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They stared at each other with perfect understanding.

CHAPTER 33

“Iam sorry to tell you this, Your Grace, but your wife will not make it.”

“No! No, you said she would be fine.”

Dr. Pritchard gazed solemnly at Robert. “It is very unfortunate, but it does happen.”

Robert shook his head desperately. “No, you cannot sit there and call itunfortunateafter youassuredme that she would recover! That she would be fine!”

The physician shook his head. “I am sorry. I lied to you.”

Robert leaped for the man’s throat with a guttural roar.

He jolted awake with a shout and looked around in confusion when he found himself in his own bed. Flinging his covers away,he scampered out of bed and ran to the connecting door, not even bothering with his slippers.

He pushed it open and hurried to Georgiana’s bed. She lay as still as he had left her when he went to bed. The glow from the fire added a rosiness to her cheeks that hid the pallor of her flesh. He touched her hand.

It was as limp as always but warm with life, the vein at her wrist pulsing weakly. His entire body slumped with gratitude.

She is still alive.

His shaky legs were too weak to hold him up. Robert scrambled for the chair that Daisy usually occupied and collapsed into it. Breathing hard, he stared at Georgiana, his thoughts racing.

If I leave she might have a chance. If I stay, I am rolling the dice on her life. There is no other choice. I must go.

He got to his feet slowly and approached the bed. He stared down at her bleakly.

“You deserve better than this. You deserve better thanme.”

He bent down and kissed her forehead, then straightened up and walked back to his room. He checked the time on his fob watch that lay on his bedside table.

It was four-thirty in the morning.

He decided not to wake Stanley. He could wait until morning to leave. He did not want to sneak out like a thief in the night. He sat down on his bed, not wanting to fall asleep again lest the dream return.

He lit a candle instead and reached for his book. Sitting with his head against the headboard, he began to read.

“Surely you cannot leave! Not with Georgiana in the state that she is in,” Daisy protested when Robert told her his plan.

“I must. It is for her own good.”

“Oh, do not be ridiculous. That is nothing but superstitious nonsense,” Daisy said irritably.

“That is easy for you to say, but I have lived it. I will not take a chance. Not with Georgiana’s life on the line. Even if you do not agree or understand, all I ask is that you take care of her in my absence.”

“Robert, please do not go,” she begged.

He looked away from her in genuine sorrow. “I am sorry. This way, she will get better. I am certain of it.”

Stanley walked past them, carrying Robert’s bags to the waiting carriage. Robert followed him, feeling Daisy’s accusing eyes on him.

He let out a long sigh as he stepped into the carriage, feeling as though he was leaving his heart behind.

As the carriage lurched forward he felt a moment of doubt, wondering if he was truly doing the right thing.

But then the Georgiana from his dream flashed through his mind—cold, pale, dead—and he knew that there was no other recourse for himbutto leave.