by Abby Ayles
The Lady’s Patient
A Historical Regency Romance Novel
Abby Ayles
Edited by
Elizabeth Connor
Copyright © 2018 by Abby Ayles
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Contents
Be a part of the Abby Ayles family…
Acknowledgements
A message from Abby
Introduction
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Epilogue
The Extended Epilogue
Do you want more Historical Romance?
The Lady’s Gamble
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Also By Abby Ayles
About the Author
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Acknowledgements
Thank yous
Thank you to my parents for their ongoing support. You have turned the world upside down and inside out in order for me to pursue my dreams. I love you.
Thank you to my beta readers Carole Ryall, Kathleen Hugh and Danielle Carpenter. Interacting with you is so fun and I am so thankful to have you in my corner rooting for me every step of the way.
Thank you to my editorial team for helping bring my words to life in the exact way I envision them to be said. You push me to be better.
Thank you to the authors who inspire me. There is no world without love, and your books are the reason I’m here now.
Most importantly, thank you to my readers! Whether you are new to my work, or a loyal fan, thank you from the bottom of my heart.
A message from Abby
Dear Reader,
Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed every page and I would love to hear your thoughts whether it be a review online or you contact me via my website. I am eternally grateful for you and none of this would be possible without our shared love of romance.
I pray that someday I will get to meet each of you and thank you in person, but in the meantime, all I can do is tell you how amazing you are.
As I prepare my next love story for you, keep believing in your dreams and know that mine would not be possible without you.
With Love
Introduction
The Lady’s Patient
Kitty Langley, daughter of Baron Langley, has not led an easy life for a young woman of her standing. Suffering from a health condition since she was a young child, she is only just reaching a point where her health is strong enough to allow her to do all the things she wants to. If only society also allowed her to do such things! Called to the bedside of an acquaintance's injured younger brother, Kitty leaps at the opportunity. A taste of freedom, and sharing her experience and strength with an unwell child sounds like the first tentative steps into a life of her own. But Augustus Sinclair is not a child. He is the Earl of Stamford, and, although younger than his sister, very much a man. Persevering in caring for him, Kitty soon discovers that in some ways he is indeed childish, and yet in others he is so much wiser and more mature than she could ever hope to be. As she begins to fall for a man beyond her station, his sister, Kitty's own battle with her health, and society itself stand in her way. Must she resign herself to longing for a man who can never be hers?
Chapter 1
Kitty looked at the pile of suitcases on her bed and smiled in relief. It was time to return home. At last.
It had been a pleasant stay at the resort. She had enjoyed her usual week, plus an extra two days when, during a massage session, her elbow had become too loose and almost came out of its socket. But now everything seemed to be in place again.
Suffering from rheumatism, even only a mild case, was not easy. Kitty knew she was blessed to be as strong as she was and to have the money for proper care.
The doctor knocked on the door and walked in looking pleased. He smiled warmly. “How are you feeling, Miss Langley?”
She smiled back. “Very well, thank you. I feel revitalized and prepared for my journey.”
“We have not yet had news about your coach, but no doubt it shall arrive soon,” the doctor reassured her. “How is your elbow?”
“No complaints, doctor,” she replied.
“And everything else is as it should be?” he asked.
She nodded. “A thousand times better than when I first arrived.”
The doctor smiled and scribbled some notes into his journal. “You have done very well, very well indeed, Miss Langley,” he said. “I am sure that Dr. Allen will be able to pick up from where we're leaving it off.”
Dr. Allen was the family doctor. He had cared for Kitty ever since she was a little girl, for her mother when she became ill. And now, he tended to her father as well ever since a terrible bout of pneumonia left him with a painful cough.
Dr. Allen would have appreciated his three-week long holiday, but would no doubt be home several days before her coach arrived, and her room would be perfectly prepared for her as if she had never left.
As soon as her coach was announced, Kitty made her way to the entrance. They always offered her a wheelchair, although she had not needed to use one for years. It was as though nobody believed she was able to get better rather than worse.
