AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Pardon?” Julie said, staring at the dowager in horror.Why would she say that?“I am not leaving her.”
“You are too emotional; the doctor needs to do his job.”
“I said, I am not leaving her,” Julie said more firmly, enunciating every word, although she shook inside. She remembered the last time doctors treated Mary. They did it through bloodletting. The memory of that horrid device, Mary’s pale face, and her cries flashed before Julie’s eyes, but she refused to let that sway her.
“We are wasting time arguing Julie, Dr. Grisham is the best in these parts. You have to trust him,” the dowager said in final tones.
Julie looked over the woman before her and mirrored her stubborn stance. After their brief tête-à-tête after the incident with Eric, she thought she and the dowager were on good terms. Apparently, she had been wrong. The dowager wanted Julie to learn from her? Well, she’d begin with this. She wouldn’t let anyone dictate to her in her own house, much less boot her out of her sister’s room when she needed her. She was a mistress of this house, and she’d do whatever she thought right.
“I trust him,” Julie said firmly. “But I am not leaving.” With these words, she moved past the dowager and closer to Mary’s bed.
Julie and Alice had Mary undressed down to her chemise, and the doctor started looking her over. The doctor felt Mary’s limbs before he put some metallic objects on her side and midsection. He was about to do the same with her chest when Mary shot up in bed with a startled yelp. A high-pitched scream split the air as she started shoving at the doctor in a panic, eyeing the unfamiliar man by her bedside in horror.
“Mary, dear, it’s all right,” Julie said as she tried unsuccessfully to restrain her. She hugged Mary tight and tried to hold her still, so she wouldn’t overexert herself. “Mary, darling, please calm down,” she crooned.
“No! No! No! No touch! Bad!” Mary kept shouting through the tears and hiccups. Julie’s own eyes filled with tears before they ran down her cheeks. She had never seen Mary this frightened. This was much worse than her reaction to a bath. What had they done to her in that asylum? Julie’s own sobs were as loud as Mary’s as she held her in her arms and rocked her on the bed, trying to calm her down.
“Julie,” she heard the dowager’s voice. “The doctor needs to continue; you’re making things worse.”
“I am not leaving her,” Julie said as firmly as she could, though her voice was trembling. “I am not leaving you,” she repeated into her sister’s hair in a broken whisper. “Never again.”
They sat like that, hugging each other and crying on the bed for what seemed like forever. Julie heard through her haze a muddled conversation between the doctor and the dowager. She couldn’t make out any words, but a few moments later, the door closed, and all was quiet except for sisters’ mingled breathing and occasional hiccups.
“I’m not leaving you,” Julie repeated quietly to her dear sister and heard a contented sigh in return.
“Don’t give me to the bad doctor,” Mary said between hiccups.
“He is not bad. He won’t hurt you,” Julie whispered against her sister’s hair. “I won’t let anybody hurt you.”
“I want Rob,” Mary suddenly said after a brief pause. Julie swallowed a lump in her throat.
“I know, sweetheart,” she whispered back. “Me too.”
* * *
Robert crawled out of the red satin bedsheets. He reached his hand up to his face and felt a two-day bristle on his chin and cheeks. He looked around the room in confusion. The red wallpaper, the roses at the vanity table, and cherry red satin sheets covering the bed he was sitting on could indicate only one thing. He was in Vanessa’s bed.
By the state of his undress and the fact that he was sitting in her bed, he’d probably spent the night there. The problem was, he couldn’t remember anything that happened the night before.
The last thing he remembered was walking toward her door, knocking—And then everything was a blur. He thought he remembered entering her home, but that’s as far as his memory went.
Now, however, sitting surrounded by her bedsheets, he started remembering the agonizing heat, then the cold shivers and fever dazed dreams. He dreamed of Julie tending to him. Her cool hands wiping the sweat off his forehead, feeding him soup. He’d even mumbled something to her, something private, something he couldn’t remember now. He closed his eyes and let out a pain-strained groan. It was rather apparent to him now that Julie was nowhere near him.
He groaned as he tried to get up. His entire body hurt; he felt weak and light-headed.
The door opened at that moment, and Vanessa entered the room.
“Oh, you’re awake,” she said with a lazy smile and trotted seductively to him. She placed a hand on his bristled cheek. “You need a shave,” she said with a smile as he pulled away from her. “Do you want me to do it?”
“No thank you,” he said briskly, his voice scratchy. He cleared his throat. “I have a valet for that. Where’re my clothes, Vanessa?”
“I asked my maid to have them washed and pressed. They are probably ready for you but—”
“Ask your maid to bring them to me.” Robert got up and swayed before catching himself on the bedpost. He looked down and realized that he didn’t even have his drawers on. “What happened last night?” he threw Vanessa a narrowed gaze.
“Last night,” she said, looking contemplative, “you were quite hot,” she said with a smile as she approached him again and placed her hand on his hard chest. “You should’ve heard the sounds you made,” she dropped her voice to a seductive half-whisper and traced his chest to his abdomen, and ventured lower.
Robert placed a hand on top of hers to halt her descent. “I remember nothing,” he said, studying her face. Vanessa rolled her eyes and stepped away.
