hurt, "yes. I will be good, my little nurse. I will be good." he felt the heaviness of his eyelids. He looked at her sweet and earnest face one last time before slipping back into sleep.
In some perverse way, things became more comfortable between them. Ramona found herself waking up with her head on the bed, holding onto George's hand, and she did not flush or retreat, she smiled and closed her eyes again.
George's wound was healing. He no longer needed the constant bandage changing regimen, and freed to spend her time elsewhere, Ramona found herself reluctant. She spent more time at meals, she bathed with more thought, but she still spent every free moment in George's room watching him sleep or talking quietly with him. A week passed and the Doctor said they could transport George to his townhouse.
"The servants have all gone on to Loathewood to await us," he said, "it makes no sense to call them all back. Is it not safe for me to travel that distance, Doctor Loopy?"
"I would not recommend it. From the first I have been your physician in this matter and I do not recommend changing caretakers in the midst of a complaint. Secondly, I think you would find the bumpy roads exceedingly uncomfortable and they would endanger a reopening of the wound, which has only now closed and stopped seeping repulsive fluids."
"I hesitate to suggest..." Ramona began, "I am sure we could stay at my parents until you were well enough to travel... though..." she looked somewhat pained.
"Excuse us, Doctor," George said, sitting up against the white pillows of his bed.
"Of course, Your Grace" Doctor Loopy made a slight bow and left the room.
"Your mother has clearly made you uncomfortable in the past week." George said, "I would rather we stay here if you would find her constant presence unenjoyable."
"I... I do not like to speak ill of her, but she has some very old fashioned ideas that do not quite agree with my current situation." Ramona admitted. They had not been married but a week, and yet her mother was constantly haranguing her to get with child. She made only small exceptions for George's invalid state. Ramona found herself blushing at her mother’s suggestions, "Just climb on top dear, and don't move too much, it won't hurt him at all."
"I understand. It’s not too much imposition for me to stay right where we are. I’m sure you would be more comfortable in our own household... as it is..." he found himself reluctant to say it, "I do not need you to sleep on the cot any more."
"But you can't reach the bell, what if you were to need something?" Ramona asked, "I would sleep much better in that cot, uncomfortable as it is, than in the next room thinking every moment that I heard some sound, that you needed something, even so small as a glass of water. And who would call for your valet should you need to relieve your bladder?" Ramona shook her head. "You are not quite as self sufficient as you would like me to believe. The cot stays."
"My valet could sleep in it," George said, "and then no one would have to send for him at all."
"I am used to it. I do not mind." Ramona said, quietly.
"Have it your way, Duchess." George chuckled. What George thought of as the sexual tension between them had been lessened by his injury, but he still at times wanted to pull little Ramona into the bed with him. He felt too weak to try, and this was fortuitous.
Ramona was a beautiful nurse. When the look of concern came upon her brow, and she pursed her lips in thought, wiping his forehead. She looked like an angel, his very own. She took her meals now at his side, a tray across her knees, and they talked again, like they had before any of this had happened. She was less inhibited than ever in her conversation, and he began to really know his new wife, to like what he learned of her.
George was a wonderful patient. Yes he teased her over her concern, but he never cried out when
Dean Wesley Smith, Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Martin A. Lee, Bruce Shlain