With This Kiss: Part Two Read Free Page A

shoulders. “I gave him some laudanum. Given his size”—he said it distastefully, as if his patient was a giant of some sort—“I gave him a double dose. You will find him docile for some time, Your Grace, and I would be happy to visit tomorrow and administer the same again.”
    The duchess’s brows drew together. “Did he agree to this medicine, Doctor?”
    Dr. Pinnacle apparently caught the dangerous note in her voice.
    “It was best for the patient,” he said, putting on his gloves. “There are times when a doctor must overrule a patient for his own good, and this was one of them.”
    The duchess said nothing, but the moment the doctor left, she raised a finger in Featherstone’s direction. “Be so good as to find another ocular expert, if you please.” The butler nodded, bowed, and backed through the door.
    “I suppose we might leave now,” John said with a kind of relentless cheer that grated on Grace’s nerves. “Everything is well in hand. Captain Barry will likely sleep well into tomorrow.”
    “My mother always has things in hand,” Lily said, rearranging the ornaments on the mantelpiece again. “Where are the two of you off to?”
    “Lord Burden-Sisle has kindly agreed to allow us to view his collection of Constable watercolors,” John replied. “Would you like to join us?”
    Lily wrinkled her nose. “Absolutely not. It sounds horrendously boring. I can’t imagine how you’ll survive, John.”
    “There are only six watercolors and some preliminary sketches,” he said.
    “But Grace takes forever to look at even one picture,” Lily complained. “Haven’t you seen how she peers at paintings, and then stands back, and then peers at them again? I was near to weeping with tedium the last time we went to the National Gallery.”
    Grace stood up. “John, if you’ll forgive me, I wouldn’t be able to enjoy the collection at the moment.”
    “But Lord Burden-Sisle made a special appointment,” John protested. “He is expecting us.”
    “Lily will go with you in my stead.”
    Something in Grace’s face caused Lily to leap to John’s side, taking his arm and smiling up at him with her most dazzling smile. “You will take me, won’t you, John?”
    He scowled at her. “Not if you ply your wiles on me. I’m to be your brother-in-law, not one of those foolish puppies whom you dazzle in the ballroom.”
    “Shame!” she cried, drawing him toward the door. “I’ll have you know that my swains are very intelligent men. I can’t imagine why you would slander them in such a fashion.”
    He looked back, but Grace shook her head, so he bowed and left.

 
    Four
    T his time, Grace didn’t wait for a moan through the wall. She ran up the stairs and straight into Colin’s bedchamber. The room was in darkness, thick velvet curtains pulled across the windows; the only light came from a single lamp, turned down low. She took a deep breath, closed the door, and leaned back against it.
    This was madness. Yet she couldn’t stop herself.
    Colin was not lying in bed the way the doctor said he must.
    He was seated at a chair before the fireplace, almost as if he were staring at the empty hearth.
    “Colin,” she whispered.
    He turned his head, slowly, far more slowly than he had earlier. She realized that his hands were gripping the arms of his chair as if he were in a ship on a tossing sea.
    “Who’s there?” he said, growling it.
    “It’s me, Grace.” She walked over to him. “How are you?”
    “What did they give me to drink?” He spoke through clenched teeth.
    “Laudanum.”
    A flash of betrayal crossed his face.
    “The doctor gave it to you,” she cried. “We wouldn’t have done it. He feels you should stay in bed.”
    He reached toward her, found her wrist, and gripped it. “I don’t know whether I’m dreaming this or not,” he muttered.
    “You are not,” Grace said, looking down at the way her small wrist disappeared in his hand.
    He gave a sharp tug and she sat down on