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“You’re the one who put her in this condition!”
“Give me the fucking supplies, and let me pass!” I bellowed, making Ily flinch but not rouse.
“Go jump off the roof!”
“Mel, enough!” The nurse leapt into action. Jogging to the cupboard of many shelves, she hastily ripped out a few other things along with a vial of colourless liquid. “I’m sorry, Master H. Please…forgive her. We’ve had a long day with jewels being brought in from the hunt. Many of them are injured.” Her voice turned small. “A few are dead. It’s…just…forgive us.”
Inhaling hard, feeling my own agonies, I nodded. “Forgiven.”
Melanie sneered but held her tongue this time.
Rose padded back to me, scooped up the bowl I’d dropped, then carefully tucked the supplies onto Ily’s stomach where she lay sleeping in my arms. “There’s a guest room two doors down from here. Please stay there tonight so we can come check on you both when we’ve stabilised Peter, okay?”
The way she watched me.
Maternally.
Kindly.
It very nearly brought me to my knees.
The weight of the world crushed my shoulders, and all I wanted to do was beg this woman to fix everything. To reverse all my actions. To heal Ily and heal me. To stop me from ever being this way.
Swallowing around the rocks in my throat, I nodded. “Fine.”
Melanie sucked in a breath as if surprised by my sudden amenability.
Stepping closer, Rose dared put her hand on my filthy forearm. “Do you give me your word that you’ll look after her? That you won’t hurt her anymore?”
I wanted to tell her it wasn’t me who hurt her, but I couldn’t.
Every wound she carried was because of me.
“On the memory of my mother, I swear I only want to help.”
“In that case…may I?” Moving her hand from my forearm to Ily’s cheek, she raised an eyebrow. “If you intend on bathing her and treating her bruises, she’ll need something to withstand the pain. Once she’s clean and resting, we’ll come in with the portable X-ray machine and take a few slides of her chest and abdomen to make sure nothing is broken. I’m hoping she’ll stay unconscious while you tend to her, but…if she wakes while you’re still treating her, she might hurt herself by trying to get away. So…I’m willing to trust you, Henri.”
My eyes flew to hers.
Another?
Yet another person willing to trust me when I’d done nothing to deserve it?
What Peter had said crowded my mind.
“I see what she does now. You did come for us. You’re going to free us. I know it—”
I had no intention of doing that.
I had nowhere else to go.
If I stepped foot outside this place, I’d die. And I was a selfish, selfish man because I had no intention of releasing Ily.
“Peter informed us that Ily doesn’t tolerate chemicals well. However, the usual over-the-counter medicines won’t dull her pain enough. So…” She flicked a look at the doctor. “Do you think she could tolerate GHB, Mel?”
Dr Belford’s eyes widened. “The date rape drug? Are you mad? You want to give a highly potent drug to someone who can’t metabolise them?”
“Her system already makes GHB. We all do. Albeit in very tiny amounts. I doubt she’d have an adverse reaction to it as long as we got the dose right.”
