She should have anticipated Tremadoc’s reaction. ‘That ill-bred son of a farrier! I’ll not have him in my house again, and so Barrett shall tell him when he calls in the morning. Of all the panics over nothing! Of course I take laudanum; it’s the only thing for this delicate stomach of mine. Anyone but an idiot female like you would have known it for what it was. I certainly make no secret of it.’ He laughed in her anxious face. ‘Anyone would think, to look at you, that I was taking poison.’

‘Dr Martin seemed to think that that was just what it was.’

‘Fool of a man. Mind you, I am touched by your wifely anxiety; quite the devoted little woman are you not? Oh, well,’ tolerantly, ‘if it will allay your fears we might as well send for Dr Peabody in the morning. He will tell you, I am sure, that there is no need for you to be nagging away at me about my medicine.’

‘But Dr Martin…’

‘Can go away with a flea in his ear. Send me Barrett, and I’ll give him my instructions. No!’ — he anticipated her protest — ‘You are not to see Martin. I’ll not have him cross the threshold of my house.’

‘But why?’

‘None of your business.’ He turned impatiently away from her. ‘I’ll have no more of your interfering. Go down and send me Barrett and tell that lazy cook of yours I want a neat little supper, up here, right away. You may share it with me, if you promise to behave yourself, and then come to bed and show me that you have remembered your place.’

It was another horrible night. She was not sure whether he was trying to convince himself, or her, that there was nothing the matter with him.

‘I’ll be master in my own house,’ he said at last and fell into the deep sleep of exhaustion, leaving her to lie, hour after hour, rigid and wakeful at his side, feeling where he had hurt her and wondering how she could face the future.

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