“You have five broken ribs,” he whispered.
“Yes, and at least two of them are broken in multiple places,” the doctor spoke in a clinical, matter-of-fact voice. “That in itself is painful and would take weeks to heal, but one of the ribs punctured your left lung.”
It had? She pressed a hand to the upper part of her chest and sucked in a breath, only then did she realize that breathing seemed to hurt. She couldn’t take a full breath without pain slicing through her. She had to keep her breaths short and shallow just to tolerate the pain. “Am I going to be all right?”
The doctor’s throat worked, and for a moment it almost looked like he, too, might be fighting tears. “I don’t know. Your lung was collapsing when your butler brought you to us, and you were suffocating. I inserted a small steel tube between two of your ribs to relieve the air in your lungs, but we need to take it out this morning. The problem is, we don’t know if the damage to your lung was minimal and it will repair itself, or your chest will fill back up with air once the tube is removed.”
“And if it fills back up with air, does that mean...” She sank her teeth into her bottom lip, trying to understand despite the fiery licks of pain that refused to leave her alone. “Does that mean I’m going to die?”
“We’ll do everything in our power to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
“That doesn’t mean no.”
“No, it doesn’t.” The doctor dragged a hand over the front of his face, his eyes bloodshot. “I might be able to insert the cannula once more, but if that doesn’t provide enough time for your lung to repair itself, there’s nothing more I can do.”
“And if my lungs heal? How long until I fully recover?”
The doctor just shook his head. “It will be a long process, and I can’t guarantee success even with that. We know your ribs will heal if we bind them, but there’s a correlation between binding ribs tightly and pneumonia. On top of that, we have infectionto worry about from the cannula being inserted. I’m sorry, Miss Caldwell. I wish I could give you better news. Truly I do. But I also want to be honest.”
Her throat suddenly felt dry. “What’s my chance of survival?”
He ran his eyes over her in a manner that felt detached and clinical. It wasn’t cold, but it was nothing like the way Leeland looked at her, and it was different from how Yuri looked at her too. “The fact you made it through the night and are now awake and talking is a very good sign.”
“I like numbers. Give me a percentage, doctor.”
“Forty percent.”
Yuri jerked, his hand tightening around hers. “Forty percent? But she survived the night. I thought?—”
“We’ve yet to see how she does with the cannula out, but her breaths are awfully shallow. That alone makes contracting pneumonia a near certainty. Then it becomes a question of whether her body is strong enough to fight it off.” The doctor held up his hands. “There’s only so much I can do.”
Yuri turned back to her, then raised her hand to his lips and pressed a kiss against her knuckles. “You’ll fight it off, Ros. You’re strong enough to fight it off. I know you are.”
She wanted to say he was right, that she would fight no matter what lay ahead, but she was so very tired, and in so much pain, and the idea of even getting out of bed and walking on her own seemed impossible.
“Is it all right if I ask you a few questions about last night, Miss Caldwell?” The Deputy Marshal moved closer to the bed.
She nodded.
“Do you want me to get Bryony while Jonas talks to you?” Yuri asked. “Would it help to have a friend?”
“No, I’ll... I’ll be all right.” At least she hoped she would. The truth was, the longer she talked, the harder it became. It seemedlike something stole even more breath from her lungs each time she spoke.
“Not too many questions, Jonas. She needs rest.” The doctor stepped away from the bed, giving Deputy Marshal Redding room to come to her side.
The lawman pulled a small notebook and pencil stub out of his shirt pocket. “Do you know why your father attacked you?”
She swallowed and looked away. “It was my fault.”
“None of this is your fault,” Yuri snapped, his hand tightening around hers.
“No. It is... I should have known better than to confront him after the arson.”
“Why would you confront him without anyone there to protect you?” Yuri growled.
“I couldn’t help it.” She paused, sucking in a few more shallow breaths, trying to get enough air to continue speaking. “I was spending the night at Millicent’s, and we all came running when we heard the fire bell. But when I saw the fire was at your shipyard, I just knew.”
“Did you ask your father directly if he set the fire?” the Marshal asked.
