His eyelids fluttered open, and he winced at the assault of light from a lantern. Anna’s lady’s maid was holding it, her expression betraying concern in Jeremy’s foggy mind, as the woman looked very worried indeed.
“Your Grace, you are lucky to be alive.” The familiar face of his physician appeared above him. “If it were not for the surprising talents of this young lady here, you would assuredly be dead.”
Jeremy blinked. “I… don’t understand.”
His voice was raspy, and his mouth was so dry it felt like he had been chewing sand. The strange weight on his chest still had not gone away, even though he saw no physical reason for it.
“You suffered a quinsy of the throat,” the physician explained. “It was preventing your ability to breathe, and your heart was struggling as a result. This… maid gave you several excellent remedies before I arrived, so there wasn’t much for me to do but drain the abscesses that remained. Your throat will be very sore for a while, but I’ll leave you a tonic to soothe it.”
“I... I didn’t really know what I was doing,” Katherine said quietly. “I just did everything I could think of.”
Jeremy pushed himself up into a sitting position, with the motion causing a pounding headache to flare up in the front of his skull. It pulsed behind his eyes, and he grimaced for a moment.
“Where is Anna?” he asked, as memory flooded back with the pain.
He had gotten up from the bed to fetch a glass of water… and then he had keeled over, struggling for breath while his heart had strained to beat. He remembered feeling strange earlier than that, while he had been between his wife’s thighs, but he had not wanted to stop, not until she had her fill of pleasure.
“Your sister-in-law commanded her to leave,” Colin jumped in, looking rather sheepish. “I considered stepping in, but… theconsensus seemed to be that she should not be here. I believe she is on her way to the London townhouse.”
Jeremy’s gaze snapped toward Lord Belford. “Commanded her to leave? By what authority?”
“They… um… think she did this to you,” Colin replied, wincing. “I did not believe it, but one voice hardly matters in a majority. The butler said he would take her to London. It cannot have been that long ago.”
“Howlong ago?” Jeremy demanded to know, using what strength he had to lurch to his feet.
“Your Grace,” the physician protested. “I really must insist that you take to your bed and rest. You cannot be up and about; you will be weak after what you have endured.”
Colin glanced between the doctor and Jeremy, and seemed to decide that the former’s wrath was better than the latter’s. “I do not recall hearing a carriage,” he said. “They must still be preparing to leave.”
“Thank ye.” With a hand on his chest to try and ease the heavy feeling, Jeremy summoned the last scraps of his strength and ran for the door.
He charged along the landing and down the stairs, his lungs protesting with every hurried step.
There were people in the entrance hall, milling about like absent husbands waiting to hear if they finally had an heir. All of them stared as Jeremy lumbered down the last few steps and staggered toward the door, determined to reach his wife before she left.
“Jeremy!” Beatrice cried, racing toward him.
He pushed her away and continued on to the door,justas a carriage came around the corner.
“Anna!” he bellowed with what breath he had left, his legs almost failing him as he half-stumbled down the porch steps.
The driver pulled the horses to a standstill, staring down at the Duke with wide-eyed surprise. Jeremy paid the man no heed as he walked on to the side of the carriage and heaved open the door.
From within, Anna’s familiar face emerged. “Jeremy?”
“Where do ye think ye’re going, eh?” he asked, forcing a smile.
She cautiously stepped out of the carriage, her anxious gaze flitting to the porch where a crowd had gathered.
“Don’t look at them,” Jeremy rasped. “Look at me.”
“You are alive,” she whispered, her hand reaching up to touch his cheek. “Oh… you are alive. I thought I had lost you. I feared the worst, and then…”
Her gaze returned to the porch, a deep frown furrowing her brow.
“Apparently, there was something wrong with me throat,” Jeremy told her, covering her hand with his, willing her to keep her focus on him. “It made it hard for me to breathe, but that lady’s maid of yers did enough that I survived it. Remind me to give her a larger income once we get rid of this rabble from our home.”
He tried to laugh, though it hurt his chest. Still, he would have taken all the pain in the world if he could just see Anna smile with relief.
