“You mention your homeland often.”
“I miss it,” was her simple, heartfelt reply.
Harrowby looked at her thoughtfully, thinking that there was more to it than that. “We might go if there was someone there you wanted to see. Your parents perhaps?” He’d never been completely sold on the idea that Kate had no family, no one who might wonder where she was. Though her grief when she spoke of missing her parents was real, when she spoke of them, it was in the present tense, as if they were still alive and perhaps only lost to her. For all his probing, Kate hadn’t yet confirmed his suspicion and he had to wonder what kept her from talking to him about it.
He’d heard many stories in the past month about her life in America, about her childhood and formative years, but it was all very generic. He didn’t think it was unintentional either. Kate was keeping something back. Harrowby didn’t like that she didn’t trust him enough to tell him more.
“Kate…”
She reached into their picnic basket and retrieved a hunk of cheese, holding it out to him. “Hungry?”
Harrowby grimaced. “Not at all.”
“You’re not feeling well?” she asked, her eyes studying his face.
“I’m fine.” He waved her worry away. “Perhaps I ate something that doesn’t agree with me.”
“You should stick to the healthier food that the staff eats, Brand,” she chided. “It’s better for you than all those fancy dishes you are served.”
“You have different meals than I do?” he asked curiously, grateful for the distraction.
“Entirely,” she told him, breaking off a piece of the flavorful cheese for herself. “Wasteful, you know.”
“It is,” he agreed. “I’ll have to look into that.”
Silence fell for a long while before Kate noticed Brand absently rubbing his stomach. “Are you sure you’re all right?”
“Certainly,” Brand said, sitting up. “You finished my new book last night, didn’t you?”
“Yes, I did,” was all Kate said, aware that Brand was tense with expectation as he sat next to her. She munched more of the cheese, waiting for him to blow and smiling broadly when he finally broke.
“Kate!”
Kate laughed. “Oh, Brand! You worry too much. It was wonderful. Truly wonderful.”
“Really?” he queried suspiciously.
“Yes,” Kate assured him, patting his hand. “You are way ahead of your time with the stuff you’re writing. I know it doesn’t make any sense, but it’s almost like Crichton meets Koontz to me. Sci-fi with a horror twist. It’s one of the most unusual stories I’ve ever read.”
She was right; it didn’t make any sense to him at all. “But good?”
“I think it could be a bestseller.”
With a satisfied grunt, Harrowby laid back on their blanket thinking a bestseller – yet another unusual phrase from his charming Kate – sounded like an excellent thing. He folded his hands behind his head. He was satisfied with her words, but his relaxed posture clearly sent thoughts of a different sort through Kate’s mind. “I see you’re getting your sexy on,” she said in a low voice, careful not to let Nathan overhear.
Slanting her a look from the corner of his eye, Harrowby thought of the nights spent with Kate in his bed, each more passionate than the last. Each one more fulfilling. Kate was uninhibited in her lovemaking, adventurous enough to confirm that he wasn’t her first lover. He couldn’t help but wonder who it had been. Was it Dr. Fergusson who had come into his home posing as her husband, or another? Had she been married before? Was she a widow or a scandalous divorcée? Surely, she would have confessed such important details by now if there were any truth to be found in them.
Though he was possessive enough to have a care that another had had Kate before, it didn’t change his feelings toward her. Each day saw the caring and affection between them deepen. Though he had lost hope of ever finding a woman who might come to care for the man beneath the title, Harrowby hadn’t truly reflected on what depth of feeling might be roused in him when he did.
He’d never expected to lose himself in a woman as he did in Kate Kallastad. He wanted to bring her the same pleasure and contentment she delivered to him – outside of the bedchamber as well as in it. That caring, unlike any he’d ever experienced, had left Harrowby unsettled with the realization that he was falling in love with her. But was it truly so shocking? Kate was unlike any other woman he’d ever known. She was unique, thoughtful and intelligent.
She enthralled him as deeply with her conversation as she did with her luscious body. He could spend a lifetime just listening to her draw out every vowel and soften every T, talking with her about science and discovery, hearing her thoughts on his writing and gaining so much more profundity in that endeavor from hearing her feedback.
He could live forever on the rapture he found with her in a single kiss.
With a wry grin, Harrowby realized that he’d always thought love made a fool of men, made them weak. Strange how he’d never felt more powerful in his life.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
When Nathan finished his fishing for the afternoon, the threesome left Hyde Park, crossing Knightsbridge and ambling down Wilton on their way back to the house in Belgrave Square. Aware of the eyes that might be watching them, they didn’t touch as they walked but Harrowby felt as if his body were attuned to Kate’s. His stride matched hers, their feet pounding in perfect rhythm on the pavement.
It was a perfect demonstration of how he felt about their lives together. The unity of their steps matched the communion of their minds. They wanted many of the same things. Kate’s progressive thinking had not only enabled him to find his own resolve in the politics of his nation but had also dared him to challenge the politics of his household and his society.
It would set them all on their ears if he were to make a change for the future with Kate, if he dared to attempt something that few would. There were no doubts in his mind whether the risks would be worth the reward. As Kate had said weeks before, what they shared was worth taking a few bumps for.
