To Mend the Broken-Hearted by Jude Knight

Author:Jude Knight [Knight, Jude]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Judith Anne Knighton

13

The vaccinations the next day were scheduled in the great room of the rectory after church. Val went to the service with his girls and the Winderfield party, and was pleased with the welcome they got in the churchyard after the service. The Harwoods did not attend.

The vaccinations went without a hitch, and on the following day the Winderfield contingent left. The four girls were in tears at the parting. Mirrie and Genny had tried to convince Val that two extra girls would be no trouble for him, and couldn’t possibly comprehend why he balked at bringing another two innocents, and these no relation, into his scandal-tarnished life.

Harmony and Molly were heading for a new school, and were nervous about the change, though Ruth assured them that Lady Sutton planned to keep them together, and that Ruth would keep in touch and visit when she could.

Since Drew arrived, Val had not had a private moment with Ruth. He seized a moment to draw her to one side when his girls suddenly thought of one more item for their friends’ comfort, and obtained permission to race upstairs to the nursery to retrieve a travelling games-set to help while away the journey.

Val kept his voice low, though Drew, Zyba, and Jeyhun were exchanging banter as they waited, and not paying attention to Val’s conversation with Ruth.

“Thank you for my girls.”

Ruth shook her head. “I had little to do with it, Val.”

Val caught up her hands, unable to resist this last chance to touch her. “I don’t believe that. You say your job is just to treat the symptoms while they heal themselves. Well.” He kissed one hand, and then the other. “You have treated their symptoms. You haven’t starved them or bled them. And they live. Thank you.”

Ruth blushed; whether at his kisses or his words, he didn’t know. “I didn’t save Jeffries or Anne.”

“Three from five live,” Val pointed out. “I’ve seen smallpox go through a village and kill nine out of every ten. You’ll let me be grateful, Ruth. Grateful, too, that you imposed a strict quarantine, so it hasn’t spread beyond those who brought it with them. And that you’ve saved those who might have caught the disease in the future.”

Ruth still wouldn’t accept how wonderful she was. “It was the least I could do, Val. I brought the smallpox here. And we have been lucky. Only one of them had one of the more dangerous forms of the disease, praise God.”

The girls came clattering back down the stairs, and Drew called out, “Ruth, time for us to go.”

It was over, then. She had come into Val’s life and changed everything. If only he were a different man, a whole one not mired in a disastrous family history. An earl might aspire to a duke’s daughter, if he were worthy. He had seen a glimpse of a blissful future, but only through the bars of the cage that kept him from ever enjoying it.

As he watched the carriage and

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