Page 1 of Winning Her Duke

Chapter One

April 1811

Another painful groan filled the carriage as Gia Landon squeezed her father’s hand. Viscount Waverly had always been a strong man, facing an ague or a chill without complaint. It meant whatever ailed him now had to be substantially worse. Not that Gia knew specifically what was ailing him.

“Hold on, Papa. We’ll be there soon,” she encouraged as he moaned and pressed a hand to his stomach. “Please be all right,” she whispered frantically.

Her father settled and patted her hand, “I’m sure I’ll be fine, love.”

“Doctor Flannery seemed to think it was quite serious. Why else would he have suggested we take you to London straightaway to see a surgeon?”

Her father offered a sound of dismissal. So like a man to think he was invulnerable to mortal illnesses.

“Country doctors don’t know anything,” he complained.

“Then perhaps we don’t need to—” Her suggestion to return home to Elmhurst Manor was cut short by another loud moan. “Maybe we should stop somewhere—”

“Flannery said I needed to be taken to London.”

“Yes,” Gia said, refraining from pointing out that either the doctor was right that it was quite serious, or he was an inept country doctor who didn’t know what he was talking about. Perhaps her father’s mind had muddled from fever.

Except when she touched his forehead, his skin was dry and only slightly warm. Surely a good sign there was no infection. Not that she knew if there was cause to worry about infection.

In fact, she’d been sent from the room as Dr. Flannery examined her father and had not yet gotten the details of his ailment despite asking both men more than once.

The doctor hadn’t been able to look her in the eye when he’d explained it was dire, and that her father was to be rushed to London from their home in Surrey immediately. She hadn’t even taken the time to have her maid pack a bag.

Gia patted her father’s arm.

“Try to get some rest. We’ll be there soon.”

He nodded and quieted as they sped along toward London.

London. The very thought nearly caused her to cry out in pain alongside her father.

Despite the fact Waverly Manor was only a day’s ride to London, she had been there only once. During her come out at eighteen.

She found she was just as reluctant to return now as she’d been the last seven years. Each year her father had encouraged her to go to town and enjoy the Season, and every year she’d managed to resist. Instead, staying at home with her beloved horses.

Unfortunately, she had no choice now. Her father was the only family she had, and she would go anywhere and face anything to help him.

He was resting easy when they pulled up in front of an elegant townhouse.

“Is this the surgeon’s home?” she shouted up to the coachman as a liveried footman came from the house to assist her from the carriage. The coachman, like the doctor, didn’t meet her eyes as he simply murmured something about following orders.

“Please be careful with the viscount. You may want to retrieve a litter to carry him,” Gia was saying to the footmen as her father stepped down from the carriage under his own power. “Father?” She turned a curious look on him.

He howled in pain and with his hand pressed to his stomach, he allowed the footmen to guide him into the house where the door stood open.

“Welcome to Tomison House. Please take him into the drawing room,” the butler greeted them as if not noticing the wailing man who desperately needed medical attention.

“He needs to see the surgeon right away,” Gia explained.

“The doctor has been called.” The comment came from an elegant woman, maybe ten years older than Gia, as she descended the stairs. “How is he?”

“He appears to be in a great deal of pain, though at times, he seems to be improved. Apparently, it comes and goes.”

The woman frowned. “Yes. I’m sure it does.”