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Richard nodded. “Then use the servants’ exit. Use it when you come back, too.”
Jo looked at him with an unfathomable gaze for one long moment. Then she stood on tiptoes and kissed him on his chin. Before he could respond, she spun on her heel and stalked away.
* * *
Dr. Alexander Blair was young—at least compared to the usual doctors—clever and ambitious. He was a generational physician, whose ancestor was the first professor of anatomy and surgery at the University of Edinburgh. Unlike his predecessor, however, he did not go into teaching. He left it to his older brother.
Instead, after studying in Edinburgh, London, and later Paris, he enlisted as an army doctor when the Napoleonic wars broke out. And since then, he’d decided to stay close to people and heal them instead of continuing his studies.
He was still a curious fellow and a scientific investigator. And Richard was certain that he was overqualified for the job he’d been called to do in the middle of the night. But he was the best in the field. And Richard would not accept anything less.
“Regulating one’s menstrual cycle is a simple procedure. You should not worry about anything,” he’d said before entering the guest chamber with Selena already waiting for him there.
He exited, leaving Richard and Jo waiting patiently in the adjoining room.
Well, Richard sat patiently in his chair, while Jo paced back and forth, her brows furrowed, her lips pursed.
“The doctor said it would take a few hours,” Richard said.
She jumped in reaction, as though she had completely forgotten that he was in the room with her.
“Yes,” she finally said. “You don’t need to stay here with me.”
Richard stood and walked toward her, stopping only a foot away. “There is no place I’d rather be.”
Jo closed her eyes and nodded. “Thank you. Thank you for helping me.”
“You don’t need to thank me, Jo.” He took her hands in his. “Just standing by your side and holding your hand is a privilege.”
She grimaced. “Richard… I hope you don’t think that this means anything. I-I had nowhere else to go. And I couldn’t risk Selena—”
Richard squeezed her fingers. Of course, she’d be afraid that Richard would expect something in return. He didn’t get offended. He deserved her mistrust. But just the fact that she came to him meant the world to him. “You’ll always have me. You can always come to me and expect help.”
Jo lowered her eyes, and then she surprised Richard by taking a step and enveloping him in an embrace. Richard was so stunned that it took him a moment to reciprocate. Finally, he wrapped his arms around her and pressed her tightly to his heart. He lowered his head and burrowed his nose in her thick chestnut hair.
They stood like this for a few minutes, then Richard took her by the hand and led her toward the bed.
He sat on the edge, and Jo curled up beside him, her head in the crook of his shoulder. He wrapped his arms around her and rubbed his chin against her hair, feeling calm and relaxed for the first time in weeks.
“Can you tell me?” he asked, his voice rumbling in his chest.
“Tell you what?”
“About your abortion.”
She eased away from him and looked up into his eyes. Her heat left him, and he started regretting even asking, but she searched his face for something. He did not know what. As if finding whatever she wanted, she settled back against him. He took her hand in his and started rubbing soothing circles on the outer side of her palm. It wasn’t for her benefit. He just wanted to touch her. It brought him peace.
“I was seventeen years old,” she started. “I was bright-eyed, young, and naïve. I should have been more jaded. The way my mother lived…” She cleared her throat. “My mother was an actress, too. Did you know?”
He shook his head. “No.”
“She wasn’t a very popular actress, but she was beautiful and suitors lined up at her feet. Until one day she found herself with child. With me. Her protector promised to take care of her and the babe. She claimed he was so happy….” She shook her head. “It didn’t last long, however. Eventually, he changed his mind.”
“Your father?”
Jo nodded against his chest. “I never knew him. He was a nobleman—a marquess, twice as old as my mother. That’s all I know. And I also know that he threw my mother out on the street when I was just two or three months old.”
Richard’s insides squeezed, and he felt his ire rising. “He threw away his child like so much garbage?”
