Page 63 of His Illegitimate Duchess

“If she does leave you,” Doctor Cooper said calmly, as if this was the type of conversation one had every day, “the only thing you shall feel is happiness that she’s healthy enough to do so. Let’s worry about that now, shall we?”

Talbot watched, transfixed, as the dark blood beaded on Lizzie’s skin.

It looks almost black, he thought. Surely it is unhealthy and must be removed. Lord, please let this help her. Please help her heal. Please let her come back to me, even if only to turn around and leave me.

“I should write to her mother,” Talbot said after a while.

“We’ll sit with her,” Mrs. Cooper said, but Talbot still rang for Mary, who, when she arrived, told him that she’d already sent Robert to fetch Miss Williams, her own parents, and Jane.

“Thank you, Mary, I only remembered them now.”

“You’re welcome. Please remember to rest as well, Your Grace. Mrs. White said you haven’t been using the bedroom she made up for you.”

“I want to stay with my wife,” he said petulantly.

“Do you want us to bring in a cot so you can sleep here?”

“That is a good idea. Thank you, Mary.”

He watched as Mary also stroked his wife’s hair as she leaned down to whisper something to her.

He was no longer concerned with the propriety of their relationship, but was, instead, thankful for its existence, and he felt the tender love the two friends shared spill over to touch him as well through Mary’s concern for his rest.

Elizabeth’s fever burned for two more nerve-racking days, during which Doctor Cooper and his wife had moved into the Duke’s house together with Elizabeth’s mother and the mean-looking old maid whose name was apparently Jane.

Despite the gaggle of people currently living in it, the house was subdued and quiet, and mealtime conversations were stilted.

Colin was a most impolite host, too steeped in his guilt to worry about decorum or his guests.

No one seemed to hold it against him, though.

The women misinterpreted his guilt as concern and were touched by it. Again, he didn’t care (or notice).

Mrs Cooper and Miss Williams spent a lot of time in hushed conversations, Jane spent her time with Mrs Clark, and the Coopers had each other, which left Colin without anyone.

It didn’t bother him, seeing as he was just waiting for everyone to go to sleep so he could be left alone with his wife.

Sometimes, he’d bring his old philosophy textbook from the library and read it to her, because grappling with the different moral and intellectual concepts helped occupy and soothe his thoughts.

Then he’d pray and think of her last words to him.

Then he would lie down beside her, hold her hand, and just talk to her: about his day, about his love, about his regrets.

He even cut off a lock of her hair to keep with him when he pretended to do work in his study during the day ( Add it to my ledger of sins , he thought.).

Colin needed to feel like he was doing something, and making amends to her somehow, instead of sitting around the house, feeling useless and helpless.

He was certain he would lose his mind if she didn’t wake up soon.

So, on the second day of his wife’s illness, Talbot decided to visit her brother, while Miss Williams kept her company.

“What have you done to your sister?” he asked without preamble as soon as he entered Hawkins’s study.

“Hello, Duke Talbot, welcome to my home,” Nicholas said obnoxiously as he stood from his chair. “How nice to see you for the first time in months.”

“Did you not hear my question?”

“What in Heaven’s name are you talking about?” Nicholas seemed truly perplexed.

Talbot sat down with a sigh and rubbed his eyes with both hands.

“Your sister has fallen ill. It’s been two days. She has a high fever and she’s not waking up.”

“Why haven’t you sent for me sooner? She’s my sister!” Hawkins exploded, and Talbot jumped to his feet, itching for a fight which would help relieve the horrible tension he’s been living under since Powell’s ball.

“Yes, exactly, she’s your sister. So what is this I heard about you offending her after the Pearsons’ ball?”

Nicholas glanced to the side. “That’s hardly any of your concern.”

“It is my concern when my wife refuses to talk to you over it.”

“Has she said that?” Hawkins asked in a pleading tone.

“What have you said to her?” Talbot asked through clenched teeth, ignoring his former friend’s distress.

“After the two of you were found alone in the cloak room, I told her that…” Nicholas stopped speaking and swallowed. “I told her that she demonstrated that one couldn’t escape their breeding.”

Talbot rubbed his eyes again, with one hand this time. He deeply regretted the punch he had so generously allowed Hawkins to deliver before the wedding.

“You absolute idiot!” He said loudly. “The whole thing was my fault! Your sister never did anything, I arranged for her to be compromised like that!”

“You did what?!” the other man yelled with equal intensity.