Naturally, his mother would likely have an apoplexy. Even Susan might find her way to scorn his decision though Harrowby rather thought not. Susan liked Kate, he knew. Perhaps she would find reason for their happiness to outweigh any discomfort the scandal would bring to her.
They reached his house on the northern side of Belgrave Square and climbed the stairs together to the nursery where Harrowby said his farewells to his nephew. Drawing Kate toward the door as Janice took over her duties for the evening meal, Harrowby said his goodbyes to Kate in the hallway in a much more intimate fashion.
He had a dinner to attend with the Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli who until recently had been the MP for Buckinghamshire and a friend of his uncle’s. Harrowby had not seen him since gaining the title and was pleased by the invitation. They were planning to discuss the child labor Acts before Parliament voted. “I might be back late,” Harrowby told her. “Will you wait up for me?”
“What wouldn’t I do for you?” Kate countered and kissed him passionately before he went on his way.
***
Kate slipped into Brand’s chamber late that night to find him perched on the side of his bed, his head cradled in his hands. He looked up as she came in but only shook his head ruefully before resting it back in his hands. “I’m sorry, Kate, I don’t think I’m up to our normal activities this evening.”
“Don’t be silly,” Kate said briskly, though worry laced her words as she knelt before him. “Timson just came and told me that you’re not feeling well. Or did you just have too much to drink?”
“Not at all. In truth, I could neither eat nor drink all night. I just don’t feel well, Kate,” Brand said, “but you needn’t worry so. It’s not as if I’m at Death’s door.”
“Well, what’s wrong? Tell me?”
“I just don’t feel… right,” he admitted at length.
“Men!” Kate complained, massaging his k
nees under her palms. “It’s okay to get sick, you know? Everyone does. It doesn’t make you less of a man.”
A harsh chuckle escaped him. “I feel less than a man in this moment in that I can’t even rouse myself to make love to the beautiful woman kneeling before me.”
Kate smiled too, though she understood in that moment just how badly he felt. Reaching up, she stroked his cheek feeling the warmth there. Warm but not too hot. Feverish but nothing to worry for alone. “You’re a little warm. You said before your stomach was bothering you?”
“I feel nauseous,” he finally admitted with a flush of embarrassment. “Ghastly pain in my stomach.”
“Where?”
“Everywhere,” he said, unconsciously rubbing a hand across the affected area as he had that afternoon. As he didn’t pinpoint a specific spot, Kate didn’t know what to think of Brand’s sudden illness.
“Come on, let’s get you into bed,” Kate said pushing herself to her feet.
“That’s not how you usually say those words,” Brand told her with a slightly roguish smile.
“Men!” she repeated with a smile as she helped him strip down to his underclothes before he climbed into bed.
“I feel like such a fool, Kate,” he said, though his skin had lost some color in the exercise.
To see a man of Brand’s size and physique brought so low over the course of a few hours sent a streak of uncertainty through Kate. What was wrong with him? she wondered. It could be anything from simple indigestion to colon cancer. There was no way for either of them to know. “When’s the last time you had a physical, Brand?”
“A what?”
“A physical… ugh! When was the last time you saw a doctor?” she modified.
“I don’t know,” he answered. “I broke my arm at University once and had it set, but before that not since before my father died, I suppose. Why?”
Why, her mind screamed. And right there was the bad side of the nineteenth century, a side she hadn’t even considered before. No shots, no vaccinations. Whatever was wrong with Brand, it could literally be anything. Kate closed her eyes, drawing a deep breath. Don’t panic, just start with the basics. “Do you have any antacids?”
“What are they?”
“Something to reduce stomach acid,” Kate told him, trying to think. “What do you take if you have a stomach ache usually?”
“Chamomile, caraway,” he told her. “But I already tried that.”
With a knock, Susan poked her head around the corner of the door and gave a sigh of relief once she knew she wasn’t interrupting anything. “How are you feeling, Brandon?”
“I’ll be fine if you two infernal women would just let me rest in peace,” he grouched though Kate knew it was only his embarrassment at being laid low that prompted such an attitude.
Kate rushed to the door, whispering words of worry to Susan and receiving them in return. The problem was neither woman had spent enough years with the earl to know what his norm was. The only one who did know was Timson.
Leaving Brand abed, the ladies sought out Harrowby’s long time valet and grilled him about the earl’s health history. Timson, however, used to dealing with his employer on his own terms, insisted that they leave the earl’s care to him.
“I’m sure he’ll be fine in the morning.”
He wasn’t.
Susan rapped on Kate’s door in the early hours of the morning to announce that Timson had woken her fearing the worst for Harrowby. They arrived at Brand’s bedchamber to find him as white as a sheet, sweaty with pain and fitful. He wanted to walk but standing and moving only seemed to cause him more pain. He couldn’t eat and had vomited several times over the course of the night.
Kate took one look at the anguish on his face. “We need a doctor.”
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Later that afternoon
“What is the diagnosis, doctor?” Susan asked the question much more calmly than Kate would have.
