Ashton called for several men to help carry Colin’s father to his bedchamber. Torn, Colin didn’t know what to do, and he glanced toward Anne.
Anne gave him a little push. “Go ahead. You need to be with your family, and I’ll just be in the way.”
Colin grabbed her arm. “No. Stay with me, please.” He couldn’t face this alone.
Anne’s panicked eyes darted from him to his father and back. Her voice trembled when she answered, “V-very well.”
She stood aside as he, Ashton, Burwood, and Grey lifted his father from the chair. With their arms wrapped around each other,his mother and Honoria followed them up the stairs to his father’s room, while Anne trailed behind alone.
Once they’d laid his father on the bed, Grey left, leaving the family alone while Ashton performed a more thorough examination.
On the opposite side of the bed, his mother wrung her hands in her fine linen handkerchief, while Honoria stood against the wall next to Burwood, her husband’s arm around her waist. Anne waited just inside the doorway, and hoping to pull from her strength, Colin joined her, mimicking his brother-in-law and pulling her close.
Her body trembled against his palm, and the fear he’d seen in her eyes earlier had not dissipated.
At least his father was conscious, complaining of severe stomach pains. Colin suspected he’d refrained from expressing the severity of the episode in front of the other guests, but alone with only family and a physician present, he held nothing back.
His father yelped when Ashton palpated his stomach. “Damnation, man!”
“Bertram, your language!” Colin’s mother said and received a glare from her husband.
Professional that he was, Ashton ignored them both. “When did you first notice the pain?”
“Late last night.” He yelped again when Ashton gave one more push.
“The tenderness seems to be located directly in the region of your stomach.”
“Isn’t that what I said?”
To his credit, the duke ignored the glower Colin’s father turned on him and proceeded to explain as he would to a child. “Some people say pain is in their stomach when it’s actually in the abdominal area.”
Colin could no longer remain silent. “It was those damned gooseberries.”
Honoria’s gaze darted to his, and her face blanched. “I shouldn’t have allowed him to have so many.”
A sick knot of shame formed in his gutover his sister’s misunderstanding. “He’s a grown man, Honoria. His own gluttony caused this.”
Diplomatic as ever, Ashton held up his hands. “Everyone, please. We can’t know for certain the gooseberries or Lord Stratford’s possible overindulgence are the cause.” He turned his attention back to his patient. “Do you have stomach pains each time you eat gooseberries?”
When his father refused to respond, his mother replied in his stead. “He does, Your Grace. Just not so severely.”
“You did eat quite a few tarts this morning and then again tonight, Father,” Honoria said.
Focused and somber, Ashton pulled a small notebook from his bag. “Describe the pain for me, sir.”
“Burning, and at times it’s as if a wild animal is gnawing at my insides.”
Colin rubbed his own stomach in response. Hadn’t he felt something similar not long ago when Mrs. Merrick and Mr. Ford talked about finding love again?
Ashton jotted in his notebook. “Anything else cause such discomfort?”
“Those infernal spicy foods Burwood insists on serving.”
Good grief! Would the man blame everything on his own daughter and her husband? Colin’s gaze darted to his sister. When her gaze met his, he shook his head, hoping she would understand that none of it was her fault.
Ashton peered up from his notebook toward Honoria. “Do you have any sodium bicarbonate?”
Brows furrowed, she shook her head. “I’m . . . I’m not sure.”
