Chapter 15
Lila hesitated. “Aren’t you going to see him?”
“There are doctors. There’s Samantha. There are plenty of servants,” Katherine said without looking up. “He doesn’t need me.”
Over the next few days, servants from Nicholas’s side came again and again.
“Mrs. Padilla, Mr. Padilla says he can’t eat the kitchen food. He wants the rice porridge you make.”
“Mrs. Padilla, Mr. Padilla’s wound hurts and he can’t sleep. He wants the calming incense you used to prepare.”
Every time, Katherine answered the same way.
“I’m busy.”
“I don’t know how.”
“Find someone else.”
Until one day, she was sorting through old belongings when footsteps sounded behind her. Thinking it was another servant, she said without turning around, “I said I’m busy. I’m not going.”
“So busy you can’t spare one glance for me?”
Nicholas’s voice came from the doorway, strained with anger.
Katherine turned around.
He stood there pale and stiff, leaning on two servants for support. His eyes were dark with hurt and confusion.
“I was seriously injured,” he said. “And you couldn’t even come see me?”
“I’m not a doctor. Me being there wouldn’t help.”
“Even if it wouldn’t help, don’t you worry about me at all?”
She looked at him evenly.
“You were injured protecting Miss Lester. Naturally she should be the one caring for you.”
Nicholas’s chest rose and fell sharply.
“What is that supposed to mean? Samantha is a guest. How could I let her dress my wounds or help me change clothes? If people heard about that, it would ruin her reputation. You’re my wife. You don’t have to worry about things like that.”
So that was it.
Only when it involved intimate care, the sort that might affect another woman’s reputation, did he suddenly remember Katherine was his lawful wife.
The irony of it was almost laughable.