She was aggrieved at how long it had taken for the doctor to show up; she would have thought that the Harrowby name would have brought him faster. However, as Brand had no regular physician, Timson had opted for contacting the old earl’s doctor only to discover him retired to the country. It had taken most of the early morning to discover the name of another noted medical presence in Town.
Referrals aside, Kate supposed that finding a doctor and dragging him to Belgrave Square before the man had even had the chance for a mid-morning breakfast, had taken some doing on Timson’s part. She couldn’t hold the time of his arrival against anyone.
No, what she held against them was how long she and Susan had sat downstairs with no word from anyone in the earl’s bedchamber. The attempts Kate had made to go to Brand had been nipped in the bud before she’d even cracked the door.
Now, nearly six hours later, Susan had been summoned and Kate had followed knowing that she couldn’t wait another moment to find out what was wrong.
Brushing aside the doctor, Kate rushed to Brand’s bedside, snatching up his hand in hers. “How are you feeling?”
“The pain is most severe,” he said tightly. It was a bold understatement if Kate had ever heard one. Though Brand was attempting to put on a brave face, she could plainly see that he was in agony.
“Why haven’t they given you anything for it?”
“The doctor offered laudanum but I will not take it.”
“Oh, my poor baby,” Kate crooned, massaging Brand’s hand between her own and squeezed it gently, placing a kiss to his fingers. She didn’t care who saw or what they thought. Her worries were for Brand alone. She was downright scared for him in that moment. “Where does it hurt?”
“Only my abdomen,” he answered. “Nowhere else.”
Kate could hear the doctor addressing Susan behind her now, giving her all the assurances that doctors tended to give. “I believe, Mrs. Ralston, that his lordship has an inflammation of the appendix vermaformis,” the physician announced from under his long, walrus mustache as he adjusted the spectacles perched on his nose. “I suggest draining the fluids. It is the most common practice in cases such as these.”
The night before and that morning, Brand had described the pain as a general one, encompassing most of his stomach. Now, however, Kate watched Brand’s hand unconsciously creep down protectively to cover the spot that pained him. Not a wide palm over his abdomen but, rather, a spot near his right hipbone. Combined with the doctor’s words, the truth hit Kate like a thunderbolt. She knew what the problem was. Geez, she’d been there herself when she was nine. Why hadn’t she thought of it before? “God, Brand, I know what it is. I know what it is!”
“It’s his appendix, Dr. West,” she called into the room garnering everyone’s attention as she jumped up.
“I beg your pardon, miss?” he asked superiorly, rotating to frown down at her.
“His appendix,” she repeated. “The thing that is causing Br… Harrowby all that pain.”
“That is what I was just explaining to Mrs. Ralston,” he huffed impatiently, before turning back to Susan. “As I was saying, we’ll drain the fluids…”
“Fluids?” Kate repeated before shaking her head vehemently and glaring at him with her hands on her hips. “No! He needs to have an appendectomy right away before it bursts.”
“Young lady,” West began with a condescending frown, “I hardly think that a woman such as yourself might know the cause of his lordship’s pain.”
Eyes widening, Kate stepped back, her eyes wide with horror. “Oh, for Pete’s sake, you don’t even know what I’m talking about, do you?”
“I am well aware of the source of the earl’s discomfort.”
“That not discomfort, that’s real pain!” she yelled.
“Kate.” Feeling Brand’s hand on her arm, Kate looked down at him seeing what she almost thought might be amusement hovering underneath his pained exterior. “He is the doctor, you know.”
“But he’s wrong, Brand. The same thing happened
to me when I was little. You need to remove it. This is an emergency.” Kate turned back to the doctor, pinning him with a level glare. “You need to take it out before it ruptures!” How could the doctor not know this? Everyone knew that! And it was bad, too. Who knew how long Brand had been feeling the pain before he’d spoken up about it.
“Remove it?” the doctor repeated incredulously. “I admit there have been some articles in the medical journals of a Dr. Willard Parker in New York originally from seven or eight years ago who recommend removal in cases such as these, some even more recently. But it’s only been since Dr. Lister introduced the antisepsis that…”
“You don’t know how to do it,” Kate interrupted flatly, feeling despair creep over her as she looked at the faces around her. Dr. West was the only one who even knew what she was talking about. “Do you know of anyone who’s done it?”
“Of course, there are those who can…”
“Successfully?” Kate bulldozed in once again to add.
The doctor sighed before admitting, “No. You must understand, young lady, the type of surgical practice you are suggesting is still widely considered very controversial in these cases.”
Kate swallowed, her mind dully refusing to accept the doctor’s words. Everyone, including Brand, was giving her a look that said they hadn’t truly understood the implications of what she and the doctor were talking about. She looked at Brand’s pale, beautiful face, felt the love she had for him burning deep inside of her.
Felt fear and anguish rolling in underneath it all.
Brand was going to die.
Releasing a deep breath, Kate felt her stomach churn at the thought. It couldn’t be. Brand was too strong, too vital and alive to let some useless piece of flesh be the death of him. It couldn’t be true but even in her denial, Kate could see the truth written beneath the grayish tones of Brand’s skin.
Time Travel 02 Nothing but Time Page 27
