Dr. Harris finished his examination and put away his medical instruments in his black bag. “I’m going to prescribe some viburnum opulus, or what’s more commonly known as cramp bark, to help minimize the uterine contractions. I’ll leave the instructions with the cook to prepare a tea that you must drink three times a day. I’m afraid it’s not very pleasant, but I’ve found that with a few dried leaves of peppermint in the tisane, it is bearable.”
“Am I going to lose the baby?” she whispered.
“You haven’t miscarried as of yet,” he replied gently. “Although you must make sure to get plenty of rest. Don’t allow any additional stress to your body and follow my instructions carefully. I’ll check on your progress in a couple days. If you start bleeding again, make sure to contact me immediately.”
“Thank you, Dr. Harris.”
Lavinia walked with him out the door and Lyra closed her eyes on a sigh.
Mara came over and took her hand. “See? I told you everything was going to be fine.”
Lyra’s chin wobbled and her vision blurred as she looked at her sister-in-law. “I’m just so scared.”
“I know what will make you feel better.” Mara smiled. “Alister has returned. I’m sure he would be overjoyed to see you—”
“No,” Lyra interrupted, causing her friend to frown slightly. “I…can’t see him now.”
Mara hesitated. “Why not, dearest? From what Roarke has told me, he’s been pacing a hole in the floor of the study.”
Lyra put a hand to her forehead as the tears began to slide down her cheeks. “I’m a mess. I don’t want him to see me like this. At least…not yet.”
“Sweetheart,” Mara’s voice was gentle. “I know you’re upset, but he loves you and I know you love him. This is the time when you should be embracing each other’s strength, not pushing him away—”
“Please,” Lyra sobbed. “Just go away.”
Mara hesitated. “Then I’ll tell him that you’re resting and don’t need to be disturbed.”
Lyra turned her head to the side and closed her eyes.
* * *
Alister stared at Mara, unable to believe that he had just been told Lyra didn’t wish to see him.
She attempted to smooth over the blow. “She’s upset. She needs a little time…”
“I’ll be damned if I’m kept from my own wife! That’smychild she’s carrying too!” Alister barked. “I didn’t save her from the hangman’s noose and that madwoman she used to call a sister-in-law just to have her refuse my help now. She needs me, whether she’s too stubborn to see it or not.”
With that, Alister started to march out of the room. Before he was out of earshot, he heard Roarke say, “Let him go. This is between him and Lyra.”
He strode down the hallway in long strides until he came to her closed door. Without bothering to knock, he walked inside.
The heavy curtains were drawn and allowed in little light, and other than the occasional tick of the clock on the fireplace mantle and the flicker of the fire, which only managed to cast strange shadows on the walls, it was dark and silent as a tomb.
He frowned at the dreary scene, for it was almost as if Lyra truly did want to block out the world.
As he approached the bed, his anger instantly vanished, to be replaced by a wave of tenderness. Lyra was lying on her side, sound asleep. She had her hands folded under her cheek and by the slight breaths she took, she seemed to be breathing easily. But he saw the truth in the shadows under her eyes and the slight frown that creased her brow. After everything, she still seemed to be tortured by a past that refused to release its hold on her.
He bent down and brushed a strand of her blonde hair away from her forehead. “This will all be over soon and we’ll have a healthy child in our arms. I love you, my darling duchess.”
Turning on his heel, he quietly shut the door on his departure.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
“Your Grace, you have a caller.”
Alister didn’t even glance up from his task. From the moment he’d left Eversleigh House he’d been in nothing more than a pair of trousers and an old, cambric shirt, rolled up to the elbows, working day and night in an effort to keep his thoughts off Lyra and focused on his current endeavor. He’d hired carpenters and decorators from all over London, spending a small fortune in the process as he dragged them all to Kent to his estate at Thorn Hall to finish this project in record time.
He could only pray the end result would be worth it to see that smile return to Lyra’s face. Come what may, he would make sure that she had something to look forward to when he brought her here, even if things didn’t turn out like they hoped when Dr. Harris returned with his prognosis. While it might kill him in the interim to be parted from her, he thought it was best to give Lyra the space that Mara said she needed. But Roarke was under strict orders to alert him the moment there was the slightest change.
