Page 4

Two

Still on the Fernleigh House grounds

An indeterminable number of agonizing seconds later

Robyn tried to keep from bouncing Georgine too much as he raced toward the house, shouting orders.

“Someone, go for the doctor.

“Also, the constable.

“We need hot water and linens for bandages.

“What are you waiting for?”

Servants scrambled to do his bidding.

He glanced over his shoulder, never breaking his rapid pace.

“Matilda, which chamber?”

His sister flew to his side. “The rose bedchamber, I think.”

Yes, a good choice.

It had the most natural light—better for the physician to remove the ball.

Robyn’s gut clenched merely thinking about the dangerous and painful procedure.

As he charged across the garden path, he fought clawing panic and another unnamed, but powerful emotion that crushed his ribs in a vice-like grip and tightened his throat to the point of choking.

He dropped his attention to the feminine bundle clenched in his arms as he raced into the house.

There’s so much blood.

Sweet Georgine’s blood.

Ashen, her mouth slightly parted, and her sable eyelashes fanning her white cheeks, for an instant, he thought she had died in his arms.

No, God, no.

Georgine cannot die.

She cannot.

Then her chest rose in a shallow breath, and such blessed relief thrummed through him that hot moisture stung his eyes.

Thank God.

Matilda flew up the stairs ahead of him and, boots pounding, Robyn bolted after his sister.

Once inside the pretty but dated bedchamber, Matilda yanked the coverlet back before flying to open the floral draperies. The drapes and bedcovers, in mellowed shades of crimson and green upon an ivory background, retained their richness despite three decades of careful use, their pattern a little old-fashioned but still genteel.

His heart aching, Robyn tenderly laid Georgine upon the rosewood four-poster bed.

Moaning softly, she moved her head back and forth, as if trying to escape the torturous pain.

“Here, Robyn.” Matilda unceremoniously thrust a towel she had snatched from the nightstand at him. “To staunch the bleeding.”