The Rebel Captain's Royalist Bride by Anne Herries Read Free Book Online

thick yellow pus oozing from the deep gash.
    ‘How long has he been this way?’ she asked as she poured water into her bowl from the flask she had filled at the stream. She took linen and began to bathe the inflamed flesh, gently probing and squeezing to make the pus come away from under the hard crust that had begun to form. Her patient screamed out in agony as she did so, making John look at her.
    ‘Have a care, Babs. You are hurting him.’
    ‘I know, but the wound must be cleansed,’ she said patiently. ‘I know because I’ve seen Mama do it when one of the men sliced into his leg with a scythe. I must wash away the pus and dirt and then apply salves. I wish I had something for his fever, but I had nothing to make the mixture with. I shall gather the herbs and leaves today and tomorrow I will bring him a drink that will ease him.’
    ‘If he lasts the night,’ John said. ‘Lord Melbourne will be sorely distressed if his heir dies of a fever. He did not wish Drew to join the King, but there was no stopping him.’
    ‘He is Drew Melbourne?’ Babette looked at the man’s flushed face again and frowned. In his feverish countenance she had not recognised the young man who had once visited her home—and to whom her father had intended she be betrothed. His hair was damp and straggling, his chin unshaven and there was a scar on his left cheek. He looked much older than the man she remembered, yet he might be even more attractive if he were well. It was the heat of the fever that had given him such a high colour and his unkempt appearance that had deceived her eyes into thinking him a stranger.
    ‘You know of Drew?’
    ‘He came to the castle once when we were younger, do you recall? It was the year after Mama died and before you left.’
    ‘Yes, I remember, but I did not think you would, for you hardly spoke to him. He and I were out hunting most of the time and you were in mourning, shut away with your sewing most of the day.’
    Babette acknowledged it was true, yet she had noticed their handsome guest and he had made her heart leap when he smiled at her once. Apart from that he had scarcely noticed her so it had come as a shock to her when Lord Harvey told her that he intended to seek a betrothal between them. She was not certain what would have happened had her father lived. He had told her that Drew’s father was a great friend of his and the betrothal had been spoken of many years ago when she was born.
    ‘Lady Melbourne and your mama put their heads together and planned that you two should marry, but nothing was promised. I have been lax in not arranging something before, Babette, but with your mama’s loss—and then your brother...’ Lord Harvey had sighed deeply. ‘If the young man is in agreement, I see no reason why you should not be betrothed almost at once and wed at Christ’s Mass.’
    Unhappily, her father had taken ill and died long before anything was settled. Left alone at the castle until the King appointed a custodian, she had wept and waited, but Drew had not come to claim her. He did not even write to her, and Babette accepted that he did not wish to wed her. However, in her mind she had continued to think of him as the man she might have wed had her father lived long enough to arrange it—which was, of course, ridiculous.
    Her patient had ceased to cry out in pain. The cooling water and the herbal mixture she had applied to his wound was easing the pain, though his fever continued to run high.
    ‘Beth...thank you, sweetheart,’ he murmured, a smile touching his lips. ‘I love you...’
    Babette’s heart caught as she heard the words plainly. Now she understood why he had not come to claim her at the castle. He loved a girl called Beth, might even be betrothed to her. She felt a little pain about her heart, but it was soon gone for she had known that he did not wish to wed her and there was only a mild interest on her side. Had Drew wanted the match, he would have come to her