“What is going on here?” a startled Duchess Sophie asked as she entered the study.

Talbot’s eyes took in her bulging middle, and he looked away, afraid he might choke on his sadness and envy.

“Your husband has just relayed to me how he insulted my wife before our wedding.”

“Insulted her? I know Nicholas was unhappy about her marrying you, and he told me he argued with Elizabeth about it,” Sophie said with a small frown and looked at Nicholas for answers.

Talbot twisted his lips in disgust and spoke first, “After my actions caused everyone to think Elizabeth was being inappropriate with me, which she wasn’t, your husband insulted her breeding.”

Sophie gasped, and Talbot suddenly liked her a little more.

“Nicholas, please tell me you didn’t.” Her hand flew to her chest. “Poor Elizabeth! This whole time, I thought she was avoiding us because she worried you didn’t approve of her husband.”

“I was upset and worried and angry… I didn’t mean what I said.” Hawkins tried justifying his actions, but Sophie just kept shaking her head.

“Don’t you know Elizabeth at all? I should have known there was something she wasn’t telling me, but I misinterpreted her behaviour as showing loyalty to her husband.

She used to adore you, Nicholas. Oh, that poor girl!

” Sophie’s eyes filled with tears as she cradled her stomach instinctively with her hand.

“Nicholas, you have to make things right with her. Let us go over there now!”

“It’s not that simple,” Talbot said grimly. “She’s been made aware of my deception regarding the circumstances leading up to our matrimony, and has fallen ill as a result of the shock. She’s in the throes of a severe fever, and we don’t know when and whether she’ll wake up.”

No one said anything for a while. Talbot sat back down in his chair.

“You said you deceived her regarding your matrimony?” Sophie prompted. “What happened?”

Colin sighed wearily. “I wanted to marry her without revealing to anyone how much I wanted to marry her, so I cornered her in that cloak room and arranged with Lady Helena to find us like that to make everyone think Elizabeth had been compromised. Don’t say anything,” he lifted his palm when Sophie opened her mouth. “Please.”

“She ought to leave you,” Hawkins spoke instead.

“I agree and I’m certain she will,” Talbot said without any bite to his tone.

Sophie nodded approvingly.

“Her mother said that she never forgives,” he said dejectedly after a while.

He felt Sophie sit down next to him, but didn’t look away from his boots. He couldn’t bear to see her stomach again.

“Do you know what happened with her and your father, Hawkins?” He asked.

“No, what?”

“Growing up, Elizabeth knew nothing about your father’s real life or the reasons for his long absences from what she believed was his home.”

Sophie made a sound of disgust at the mention of the late Duke.

“Her mother had made the mistake of telling her that the Duke had the habit of promenading in St. James’s Park, without realising that, when she missed him, her daughter would simply go and look for him there.”

“No,” Nicholas breathed, horrified, apparently able to guess where the story was going, unlike his wife, who frowned at his reaction.

Talbot turned to her, “Elizabeth found him walking with Charlotte in the Park one day, and he pretended not to know her.”

Tears were now freely flowing down Sophie’s beautiful face.

“Lizzie told me she never really spoke to him after that. She’d greet him whenever he was visiting with them, and she’d answer his questions, but it was like her heart had closed forever; that’s how her mother described it.

I’m worried the same thing might happen now, with the two of us, or the two of you,” Talbot now looked at Nicholas, whose face was the picture of despair.

“You two have to make this right,” Sophie said in a small voice. “I cannot even imagine… Poor Lizzie.”

Talbot nodded and felt Sophie’s eyes on him. He met her gaze, and it was different from all the other times they’d interacted. It was as if some of the animosity she normally showed him (which he never knew the reason for) was gone.

*

The truth was that Duchess Elizabeth Talbot had been waking up every night, and when she did, her gaze would immediately fly to her husband sleeping fitfully in the cot next to her bed.

Faced with the sight of his familiar, young face (for everyone’s face regains some of its youth in sleep), she’d be overwhelmed by tenderness and tempted to reach over and smooth back the lock of hair covering his brow ( He never lets his hair get this long, she’d mused on the first night.

Why isn’t he in bed with me? ), before remembering what an evil, selfish, scheming, deceitful scoundrel he was.

In the brief, fever-free intervals she experienced nightly, she was plagued by a different sort of illness – anguish. Lady Helena’s words tormented her endlessly. She revisited and re-evaluated every moment of her marriage with the newly discovered betrayal in mind.