The Rakehell Regency Romance Collection Volume 2(180)

"Oh, Will," his sister whispered, shaking her head, "you should have told her the truth! She loves you, but she needs to know why you're so haunted by the past. You can't move on to a happy future if you don't let go of Rosaria."



Will laughed almost maniacally. "Don't you see, I did! That's why I'm being punished. I never loved Rosaria, not really. I love Elizabeth more than my own life. I'm paying the price for having married someone I felt nothing but pity for. Someone I was relieved to lose.



"She never loved me. It was all gratitude and protection, and what she needed from me. Guns and ammunition, a male protector. Not hugs and kisses, and being cherished--"



Vevina sighed. "Will, I'm sure that's not…"



"You don't know. You can't possibly know. You and Stewart married for love. I married for lust, and got a frigid woman who couldn't bear for me to touch her. Am I so disgusting that every woman flees from my bed?"



She knelt down beside him. "No, no! Elizabeth loves you. She must have heard someone say something that scared her. It wasn't you. You needed to confide in each other more. But there's usually all the time in the world for that before you're wed. You've been hasty, Will, but you're not disgusting. Elizabeth worships you. But for now you're going to have to leave all these questions behind, and focus on both of you getting well."



He nodded and said, "All right, do it. Get it over with."



They removed the shell fragment and stitched up the wound, put his shoulder back in its socket, then wrapped it in clean gauze and forced him to lie back down on the pillows.



Thomas shook his head, stunned. Will had never even let out a whimper.



Stewart caught his surprised look and shrugged. "After everything he's been through, this is probably nothing to him."



Thomas stared at his new brother-in-law's physique. What manner of man was he? He had seen plenty of wounded veterans during the war, but never one as physically scarred as Will.



Yet it was his mind that seemed most damaged, if what he had just overheard was any indication. He was filled with nothing but guilt and self-reproach, and uncertainty about himself as a man.



Thomas had a million questions about what had happened in his past, but now was not the time. He told everyone he was going to put on more clothes, and would be back shortly



Only when he was in the privacy of his own room did he allow his tears to fall freely. What on earth had he done… He should have made them wait…



But Elizabeth had seemed so sure, so much in love. And now he had tied her to a man who by his own admission had killed his first wife….





Chapter Twenty-two



The three doctors did their best over the next few hours to make Elizabeth comfortable, but she was so still that often they could not be sure she was even alive.



Only Will, with his fingers on her pulse continually, kept them certain that her heart was still beating.



At dawn the next morning they operated. She had developed a gushing nosebleed which Doc Gallagher thought was a sign of the brain swelling badly.



Will hung onto his wife's hand for dear life as they drilled a small hole in her skull and drained the fluids.



After the surgery her breathing seemed much easier, but her temperature soared, so that they began to bathe her in cold water and even brandy to try to get the fever down.



"They used it in the Army when they had nothing else," the doctor explained to his horrified colleagues as the room began to smell like a tavern.



"I'll help. Anything you want me to do, I'll do it," Will promised raggedly. "Anything to save her."



As promised, the Elthams, Stones and Fitzgeralds all took turns nursing the two invalids, but it was heartbreaking for them all to think of the contrast between what was, and what could have been.



Will's friends also did whatever they could, looking after the children, going on errands, and coming in to try to cheer Will whenever there was a quiet moment in the room.



Parks in particular was ever-present when he was sure he was not in the way, and fetched and carried as patiently as any well-trained nurse.



Stewart pulled the doctor to one side at the end of the following day. "Give me your honest opinion, Miles."



"She's in a coma. She can't eat or drink. We have no idea how bad her injuries are. I've tested for paralysis. There's no sign of any sensation in any of the limbs. I'm sorry. It may of course change, but with us having trepanned her, I can't be hopeful. That will most likely kill her before anything else does. If we can't get the fever down, her body will just give up from the strain."



"All right, so let us assume we can get the fever down. What will happen next?"