“That’s the problem with you. Youdon’tthink. You’re reckless and headstrong. What if one of the girls had followed you?”
She paled before him, and although he regretted his harsh words, she needed to feel his wrath. Perhaps she would think twice before attempting such a dangerous stunt again.
How could he tell her he loved her if he lost her? She awakened emotions he could neither order nor master. To give them rein would place him wholly in her power.
His jaw tensed as he tamped down the fury at himself. “Let’s get you upstairs and cleaned up.” Once more, he swooped her into his arms and carriedher upstairs.
With Joan and Mattie hovering around her, he left Anne to their care. He needed space to breathe, to think, and to cool his anger.
CHAPTER 31
Anne would lose her mind if she had to lie in bed one more hour. Joan and Mattie had helped her bathe and dress. A doctor arrived and tended to her injured ankle. After reassuring her it was merely sprained and not broken, he wrapped it tightly and prescribed laudanum for the pain.
“Do you have any willow bark?” she asked.
To which the physician hitched his gray eyebrows to his hairline and called it nonsense if not witchcraft.
She pushed the bottle of laudanum aside. “Willow bark tea is what Harry prescribes.”
The man scrunched up his face in distaste. “And who, pray tell, is Harry? Some villager from Kent, no doubt.”
A wicked grin curved her lips. “You could say that. Heisfrom Kent. Dr. Harry Radcliffe, but you might know him as the Duke of Ashton. You may have heard of his Hope Clinic in London.”
The doctor snapped both his mouth and his bag shut. “I shall address this with your husband as he is the one who called me. Stay off that foot as much as possible for two weeks and use a cane or crutch for support.”
He left in a huff, and Anne wasn’t sorry to see him go.
Sharp pain radiated from her ankle up her leg each time she moved or had to rise to use the chamber pot, and she eyed the bottle of laudanum taunting her on the bedside table.
Joan remained at Anne’s bedside. Miss Hart brought Cassie and Ellie in, each holding a puppy for Anne’s inspection. Miss Hart cautioned the girls not to get on the bed and jostle Anne. Even Alan peeked in to enquire how she was feeling.
Other than Greene and Mrs. Campbell, it seemed the whole household came in to ask about her comfort. And truth be told, if those two had come in, she would have found something to throw at their heads.
The one person absent was the one person she wished to see most.
Colin.
When Mattie and Alan brought in a late supper on trays, she’d hoped Colin would join her, but Alan said he’d taken supper earlier in his study.
He’d been so angry with her. Her Grump had returned more vehemently than she recalled.
He acted as though she’dmeantto get hurt. Anyone who knew her at all would discount that immediately. His reprimand that she could have placed the girls in danger stung the most. If the girls had joined her, she would have shooed them out and left with them. Didn’t he realize how much she cared for them?
And him?
Well, no, he didn’t know how she felt about him because, for one of the few times in her life, she hadn’t expressed her thoughts aloud.
She wanted to tell him, but how could she? Not when he was so angry. He was probably plotting a way to cast her aside. Would he collaborate with those two villainous servants? Send her somewhere remote as Victor Pratt’s father had done with Lady Cartwright?
Her stomach churned, and even the chocolate cake appeared unappetizing. Her fork clattered onto the plate at an even more horrific prospect. She pushed the tray away.
Could he divorce her?!
Stop being melodramatic.
“What did you say, my lady?” Mattie asked as she prepared to take the tray away.
“I. Um. Please ask my husband to come see me.”
