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Oh, God. She should have kept her mouth closed.
She looked down at the path, kicking an acorn out of her way. “Um, there might be.”
“Mildred, are you increasing?”
She looked up at him, expecting … she knew not what. How did a man in his position react to such news? She sighed. There was no point in hiding it. She was already finding the ribbon on her drawers had to be loosened. “Yes, I’m afraid so.”
Instead of exploding, he stopped, placed his hands on his hips and stared off into the horizon. After a few minutes, while Mildred had a hard time breathing, he said, “My plan will still work.”
She took a deep breath. “What is your plan now?”
“You still marry St. John.” He held his hand up when she opened her mouth to speak. “Then you insist on hiring me for one of your estates, where you will move as soon as you are married. Once St. John finds out you’re increasing he will be only too glad to send you off.”
She shook her head. “I told you; he won’t marry me. And he already knows about the babe. And to make matters more difficult, he has a new fiancée.”
“What? That fast? Are you sure?”
They started walking again. “Yes. She was at St. John’s cousin’s wedding last weekend.”
“Then we get rid of her.”
Mildred gulped. “What do you mean?” Lord, she might not be the most virtuous of women, but she would never, ever condone murder.
“Don’t look at me like that. I am not talking about killing the woman. I mean there must be something we can use against her to get her to break the engagement.”
Mildred sighed, looking off into the distance where a young couple and an older woman—most likely a chaperone—were enjoying their stroll. “I don’t know her well enough—not at all actually—to learn what would get her to do that. They seemed quite taken with each other.”
They walked in silence for a few minutes, the sun peeking through the trees causing a dappling pattern all around them.
“I will need her name and direction from you.”
“Her name is Mrs. Natalie Shaw. A widow, I presume. All I know about her is she lives with Lord Sterling and his wife, being the wife’s sister. Also, the sister is a doctor.”
His brows rose. “A female doctor? And Lord Sterling is accepting of this?”
She nodded. “Sterling was a dissolute when he met the doctor. Apparently, she helped straighten him out, they fell in love, and married.”
Gerard shook his head. “Nonsense. I’ll need the name and address of the doctor’s office. I will make a visit there and see what information I can gather. Everyone has something they would give their life to keep. There must be something Mrs. Natalie Shaw has.”
* * *
Natalie threwblood-stained cloths into the bin by the door for the maid to pick up and bring to the laundry. She turned back to Mr. Martin and smiled at him. “You are all finished, sir. Just remember to keep that wound clean and come back in about two weeks for either me or Dr. Rayne to take out the thread.”
“Aw, hell, my wife can do that. She couldn’t sew me up though, got somewhat unsettled in her stomach at the sight of the cut. It wouldn’t have bothered her if she wasn’t in a family way.”
David Martin and his wife, Beverly, were expecting their first child. Rayne was attending to her in the other room while Natalie sewed up the deep gash Mr. Martin had received when he attempted to cut a branch off one of his trees and the axe slipped.
Ordinarily the time went by fast when she worked in the infirmary, but today her thoughts kept drifting to Alex and the trip they’d taken to the museum. Annalise had a wonderful time, and Alex was very charming to her. If there had been any hesitation about her growing relationship with Alex, the way the two of them got along on that trip had quelled any concerns she had.
She checked her watch one more time, but only five minutes had passed since the last time she looked. Alex was picking her up to escort her to a gathering of his friends for an evening of playing cards. Natalie had never been very good at card games, but Alex had assured her some of the women there weren’t either and she could spend time with them.
He had not been insincere about courting her. And the kisses they shared when the opportunity arose were growing quite alarming. She was beginning to wish for more and had the frightening urge to remove her clothing when things became a tad out of hand. Alex’s hands had begun to wander, also, and she found she did not disapprove at all.
Lord, she was growing warm just standing here, thinking about their time together. Just then their front door man, Jacob, entered the room. “There is a new patient to see Dr. Stevens. A Mr. Gerard Nichols. Shall I send him in, or would you prefer he wait in the drawing room?”
“The drawing room will work better since I will need to get some information from him, so we know what we are dealing with. Dr. Rayne is busy with Mrs. Martin right now.”
Jacob left and Natalie walked to the sink and washed her hands. After drying them on a clean cloth, she took up a pencil and pad and headed for the drawing room.
