‘This is what comes of women playing war,’ Thomas said, turning to watch. ‘You are lucky the damage was not to your face or the wedding would be off.’
‘On three,’ the physician said.
Eda’s eyes were locked with Blake’s as he counted down. Her sister gave her a reassuring smile at two, but the worry never left her face. If one of them was hurting, they were all hurting.
‘Three.’
Eda roared through the leather as the shoulder popped back into place. The physician patted Eda’s arm. ‘The worst is over. Let us take a look at the rest of you.’ He lifted her shirt and felt along both sides of her ribcage. Eda winced when he reached her left side. ‘I suspect you have a broken rib. There is little that can be done for that outside of rest.’
Candace looked at the ceiling, trying to hold back tears.
‘How long will that take to heal?’ Thomas said, moving closer. He was thinking only about the upcoming wedding.
The physician glanced in his direction. ‘Around six weeks. She will need to exercise caution during that time. No household chores for a while.’
‘Oh, she’ll hate that,’ Lyndal said from the other side of the room.
Blake smiled. ‘Poor thing. But you heard the physician. No laundry or scrubbing floors for six whole weeks.’
Eda might have smiled back if she had not been in pain.
The physician checked her arms, legs, hips, then felt around her abdomen for any internal injuries. His eyebrows came together as he pressed down firmly on the area above her pelvis.
‘What is it?’ Candace asked.
The physician cleared his throat and turned to Lord Thomas. ‘Perhaps we should talk outside—in private.’
‘What? No,’ Blake said immediately. ‘If it’s to do with my sister’s health, then you shall speak here in front of all of us.’
He hesitated. ‘No one mentioned that the patient is with child.’
Silence.
Long, deafening silence.
And cold. Eda felt like she had been plunged into a tub filled with ice.
‘Oh.’ That was Lyndal. Always the first to regroup in stressful situations.
The physician looked around the room, then down at Eda’s shocked face. ‘I gather from everyone’s reaction that no one was aware of the fact?’
Eda pushed herself up to a sitting position, wincing when pain shot through her chest and shoulder. She stared at the man as she replayed two words over and over in her mind.
With child.
‘I’m not pregnant,’ she said, looking from the physician to Lyndal to Blake to her very pale mother. ‘I’m not.’ He was likely mistaking some internal rupture for a foetus.
Thomas’s face had turned an ugly shade of red. ‘Are you certain?’
‘I have been doing this a long time,’ the physician replied. ‘I estimate around three months.’
The certainty Eda had felt moments earlier dissolved.Three months. Three months ago, she had been at Harlech Castle with Roul. Had she bled since? She could barely remember. Her cycles had been a mess for years. That was what came of famine.
Thomas was striding towards her now, and Blake stood tall between him and the table.
‘Not a step farther, Uncle.’
Thomas looked past her to Eda. ‘You little harlot. After everything I have done, this is how you repay me?’
