It wasn’t. After a few awkward minutes of staring at each other without saying anything, Dr Frederick turned to leave when Lord Jeffrey came into the garden.
“I was informed I would meet you here,” Lord Jeffrey said, seeing only Helena.
He turned sharply to the side when he noticed Dr Frederick was there too. Lord Jeffrey did not look impressed.
“Doctor, you manage to place yourself here, alone with Helena,” Lord Jeffrey said.
“He was checking my foot,” Helena said, defending Dr Frederick.
Lord Jeffrey raised a hand, signalling her to be silent.
“The good doctor has a mouth. He will defend himself,” Lord Jeffrey said.
From who, you?
“Helena, don’t worry,” Dr Frederick said to Helena.
“I was here to check her foot. It’s fine now, and I was leaving when you came in,” Dr Frederick said.
Lord Jeffrey looked to Helena and back to Dr Frederick. He took a step to the side, blocking the doctor’s path.
“Where is your tool box?” Lord Jeffrey asked.
Dr Frederick laughed.
“I don’t owe you any explanations,” he said before sidestepping Lord Jeffrey and walking away.
Lord Jeffrey looked at Helena and walked closer to her with a menacing gaze. Helena realised she was edging back in the bench as he got closer, till she felt her back touch the head rest. Lord Jeffrey bent and looked squarely into her eyes.
“You seem rattled,” he said.
“Would it be a compliment if I told you that you rattle me?” she answered.
Lord Jeffrey smiled and placed his hand on Helena’s shoulders. His grip wasn’t tight, but Helena felt a burning and was eager to push his hand away from her. She didn’t.
“You excite me,” Lord Jeffrey said.
Helena was about to reply when Lord Jeffrey brought his mouth to hers. His lips tasted salty. Helena revolted at what he was doing and tried to push him away. Her arms were weak against the strength of his upper body. Lord Jeffrey dropped his mouth from hers and dipped his face into her soft bust.
“Lord Jeffrey, Lord, Jeffrey, Jeffrey,” Helena growled, attempting in futility to push Lord Jeffrey away.
A laugh emanated from his hidden face, and Helena felt his hand go around her waist to grope her bottom.
This is the last straw.
Helena pushed him away and slapped him across his face. The slap was hard. Helena’s hand singed from the force of the impact. Lord Jeffrey grabbed his right cheek and moved backwards. Hardness replaced the mischief his eyes had just held. Helena wasn’t taken aback by the bitterness in his expression, it was becoming familiar.
“Why would you do that? You are not my husband,” Lady Helena shouted at him.
“I am not your husband, yet. And if you do not behave yourself around other men, I will take them away for good. Do not act under false assumptions; my intent is clear with you. I am soon to make this engagement official. I own you,” Lord Jeffrey answered in a very calm voice.
“What do you mean by that?” she retorted.
“What were you doing with the doctor before I came in?” Lord Jeffrey asked her.
Helena wasn’t prepared for the sudden change in topic, especially that topic. She fumbled for words when Lord Jeffrey cut her short.
“I do not care what you were doing that had you so startled when I got here. Know that you are mine, Helena. I advise you to recognise that quickly,” Lord Jeffrey said before turning to leave.
Helena placed her hand over her mouth. Lord Jeffrey was an excellent mood reader. He had correctly guessed what was happening. Helena thought about his threat.
He said he owns me. When I wanted to get him to ask for my hand in marriage, this wasn’t what I was thinking about.
“A lack of blunt has me dashed, on a good day I would not even give someone like Lord Jeffrey a whiff of my attention,” Helena voiced.
Helena thought about the possibility of a break with Lord Jeffrey.
Who would pull Pa out of his mess?
And Lord Jeffrey was going to be bitter about it. He would make any split as acrimonious as possible. And that could only function to hurt Helena’s stock. Helena shook her head, breaking up wasn’t an option.
Dr Frederick.
Helena blushed. She always felt at home when with Dr Frederick. Conversations were struck up naturally and they both wanted each other.
That is the problem. I keep comparing Lord Jeffrey with Dr Frederick. The situation demands that I keep away from Dr Frederick.
Helena shook her head. She was confused. She didn’t know how to keep away from the doctor. If he came to see her, Helena wasn’t sure she could send him back. She always wanted to see him, to be with him, to let him touch her.
“As long as I keep setting my eyes on Dr Frederick, I cannot possibly carve out a good relationship with Lord Jeffrey,” Helena admitted.
But how do I go about that?
There was a ruffling of leaves in front. Helena steeled her face and readied herself for Lord Jeffrey’s return. When a figure broke the light, it was a brown skinned woman, Miss Justina.
“Justina, you are back,” Helena said.
“I just came back. Lord Jeffrey is with your parents in their chambers.”
Helena nodded. He and her parents had a strong relationship.
“The men at the gate gave me this, from Lady Lavinia,” Miss Justina said.
