His trusted valet walked over and looked at him, his face etched with concern.
“Your Grace, are you well? You look positively gray.”
“My damn side,” Thomas hissed. “Someone shoot me and make this pain go away.”
“This pain has lingered far too long. May I send for the family physician?”
“Just help me into the tub. It’ll go away; it always does.”
Giles nodded his head, clearly not happy with this course of action. Thomas forced himself to relax in the tub as the hot water soothed his side and all the other muscles and tendons that tightened up whenever the pain became unbearable.
Closing his eyes, he focused away from the pain. He envisioned the night to come…undressing Emma slowly, taking his time, tasting every inch of flesh as it was exposed to him…until she’d stand before him in all her naked beauty. Thomas gasped.
Not a good sign that when his cock grew in length and hardened in response to thoughts of his wedding night, his side began to burn even more. He hissed through clenched teeth and made a deal with God. If He let him get through today, pain free, he would seek a doctor on the morrow.
Thomas wanted their wedding to be the most memorable day of Emma’s life. He wanted everything to be perfect. She deserved no less. She certainly deserved better than him. But she would have him, this day, for better or for worse.
***
Later, dressed in formal attire and standing in the chapel at Stony Cross Manor, Thomas stood pale and perspiring. The pain had peaked and suddenly diminished and he felt tremendous relief.
Amesbury and Myles stood on either side of him as he waited for Emma to come down the aisle. The local magistrate, Squire Rosenberg, stood at the altar, waiting with prayer book in hand.
Thomas was surprised to find he was utterly calm. And besides a little twitch here and there his side had settled down. Family and guests were seated, except for Amelia, Bella, and Emma. His sisters would lead his bride down the aisle.
The organist his mother hired began to play and Thomas’s breath paused inside his lungs as he looked past his sisters to where Emma stood. He suddenly felt weak, as if he might keel over. If his knees were not locked, he was sure he would have dropped to the ground.
Emma was a vision of innocence and loveliness in her pale, ice-blue silk gown that hugged her bosom and her narrow waist, and then fell in delicate folds to the floor. She carried one beautiful, long-stemmed white rose with white and blue ribbons cascading down. Thomas’s body shivered, drawing Amesbury’s and Myles’s questioning looks. He shrugged and looked back at Emma, floating toward him.
Halfway through the ceremony his skin began to drip sweat and his side and stomach did not so much hurt as feel numb. Concentrating became difficult as the world around him blurred, and he blinked rapidly trying to clear it. Somewhere, out of the turmoil happening inside his body and mind, Thomas heard the squire pronounce them man and wife. Cheers from family and friends found Emma taking his arm and turning him so they could walk down the aisle.
“Thomas, is something wrong?” His new bride’s voice drifted into his mind. It sounded as though it came from some place far, far away. Try as hard as he could, his mouth would not work. He could not for the life of him answer her.
Chills snaked up his spine and he shivered, his teeth chattering. His feet stuck to the floor. His body swayed; at least Thomas thought it did because the room started to revolve around him faster and faster, until he closed his eyes to block it out.
Then he heard voices calling his name, coming from some far off region.
Then nothing at all.
Profound blackness enclosed him in a dark and threatening shroud from which some part of him knew there was no escape.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Emma’s heart lurched into her throat as Thomas collapsed to the ground at her feet. Fortunately, her hands, along with Myles’s and Amesbury’s had broken his fall. During the quick ceremony she had thought he looked pale and she noticed moisture beads on his forehead and on his upper lip.
Several times Emma heard Thomas moan and he had swayed slightly. When they recited their vows, his voice sounded weak and his eyes seemed unfocused. It was obvious he was unwell––so unwell that when the ceremony ended her new husband fainted at her feet.
It only took a moment for Emma’s new mother-in-law to snap out commands. “Norwich, Amesbury! Carry Your Grace to his room. Amelia, fetch Giles and have him send a footman for the doctor with strict instructions not to come back without him.”
Thomas’s mother paused only when the two gentlemen struggled with his unconscious body.
“Isabella, go fetch two footmen to help carry your brother upstairs.” Then she clapped her hands. “Come now, we must hurry.”