Chapter 38

Georgie regained consciousness to find that she was back in her bedchamber and in a nightgown with not the least idea of how she got there. The curtains were drawn and a small fire crackled in the grate; apart from that, it was very quiet in the room, and somehow she felt that it must be the middle of the night, or early morning. She tried to sit, but sharp unexpected pain – in her head and in her arm – prevented her, and she fell back, gasping.

In an instant Gabriel was at her side. ‘You must not try to get up,' he said, his voice level, controlled. ‘Lie down, my dear, and be easy. There is nothing to fear now, I assure you.'

‘What happened?' she asked weakly. ‘I can scarcely piece it together, so jumbled are my recollections. Captain Hart was there suddenly, and you knocked him down…'

‘It transpired that Hart is Mrs Aubrey's brother – do you remember that?'

She shook her head, then regretted it instantly as sharp pain stabbed her again. ‘Try not to move,' the Duke said gently. ‘I will explain everything. You have a concussion – you hit your head on a piece of masonry when you fell, for I did not reach you in time to catch you, to my eternal regret. But the doctor apprehends no lasting damage. And the wound in your arm is much slighter than I feared at first. A mere graze, really, though it bled a great deal and gave us all a dreadful fright. The bullet did not lodge in you, and so did not have to be removed: a great blessing, I am assured.'

Georgiana looked down in confusion and saw that her night-rail had been cut away and her left arm was heavily bandaged just below her shoulder. ‘The bullet…?'

He smiled wryly, and raised her right hand to his lips, kissing it with enormous tenderness and saying with a lightness that appeared to cost him some considerable effort, ‘You do not recall your great act of heroism? Clearly you do not. Mrs Aubrey produced a pistol from that ridiculous muff of hers, and was about to shoot me quite by accident, or so you feared, for you flung yourself in front of me and took the bullet yourself. What can I say but thank you, a thousand times thank you, though those words can never be adequate…' He broke off, impeded by some obstruction in his throat, it seemed.

‘I remember now…' she said slowly. ‘I thought she would surely kill you. I had to do something.'

‘I thought she had killed you,' he replied in a low tone, looking down at her hand where it still rested in his. ‘You were insensible, and there was a great deal of blood, as I think I have said. It was… I have no words to describe it.'

‘That is not like you,' she said, with a pitiful attempt at humour.

‘I know.'

As she looked at him, she saw that he was still wearing the grey coat he had put on before their meeting with Mrs Aubrey. It was stained all across the arms and chest – with her blood, she realised, in no small quantities. His breeches were the same. She must have let out some exclamation, for he followed the direction of her gaze and looked down, and only now appeared to recollect that he had not changed. ‘Good God, I'm sorry, Georgie!' he exclaimed. ‘You should not have been obliged to see that! I had quite forgot…'

‘How long since it all happened?' she asked. ‘Have you so much as left my side?'

‘It is early morning now. You were unconscious or asleep twelve hours, I dare say, though it seemed much longer. No – I have not left you for more than a moment or two, and that under protest. I was obliged to see the authorities when they came calling last night, though I fear I was monstrously uncivil to the blameless gentlemen. Your maid was quite appalled that I would not go while she and my housekeeper cut you out of your clothes and undressed you, then put you in your nightgown. She thought it improper, and told me so, but I told her in return that she would endure my presence without complaint or I would put her from the room, by force if necessary, and do it all myself. She stopped objecting then,' he said, with a brief, wintry smile.

‘I should think she did!' said Georgie, and then, ‘Oh, do not make me laugh! My head hurts so!'

‘I should not let you talk at all,' he said penitently. ‘I was told to give you a cordial, should you wake. If you will let me do so, and promise to close your eyes for a while, I will fetch someone to sit with you for a few moments so I may go and change, and you will not see such a ghastly spectacle when next you open your eyes. I am sorry I neglected to remove these hideous garments. But I have been… distracted, and I did not want to leave you while you still seemed in danger.'

‘You said the doctor reassured you there would be no lasting damage,' she expostulated weakly, as he raised her carefully in his arms and helped her to drink some liquid from a glass that had stood ready.

‘He did, but… I was apprehensive.' He was excessively pale, she saw now, and there were lines by his mouth that she did not recall having seen there before. He was plainly exhausted to the limit of his endurance.

‘You should go and sleep,' she said, lying back against her pillows.

‘I will sleep when Blanche has arrived and can stay with you. She was to set off at first light. Your brother will be here a few hours later, I should think. I sent urgent messengers to both of them.'

‘Poor Hal,' she said fretfully. ‘I am for ever dragging him across the countryside to see to some trouble I have embroiled myself in.'

‘I am sure he will not scold you on this occasion,' the Duke said drily. He seemed to have recovered some fragile measure of composure. ‘Will you rest now, most stubborn and bravest of women?'

‘I will,' she said, ‘if you will tell me what happened after. I promise I will be good, if you will only tell me!'

He sighed. ‘Sheer chaos reigned. It is not usual, of course, for shots to be fired in the centre of York in these supposedly civilised times. I have been given to understand that many persons fled in terror, and others, braver or simply more curious, came running to see what had happened. I recall very little of it, to be honest. But they tell me that Hart was still insensible on the ground, and you too, of course, with blood staining your pelisse in a most dramatic fashion. I was on my knees beside you, frantic…'

‘I liked that pelisse,' Georgie grumbled, hoping to win a smile from him, but when it came it was a faint one.

‘I am afraid it is quite ruined; even setting aside the blood, it had to be cut off you. Fortunately, when people arrived I was recognised, and so was not given in charge or suspected for more than a moment of perpetrating the massacre. The constables came, and took Hart away, once it was established that he had not also been shot but merely knocked down. I saw nothing of any of this, and cared less for it; I was carrying you home through the streets.'

‘My God.'

‘Yes. I believe it made an enormous impression upon all who saw it, though I was quite oblivious to it. There is, or at least there was last night, a great anxious crowd gathered outside the house to wait for news of you.'

‘And Mrs Aubrey?'

‘It is understood that she escaped in the confusion. Nobody had the least idea that a woman was the assailant until I was interviewed much later. She may well still be taken up, of course. Her description has been circulated widely.'

She was silent for a moment as her thoughts whirled in confusion, but after a little while some clarity emerged. ‘I cannot be sorry she got away. I must hope they do not catch her.'

‘You have no thirst for revenge?'

‘To see a woman hang, because of me, and all for a stupid accident? I cannot wish for it.'

‘I would do it with my own hands, and gladly,' he said, the blunt, assured ferocity of his words at odds with his urbane tone.

‘I don't believe you really mean that, Gabriel.'

He sighed again, and she saw how bone-weary he was. ‘Perhaps not, my dear. I hardly know what I am saying, I confess. Now will you rest? I will only leave you for a moment, since Blanche is not here yet, and I have told you all.'

‘I will.'

He rang the bell, and when the housekeeper answered – she had plainly been hovering nearby in case of a summons – he kissed his wife's hand again and left her to change his clothing, and not before time. She closed her eyes and let sleep claim her, and hoped no dreams would come.