Lord Gillet backed up. He lifted a hand to his throat, the fingers shaking around his own throat.
He is thinking of the hangman’s noose.The thought struck Julia hard. When Lord Gillet took to his horse and galloped away, Julia felt a small amount of relief.He is gone!
“Do you think he will listen to you?” Julia asked as Lord Rutley came to join her, kneeling on Edward’s other side.
“If he has any sense, he will.” The Baron reached for Edward’s throat, checking for a pulse.
“Well?” Lady Esther cried impatiently from behind them.
“He’s alive.”
The words made Julia bend forward, desperate to get that much closer to Edward. Beneath her fingers, she could see the blood pooling through the shawl and into the lines of her palms.
“He’s bleeding too much.”
“Then it’s time we took him to a physician. Step back, Lady Julia, he cannot lay here anymore.”
* * *
Edward blinked, just once. For a second, he was certain he was in Charles’ carriage, with his head resting in someone’s lap.
Julia’s.
She was running her hands through his hair, telling him everything would be well. When he felt pressure on his arm over his wound, the pain tore through him again, and everything turned black.
He was certain the moment had been in his imagination when his eyes opened another time. Prostrate on his back, he was lying on a physician’s table, with a needle in his arm.
“Argh!” he cried out at the pain, before a hand lifted and covered his mouth. It was a man he did not recognize. Judging from his clothes and the tools in his hand, the man had to be a physician.
“Calm yourself, Your Grace. Give him more of that too. That will help him.” The physician directed a young man at his side. A bottle was pressed to Edward’s lips and a pink liquid forced down his throat. It was disgusting, bitter and acrid. He thought for a minute he would gag before all turned black.
* * *
Julia peered through the door. Her hands were shaking around the glass of brandy Lord Rutley had pressed into her hands for the shock, though it was doing little good to help. Beside her, Lady Esther was clinging to Julia’s skirt as if it would somehow anchor her.
When the door opened fully, revealing the faces of the physician and his assistant, Julia found her voice at last.
“Well?” she asked impatiently, desperate for news.
“You can come in now.” The physician beckoned them in as the assistant left.
Julia ran forward, with Lady Esther and the Baron hurrying behind her. Julia reached for a chair beside Edward and kneeled upon it, reaching for his hand.
He was unconscious, his skin pale and cold beneath her touch. His hair was damp though, as if he had been sweating in his sleep. The arm bearing his wound was heavily bandaged, and there was not a speck of blood showing through the linen. One glance from Julia to the side of the room though showed heavily bloodied bandages, so dark red that Julia could have gagged. When Lady Esther caught sight of them, she nearly retched. The Baron reached for her and held her in his arms.
Julia looked between Lady Esther and the Baron, deep in thought. It was clear there was affection between them.
Though it is more than that. It is love.
No matter what drove them apart in the first place, the love was still there. It was evident in the way they clutched one another’s hand and how they looked at each other.
“What can you tell us?” Julia asked, turning her attention to the physician.
“The bullet is out. The Duke has lost a significant amount of blood, but you managed to staunch some of the bleeding, My Lady, that will have done a lot.” The physician offered a small smile as he stood on Edward’s other side, wiping the blood from his hands with a plain white cloth, turning it pink. “We gave him a sedative, for he woke up as we were stitching the wound back together.”
“You have not answered the most important question, sir,” Julia said, swallowing around the parched dryness of her mouth. “Will he be all right?”