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Lady Josephine waited until nighttime. The family had had their dinner. The staff had had theirs. McTavish checked on the patient upstairs one final time for the night. The butler reported to the Duke and Lady Josephine that Mr. Smith was heavily sedated.

“The surgeon told me to give him double the dose of laudanum, so he’ll sleep without pain through the night,” McTavish explained.

“Be careful with that!” His Grace said. “It’s a form of opium, you know. If you misjudge the dosage, Mr. Smith may never waken.”

Lady Josephine’s heart began to palpitate, and she found herself suddenly short of breath.McTavish is no physician! If he miscalculates, I could lose Ace forever. Just like that.It became that much more imperative that she get upstairs as soon as possible to check on him.

The male servants slept on the west side of the fourth floor, and the female servants on the east side. The long hallway connecting the two was separated by a door that was locked every night by Mr. McTavish himself. There were staircases on either end of the hallway.

Lady Josephine did not want to be seen taking the west stairs up to the manservants’ wing late at night. But she knew another route, taking the east stairs further up to the attic rooms, then slipping across the house and down some small garret stairs into the west wing.

She held her breath as she mounted the east stairs. What would she say if she encountered some parlor maid, or worse, Mrs. Donovan, the cook and housekeeper?Let’s see...there are out-of-season clothes stored in the garret...I could say I am looking for a light spring cloak, with the weather so unseasonably mild...but wouldn’t I typically ask Ducky to fetch me something like that?

Still trying to think of a good excuse, she found she had reached Ace’s room. Her heart was beating wildly. She stepped in and saw him lying there. So handsome, so fine, tall and broad-shouldered a man, yet lying there covered in bandages.

Lady Josephine ran to Ace’s bedside. Was he still breathing? Yes, he was. But the drug must be giving him troubled dreams; he was tossing and turning, muttering to himself.

She knelt beside him and took his hand in hers. She kissed it, over and over again. “Ace. Oh Ace, my Ace, what have they done to you?” And then finally, she leaned over him and kissed his forehead, his cheeks and ultimately his mouth.

His lips were unresponsive at first. Then, he unconsciously began to return her kiss.

“I love you, Ace. You’re the only man I’ll ever love.”

He did not answer, of course. But although he was still in his drug-induced coma, he stopped tossing about and for hours, he rested peacefully in her arms.

Source: www.allfreenovel.com
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