“I am here to see to the health of the family.” The doctor looked from woman to woman. “My fees are already paid.”
“Paid?” Alicia frowned. “By who?”
“Someone grateful for Admiral Stone’s service, no doubt,” Hester said. “Perhaps it was your father’s distant cousin, the one you went to visit last month.”
Alicia’s stomach somersaulted. And then somersaulted another time. A bitter taste nudged up her throat.
“If you will excuse me.” She rushed though the dining room, down the back stairs, and out the door to the garden.
The world around her swerved as she heaved. Nothing came, of course. She hadn’t been able to fill her stomach all day. Slowly, she stood. The bud-filled branches of the blackthorn bush swayed in a breeze, adding to her sense the earth had moved.
With shaky legs, she sat. Not good.
None of this was good. If someone impressed by Octavius’s service had wanted to help his family, why hadn’t they done so before? And the non-existent cousin was certainly not the source. That left the Admiralty. And why would they be concerned with the family’s health?
She placed her hand over her belly.
A terrible suspicion had been nudging her since the second week of her sickness. If true, what would happen then?
She turned her face to the heavens and inhaled. Perhaps the sickness was just nerves. The alternative was too horrible to contemplate.
She made her way back into the house as Hester was entering the hall.
“There you are,” she said. “Dr. Wilton would like to speak with you now.”
Her?“Certainly.”
She entered the front parlor and closed the door. The doctor’s eyes fixed to her still-shaking hands with interest.
“Dr. Wilton,” she said. “I must know the source of your charity.”
The doctor lifted his brows. “I could not tell you if I wished, because I do not know. A solicitor requested visit, and paid my usual fee.”
She sunk into a chair. “But why?”
“That is a question Icananswer,” the doctor said. “He mentioned an unusually high laudanum bill.”
She exhaled. “Aunt Hester.”
Dr. Wilton nodded. “I have surmised as much. And I’ve cautioned her against increasing her dosage.”
Who knew about the laudanum? The apothecary, of course. No one else. Although... Hadn’t the duke paid the apothecary the same night he’d paid Marie?
She frowned. A pernicious turn of thoughts. She did not number in the duke’s concerns. He had made his position clear on that final morning. And she hadn’t heard a word since.
“You look a bit peaked, my lady.”
She folded her hands in her lap. “Just strain.”
“Might you permit an examination?”
She eyed him with suspicion. “Would your recommendations be given in the strictest confidence?”
His brows rose. “Of course.”
The brief examination consisted, among other indignities, of allowing the doctor to listen to her heart and answering questions. When he was finished, he sat back down and drummed his fingers against the table, his expression troubled. She imagined he was counting months. Then, he said the words she’d been dreading to hear.
“Lady Stone, is there any possible way you could be with child?”
