Page 56 of The Ambiguous Enigma of the Hunted Lady
“Hush it,” Leah snapped. She kicked him off the bed with one clean movement, righting herself and looking down at him on the floor. “Now you may be a lying, cheating, gambling, whoring, immoral doctor, Francis,” Leah said. “But everything is going to be fine. You understand me? Everything will turn out alright.”
“What do you mean?” He was shaking, clearly entirely intimidated by the woman half his age whom had just managed to completely overpower him physically, despite having several healing ribs.
“You love your wife?”
“Yes, yes I do,” he whined.
“Doesn't seem like it, keeping secrets. You ought to treat her better, don't you think?”
“Yes.” he whispered, still laying on the floor. There was no reason for him to get back up.
“Everything's going to be alright.” she said again. It was time for her to let off easily and bring him into her good graces. He was a puppet on a string, but she was a superior puppeteer to Nash, and she knew it.
“How?” There was no hope in his eyes, only the blank defeated stare of an antelope that had fallen down into the crocodile's river. “What can I do?”
“You will do exactly as I say, do you understand?” Leah stated.
“Yes, yes, tell me what to do.” he stuttered.
“Firstly, you're going to clean yourself up. You've made a mess of yourself. You broke your nose on that door frame.” She gestured to the door. “You've got to always watch where you’re walking. It's hard when you don't get enough sleep, isn't it?”
Doctor Fowler nodded incessantly. He seemed to be eating up every word she spoon fed him.
“Then you're going to find Nash. More likely he's going to find you, eh? On your way back into the city I'd imagine. He's going to ask you if I'm dead. You will tell him that you watched me die. You will tell him that I am buried out here in Worthington nearby some crumbling chapel.”
“Will he believe me?”
“That's up to you, isn't it?” Leah challenged. “But you'll have to lie better than when you came into this room. I saw through you in a heartbeat. Nash will too.”
“I can't do this.” He began taking rapid breathes.
“You can, and you will.” Leah insisted. “Take a slow breath.”
“Very well.” He did so, closing his eyes for a moment.
“After you tell him I'm dead, you'll go straight home to your wife. You'll tell her you love her, and you'll never go behind her back again, isn't that right?”
“That's right.” he said.
“Now get on up and get out.” Leah huffed, setting the spoon down on the table. “And leave that little vial.”
* * *
Francis left the Worthington estate in a whirlwind of emotion. He had abruptly cleaned his broken nose, splashed himself with water, and rushed out the door bidding the Duchess a hasty and regrettable farewell.No doubt she will gripe about that in the future.
As his coach rolled away from the manor, he felt both relief and fear take hold of him simultaneously. He would have killed that woman, he realized, had she not been so ready to defend herself.And good thing for that!
Francis had no wish to be a murderer. He was a doctor; he was a man of healing and talent. To have committed that crime would have destroyed his entire being far worse than anything Nash could do to his social circles.
For that reason, he felt tremendous joy; Miss Benson was alive, and she was more than capable of fending off the likes of Nash and his gutter rats.
But thinking of Nash also brought him fear, for he would soon be brought face to face with the criminal. How could he lie to him if he failed to lie to Miss Benson? They were cut from the same cloth, and he stood out against both of them like red on blue.
Still this was the course he had to follow – and follow it he would.I must succeed.
The coach came into London sometime after the four o'clock bells; Francis could hear them on approach, but by the time they rolled into the city and over the river they had ceased their chorus.
The smell of the city always irritated Francis after having been in the country. He often wondered how it was possible to live in such conditions as the ones he saw in the shantytowns outside the southern gates.
