Page 35 of The Duke Decides

“The penitentiary’s just across the bridge,” another pointed out. “Sure and they’ll have an infirmary there.”

“I know a place nearby with an infirmary, and skilled nurses,” Louisa said. “Only I shall need help putting him into his coach.”

***

“My bedroom, Alice,” Louisa said. “Lead the men to my bedroom.”

“Oh, Matron,” Sister Agatha fretted. “You mustn’t. A strange man? In your bedchamber?”

“He is not strange to me, and there is nowhere else suitable.”

Alice led the way with a lighted candle through the corridors while the men she’d hired carried Gabe between them on a man-sized sling, a piece of canvas with handles. “The women’s infirmary is occupied at the moment.” One of their older residents was recovering there after a fall, and there was a mother who had newly delivered. Bringing Gabe there would only upset them. “And the other infirmary is under renovations.”

“There was nowhere else you could go? No place nearer?”

“Really, Sister, it must be ten of the clock. On whose door could I go knocking?”

“It is almost midnight,” Sister Agatha said severely. “Our board of directors will not like this.”

Most of the board of directors for the Hospital were benefactors and personal friends, but there were always outsiders, Members of Parliament or men of the city, who interested themselves overmuch in the doings of a charitable institution that insisted on its own oversight.

They passed through the great hall, and Louisa wavered. This was the place where, only that day, she had looked upon the people she cared for going about their daily tasks and had glowed with calm pride to know she had a hand in this. She had devoted her life to the Benevolence Hospital and its cause. She could not be the reason for its ruin.

Gabe groaned, and suddenly, he was all that mattered. Lord Vérité with his threats had made it impossible for Louisa to stay here anyway. She would sacrifice her role in this place she loved if it meant she could save Gabe.

The man she loved.

She pushed that thought away. It was too soon to say love. Say rather, she felt responsible. He had engaged himself in her cause, and now he was hurt.

As the boon of her position, the Matron’s set of rooms within the Hospital contained a bedchamber dedicated to her own use. It was not a large or stylish chamber, nothing befitting a duke, but there was a bed with a feather tick. Louisa quickly threw a sheet over the quilt and piled up the pillows, then directed the men to lay down their burden.

“I’ll fetch Sister Nan,” Alice whispered. Sister Nan was their best nurse.

Sister Agatha sighed. “I’ll see to hot water from the kitchens, and the healing salve. I’ll expect he’ll need a great deal of it.”

Gabe blinked his eyes open as Louisa was working free the buttons on his coat. He glanced about, his gaze heavy-lidded. One eyelid was swelling shut, and a cut above his eyebrow oozed blood. He focused on Louisa, and something shifted and settled in her belly.

“Are you hurt?” His voice was a low rasp.

“No. Do you know who attacked you?”

“Fenton. I’d wager the dukedom that was him behind the mask. Brought bigger men this time, and came to see the job done himself.” He coughed, but no blood appeared on his lips. Louisa hoped that was a good sign. She helped him struggle his arms free of the coat, beautifully tailored but now sadly damaged.

“We can try to find the men. Someone has to remember seeing them. You must bring charges this time.”

“Of what? I can prove nothing.”

“I was there. I’m a witness.”

“He tried to hurt you.” Gabe grasped Louisa’s wrists as she went to work on his patterned waistcoat. “I don’t need a trial. I’ll kill him.”

“And get yourself hanged.” She wasn’t certain the courts could hang dukes, but of a certain he would lose everything.

And she would lose him. “You must find a way to protect yourself,” she said.

“Take a duchess, produce an heir.” Gabe slid his hands up her arms. She’d stripped off her gloves to unbutton him, and her bare flesh tingled beneath his warm, heavy palms. His knuckles were bruised, split and bloody.

“That is my plan,” he said. “Stay alive long enough to produce several heirs, so many Fenton gives up and goes away to make a nuisance of himself somewhere else.”