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“I needed to ensure he was going to let go of you,” Lydia replied, her eyes sparking with bloodlust. “So, I imagine quite hard.”

“Where would you like us to take him, Your Grace?” a guard asked.

Ezra smirked at his wife’s response, then turned toward the guard.

“We still have the old dungeons down below. I believe one of those cells will work for now until my friends arrive.”

“Your Grace, I can see to his wounds myself,” Mr. Tompkins, the young physician pleaded as politely as he could.

Lydia did not look up from her work as she replied enthusiastically, “Of course you can! But I am tending to his neck either way, so you can be content with sewing up that gash in his thigh.”

Below her, Ezra attempted to chuckle and winced as it hurt his throat. Shortly after the guards had taken the man away, Lydia had had little trouble convincing Ezra to come to her quarters so she could cleanse and tend to his wounds, and he was now lying on her bed with his head in her lap.

“And you,” she said tenderly, lowering her head to Ezra’s, “Keep your throat relaxed. No more laughing at another’s scolding for a while.”

Ezra’s blue eyes shined up at her with a mixture of affection and tension. He still could not take commands well, even if they were playful. She felt his body tense and his breath quicken, and she leaned down to place a soft kiss on his lips. On his next breath, she felt him relax again, and she gently pulled away.

“Shhhh,” Lydia soothed tenderly, massaging more salve into his ring of bruises, “Everything will be all right.”

The image of seeing Ezra; his face a bright reddish purple, his body limp and nearly lifeless as the man standing atop his back choked him with a rope, was still burning in her mind. She knew that memory would always be there and would be the source of every nightmare she would ever have. She wanted vengeance, both for Ezra and for herself, and she would get it, one way or another.

“I have finished His Grace’s sutures, Your Grace,” Mr. Tompkins declared, then cleared his throat uncomfortably.

“You may check my work before you leave if you like, Mr. Tompkins,” Lydia replied.

The young physician gave her a relieved look and hurried to the head of the bed to examine Ezra’s throat. He studied his bruises carefully, touched them tenderly with his fingertips, and nodded.

“Heavily bruised, but nothing crushed,” he affirmed, then looked up at Lydia with approval. “If you had come upon him three seconds later I would not have been able to say the same.”

Lydia’s eyes fell to Ezra’s, who was staring silently and intently back at her.

“The salve is perfect, you did well, Your Grace,” Mr. Tompkins said, finishing his assessment.

Lydia accepted the praise, though she just wanted the man to be gone.

“I shall leave him in your care then,” the physician replied, bowing at his waist.

Lydia nodded toward him with respect and waited quietly as the servants entered to gather the soiled dressings and other supplies.

“I have to go downstairs,” Ezra rasped, his voice raw and gravelly from the strangulation. “I have to question him. There is a lot I can learn before Ambrose and the others…”

“Shhhh,” Lydia soothed, putting a calming hand on his chest as he attempted to sit up.

“You need rest first,” she insisted. “The others will be here by the time you awaken, and you can all manage this together.”

“But…”

“This is not your burden to bear alone, Ezra,” Lydia insisted, feeling a swell of emotion as she said the words.

What did she have to do? What did she have to say to make him understand?

Anger slowly began to eat away at the panic in Ezra’s eyes as he willed his body back into the bed.

“This could have been you,” he rasped, his hand reaching up for her throat.

Lydia felt her chest grow tight as his hand wrapped possessively around her neck the way she now loved. Yes, it could have been her. The man had snuck into the house unbeknownst to anyone and they were yet to determine how and when he had done so. If she had stayed after their fight, would she have been killed?

She felt terror begin to consume at the thought, but she forced it away and replied tightly, “I am fine.”