Page 58 of Her Heartless Duke
“If that is what it takes, Olivia. Now,” her brother stood up. “We shall leave you to rest.”
Fiona reached out and squeezed her hand. “I shall visit as often as I can. Let me know what you want and I shall bring it to you.”
She watched in some sort of despair as Daniel held the door open for everyone else to walk through, as if he wanted to make sure that she was to remain undisturbed.
Indefinitely.
As soon as he closed the door behind him, Olivia could not help the groan of frustration that erupted from her throat.
Daniel was simply taking things too far!
* * *
Once everyone had dispersed from Olivia’s bedchamber, Daniel and Dr. Edwards proceeded to his study.
“Tell me the truth, Dr. Edwards.”
The physician sighed and took off his glasses, wiping them with a piece of cloth. “I do not know how to tell you this, my Lord. I honestly am at a loss.”
“Perhaps we can start with the unvarnished truth of my sister’s condition.”
“Lady Olivia is ill,” Dr. Edwards told him. “That is an understatement—she isveryill.”
“As ill as our mother was?”
“As much as it pains me to tell you, my Lord, yes.” He sat down with a weary sigh, as if the weight of the world was on his shoulders. “And the fact that the symptoms have appeared earlier in Lady Olivia as it did with the late Countess… it could only mean that she has a more aggressive form of it.”
Daniel had to hold on to the edge of his desk to keep himself from staggering back in shock. A more aggressive form of their mother’s illness?
Olivia had always been a bit cheeky, perhaps because everyone spoiled her after their mother died, but she had always been a good person and she had always seemed so robust with her bright eyes and rosy cheeks. How could she be as ill as their mother had been? And much younger than she had been, too…
“Is there nothing that can be done?” he asked the old physician.
“Aside from advising her to refrain from strenuous activities and eat the right kinds of food? None, I’m afraid.”
Daniel let out a harsh breath, a curse word somewhere in between that sudden exhale.
“Then, I must trouble you to list out the foods that would support her health, Dr. Edwards,” he said, closing his eyes. “We will need your help in the coming months. And… thank you so much.”
Months. If she even had that long.
Their mother had died within six months after the dizziness and the headaches had set in. The collapses had been towards the end of her illness, just right before she had been confined to bed until she passed away.
Olivia never told them when she first started having the symptoms, although shemusthave felt it. He could recall how their mother had the worst headaches when her symptoms first started.
How much time did Olivia have left, exactly?
But perhaps, it was useless to quibble over trivialities now. His sister wasdyingbefore his very eyes and there was nothing he could do to stop it.
Nothinganyonecould do to stop it.
The only thing we can do for Olivia now is to make her happy, he thought bitterly.To give her enough happiness to hold on to until…
He dared not finish that trail of thought.
When they were younger, he had seen how their mother’s death had devastated their father. He was never quite the same man after.
Daniel knew that he could not falter at this moment as his father did before him—not while Olivia was still alive, still needed him. He needed to be strong for her sake.