“That would be Singlewell, the hamlet we just left.”
“Then we shall return to the coaching inn, and you will go in search of a doctor.”
The footmen struggled to first lift Claybrook and then carry and settle him in the carriage. He was not a small man, taller than most, and at no time did he wake nor did his eyelids flutter.
Bethany scrambled into the carriage and took a seat across from him and used her handkerchief to wipe away some of the blood, but much of it was dried.
“What happened to you? Who would do this?” she asked even though she’d not get an answer.
Chapter Two
Leopold struggled to open his eyes, but his head pounded too much. The first thing he recalled was awakening in the middle of the road unable to move other than roll onto his side. It had also been dark as pitch outside. He must have fallen asleep and perhaps he was dreaming because Leopold could swear that he was now in a moving carriage and a woman was wiping his brow. He had no idea who she was, but her voice was that of Lady Bethany.
He was slipping into madness.
Leopold had been thinking of Lady Bethany right before the ruffians had come upon him, but that was no cause for him to hear her now.
Unless he had died, and his hell was having to hear her voice and endure her tender touch that had been denied him in life.
An eternity with her just out of reach would be hell. That would be worse than when he encountered her in London and she ignored him.
Why did he still care for her? Was it simply because she was the only female who did not want to be his duchess?
The carriage finally slowed, and Leopold wondered at what location he would arrive—heaven or hell—and maybe the spirit accompanying him only resembled the person whom he never had but had lost none the less.
Leopold’s stomach rolled, someone was hammering inside his head, and his body ached as if he’d done twenty rounds with the hardest hitting pugilist at Gentleman Jackson’s. What he needed was a soft bed, except he still wasn’t certain he hadn’t died.
The carriage finally came to a stop, and he risked looking to see where he was, though he feared what he might see.
Very slowly he opened his lids only to be met with the angelic face of Lady Bethany staring down at him. Her brows were furrowed, and she bit her bottom lip.
Was this hell or heaven?
It was hell. He wouldn’t be in so much pain in heaven.
“There is only one room available, and I have secured it for you,” someone out of his sight said.
“Thank you. Can you get His Grace up to the chamber?”
“Yes.”
Chamber? Was he home?
No there is only one room. His home had several.
Leopold let his eyes drift closed, but when arms grasped at him, he quickly opened them again. It wasn’t Lady Bethany he saw, but a man.
“We will take care, Your Grace, but it will be difficult to move you without causing any more pain.”
Leopold nodded, or at least he thought he did and closed his eyes again, grimacing at the pain that racked his body when someone lifted his feet and another his shoulders.
When he was next alert, softness cradled his back, and a pillow was beneath his head. At least they had managed to get him to a chamber. Now, all he needed to do was rest and all would be well.
“Ride for the doctor, Henry. Ask the innkeeper for a basin of warm water and rags, Jason. I do not know how long we will be here, but George is going to try to secure another room after he has stabled the horses and the carriage is parked.”
Leopold watched as the two men left the chamber and closed the door behind them. Lady Bethany turned and glided over to Leopold.
“What happened?” she asked.
