Taming Jane

Chapter 19

Chapter Nineteen

The sight stopped his heart. Her crumpled body lay on the grass completely unconscious. Emilia was frantically trying to wake her up but had not succeeded. Daniel could see a cowering Kitty sitting near her aunt with her arms wrapped around her legs. Kitty’s coat was placed underneath Jane’s lifeless head to support it.

He raced up beside her and knelt down on her right side. Sabine was right, there was so much blood. A gash on her right temple was oozing blood as Emilia tried to dab it. Her hair and her clothes were all stained red. The amount was surely too much; surely, if she wasn’t already, she would die.

“What do we do?” Daniel asked softly. “Is she...” he could speak the words. Surely, surely God would not make him endure such pain twice. He was not sure he would recover after a second time.

Emilia’s tear stained face looked up at him. “Carry her, I cannot but you must, we have to bring her into a bedchamber and have the doctor called immediately.” She ignored his question about her being alive or not, and Daniel didn’t blame her.

It was déjà vu. He had been in this position before. He knew how it ended. He took a deep breath as he slipped one of his arms under Jane’s legs and the other under her arms to support her torso. He stood up with her in his arms and Jane’s head fell backwards to expose her jugular. When he looked closely he could see the faint movement of blood flowing there. She was alive, but barely. “Don’t let her die,” he whispered in prayer. “Follow me,” he instructed to Emilia and Kitty who were standing frantically behind him.

Jane’s weight did not affect him. He moved swiftly past the stables and up towards the house. As Southerby House came in view a panicking Sebastian came tearing out of the house followed by Sabine who’d fetched him after informing him of what had happened.

“What happened!” he exclaimed as he met the group that was swiftly arriving at the house.

“The horse spooked,” Emilia puffed as they flew through the back doors. “I think she must’ve seen a stick that looked like a snake. I don’t know. But Janey fell and hit her head on a small boulder and she hasn’t woken up!”

“Oh, God,” Sebastian gasped.

Daniel blocked their conversation out of his mind as they arrived at the front foyer where the staircase was. He had to save her; he couldn’t go through the pain again. Holding her like she was in his arms was not the situation in which he wanted to do it for the first time. The first time should be carrying a new bride over the threshold, not carrying her to a bedchamber for emergency medical treatment.

Daniel didn’t notice that he’d reached the top of the stairs, or that he’d entered a room until he was placing Jane down on the bed. As he pulled his arms out from underneath her he realised she was lying in the exact position that Eleanor had been when Dr Remington had pronounced his wife dead.

The blood that was still seeping from Jane’s head wound trickled down and began to stair the white pillow she was laying on.