Chastity Read Online Free PDF

tightly.
        "He's hurting me."
        "It's the fever. It's rising again, and he's getting agitated. Talk to him. Calm him down."
        "Drink this, Reed. It'll make you feel better."
        No.
        He felt her hand on his cheek, turning him toward her. She leaned closer, her voice a husky whisper. "Drink this… for me, Reed."
        
        For her .
        "Please."
        He would do anything for her.
        The liquid was bitter.
        "That ought to do it." The gruff voice again. "We'd get ahead of that fever if he'd calm down. That wound doesn't look as bad as it did yesterday. How'd you say he got it?"
        No response.
        "He'll be asleep in a few minutes. That dose should hold him through the night. I suggest you get some sleep, too."
        The voices were fading. He felt her hand slipping from his grasp and he gripped it more tightly.
        "Reed, you're hurting me."
        He didn't want to hurt her.
        "Let me go."
        "You're wasting your breath. He's not going to let go." The curt voice again. "Don't worry. He'll be asleep in a minute."
        No! He struggled against the oblivion overwhelming him. He fought to open his eyes. He would not let her go againnot this time!
         A disapproving grunt. "He must've heard me. He's panicking."
        "No, Reed, don't struggle. I won't leave. I'll be right here beside you. I promise."
        He felt the bed sink with her weight as she sat beside him. He heard her gentle voice. "Go to sleep, Reed. Please. I'll be right here when you wake up."
        
       She said she would stay beside him while he slept. She wouldn't lie to him.
        He closed his eyes.
        The darkened hotel room was lit by a single lamp on the nightstand. Outside the window, sounds of evening revelry echoed in the night. Inside, all was quiet.
        Chastity sat on the edge of the bed, looking down at the man sleeping there. Dr. Carr had departed again, leaving her to tend this man who held her hand even as he slept.
        Chastity closed her eyes. Surely she was dreaming! Surely she was not going to spend another night alone in a room with a man she had met only two days earlier. Surely she was not going to continue holding his hand and listening to garbled words of love meant for another woman. Surely she would awaken from this awful dream to find herself in her own familiar room, with the familiar sounds of her aunts bickering outside her door over the direction of her future:
         "What's the matter with you, Harriet? Are you insane, urging Chastity to devote her life to working among the Bowery poor? I never heard anything so ridiculous! It would be foolhardy for her to expose herself to an element of human society with which she is totally unequipped to deal!"
         "Insane, Penelope? I suppose Chastity would've been better off marrying the 'respectable' Mr. Bertrand Bowles as you suggested?"
         "Chastity made her thoughts adequately clear     on that subject. She doesn't intend to marry. That opportunity has passed by the board, in any case."
         "A good thing, too! Mr. Bowles was old enough to be her father, and he was as singleminded a man as I ever knew! He wasn't looking for a wife! He was looking for a workhorse to care for his wild brood of children while he gallivanted nightly with dissolute women!"
         "How was I supposed to know that the fellow had lascivious interests?"
         "How could you not know?"
         "Because I am not in the habit of exchanging idle gossip!"
         "Are you intimating that I am?"
         "If the shoe fits!"
         Seething silence.
         "I refuse to be baited by you, Penelope."
         "I'm not 'baiting' you! I only"
         "Penelope, please! The point is , Chastity is far too intelligent and resourceful to squander her many attributes in the bondage of matrimony!"
         "Oh, you're just saying that because no man