“Oh, we'll miss you, sweetie,” the head nurse said, adjusting Kitty's bonnet.
“And I shall miss you,” Kitty replied. “Everyone is so kind to me here, I feel truly at home. I cannot wait to return for my next rest.”
“Unless you require further treatment,” the nurse remarked.
Kitty felt a slight concern. “I am in no pain, I hope I shall not need treatment at least until the end of the year.”
“I hope so too, my dear,” the nurse replied.
Kitty made her way to the coach, where her last case was being firmly tied to the roof of the vehicle ready for the long journey home. Inside the coach sat a maid and Kitty's travel bags by her feet. She was ready to attend to anything th
at Kitty needed on her trip home.
As the coach pulled away and rolled down the hill towards the docks where the ferry would be no doubt just arriving, Kitty looked out of the rear window.
It was always a little sad to see the resort disappear into the distance. But she also knew that she would be back before long. Her father would not allow her to go more than a few months without treatment. She huffed a breath of indignation. She did not need it.
As a young girl, she had needed vast amounts of medical care. Nobody had dared think that a child her age could be suffering rheumatism, and it only dawned on them when she was six that she had been suffering from it her entire life.
At six, she was barely able to walk, and always in intense pain at her knees, ankles and back. So much so that she rarely left her bed. She was restricted to a wheelchair until she was ten.
But even as she grew stronger and healthier, her father seemed to refuse to acknowledge it. It was getting to a point where she was receiving treatments she did not need, just to comfort him. She lived an active life and enjoyed long walks around their property. She wasn’t a little girl anymore.
Her mother's death had really affected Kitty’s father. He was always protective of Kitty, but when her mother passed away he became even more overbearing. From that point onward he went from simply guarding her when she was in pain, to treating her as though she were made of the thinnest crystal.
And no matter how effective her treatments were, no matter how well she felt, he insisted on steam baths, massages, special oils and ointments—anything that was recommended. Although she was tired of this, she did not complain. She smiled, accepted her treatment, and told him how much better she felt after them. She couldn't hurt him.
She had been only eight when her mother had passed, and it left a deep scar on her heart. He may be overbearing, but Kitty would do anything to make her father happy. And it made him happy to treat her rheumatism. It gave him a purpose in life.
It was a peculiar situation, where he could not bear to see her in pain, but he couldn't believe that she was ever not in pain. He needed her to be in pain so he could treat her, so he could look after her. And she needed to play along just so she could see him smile.
And yet now she was growing weary of it. She wanted freedom. She wanted to marry. She wanted to go out and watch the races, go to balls, walk with her friends and do all the things that normal young ladies did.
As the sun set on the first day, she could already feel her knees trying to seize up, and began lightly exercising them as she sat there, so they would not get stiff as she slept. She would have to sleep on the ferry at first, and the cabins were small and cramped. It was best to go in as relaxed as possible.
The journey was long, and it always made her joints stiff. But she knew that once she was home she would limber up in no time. Her condition was nowhere near as debilitating as her father seemed to believe.
She could not sit too still for very long, and she could not travel far. But the only reason she ever had to do either of these things was to receive treatment. If she simply stayed home she would not have to worry about such matters.
But her father would never understand that.
As the sun dawned on the sixth day, Kitty was pleased to wake up and see the fields outside their village. Home at last. Due to the lack of inns on the last stretch of their journey she had been forced to sleep two nights in the coach, and she looked forward to her own cosy bed.
She saw the usual bright barn that meant there was only an hour left to go.
“Please pack up my books,” she said to the maid.
The maid smiled. “Of course, mistress.”
As the maid packed away Kitty's books and assorted travel items, Kitty looked out of the window and tried to spot the usual landmarks as they rolled by, counting down the minutes until she was home.
It was barely seven in the morning as they finally pulled up outside her home. The gardens were in full bloom, and the mansion was glimmering with dew in the sunlight. It shone like something out of fairy land.
An enormous, bearded, gruff man walked out, still in his bed coat, a broad grin stretching his plump, furry cheeks. Kitty waved at him through the window as the coach pulled up at the bottom of the stairs.
