The Sherbrooke Bride (Sherbrooke Brides 1)

His fist lowered and Georges quickly said, “No, no, don’t strike me again. I can’t remain defensive too much longer. I am a man, and cannot continue to allow this. Ah, but thank God it’s you, Douglas. Quickly, quickly! She is having a miscarriage. Dammit, I don’t know what to do. I don’t want her to die. Ah, mon Dieu! Help me!”

“She’s what?” Douglas’s fist was not six inches from Georges’s face.

Alexandra moaned and tried to draw her legs up.

“Look at her, Douglas. I didn’t rape her. I swear I wouldn’t have raped her in any case. Look, damn you! She is losing a child!”

Douglas took in the truth of the situation in that moment. He roared into action, rolled off Georges in an instant, and was on his knees beside his wife. “Georges, heat water and get clean clothes, immediately! Tony, go into the other room and fetch the mattress off the bed. We’ll keep her here in front of the fire.”

Both men were instantly in action although Georges did stagger a bit. Both were grateful to have something to do, anything.

Douglas was at his wife’s side. She was moaning, her head thrashing back and forth as the cramps seized her. When they eased, she lay there panting, her eyes closed, gulping down deep breaths.

“Alexandra,” he said, taking her face between his hands. “Alexandra.”

She opened her eyes and stared up at him. To his astonishment, she smiled up at him. “I knew you would come. Please help me, Douglas. It hurts so very badly. Please make it stop.”

“I’ll help you, love.” He picked her up in his arms and gently laid her onto the mattress Tony had laid close to the hearth.

“Now, listen to me. You’re losing a babe. You are not so very far along so this will be over quickly, I promise you. Just hold on, love. Now, I’m going to press these cloths against you to get this bleeding stopped. No, don’t fight the pain. That’s right, hold my hand, squeeze as hard as you want to, that’s right.”

He felt a shot of pain go up his arm, her grip was so hard.

He prayed it would be over soon. He knew little to nothing about miscarriage, a subject never spoken about in a gentleman’s presence.

Suddenly, her body stiffened, her back arching off the mattress, and she yelled. He felt the hot blood coming from her and it soaked through the cloth and onto his hand.

She looked up at him, her eyes dumb, then her head lolled back. She was unconscious.

Douglas kept the pressure against her.

“Here is the hot water,” Georges Cadoudal said. “God, is she all right, Douglas?”

“She’ll be all right. I’ll strangle her if she isn’t.”

Georges looked oddly at him. “She told me you wouldn’t come after her. She told me you loved her sister. She knew you wouldn’t care what I did to her.”

“She’s sometimes quite wrong,” Douglas said, not looking at Georges, not looking away from her face.

“I thought as much. She’s unusual.” He sighed, running his hands through his hair. “I couldn’t have raped her, dammit. I’m telling you the truth. Damn, I could kill a hundred men without blinking an eye, but this one . . . I’m sorry I stole her, Douglas. It was wrong of me. You didn’t rape Janine, did you?”

“No.”

“The little one here was certain you hadn’t. You’re a man of honor, you see.”

Douglas merely smiled.

Tony brought a blanket and covered her. He laid his palm on her brow. She was cool to the touch.

Georges Cadoudal turned away. To Douglas’s astonishment, he looked as if he were in pain. He said, as if in confession to a priest, “I brought this on her.”

Douglas looked at him, his mouth tight. “Tell me what happened.”

“She escaped me. I’d given her water to drink and had forgotten to tie her hands again. She disconcerted me. I don’t know how she did it but she managed to wriggle through that narrow window in the bedchamber. She landed on her face in the mud outside. She ran, she really did, ran and ran, but I chased her down. I threw her over my horse’s back. She vomited.”

Tony said, “I have been told that a miscarriage is a very natural thing. If a man’s seed isn’t meant to remain planted in a woman’s womb, her body will expel it. It just happens sometimes.”

“No, if I hadn’t kidnapped her, it wouldn’t have happened.”