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Chelsea sucked in a deep breath and wafted her hand in front of her face. Her reddened cheeks and the way she was practically foaming at the mouth suggested she had run as fast as she could to reach Julia.
Wanting her to recover as quickly as possible, Julia jumped up again and poured some tea into her now empty cup, which she had left on the drawing-room table. Cupping the teacup in her hands, she could tell it was still tepid and quite drinkable and so she urged it into her friend's hand.
"Drink this."
With a smile of gratitude, Chelsea did as she asked. After just one sip, she grimaced and blurted, "Oh, Julia, that is quite cold and disgusting!"
Julia couldn't help but laugh at the comment. Whether it had quenched her thirst and helped her to regain her breath or merely disgusted her into doing so, the tepid tea had done its job and Julia settled down beside her again, eager to hear what she had to say.
"Jonathan Tatford visited me just now, and I hurried over to give you this as soon as he had left," Chelsea explained and, for the first time, Julia remembered the envelope she had seen wafting in her friend's hand. Chelsea held it up to her and waited for her to take it before she continued, "With some persuasion on my part, he told me that his brother's accident was far worse than the rumours have led everyone to believe."
Julia wasn't sure whether to be relieved or terrified. On the one hand, she was about to get some insight into what had happened and why she had not seen the earl, and on the other, she was sure she was about to find out he was in quite a sorry state indeed.
"Is he… is he alright?" she asked, struggling to speak past the lump in her throat.
She was mighty relieved when Chelsea nodded and explained, "Jonathan assured me he is on the mend, though it will be awhile before we see him out and about again." She paused and gestured at the envelope before adding, "His injuries prevented him from even being able to write until now."
Julia gasped and covered her mouth with her hand before she exclaimed, "Then it must have been a terrible accident indeed."
Chelsea nodded, her gaze darkening.
"Jonathan said he was lucky that only the one horse clipped him. His shoulder was wrenched and his arm broken. He hit his head hard enough to split the skin and was left unconscious for half a day. Beyond that, he had numerous other cuts and bruises, but that is not the worst thing of all!"
Though Julia often loved her friend's flair for telling stories slowly and with theatrical pause, this was not one of those times. "Chelsea, please, just tell me. My heart cannot bear it."
"Jonathan, rather reluctantly, told me that he didn't just fall into the road!" Chelsea said, pausing again before she added, "He was pushed!"
Absolutely horrified, Julia immediately exclaimed, "Why ever would anyone want to do such a thing?"
Chelsea shook her head and exhaled deeply. Looking down at her hands for a moment, she said, "I do not know, though it could have turned out to be much worse."
Julia knew all too well what her friend meant. It was not unheard of for people to be trampled by carriage horses and nor was it unheard of for those poor victims to succumb to those injuries.
Struggling against the urge to weep, Julia looked her friend in the eye with a sense that there was still more to the story.
“Chelsea, what is it that you aren’t telling me?” she demanded. Though she could understand a broken arm and a wrenched shoulder being painful, she couldn’t imagine it would keep the earl in bed for any length of time. She had seen him several times and for all of those times, he had been the picture of health and strength. She could not imagine that he would allow a broken arm to keep him from leaving his home.
Chelsea glanced down at her hands once more and fiddled with something, perhaps a loose thread, between her thumb and forefinger before she looked at Julia again with an even darker expression. “Julia, the person who pushed him, they… they stabbed him also.”
I might have lost him!Julia thought, the lump in her throat growing tremendously. The mere thought of it made her feel more than a little sick. The idea that anyone could be so callous to try to take a man’s life made her want to wail and weep, especially when that man was one she had already come to be so fond of.
“Why… why would anyone ever do such a thing?” she whimpered, unable to believe what she was hearing. Chelsea shook her head, looking just as upset about the entire thing. She leaned over and pulled Julia into her arms, giving a comforting squeeze.
“Whatever the reason, we should just be relieved that the outcome was not worse,” Chelsea pushed and Julia had to admit her friend was right. It could have been much, much worse. To lose three earls of Sutthers in as many years would be an absolute travesty, no matter what society said of the family.
"Well? Aren't you going to open it?" Chelsea asked when they had been sitting there in horrified silence for several moments. The envelope in Julia's hand felt much heavier than before and she found herself shaking her head.
"I would rather open it privately later," she admitted to her friend and although Chelsea looked a little disappointed, she did not press the subject, especially when Julia added, "First, you must tell me what else you and Jonathan spoke of!"
More than an hour after Chelsea had left, Julia still felt greatly jealous of her chance to see Mr. Tatford while the brother remained entirely unreachable to her. The letter he had given to his brother for Chelsea to give to him was still burning a hole in the pocket of her gown, but she could not risk opening it with her mother around for fear she might demand to read it herself.
She was no stranger to the fact that had it come by regular mail her mother would have already read and resealed it before giving it to her. Her mother had always believed herself to be clever with such things but more than once Julia had caught her and never said anything.
She was forced to wait until she could suggest that she was headed upstairs for a nap before dinner and when finally she sat upon her bed with her shoes kicked off and the envelope in her hands once more; she was terrified to open it again.
What would she do if the letter turned out to contain yet more bad news? What if he had written only to tell her that he regretted what had happened upon the hill in the park that day? What if his head injury had caused him to lose memory of her and he could not remember the connection they had shared? All these questions and more fizzed through her mind until she could barely think straight.
Just get on with it, Julia,she finally urged herself, knowing it was likely better to get it over with and know the truth than to go on believing she had any hope when maybe there was none. Holding her breath, she broke the seal on the envelope and carefully pulled out the letter.
