Page 94 of How to Tempt a Duke

The man lifted her easily, minding to hold her arm over her chest, so it did not dangle and cause further injury. Charles tried to get to his feet once more and stumbled, his legs too weak to support him. But he had to follow Eleanor. He had to make sure she would truly be all right.

Eleanor—his Eleanor. His love.

Thomas appeared at Charles’s side. “Let me help you, Your Grace.” He clasped Charles at his elbow and pulled an arm over his shoulder.

Charles managed to stand upright, albeit a bit wobbly. The world swirled in a dizzy rush around him, but Thomas’s hold did not relax and he managed to keep him solidly in place.

“Give it a moment, Your Grace. You took quite a knock to your head.”

“Eleanor—” Charles gritted out.

“The physician is seeing to her.” Thomas guided Charles to a chair beside the fire.

Charles pushed against his valet’s hold, forcing them both to move back to the secret door connecting the rooms. “I must go to her.”

Thomas shifted direction once more. “After you sit for a moment. Please, Your Grace.”

The room swirled and Charles’s knees buckled, nearly sending him to the floor. “Very well, but for a moment only.”

He sank into the chair and sat until the room ceased its spinning and his breath was sufficiently restored. Until he could take the waiting no longer.

Charles pushed to his feet and walked on his own across the room, with Thomas hovering like an anxious hen at his side.

Amelia appeared in the doorway, her face drawn. She twisted a hand in her skirts. “You can’t come in, Your Grace. The physician is with her. Thank Heavens the servants summoned him at the same time they went for the Watch when I told them. Or else...” Her eyes welled with tears.

“By God, I will see my wife.” It took all he had in him not to roar at poor Amelia, who already appeared quite ready to drop.

She chewed on her lower lip.

“I want only to be with my wife.” Charles spoke with a gentleness the urgency raking through him did not warrant. By God, he wanted to see Eleanor, and no man or woman would stop him. “Please. I love her.”

Amelia’s face softened and she put her hands over her chest. “I’m sure the physician would not complain if you remain quietly to the side.”

She stepped back and allowed Charles to enter the room. The door clicked closed behind him, shut by either Amelia or Thomas, and Charles was left in the silent room, where a physician bent over the bed against the opposite wall.

“I assumed I’d be seeing you.” The older man’s voice grated out.

Charles approached the bed where Eleanor lay, unmoving and pale. His heart sank lower than it had ever fallen.

He had expected...what? That she would be awake? Speaking?

“The bullet passed straight through.” The physician spoke as he wound cloth carefully around Eleanor’s arm, where the fabric of her sleeve had been cut away. “We are fortunate for that.”

“And she will recover?” Charles’s throat was so tight he could barely force the words out.

The aging man looked at him from behind wire-rimmed spectacles. “Her Grace will need rest, but she will recover. I recommend broth to strengthen her and laudanum for the pain.” He indicated a clear bottle on the bedside table. “The healing will be more uncomfortable than a lady can bear.”

“I think you underestimate my wife,” Charles said.

After all, Eleanor was no ordinary lady. In the face of danger she’d first kicked Ledsey, in an attempt to keep the journals from him, and then had knocked him to the ground when he’d rounded on Charles to shoot him.

Had she not been given to such bravery Charles might very well be dead. Certainly the officers would have been seconds too late to see him saved. No, Eleanor was not an ordinary woman at all.

Her eyes blinked open and met his. The corners of her lips drew up in a soft smile and his heart soared with relief.

The concern on the doctor’s face faded and his wrinkles pulled back in an affable expression. “I think she will recover quite nicely, Your Grace.”

With that, he gave a bow and left the room, leaving Eleanor and Charles alone.