It was a letter. Helena wondered if something was wrong because she was sure they couldn’t have gotten to Ireland just yet.
“I think she sent it from the inn they slept in overnight,” Miss Justina said.
Helena nodded her head. She tapped the letter in her hand and her face brightened.
This is it. This is the way out, a long break.
“Aren’t you going to read it?” Miss Justina asked.
“Not just yet, Justina. Go pack our bags, we’re leaving for Ireland this week,” Helena said.
Miss Justina stared at her mistress with mouth agape.
Chapter 19
Heartbreak
Dr Frederick rubbed his eyes. They itched. His eyes itched when his body was trying to tell him to have some sleep, but Dr Frederick pushed the urge away. He was awake for a large part of the night, working on the re-extraction of the hormone from the juvenile monkey. The hormone was adrenaline. He had just found out. He looked to the page in his laboratory note where he had written down his observations.
Higher rate of heartbeat consistently observed with higher concentrations of adrenaline in the blood stream.
He was yet to test the hormones gotten from an external source on the animals. That was the next step in his experimentation. He needed a new monkey.
“The reaction of organisms to the introduction of familiar or even the same chemicals from an external source is sometimes different to their reactions if the chemicals were produced bodily,” Dr Frederick said to himself.
At least I am getting somewhere.
The word “somewhere” triggered Dr Frederick’s memory.
Miss Helena is somewhere now with Lady Lavinia.
Dr Frederick had gone to Miss Helena’s house the week before only to get there and be informed that she had travelled with her maid to meet Lady Lavinia in Ireland. She was said to have left the day after Lord Jeffrey had walked into both of them in the garden.
It cannot be a coincidence.
Lord Jeffrey was not a good man. Dr Frederick remembered what Mister Frank had told him about Lord Jeffrey, and he could only shake his head. The Duke’s son had more vices than he had thought. Now he understood why the Duchess had been so startled at the possibility of her son becoming the Duke anytime soon.
The man is wicked, selfish, and vicious. And I’d really have to check the Duke today, it’s been long since I went.
The possibility of meeting Lord Jeffrey there was not one he embraced, but Dr Frederick knew the Duke’s life might rest on regular check-ups. Lor
d Jeffrey had no authority over him.
Dr Frederick looked outside the window in the room. He saw Mister Frank outside. He was bent over, doing something to his shoes.
“Frank, is the carriage ready?” Dr Frederick asked.
Mister Frank raised his head and stood akimbo.
“Yes sir, it is. I just need to attach the horses.”
“Well go and have that done. We are leaving soon,” Dr Frederick said.
Mister Frank nodded, bent down, and put on his shoes. He walked around the side of the house in the direction of the stable. Dr Frederick sat back down.
His life had become much staler since last week since he found out Miss Helena wasn’t around anymore. He hadn’t known it was possible to miss the few moments he spent with her every week.
I would have made more of those moments. I would have cherished every passing second with her.
Now he missed her sorely. He woke up many a night now, erect like a rod because he was in a sensual dream that felt too real. Dr Frederick wished those dreams could become reality. But besides how his body reacted to hers, how his breath refused to flow normally when he heard her voice and how his heart beat like a war drum if she bothered to spare his skin a fleeting graze, Dr Frederick missed her sound mind, her informed words, and the assuredness of her gaze. He missed the soft crinkling her cheeks did when she smiled. He missed the heave of her heavy bust when she took a deep breath. He missed the deep red of her hair and the sweet scent her skin carried. He missed her.
Please come back soon, I need to see you.
His door eased open. Mister Frank’s head popped in the crack.
“Sir, the curricle is ready. I’ve put your box in it too,” Mister Frank said.
“Thank you, Frank, I’ll be out in a jiffy. Make sure to place a tube of laudanum in it. We never know who needs it nowadays,” Dr Frederick said.
Mister Frank smiled.
“Very true, sir, the other day I heard Mrs Hardington say her head gives her no peace but aches. I was about to prescribe a dose of laudanum for her, but my horse was moving at too fast a pace. By the time I turned around to speak, I was already at the end of the street.”
Dr Frederick nodded. He didn’t know this Mr Hardington but didn’t want to give Mister Frank another chance to go into a long, storied explanation about the people of Beaufort and their mannerisms. He stood up and walked to his mirror. The door shut gently behind. Dr Frederick picked the brush and brought it down on his hair in a swiping motion. His black hair glossed.
My hair looks best in this kind of lighting. It gives a dark and shining sheen.
He brushed it all around and dropped the brush. He remembered seeing this miniature image of himself in Miss Helena’s eyes. Dr Frederick turned away from the mirror and made an attempt to take away his mind from Miss Helena. His member was already attempting to lift itself. Dr Frederick picked up his grey jacket from the back of the chair he had been sitting on then dropped it again. He spied outside from his window. It was going to be a hot day. He quickly went into his bedroom and got his hat before walking out into the compound.
