Page 106 of The Secret Love of a Gentleman
After three weeks, when Jane opened the bottle of laudanum, he touched her hand. ‘No more.’
‘But you must still be in pain.’
‘It has improved, I can live with it now.’ His face was no longer swollen, though it probably still had the many-coloured stains of the bruising. He could see the bruises on the rest of his body, so he could imagine his face.
In the hours that followed, the pain was overwhelming. Even his blood ached, as he shivered in a room that was not cold. Hismother sat beside him, wiping the sweat from his skin with a damp cloth.
‘The doctor said you ought to reduce the laudanum slowly,’ she murmured, for about the sixth time.
He did not care, the drug made him feel half-dead. He needed to be alive if he was going to persuade Caro to see him as a man to be trusted.
Rob woke in the night shouting, after a gruesome dream about the men who attacked him. His father sat with him then, sleeping in the chair beside his bed.
On the third morning without laudanum, he began to feel more like himself. He woke to find his mother in the chair beside the bed. Her hand held his loosely. She was asleep. He remained still, letting her rest, and fell back to sleep himself, despite the constant hum of pain.
When he woke again, the clock on the mantel across the room chimed twelve times to announce midday.
‘Robbie.’ His mother was with him, and he could smell chicken broth.
‘Do you think I could sit up and use a spoon to eat today?’
‘Yes, of course. I will fetch your father and uncle to help you, just to be safe.’
He moved mostly under his own efforts, while his mother stuffed plumped feather pillows behind his back. Though, his father held him steady so he did not damage his splinted arm or leg. She put the tray on his lap and gave him the spoon. He spilled some drops as his hand was shaky, but he managed.
When he woke the next morning, he felt stronger again. His mother brought him a glass of milk and buttered toast with honey. His childhood favourite. He laughed at the gesture, but laughing hurt his ribs and made him cough.
Later, when his father arrived with his uncle, Rob was still sitting up, leaning back on the pillows.
‘Your mother says you are feeling a little better every day,’ his uncle said.
‘I am.’
‘Your friends are asking after you,’ his father said. ‘They stopped us as we walked out of White’s. They are concerned. I had not realised what a sound group of young men you have as friends.’
Rob had not even thought of them.
‘I told them you are out of town, fulfilling some duty for me.’
‘Thank you.’
‘They asked if it was to do with a parliamentary seat?’ His father’s eyebrows lifted, asking silently what that meant.
Rob said nothing.
‘Mary asks about you in her letters too.’
‘Do not tell her.’
‘I have not, Robbie, but she is worried by your silence.’
The thought of Mary brought forth thoughts of Caro.
His father placed the chair beside the bed and sat down.
His uncle leaned his bottom against the windowsill.
‘We have told all the family that your mother and I are here to help Jane. They think Jane is unwell, and all the children, your sisters and cousins are staying at John’s. So, do you see what a web of lies you have had us spinning?’
