All the men looked at each other sheepishly, and she lifted her eyebrows at them. Doctor Cooper was using a large pair of scissors to cut Colin’s coat from his body. Elizabeth realised that at some point her mother had left the room without a word.
She stared at the scene impassively, thanking God for all the hospital Wednesdays that had somewhat inured her to such sights. After seeing a handless child, some blood wasn’t the end of the world. Besides, she was a woman.
Susan had come in and was now cleaning up as quickly as she could.
“Is someone going to tell me what happened with my husband?” Elizabeth asked rather impatiently, and Cooper nodded at Brandon, without stopping his work.
“The duke called a man out,” Brandon said darkly. “Apparently, last week he heard someone at his club insult you and your mother rather severely, and he wouldn’t stand for it. I would have tried my hardest to stop him somehow, had I been informed earlier,” he said and glared at Pratt, who looked like he was going to cast up his accounts.
Elizabeth shivered, and a hazy memory tried to swim to the forefront of her mind, but she pushed it away.
“So, he… duelled?” She asked with a frown, and all the men nodded.
“This morning at sunrise,” Pratt said.
“From what I can see, it is a flesh wound,” Doctor Cooper said. “We shall know more soon. He lost a lot of blood quickly.”
Elizabeth gingerly approached the table and stood by her husband’s head. Doctor Cooper had taken everything but Talbot’s breeches off and was now searching for something in his bag.
“You stupid, reckless man,” she told Colin as she gently wiped his brow.
His eyes flew open.
“Don’t touch me! Who are you?”
“It’s me, Elizabeth,” she told him.
“Ah, that’s my wife’s name. Do you know her?” Colin asked eagerly.
Elizabeth stepped back, concerned.
“What is wrong with him?” She asked the Doctor.
“I’ve given him laudanum in the carriage. He’s most likely delirious.”
“What does the laudanum do, Doctor?”
“It relieves pain. I had a feeling he’d need it since we need to dig out the bullet.”
Elizabeth looked back at Colin. His right arm and shoulder were covered in blood, but the rest of him appeared uninjured. His complexion was sallow, and beads of sweat covered his brow. His hair was wet. He was trembling, and his lips were moving like he was whispering to himself.
“You know my wife?” He asked again, and she squeezed his uninjured hand lightly.
“I do,” she whispered with a tight throat.
“My kitten,” he said dreamily. “I want to live inside her hair.”
That idiot Pratt laughed, and Brandon elbowed him in the stomach, which Elizabeth was very grateful for.
“All right,” Elizabeth said and ran her hand through his hair soothingly.
“But she won’t allow it. I broke her heart, you know. And there. So I said to him. The cord bungled. My father, and she won’t allow me…” He shook his head as he grew increasingly agitated, and then he just went limp.
“What is happening?” Elizabeth, with panic in her voice.
“He lost consciousness,” Doctor Cooper said matter-of-factly, “and it’s good that he did, because now I need to dig the bullet out. Could you please find and thread the needle in my bag while I focus on that?”
Elizabeth hadn’t realised that the kind doctor had given her the task in order to keep her eyes from the unpleasant sight of him rooting around her husband’s flesh for pieces of lead, so she took it seriously.