The horses seemed impatient to get on the move as they kept tapping their hooves on the dusty ground.
“Hey, hey,” Mister Frank said to them while rubbing their noses with his hands.
“Let’s go, Frank.”
Dr Frederick got into the curricle while waiting for his dresser to get into the driver’s seat. Mister Frank promptly jumped in beside him.
“Where are we heading to, sir?”
“I want to see the Duke of Beaufort first. From there, we’d need to get into the heart of the town. A messenger was sent here while you were out at the back yesterday; there’s a family down with the flu, at least that’s what they think it is. We’ll know when we get there,” Dr Frederick said.
Mister Frank nodded and got the curricle moving. The weather was fair: mild sun and a gentle breeze. Dr Frederick was enjoying the ride very much. It had been a long while since he had enjoyed a trip like this.
“Very fine weather, eh sir?” Mister Frank commented after a long period of silence.
“Yes, it is. This is the best weather I’ve seen in a bit,” Dr Frederick answered.
Mister Frank nodded his head then shook it.
“The evening we took Miss Helena and Miss Justina back to their home from the party at Miss Morgana’s was very cool too. You wouldn’t have known though as you were inside the coach,” Mister Frank said.
“Yes, very true,” Dr Frederick said as his heart tripped at the image of what he and Miss Helena were doing inside.
Dr Frederick remembered him and Mister Frank’s discussion in their trip back home. Mister Frank had made some very serious allegations against Lord Jeffrey.
“Are you sure of what you claimed to see that day, Frank?”
“Yes sir, as sure as one’s eyes could be. I have a witness too; one of a much darker skin too, if one was to say my eyes were affected by the height of the sun that afternoon. We saw him and the debutante, one of the women in Miss Morgana’s train. They were speaking in the small room down the corridor; maybe they didn’t lock the door properly and it eased open. We lost our way a little bit, maybe due to how enjoyable our conversation was, and saw them in the room. Lord Jeffrey didn’t touch her, but he could have as well as. His lips were whiskers, hardly a hair’s breadth, away from hers. We wondered what a Marquess and a demi-monde have in common that makes them so cozy.”
Dr Frederick thought over his dresser’s words. He had heard them before, but he just needed him to repeat them.
Probably I could believe them if I hear them one more time.
Lord Jeffrey did have the reputation of being a rake but only with women of high social standing, not women of such bad taste.
What would Miss Helena think if she heard this?
Dr Frederick was not sure where Miss Helena stood with the Duke’s son, but he knew she favoured him. Despite all that had passed through them, Dr Frederick wasn’t sure where he stood with Miss Helena. He knew what he felt for her and how she reacted to him.
I would take her as a wife in a heartbeat but would she agree to be mine?
He wouldn’t be surprised to hear Lord Jeffrey was engaged to Miss Helena. But would she still make that mistake if she found out about Lord Jeffrey? And where would that place him? Dr Frederick didn’t think he could open his mouth to tell her something like that.
I didn’t see it.
There was no use worrying about it if he could not do anything about it. Dr Frederick told himself to spare no thought for the matter anymore. It wasn’t his concern.
They were almost at the house now, just a few minutes away. Dr Frederick cherished the feel of the breeze against his exposed skin. Leaves on the trees at the edge of the street shook gently. Dr Frederick wished he could just stay home for the day, sit at the back of his house, and watch the leaves and tall trees.
I wish. It’s a pity I have to work. Research awaits me at home even if I had decided to stay.
The curricle stopped at the closed gates. A steward came out from a small stall by the gate. When he saw Dr Frederick, he bowed quickly and pushed the gate open. Dr Frederick nodded back. Mister Frank drove the curricle to the entrance of the house, and Dr Frederick alighted.
“I’ll wait here. Go and park the curricle somewhere. I want you to be with me while I treat the Duke,” Dr Frederick said.
Mister Frank nodded and drove the curricle to the perimeter of the compound. Dr Frederick raised his eyes and saw an open window. There was someone looking down from the window. The sun had risen higher and was shining harder now. Dr Frederick placed a hand over the front of his eyes to protect them from the sun’s glare as he looked upward.
Lord Jeffrey.
Lord Jeffrey was staring down at Dr Frederick with a frown on his face. Dr Frederick removed his hand. He had seen enough. He turned and saw Mister Frank walking up to meet him. Dr Frederick waited till he got up to him befor
e walking to the door and knocking with two quick rasps of his knuckle.
The door opened and a stewardess curtseyed to Dr Frederick.
“This way sir,” she said, leading Dr Frederick and Mister Frank through a passage of corridors and up a flight of stairs till they got to the Duke’s chambers. Dr Frederick had never gone through the way she took him before. When she got to the door, she gestured to him to go in before turning back the way she came.
Seduced by an Irresistible Lady: A Historical Regency Romance Book Page 22