Reborn to Dodge the Bad Marriage novel Chapter 34

Chapter 34 Ghostbloom Pollen

e way it’s presenting, it looks like blackroot,” Gideon said. “To be sure, I need him at a hospital, and I’ll need everything he’s eaten in the last two days.”

Constance had been trying to avoid the hospital. Once he was admitted, there’d be no keeping it quiet that he was dying.

“Bess, walk Dr. Vance through everything he’s had these last two days. Then get him to the hospital.”

Bess made the call, and the kitchen sent up every plate and glass he’d touched, each one sealed.

The appetite medicine Nora had given him came up with the rest.

Gideon reached for the tray, and his phone went off. He checked the screen. “It’s Olivia. Give me a moment.”

Constance nodded. “Tell her I’m sorry. Please.”

Gideon took the call out on the balcony.

Nora went down the row of sealed containers. Even the plates from yesterday’s lunch were there.

Constance explained without being asked. “After what Olivia said yesterday, I decided to be careful. Everything he touched has been sealed and kept.

“I did it for him. It also happens to clear you.”

Nora gave a small nod, and then she felt someone studying her. She glanced toward the balcony and caught Gideon watching her over the phone.

The way he was measuring her set her teeth on edge.

Getting caught didn’t embarrass him in the slightest. He gave her a polite nod, ended the call, and came back inside.

“Olivia is worried about him,” he told Constance. “She called to ask about his symptoms, and once I described them she said the same thing. Get him to a hospital.”

Nora walked the length of the containers once, came around to Gideon’s side, and frowned.

Then, she leaned in toward his shoulder.

“What are you doing?” Gideon stepped back fast, and his face soured. “Mrs. Weston, that’s inappropriate.”

Nora took a fistful of his coat, pulled it toward her, and bent her head to smell it.

Constance snapped at her. “Nora! Let go of Dr. Vance!”

Gideon knocked her hand off him, and disgust came right up on his face. “Your husband isn’t dead yet, Mrs. Weston, and I’m not the least bit interested in you.”

Nora’s eyes came up cold. “He started bringing up blood when you got close to him. Am I right?”

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Chapter 34 Ghostbloom Pollen

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Gideon thought about it and nodded. “He did. What does that have to do with me? He was poisoned by the medicine you gave him, he went under, and then the blood started…”

“That’s crap.” Nora cut in. “You’ve got ghostbloom pollen on you. To a body like his, that’s lethal. That’s what made him bring up blood.”

“Ghostbloom pollen?” Gideon looked down at the spot she’d grabbed. A faint dusting of white sat on the fabric.

“I’ve never heard of it being toxic in my life. You’re not a doctor. You’re making this up as you go.”

Nora didn’t have time to argue. She called Hattie. “The bag I brought from home. Bring it up to Julian’s room on the eighth floor.

“Fast.”

She hung up and moved for Julian.

Gideon caught her arm. “What do you think you’re doing?”

Nora looked at him without any warmth at all. “Saving him. There’s no time to get him to a hospital. He has twenty minutes at the outside, and if that pollen isn’t out of him by then, he’s dead.”

She wasn’t about to bury a husband on her wedding day.

On top of that, she was still the prime suspect. If he died, she’d be cleared eventually, but the mess in between would cost her weeks she didn’t have.

“You don’t have a medical license, and you’re a suspect,” Gideon said. “I’m not letting you near him. He goes to the hospital.”

Nora went very quiet. “Let go.”

His grip tightened instead. “Dr. Blithe trained me. I know what’s in him better than you ever will.

“I held off on calling it because I wanted the lab work to speak first. Ghostbloom pollen, of all the… agh!”

Nora had caught his arm and wrenched it, and the shoulder came out of its socket with a pop that carried across the room.

“Too much talking,” Nora said. “You’re wasting my time.”

She let go of him and crossed to Julian.

Gideon shouted through the pain. “Madam Weston, don’t let her touch him! If she gets her hands on him she’ll wreck the treatment plan my teacher has him on.

“And when the poison comes back on him later, don’t expect her to lift a finger.”

Constance saw how set Nora’s face was, and she hesitated. “I…”

Nora crouched and took Julian’s pulse, and her brows drew tight. “It isn’t only the ghostbloom. There’s larkspur in him too. No wonder he went down.”

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Chapter 34 Ghostbloom Pollen

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