Page 74 of A Duke's Scandalous Obsession
He wondered if she had even slept. Probably not. She was not the type who could be sleeping soundly while her husband and brother were in mortal danger. Of course she would remain out there waiting for them. All night, if need be.
He was the first one to leave the carriage, and with a cry of alarm, she rushed forward to meet them, her hands trembling as she reached out to touch Dominic’s face. He had never felt more loved, more welcome, more cherished than at that very moment. He could see all the love in her eyes, all the devotion and he knew that they belonged to each other forever more.
“My love, what has happened?” she exclaimed, her voice thick with emotion.
Chapter 36
Catherine didn’t know who to embrace first. She wanted to embrace everyone at the same time, but that was impossible. Seeing how everyone had exited the carriage, the first person she approached was her husband. Worse yet, he was hurt.
“You are bleeding!” she gasped. “We have to fetch the physician immediately.”
“I am fine,” Dominic assured her. “Let’s get everyone in first and have them settled. Then we’ll see what to do with me.”
“Reggie! Annie! Rosie!” Catherine had to turn away from Dominic for a moment to greet Reginald and the girls. “We have been worried sick! I am so glad you are all here, safe and unharmed.”
“Well, unharmed…” Reginald glanced at Dominic. “You should really fetch that physician, Cate, just to be on the safe side.”
“Immediately,” Catherine rushed over to Dominic, urging everyone to go on inside. She waited until they disappeared through the front door, then she took Dominic’s arm and threw it over her shoulder, helping him walk. “Lean on me, darling. Carefully.”
“My, my,” Dominic grinned. “Is this the treatment one gets after being shot?”
“Does it hurt?” she asked, looking at his blood-soaked clothes. She could only imagine that it did, but Dominic was far too stubborn to ever admit such a thing.
“Well, maybe…” he said playfully. “You could, erm… kiss it later, after everyone’s gone to bed.”
“Really?” she turned to him, unable to stifle a chuckle. “You’ve been shot, andthatis what you are thinking about right now?”
“No, no, no,” he shook his head. “That isallI can think about right now. Don’t think that because I’ve been shot, you will get away from doing your wifely duties, my dear.”
She laughed louder than ever before. “You are utterly mad.”
“Remember what I told you before?” he asked softly, leaning over to speak right into her ear. “I am utterly mad about you.”
She smiled. “I remember not liking that then.”
“And now?” she heard all the love and hope in just those two words.
“Now, I want to keep hearing it over and over again.”
He smiled, inhaling deeply. “All right then. Let’s fetch that silly physician so he can tell me that I will be fine to bother you for the rest of our lives.”
They entered inside, focusing first on settling their guests. Reginald, Annabel and Rosie all asked for a single chamber to sleep in, and Dominic was more than happy to accommodate their wishes. After being apart for so long, Catherine couldn’t imagine them sleeping in any other way but all three of them in a single bed.
An hour later, the physician arrived. Dominic was seated in the parlor, still pressing on his wound, which now hurt even less. Catherine did not believe him when he said it. She couldn’t imagine it not hurting.
“Ah, Doctor Brown,” Dominic greeted the most famous physician in all of London, who charged quite the sum to get up from bed in the middle of the night and tend to a patient who wasn’t sick, but actually injured by a gunshot wound. Still, Catherine would not have anyone else treat Dominic. With his family physician all the way in Bath, they had to find someone closer.
Doctor Brown grimaced at Dominic, who was still dressed as a beggar for the purposes of the nightly ordeal. Neither Catherinenor he were in the mood for explaining anything, so she took over.
“We went to a masquerade ball this evening, you see,” Catherine spoke confidently, unlike ever before when she was telling a lie. “That is why you see my husband dressed so… inappropriately, shall we say?”
Doctor Brown seemed more at ease after that explanation. “And what happened?”
“We were on our way back home when our carriage was stopped by a gang of highway men,” Catherine tried to remember a story from a novel she had recently read. “They asked for our valuables, and we gave them everything, apart from my ring.” She tenderly caressed the ring with the fingers of her opposite hand. “We refused to give that.
That is, my husband refused. It is a family heirloom, you see, and very precious to us both. That was when one of the men pulled out a pistol and shot my husband. Our footman managed to startle the horses, who trampled two of the men, while the third one was left behind, and that is how we rushed home, immediately sending for you, Doctor Brown.”
Catherine spoke calmly and confidently, but she almost burst into a chuckle upon seeing how shocked Dominic was to hear her weave such a detailed tale regarding their nightly endeavor.
