The Reverend's Daughter (Book 2 after The Duke's Daughter)

Twenty Seven Part Two

Gwen now had her answers and she almost wished she did not. She would never walk, talk, or feel anything ever again. She was broken beyond repair.

Everything she had previously held of value, all she had held dear, now held nothing for her. All of her lofty ideas, all her planning and scheming, all of her dreams to be with Jude and not Marcus, all for naught.

The Medeiros men would live on, in health and happiness, while she would die.

She, eventually, would die.

Until then, Jude would see her like this.

It was more than she could bear.

She ranted, screamed and cursed. She sobbed, wailed and moaned, all inside her shell of a body.

Then she mourned. She mourned her loss of mobility, her loss of speech, her loss of feeling in her limbs.

Though from what the doctor told her, it was fortunate she could not feel her body, even though this meant
she would never touch Jude again, or feel his touch upon her.

She would not be here to be his lover any longer.

But the thing that galled her, even in her desolate state, was that Marcus would live on. He would have his estate in addition to all her holdings also. He would now be free to spend her funds in any way he wished. She could do nothing about it, and this brought frustration and anger as she had never felt before. She did not want Marcus to win, and he had, with her death he would gain it all.

She finally came to the point of emotional exhaustion, her eyes closed, and she gratefully slept.

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Alfred, Jude and the doctor went to confer in the parlour while Gwendolyn was sleeping.

Jude explained how the accident had occurred to a bewildered Alfred. Jude's surprise at Gwendolyn's touch, and his reaction that had caused the fall. More or less, a repetition of what Jude had already explained to the doctor.

"And it caused that much damage?" Alfred was white as a sheet. The doctor had explained Gwendolyn's injuries, leaving Alfred somewhat in a state of shock.

"It was the way in which her body took the fall, she is a fairly tall, thin woman, if she had weighed more, she may have had something to pad the impact. As it was, her bones took the brunt of it." The doctor surmised.

Alfred shook his head, "She always prided herself on her thinness, she ridiculed other women who had more weight on their frames, she often called them gluttonous." The fickleness of fate, Alfred thought.

Alfred suddenly realized how he must sound, he turned quickly to the doctor, "I am sorry, I know she is my mother, but she has never been a very pleasant person, not that I would wish this upon her or any such thing."

"No apology is necessary," The doctor assured him, "I understand this has upset you."

The doctor then looked to both men, "You may want to bring in a nurse to care for her. The treatment for patients who are paralysed, is to administer nutritional enemas thrice a day........unless you would rather be shown how to care for her yourself."

Alfred and Jude exchanged frantic glances.

Jude assured the two men, "I will see about getting a nurse for her immediately."

The doctor nodded and continued, "Of course, this will not heal her, it may keep her alive a short while longer, giving her loved ones a chance to spend some time with her before she ultimately goes."