Chapters (46)
- Front Cover
- Title Page
- Copyright
- Contents
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-one
- Twenty-two
- Twenty-three
- Twenty-four
- Twenty-five
- Twenty-six
- Twenty-seven
- Twenty-eight
- Twenty-nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-one
- Thirty-two
- Thirty-three
- Thirty-four
- Thirty-five
- Thirty-six
- Thirty-seven
- Thirty-eight
- Epilogue
- Author’s Note
- Acknowledgments
- Back Cover
The doctor’s bushy eyebrows drew together, covering his bespectacled eyes. “I’m afraid it required more laudanum than I usually have to administer, so she will be sleeping for several hours.” The doctor paused, seemed to consider his next words. “The agitation she exhibited was abnormal. Was there perhaps some sort of event that troubled her?”
Rowles shook his head. “Nothing of which I’m aware.” Rowles studied the doctor. “It’s worse, isn’t it?”
The doctor met his look, and Rowles appreciated the lack of pity in his expression as he answered with a directness often absent in others. “Yes. And it will likely continue to progress, Your Grace.”
Rowles bowed his head with the weight of the truth. “Is there nothing to be done, then?”
“At this point, no. Unless you wish to—”
Rowles’s head snapped up, and he met the doctor’s stare, which had shifted to a look of wary concern. “Hell will freeze over before I send my mother to Bedlam. If there’s nothing else?”
Rowles didn’t wait for the doctor’s response, but spun on his heel, gave the doctor his back, and left.
He doubted the doctor would suggest such a preposterous idea again. As if he could relegate his mother to within the stone walls of that institution legendary for harboring insanity. His mother wasn’t herself, but she wasn’t a danger. And she would be prey in a place such as that. Never had he been so grateful for the privilege of his rank. Because of it, he wasn’t forced to consign his mother to Bedlam, but could provide a better way to care for her needs.
A shudder racked his body as he thought about the implications that would course throughout the London ton should he make such a move. His mother’s infirmities were whispered and laughed about, but he didn’t begrudge the murmurings. They were all accurate, or at least mostly. It would be like a tiger without stripes if the London ton didn’t gossip about a widowed duchess who had a bent mind.
But that didn’t mean he found it easy to deal with the furtive peeks in his direction from people wondering if the infirmity was in his blood. Though apparently that wasn’t enough of a threat to keep the mamas of the ton at bay when it came to throwing their daughters in his direction. How his late brother had dealt with such officious attention was beyond comprehension.