Page 104 of The Secret Love of a Gentleman
When the groom opened the door for them, warm air breathed out. The staff must have put the hot bricks in some time ago.
‘Let me hold Iris while you climb up?’ Caro offered.
As soon as she had her niece in her arms the warmth of love glowed. She would always have the comfort of her brother’s children. Once Mary was seated, Caro passed Iris back and accepted the footman’s hand to climb up.
Drew followed, then the door was closed. A moment later they were on their way out of London.
She had escaped London once before, terrified and heartbroken as she ran from Albert. Today, her heart ought to be breaking because she was leaving Rob behind, but it was not. She felt strong, proud of herself, knowing she had done the right thing.
Even if Rob never came back to her, she would be happy with no shame to imprison her, and he was the one who gave her that possibility.
53
‘Hey! There’s a toff over ’ere!’ The working man’s shout dragged Rob back to consciousness.
Rob’s head throbbed with a violent pain, and the bitter, iron taste of blood filled his mouth. He groaned as he tried to lift his arm and found it swollen and awkward. His eyes must be swollen too, he could only open his eyelids as far as narrow slits.
‘Governor…?’ The stranger squatted down beside Rob.
‘Where am I?’
‘He’s been robbed, he ’as,’ he heard a woman’s voice say from somewhere near.
‘It’s all right, governor, we’ll get you home,’ the man said.
‘Where d’you live, sir? Can you tell us?’ the woman coaxed, squatting or kneeling beside him too.
Rob groaned, struggling to think through the racket that the pain was making in his head. There would be no one to help him at his apartment, but he could not go to John’s, because Caro would be there. ‘Bloomsbury Square,’ he said. ‘Lord Barrington’s… The Earl’s.’
‘We’ll get a cart, Phyllis,’ the man said.
It took four men to lift Rob’s broken body onto a piece of tarpaulin and onto the cart. The pain from their efforts dragged him back into darkness as he retched and was sick.
When Rob woke again, someone was dropping something foul-tasting into his mouth. It ran across his tongue and down his throat.
He tried to sit up as his hand swiped away whatever it was, but neither his body nor his hand moved as he wished. A pain-filled groan escaped his lips as he dropped back onto a soft mattress and pillow.
The liquid, whatever it was, spilled on his chest, soaking through a linen nightshirt.
‘Robbie…?’ a familiar woman’s voice said.
‘Aunt Jane?’ His mouth was dry, and his lips swollen. He tried to open his eyes. Only one opened, and that only slightly. A cool damp cloth settled on his brow.
‘He is awake,’ she said to someone else.
‘Robbie?’
‘Uncle Robert?’
Rob tried to sit up again, pressing an elbow into the mattress. The world spun full circle and bile rose in his throat.
‘Lie back. Do not move.’ His aunt’s gentle hand rested on his shoulder. He caught a glimpse of her through his half-open eye.
His uncle stepped forward. ‘You were set upon by footpads last night. You are lucky some kind people brought you here. You have broken bones and several injuries. The doctor left laudanum for you. You have splints on your left arm and leg, so you will be here until the bones have healed. I was just about to send for your parents.’
‘No.’ It hurt to speak through his swollen and cut lips, and if felt as if his nose and jaw might be broken too. ‘Do not tell them.’ He would not have Caro know of this. She wanted time, thiswould bring her running and she would never be able to feel certain of him. ‘No.’ She would marry him out of pity, and he would not have that.
‘Your mother will never speak to me again if I do not tell her that you are hurt. They need to know. You will not be healed for weeks.’
