Free My Seductive Innocent by Julie Johnstone

you have something I can put the bullet in?”
    Sophia’s gaze landed on the small cup she’d given Nathan a drink from earlier. After retrieving it, she handed it to the physician, and he deposited the bullet into it with a clank . He cleaned and dressed Nathan’s wound, then took out another bottle of laudanum and motioned to Sophia. “Pour this carefully down his throat as I tilt his head back.”
    “Didn’t he decline it?” she asked, not wanting to be difficult but only to honor Nathan’s wishes.
    “Do you want him writhing in pain as you care for him?”
    “Oh, I’ll not be caring for him,” she blurted. She couldn’t stay around that long, after all.
    He gave her a stern-faced expression. “Gather your courage, Miss Vane. If you don’t nurse him, his shoulder will likely become infected and he’ll die. He cannot cleanse the wound himself. It is in too awkward of a place, and I cannot play nursemaid. I’m the only physician in this whole town.”
    Panic shot through her. She couldn’t allow herself to get trapped here. Her and Harry’s futures were elsewhere. In London, where she could better herself. “Surely, you can send for his family. He’s the Duke of Scarsdale, for heaven’s sake. I’m sure there are multitudes of loving relatives who will rush to his aid.”
    Dr. Porter shook his head and tilted Nathan’s back. “Pour,” he ordered.
    Her shaky fingers brushed Nathan’s full lips as she pressed the bottle to his open mouth and slowly drained the liquid down him. At first, he sputtered and some of the laudanum dripped out the sides of his mouth, but then he started to swallow until the bottle was empty.
    “Very good,” the physician murmured as he patted Nathan’s uninjured shoulder.
    Sophia tensed, half expecting Nathan to sit up and give the doctor a dressing down for daring to disobey his command. Instead, Nathan lay there still as death, though he was still alive. For now. The thought chilled her, and her conscience nagged at her to stay, but she pushed forward, determined to go. “As I was saying, Dr. Porter, you can contact his relatives.”
    The older man’s eyes took on a sorrowful downturn. “He has only two relatives that I know of, and I met them both. The aunt seemed like the type to care for no one but herself, and the cousin does not get around easily. It would take him days to get here. Too long. If you don’t care for His Grace, who do you think will? Your father?”
    Sophia would have laughed if she didn’t feel like crying. Or screaming. If she fled, she couldn’t be certain Frank would stay sober long enough to help Nathan, or if he would even decide it was worth his bother. Frank had a heart the size of a tick’s, and that was being generous. She had always thought people who were well-off had everything, but it sounded like Nathan was missing the exact same thing she was―someone to look out for him. Shoring up her resolve, she decided she would be that someone for Nathan until she was sure he could take care of himself. Then she and Harry would flee.
    “I’ll nurse him,” she said, feeling as if saying the words was sealing her fate irrevocably.
    “You have a good heart, Miss Vane. You’ll be glad you’re doing this. I’m sure you’ll be rewarded.”
    She pressed her lips together. She would not feel right about accepting anything from Nathan just because she had helped him, but it would be nice to know she at least had enough money to prevent going hungry for days on end.
    “Do you care to know what sort of man you are helping?”
    “You mean besides a rich one,” she snapped, a trifle irritable.
    Dr. Porter smiled with genuine understanding. “This must be very stressful.”
    “You have no idea,” she said, guilt over being touchy causing her to ease her tone.
    “The Duke of Scarsdale rescued my daughter from the clutches of a man trying to ravish her,” the physician started. “She’d foolishly thought herself in love with a man she