“Surely, you do not mean to speak to them?” As far as Celia was concerned, the woman and her daughter could be swept out with the day’s dirt.
“It is important that word spread through theton, my love.” He tipped his head in the exit’s direction. “What better way could we ask for? And her brother-in-law also happens to be none other than the prime minister himself. We need Lord Liverpool and his cabinet on our side because they introduce all legislation. It is also my understanding that Lady Bournebridge is related to the speaker of the house as well. Monty brought it to my attention that the woman has more influential connections than I have hairs on my head. We must tread carefully with them. Lord Bournebridge and the prime minister both attended the funeral and offered their condolences. I am still not quite certain how Monty pulled that one off.”
“I dislike this.” Celia felt the same uncomfortable sense of something about to go very wrong that always guided her with choosing investments. Her intuition never led her astray. “There is more than gossip at stake here. I feel it.” She tried to rise, but a stabbing pain when she tried to push herself up made her cry out and fall back among the pillows.
“Celia!” Elias dove back to her. “Lie still. Gransdon, fetch Dr. MacMaddenly immediately.”
“Yes, my lord.” The butler disappeared.
A harsh stinging set her chest on fire. Renewed throbbing at the deepest part of her wound forced her to sink back into the pillows and obey. “If that man lectures me, it will be his last,” she warned, while curling on one side and holding her chest. Her bandages still appeared dry, thank heavens. At least the surly Scot couldn’t complain she had torn open the wound and caused it to bleed.
After a few slow, steady breaths, she opened her eyes to Elias kneeling at her side. She patted his arm. “Go flatter Bournebridge and her daughter out of here. I shall behave while you are gone and be still as a statue until you return. I promise.”
“I will not leave you like this.” He hovered over her like a magnificent beast guarding its young. “The Bournebridges can sit there and gather dust, as far as I am concerned.”
“My protective panther.” She cradled his cheek in her hand and smiled. “I am fine. I simply moved too quickly.” She had also been rash enough to move as though she had no wound at all. Quite a poor decision on her part. “Since you refuse to leave me, once Dr. MacMaddenly has seen to me, might I please accompany you to the parlor? You can help me get there. I cannot bear the thought of not hearing your conversation with those two firsthand, because I know you’ll forget and leave out details I should know.”
His scowl failed to give her much hope that he would agree. “You still do not trust me.”
“No!” She pulled him closer. “I want to be there and hear what they say. Isolation in that damn bedroom of mine has been unbearable.” He had no idea how frustrating it was to be cut off from everything.
“Damn bedroom?” he repeated with a grin. “Such language, my love.”
“The situation demands it.” The sound of hurried footsteps warned her she had little time to extricate a promise from her overly protective husband. “You can carry me into the parlor and have them visit us there rather than the drawing room. I can rest on the sofa just as easily as I can convalesce in bed. Please?”
“If Dr. MacMaddenly allows it—” Elias started before being cut off by the man himself.
“If Dr. MacMaddenly allows what?” The gruff Scot glared down at her in disapproval. “You were ordered to remain in your bed, Lady Cecilia.”
“I have never done well with orders,” Celia huffed. “You might as well learn that about me now. And how do you expect me to strengthen and recuperate if you weaken me by forced confinement to my bed?”
The doctor astonished her by chuckling. “Ye are a great deal like your mother, I see.” His amusement disappeared as quickly as it came. “Can I trust ye to be honest, about whether or not ye feel the slightest dampness of your bandages?”
“Of course you can trust me. What sort of question is that?” She shot Elias a warning scowl to be quiet, then gently rested her hand on her chest. “The bandages are not wet. I have not torn the stitches nor restarted the bleeding. I simply moved too quickly and did not consider that I would need to rise in a different manner so as not to stir any more pain.”
“Help her stand,” Dr. MacMaddenly told Elias.
Determined to prove to both the doctor and her husband she was quite able to move about, Celia forced herself to take greater care. With Elias’s arm around her, she faced down the doctor, daring him to defy her. “You see? I am a little weak, but with care and an appropriate amount of time free of my bed, I will become stronger.”
The physician shook his head and clapped a hand on Elias’s shoulder. “God help ye, man.” He leveled a stern glare on Celia. “I shall grant ye your freedom, but know this: if ye overdo, ye will be right back where ye started—if not worse.” He pointed at her. “Do not overdo, my lady. I shall check the wound later when we change your bandages, aye?”
“Yes, Dr. MacMaddenly.”
“And I will thank ye not to spit out my name as though it tastes bad,” he scolded, but his demeanor bordered on jovial. “Send for me if ye need me, m’lady. I shall be with your mother in her sitting room.”
“In her sitting room,” Celia repeated, finding the idea impossible to imagine.
“Aye.” The doctor puffed out his chest and straightened his spectacles. “Her Grace has challenged me to a game of chess, and placed such a tempting wager on her winning that I canna refuse.”
“And the wager is?” Celia asked even though she wasn’t quite certain she wished to know.
Dr. MacMaddenly winked. “That is between your mother and me, m’lady.” Then he strode away, quietly whistling a jaunty tune.
Celia turned to Elias, ready to scream because she didn’t have the strength to run up to her mother’s rooms and put a stop to such nonsense. “Surely, he does not mean…”
Elias steadied her, then gently pulled her into a hug. “What your mother does is none of our affair, my love.” He kissed her forehead and smiled down at her. “Now, I must see to our influential guests that cannot be ignored. If you refuse to stay here or retire to your rooms, then allow me to help you to the parlor, and I shall have Lady Bournebridge and her daughter brought to you, so you might hear every word uttered.”
“When my strength fully returns, you shall regret teasing me,” she threatened while leaning closer to breathe in his strength and revel in it. Perhaps tonight, if they were extremely slow and careful…
