The Widow (Ruthless Regency Dukes 3) by Carole Mortimer

Author:Carole Mortimer [Mortimer, Carole]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Carole Mortimer
Published: 2022-11-29T00:00:00+00:00

“You appear to have had a lucky escape, Lady Marshall,” the doctor told Elizabeth warmly as he put his instruments back into the black leather bag he had placed on the bed beside her. “As you had thought might be the case, I do not believe there to be any broken bones, nor can I detect any internal bleeding or other injury. The bruising is severe, though”—he frowned—“ and it will no doubt cause you considerable discomfort for several more days and nights to come. Taking the contents of one of these sachets four times a day will help with the pain.” He placed the medication on the small bedside cabinet.

“Thank you, Doctor.” Elizabeth allowed Peggy to assist her to sit up slightly so that she might drink down the first of those foul-tasting drafts.

“I will go and tell His Grace the good news.” Dr. Harlow straightened. “He has been very worried about you,” he added.

Elizabeth easily saw the speculation in the older man’s eyes. A curiosity she had no intention of satisfying.

Not that she would know what to say if she did.

For all that she was in Sterling’s home, and he was being so very solicitous to her, the only thing Elizabeth really knew for certain about him was that she had instinctively known that, despite the duke’s innate air of haughty disdain, he would never turn away a lady in need of his protection.

“As were we all.” The outspoken Peggy was, thankfully, the one to briskly answer the doctor, before adding, “I believe His Grace went downstairs. I’ll accompany you there.” She moved purposefully across the bedchamber to pointedly hold the door open for the doctor to leave.

Elizabeth held back her smile as she watched them go.

A smile that faded the moment the door closed behind them.

Because, yes, she was safe for now. But she had no doubt her father-in-law would demand she return, with Christopher, the moment he learned where they both were.

Apart from traveling back to London, she’d really had no idea where she was going when she left Whitlow Grange earlier, only that she had to get away from the earl before he succeeded in killing her. Her parents’ already crowded house seemed to be the most logical choice, but even that could only be a temporary arrangement. Whitlow was far more powerful than her father, and the moment the earl caught up with her, he would demand she return to his household, along with Christopher.

The Duke of Bristol was more powerful than both of them, of course, with friends who were equally so. But Elizabeth couldn’t expect him to continue inconveniencing himself for her in the way he had tonight.

God, he had looked so rakishly handsome when she regained consciousness earlier to see him standing beside the bed on which she lay. In her slightly hazy state, his appearance, in a billowing white shirt unfastened at the throat, and tight pantaloons and Hessians that outlined his muscular thighs and legs, had seemed like that of one of the pirates of Elizabeth’s youthful fantasies.

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