He was unlike anyone she had ever met, and she couldn’t quite face that she was going to have to part from him.
Catherine rolled over in bed and groaned as her stomach heaved upward.
The maid came in just at that moment and cheerfully inquired. “Good morning, my lady. Are you ready to rise for your morning constitutional?”
Catherine took a good five-mile walk every day, rain or shine, cold or warm. It was the only way she kept in good health and in good mental spirits. She found on days when she did not get fresh air and exercise, she could be quite down about the state of the world or her family.
“No, not today,” she lamented as she swallowed back a wave of nausea. “I’m not feeling at all myself.”
Her maid peered at her, her brow furrowing under her snowy mob cap. “How strange. You’ve been feeling rather off the last few days, haven’t you?”
She sighed and pressed a hand to her forehead, feeling the need to prop herself up. She was so tired. “Yes. I must be coming down with something.”
“My lady,” the maid said suddenly looking at her strangely, “when is the last time you had your courses? I do not think you have had them since you have been here.”
She tensed.
She had never spoken of such a thing in all her life. She did not discuss such things with her maid at home. She did not discuss such things with her governess. Her mother had died before she’d had such conversations and, well, the truth was that she did not talk about such things at all.
The question stunned her.
The linen that she needed was always provided to her whenever the bleeding started, and no one had mentioned it in any shape or form outside of just taking care of it.
“I don’t follow you,” Catherine said.
The maid cleared her throat and took a tentative step forward. “Well, my lady, if you do not have your courses, we should send for the doctor. How long has it been?”
“I don’t know.” Did such a thing mean she was ill? No one had ever intimated such a thing to her. But then again, she’d never missed a month since she’d begun them.
When she thought back over the weeks, she realized the maid was quite correct. She and the duke had not been forced to cease their nightly joining for any reason.
She narrowed her eyes and recalled that she’d last had them about a week to ten days before she’d come to visit. That she could recall because she’d had to take care of it herself for the first time in her entire life. And trying to find the linen that was used for such things had been an ordeal.
“More than four weeks,” she admitted.
The maid tensed and inclined her head as she echoed, “More than four weeks, indeed?”
“Yes,” she affirmed.
“Could it possibly be close to six?” The maid asked, her hands folding before her apron.
Catherine nodded. “Yes. I think so, since I’ve been here for a month.”
The maid’s face paled. “Well, my lady, there is a very strong possibility that we should send for a doctor.”
“Why?” she gasped, suddenly concerned. What did the maid know that she did not about her health? “I am not unwell except for a little bit of fatigue.”
The maid bit her lip, her face softened with sympathy, and she whispered, “No, my lady, you are not unwell. But what if you are with child?”
“With child?” she repeated, the words barely making any sense to her. She frowned and shook her fatigued head. “Why in goodness name would that indicate…”
The maid visibly swallowed before she crossed to the bed and said gently, “My lady has no one explained to you the point of courses?”
“No. Why should they?” she asked, another wave of nausea threatening her.
And in that moment, she thought back to the farm books that she had read years ago about the ways of animals, and suddenly she thought about some of the breeding books that she had read and sucked in a rasping breath.
Her entire body went cold, and a wave of fear rushed through her.