His Californian Countess Read Online Free Page B

His only response to all she’d said was a short phrase. “Do not leave this cabin.”
    And with that ominous statement, she felt a tug as he yanked her skirts free. Sparing her no more than aglance when she hopped down off the high canopied bed, he went about examining his patient, unbuttoning the man’s brocade waistcoat and fine cotton shirt. Then the doctor began muttering and swearing.
    Averting her gaze, she backed toward the door. “Well, thank you very much for your help. I’ll just return to my own cabin.”
    “You will remain here, my dear.”
    She froze. “Why?”
    He turned to face her. “You may wish you hadn’t meddled. You have been exposed to whatever disease this man has. You must be quarantined with him for the duration.”
    “The duration?”
    “Of his illness and yours should you fall ill.”
    “I most certainly will not! I won’t get whatever he has. I’m extremely healthy. Besides which, I am an unmarried lady. I cannot stay in here. I have a stateroom just across the saloon that is paid for. If necessary, I shall go there until you’re convinced I will not take sick with whatever has stricken him. What, by the way, is wrong with him?”
    “He is a victim of scarlet fever.”
    Normally she wouldn’t question a physician, but this man had clearly been drinking. “Isn’t that a child’s illness?”
    “I have seen it in the odd adult. And he is quite seriously ill with it.”
    He sounded so positive. “Oh, the poor man.”
    The doctor narrowed his eyes, pegging her with his penetrating gaze. “And you will stay and lend yourself to nursing him. If not, he’ll die.”
    Her ears had surely failed her. “Lend myself towardnursing him? I spoke with him only briefly on deck! And, as I told you, I am unmarried.”
    The doctor locked his gaze on her. “Do not take me for a fool. Or simply a drunk. I am quite sober today. Lord Adair asked for a stateroom near yours. I was there when he booked passage. And I found you trapped on the bed with him.” He shook his finger at her. “You apparently know the man quite a bit better than I. If you refuse, you would be signing this man’s death warrant. He may not survive anyway. But I cannot help that.”
    “Not help it? You are supposed to be the ship’s doctor.”
    He backed toward the door. “There are many others aboard who may need my care on this voyage. For their sakes, I cannot help him at the risk of my own health. If you refuse, the captain might well order him cast overboard rather than wait until he perishes.”
    Her heart wrenched. Could he do that? “You will not!” Her gaze shot to the man on the bed. To think of the kind, funny and, yes, handsome man, who’d teased her being thrown away like refuse broke her heart. If she declined, he would at best be left to his own devices and would most certainly die. Women back home often nursed injured miners. If they could do it, she could do it, too.
    She looked back at the doctor and bit her lip. “I know less about nursing than I do about him,” she admitted. “You called him Lord Adair. What is his Christian name?”
    “I believe I remember him saying he preferred to be called James…no…it was Jamie. Not at all what one would expect from Britain’s ruling class. Am I to assume you are willing to care for him?”
    She took a deep breath. “You give me little choice ifhe is to have any chance, Dr.…uh…what is your name? I think I should know the name of the man coercing me to do something so far beyond my experience and propriety.”
    “I am Dr. Bertram Bennet, late of New York, and ports east, west, north and south.”
    “Fine, Dr. Bennet, what do I do?”
    “Bathe him with cool water to lessen the fever. I will see nourishing broth is delivered to keep up his strength and—” he whipped off his worn black neckcloth “—put this on the door if he perishes.” His eyes softened a bit. “We will have to consign him to the deep if he does. It is the way of the