"Mr. Bridgerton? Mr. Bridgerton?"
He pried an eyelid open again. "Go da bed," he grunted. "Get dry."
"Are you certain?"
He nodded. It was getting too difficult to speak.
"Very well. But I'm going to leave your door open. If you need me in the night, just call out."
He nodded again. Or at least he tried to. Then he slept.
*
It took Sophie barely a quarter of an hour to get ready for bed.
A surfeit of nervous energy kept her going as she changed into dry clothing and readied the furnace in her room, but once her head hit her pillow, she felt herself succumbing to an exhaustion so total it seemed to come from her very bones.
It had been a long day, she thought groggily. A really long day, between attending to her morning chores, dashing around the house to escape Cavender and his fri
