Page 44 of Her Heartless Duke

Doctor Pierre frowned. “Pallor and fainting—those symptoms you speak of are quite common in those who have lost a significant amount of blood.”

He shook his head. “This one has not lost a significant amount of blood. Not that I know of, in any case.”

“No blood loss then, hmm?” the doctor scratched his chin. “Ihavecome across some texts of rare blood disorders, most of them run in families, I believe.”

Run in families… could it be that Olivia’s mother possessed the same illness?

He had heard that the Countess of Lancashire had died young due to some mysterious illness. Daniel rarely spoke about it, and Olivia, he believed, was much too young at that time to actually be privy to the details.

“This illness,” Isaac ventured. “Do the symptoms present themselves in childhood?”

“Some of them may only manifest in adulthood, when the condition is significantly worse.”

Isaac felt dread creeping into his chest. “Worse?”

“According to what I have read, severe conditions may eventually lead to death.”

Death.

Olivia had spoken in fear of it. She was afraid of death. She was afraid ofdying.

And yet, was that the reality she faced every single day? The knowledge that she was walking step by step, day by day, closer to the end?

If that was true, then she had to be the bravest soul he had ever known to not only keep her pain to herself, but to go onlivingwith it.

Isaac clenched his hand into a fist. “Is there no cure for it?”

“I cannot say I have come across something like it. I will need to gather more information regarding this illness and its possible remedies, but as of right now, I cannot say anything with certainty.” He looked at Isaac pointedly. “Is the person who has this condition… dear to you?”

Was Olivia dear to him? Isaac could not say she was, but he could not say she wasn’t either. He was attracted to her physically, yes. Intensely so.

But when he saw her collapse not just once, buttwice… he had felt a fear that nearly broke him. He was afraidforher.

He was afraid oflosing herto some unnamed illness that even his old friend could not guarantee a cure for.

He was afraid of the hopelessness that seemed to swallow him whole, and all the while, he could still see her smiling at him, telling him she was perfectly fine…

It was enough to drive him to insanity.

“Do not worry,mon ami,” the doctor reassured him in a firm tone. “I shall do my best to find out more about your friend’s mysterious illness.”

“Merci, mon ami,” Isaac managed hoarsely.

What other words could he possibly say to his old friend?

All he knew was that he faced the very real possibility that he might have to go on living in a world without Olivia in it—andthatwas not something he wanted to even consider.

Hopefully, he was just thinking the worst, and there was a far simpler explanation to all of this.

CHAPTEREIGHTEEN

Her hands trembled slightly as she read the contents of the page before her. Isaac had sent another letter to ‘Lady Vivian’, even as her previous letter played a little coy and subtly dissuaded him from writing to her again.

He must want her so much to be so persistent, she thought to herself.And here I am, toying with his feelings by deceiving him.

Olivia sighed as she allowed the letter to drift back to her writing desk, and she leaned back and pinched the bridge of her nose. Her headaches had become worse as of late and after her collapse at the Wellington Ball, Daniel had all but confined her to Bennet House to ‘recuperate’.

He did not need to say much, though—she had seen the look of stark terror on his face as he held her. Her brother might try his hardest to put the tragedy of their mother’s untimely demise out of his mind, but she knew what he was thinking then.