Chapter 4

Silas stopped.

After a moment, he turned to Eleanor. "Since Cecilia's treatment has already begun, let the doctors finish. Don't worry too much about your mother. I've sent for one of the royal physicians."

Eleanor panicked. "Mother doesn't just look ill. She looks poisoned. She'll be dead before your physician arrives."

No matter how she pleaded, Cecilia's servants blocked her, and Silas's guards stood between her and the doctors.

"Order them to move."

Silas spoke as though soothing an unreasonable child.

"You were sensible earlier. Cecilia saved my life. We can't abandon her."

Eleanor stared at him, both fists knotted in her skirts, and forced out each word.

"What if I told you it was me who saved you?"

Silas froze.

Cecilia coughed weakly.

"Eleanor, fear for your mother doesn't justify a lie like that. The entire household knows I rescued him."

The surrounding maids and servants immediately agreed.

"That's right. I here helped carry Mr. Wycliffe into the house that day."

"Miss Cecilia rewarded every servant with ten silver coins. I remember it perfectly."

"She was covered in blood, and her knees were swollen, but she still dragged him home."

A helplessness settled over Eleanor that she could not shake off.

She had dragged him through the snow. Her knees had been injured. She had nearly frozen to death.

But she collapsed the moment she brought him inside, and when she woke, Cecilia was feeding him medicine.

Eleanor had never mentioned her own condition because she did not want him to worry, never imagining someone would steal the credit.

She opened her mouth and realized she possessed no proof.

Silas's expression cooled, disappointment entering his voice.

"Eleanor, I dislike liars. There won't be a second warning.

"The royal physician is already coming. You..."

Before he finished, a guard hurried over and whispered into his ear.

Silas's expression sharpened. "The Queen Dowager is ill, so the royal physicians can't leave. He's ordered me to the palace as well."

He turned to Cecilia and softened his tone. "Release one doctor to Eleanor. I will repay you generously."

Cecilia nodded obediently.

Silas looked at Eleanor as though he wanted to speak, but finally turned and left.

The moment he disappeared, most of Cecilia's weakness vanished, replaced by triumph and contempt.

"Do you see? Silas believes me. As long as I hold the debt of saving his life, I can control him forever. If I refuse a physician and your mother dies in bed, he'll blame you for delaying treatment.

"But perhaps I'll spare one doctor if you beg me and make me satisfie."

Eleanor's nails cut into her palms as she walked away quickly.

"There's no need."

She had been deceived too many times. Every time, she knelt and begged, yet her mother's treatment was delayed and her father never cared.

Silas had once known her whole history and sworn that no one would ever deceive or harm her again.

Today, he believed someone else.

When Eleanor returned to the small wing, her mother's face had already turned gray.

Grinding her teeth, she found paper and wrote a letter in desperation.

Using her future title as General Harcourt's wife, she begged Dr. Amos Wilder, the physician retained at Harcourt Residence in Vanderwick, to come.

She pawned every jewel Silas had given her and all the embroidery she had made over the years, using the money to purchase rare medicine.

After hours of desperate work, Dr. Wilder stabilized Harriet's pulse near midnight.

Color slowly returned to Harriet's face, and her breathing became steady.

Relief overwhelmed Eleanor, and she fell asleep beside the bed.

Splash.

A basin of cold water struck her, and she woke violently.

Before Eleanor could react, two women dragged her by the arms into the main hall.

Her father and Cecilia stood there, and with them stood Silas.

His face was white with fury. He held an embroidered handkerchief, and a box at his feet contained every gift he had bought her.

Margaret shrieked, "These are all courtship gifts from Mr. Wycliffe, yet Eleanor gave them away while conducting an affair and sent her personal embroidery to another man. How could a woman like this marry into the Wycliffe family?"