The driver descended from his seat and opened the door for Kitty. She made sure both her legs were feeling strong before standing up and stepping out of the coach. The last thing she wanted was to fall over and scare her father.
Once firmly on solid ground, Kitty all but threw herself into her father's arms. “I have missed you so much, daddy,” she said, feeling her heart rest easy now she was safely home.
“I have missed you too, my dearest. Now, come indoors, it is cold. We must get you a nice, filling breakfast,” he insisted.
He was just as obsessed with making sure she ate enough as he was with her treatments. Although she did not need much nourishment due to her fairly inactive lifestyle, he would become so worried when she didn't finish the enormous plates she was served, that now she had taken to dropping some under the table for the dogs.
“How is my little girl after her journey? Not too sore?” he asked as they sat at the table, an enormous plate of cold pie, cheeses, and bread in front of both of them. Baron Langley had a glass of wine, and Kitty had her usual spiced tea, an Eastern remedy for her pains, according to Dr. Allen.
“I am feeling quite well,” she said with a smile.
“You seemed stiff when you walked in,” her father replied sternly.
She knew she couldn't get away with lying, but she still tried. She didn't want to cause him undue concern. He was very good at worrying excessively all on his own.
“I am always stiff after my journey, you know this, father,” she insisted. “I shall be right as rain in a day or two.”
“I hope so, because I would like to attend a gala on Sunday. Your friends will be there,” he said, taking a hearty bite of cheese.
Kitty politely listened and, as he was distracted, dropped some pie to her feet, where the dogs, silent as though understanding their complicity, quickly made it disappear. “That would be lovely, father,” she replied.
“I was thinking that perhaps you could meet a few nice young men there,” Baron Langley said. “I know how much you want to meet an appropriate suitor, and maybe this time it shall happen.”
“I do hope so,” Kitty replied.
Her father nodded. “I have been thinking, and I know you do not like me to think of this, but I have been thinking about what may happen when I am no longer here for you. And I think you need a good husband, to care for you.”
Kitty just smiled. She knew what would happen. It was what always happened. She would hit off wonderfully with a young man who was handsome, funny, educated, wealthy, and witty, he would go to her father to ask to court her... and then her father would say something about her illness and they would never see the young man ever again.
She had stopped caring about this, to be honest. She used to aspire to marry well, have a beautiful wedding, and bear many children. But as man after man had been scared away, she had given up. At least, contrary to her father's fears, she knew she would be able to care for herself when she was all alone.
Kitty dropped some cheese under the table as she ate some bread. She could feel the dogs' tails wagging against her shins as they enjoyed their breakfast.
“I think the gala is a wonderful idea,” she said again with a nod.
“Good, good. I shall inform Duke and Duchess Haskett that we shall attend. But now you need to get plenty of rest,” her father said with a warm smile. “Otherwise you shall be in no shape to attend the gala.”
“It is not for a few days, I shall be fine,” Kitty reassured him, gently resting her hand on his arm.
“Yes, but you must rest for a few days,” he insisted. “You need to stay home and build up your strength. I know how badly you suffer when you overdo it.”
She smiled and nodded.
Chapter 2
Sitting by her window, Kitty felt very much a prisoner in her own home. This was something else that always happened. Whenever there was even a hint that she was under the weather, she was stuck at home. Her father could not fathom that she might be unwell one day and better the next. In his mind, every little ache required a week of convalescence.
The sun shone beautifully outside, the garden looked so bright and fragrant, and she would have to just watch from her stuffy bedroom.
She heard a knock at her door. “Who is it?” she asked.
“Just me,” her father said from the other side.
“Come in,” she offered.
The door opened and he walked in, smiling proudly as he saw her resting by the window.
“I know that you do not like resting here too much. So that you do not suffer the lack of company, I have invited a friendly young man for dinner,” he said, sitting down in the armchair opposite her.
Kitty felt excitement welling up in her chest. This would be perfect! “That is wonderful news,” she replied. “Who is he?”
