The Pirate's Duchess: A Regent's Revenge Novella by Katherine Bone

her feet touched the ground. “I believe so.”
    She struggled to breathe as if the wind stole her breath, hating the separation between them. The ramifications of what he’d told her began to add up. Tobias wasn’t lying. Underwood’s men were after them and would stop at nothing to kill Tobias, to keep them from bringing an heir into the world. She couldn’t lose him, not again. Not now. Not when she was so close to reclaiming everything she’d ever dreamed of. Desperate, she pounded on the cottage door.
    “Mrs. Denny will help us. You can trust her. She was delivered of her child with no complications, but I spent many months easing her condition to help make that happen.”
    The door to the cottage creaked open. “Lady Blackmoor? Why are ye drenched to the skin, and on your wedding day, no less?”
    “I’m sorry to impose, Mrs. Denny, but we’ve had an accident.” Prudence didn’t want to frighten the woman. How did she explain that her husband was alive and that he’d been shot?
    The steward’s wife opened the door wider. “’Tis a violent day for a wedding and a terrible omen, too. An accident, you say? Did you say we ? Is the earl with you?”
    Tobias stepped forward and put his hand around Prudence’s shoulders for leverage. “No.”
    The welcome glow of a fire in the hearth beckoned like a holy light. Mrs. Denny’s eyes fastened on Tobias, then sped to Prudence and back again. “Well now, that is a relief!”
    Prudence couldn’t hide her confusion. “A—”
    “May we trouble you for a towel?” Tobias asked.
    Prudence suppressed a shiver of dread. It was almost as if Mrs. Denny knew Tobias. That wasn’t possible, was it? The woman had never met him. She knew Prudence was supposed to have married Basil. But how odd it must look, Prudence showing up at her door with a stranger. Flames of humiliation rose to her cheeks. “I pray we won’t be too much of an imposition.”
    Tobias’s weight bore down on her, but she didn’t complain.
    “Auch. Where are my manners? Come in. Warm yourself by the fire, Your Graces. I’ll make some tea.” She stepped aside, then closed the door behind them and moved to the cast iron stove to move a large kettle. “Let me help you for once.”
    Your Graces? Surely that was a slip of Mrs. Denny’s tongue. No, she thought, helping Tobias into the room. She’d heard wrong. Was she already coming down with the ague?
    “Please, sit down by the fire and warm your bones,” the steward’s wife said as a tiny wail erupted from the cradle situated nearby. Mrs. Denny headed toward the wooden frame, grabbed the hand-carved side, and rocked her wee babe humming a lovely lullaby.
    “There isn’t any need to fuss,” Tobias whispered.
    “You cannot walk,” Prudence said. “Of course, there is.”
    “Does that mean you care?”
    Of course she did. If he wasn’t healthy, she couldn’t punish him for deceiving her. She ushered him to a comfortable chair near the fire. “Don’t read into my concern.” She unclasped his cloak, then urged him to sit. “Which leg?”
    “Left.”
    She immediately inspected his left side, running her fingers down the length of his thigh. He winced as she located the hole in his brown breeches and ripped the fabric wider. “You’re still bleeding.” There wasn’t a moment to lose. She turned to Mrs. Denny. “I do apologize for ruining your rug, but it cannot be helped.”
    “Don’t worry about your wet clothes.”
    Their garments weren’t on Prudence’s mind. No, it was the blood oozing out of Tobias’s leg that concerned her. “Do you have any clean bandages?”
    Mrs. Denny immediately stopped cooing to her child. “Bandages?”
    Prudence rose to stand. Sometimes the best way to say something was to be blunt. “He’s been shot.”
    The woman crossed her heart and dipped a curtsy. “Auch. I shall gather what you need. I keep a pitcher of water near the front door. You can start with that until I return.”
    “Thank