The Reluctant Governess by Maggie Robinson Read Free Book Online

it’s unlikely I’ll return home today? Not too early—I don’t want to alarm her. I worry about her being alone.”
    Dr. Samuelson nodded. “Of course. She’s not as strong as you wish, but not as fragile as you think. She doesn’t want to hold you back, you know.”
    â€œThank you. I know she’s stubborn, and wants to be independent.”
    â€œRather like her offspring.” The doctor gave her a wink. “I’ll carry the little girl belowstairs and get her settled comfortably. Make sure Mr. Raeburn takes plenty of fluid, too. But no alcohol.”
    â€œHe’s had more than enough already,” Eliza muttered, pulling a chair up to the bed.
    She heard Dr. Samuelson’s reassuring words to Sunny as he took her downstairs. He said he would stay until one of his nurses came, claiming he was perfectly capable of making tea and toast if anyone was up to it. Eliza felt slightly nauseous herself, although she didn’t think she’d been on Lindsey Street long enough to catch the household’s complaint. No doubt she would, though, resulting in missed days from the office when she finally got back.
    Blast. She checked the clock. It was time to give Nicholas Raeburn a poke.
    Eliza laid a hand on his naked arm, covering the intricate serpent that wound its way around the man’s bicep. “Mr. Raeburn, you need to wake up for a little while.”
    There was no response. She shook his arm a little harder. “Please, sir. It’s for your own good.”
    â€œGo away.” His lips barely moved.
    â€œI cannot. Dr. Samuelson has placed you in my care. A proper nurse is coming, but not until later. You have a concussion and must move about some.”
    â€œDon’t want to.”
    â€œMr. Raeburn, we all have to do a great many things that we don’t want to do. For example, I most certainly do not want to be sitting here at your bedside.”
    â€œDon’t, then.”
    â€œIt is my Christian duty. You’ve suffered an accident, and are ill besides.”
    His russet eyebrows met over his perfectly formed nose. “Don’t talk to me as if I were an imbecile. That ghastly fake reasonable voice, the kind people use on children. I’m no child.”
    â€œThen don’t behave like one. Dr. Samuelson says you may lapse into a coma if you are not stimulated.”
    â€œRubbish.”
    â€œI suppose you are a medical man now, as well as an artist, prizefighter, and raconteur.”
    â€œYour lecturing is hurting my head.”
    â€œWell then, do as I say and I’ll be quiet as a mouse.” She fetched his virulently striped robe from the hook on the door where she had hung it after retrieving it from the bathroom. “Here. Put this on.”
    Mr. Raeburn had great difficulty thrusting one muscular arm into the sleeve. “Weak as a kitten,” he muttered. “Don’t tell.”
    â€œMy lips are sealed. Let me help you.”
    Eliza wrestled him into the thing, averting her eyes when it came time to belt it. “Now, lean on me. Just to the window and back. I won’t ask you to recite the alphabet backward or anything else too taxing.”
    â€œGood, because no doubt I’d fail anything more complicated than putting one foot in front of the other.” Even as he said that, he stumbled, and it was all Eliza could do keep them both upright. “Did you tell me Sunny is sick as well? I can’t remember.”
    Sunny had been distressed to see her papa on the floor and had whimpered accordingly, but, as he’d said, did not faint. She was a sturdy little girl. However heathen Nicholas Raeburn seemed to Eliza, he had engendered great affection in his daughter. “Yes. She and Sue and Mrs. Quinn have what you have, except you have the additional ailment of a head injury. Dr. Samuelson says they all should recover in a few days. Whatever it is, it’s going all around