Page 33 of The Lady Needs a Rogue
Away from the intruder who’d seemed a walking phantom.
Her cumbersome skirts nearly tripping her, she rushed down the steps and continued to run. Until the moment she careened into a man. Into his broad chest, to be specific.
Gasping for breath, she gazed up into familiar amber eyes.
“We must stop meeting like this.” Finn’s mouth had crooked at the corners, but as he stared down at her, the amusement faded from his eyes. “Ye look as if ye’ve seen one of yer ghosts.”
“Not a ghost,” she managed between breaths. “An old man. In the study.”
Finn’s gaze hardened. “If he hurt ye—”
“He didn’t,” Macie murmured. “He did not hurt me. I think... dear God, I think he’s dead.”
Chapter Eleven
Staying close toFinn, Macie led him to her grandfather’s library. Before entering the house, he’d instructed the elderly driver he trusted at the reins of his ebony enameled carriage to summon a constable and a physician. As they entered the room, Macie spotted the slight rise and fall of the stranger’s chest. A small sigh of relief escaped her. The man was alive.Thank heaven.
Motioning for her to stay back, Finn went to the unconscious intruder and crouched by his side. He pressed two fingers to the man’s throat. “His pulse is weak.” His tone was grim as he opened the man’s jacket, baring his white shirt for inspection.
Macie crouched down. Her gaze traveled over the man’s chest. No blood. No torn fabric. Not so much as a missing button.
Finn met her eyes. “Was he in this condition when ye first encountered him?”
“He was on his feet, though he was quite unsteady.” Her hands trembled as fear shuddered through her. “Nell and I had left for the day, but I came back. And then, I found him here.”
Finn proceeded to look the man over, searching for an injury. “I can’t be sure, but I see no sign of a wound. He may have suffered a seizure of the heart.”
“How very awful.” A bitter taste filled Macie’s mouth. “But why would he come here? Why wouldn’t he seek out a physician?”
“It doesn’t make any blasted sense.” He shrugged off his jacket, folded it, and placed it as a cushion beneath the stranger’s head. “Do ye have any idea who he is?”
“I have no idea.” She swallowed against a lump in her throat. “Finn, he was pleading for help.”
Finn’s gaze swept over the books scattered on the floor. More than a dozen volumes had been strewn haphazardly over the wooden planks. If she had not heard the tomes landing on the floor, she might’ve believed there had been a struggle. His jaw hardened as he turned to her.
“Ye said he didn’t hurt you.”
She shook her head as the old man’s murmurs played in her thoughts.Leave. Before he comes... for you.“I suspect he was trying to warn me. Though I’ve no idea about what.”
“While he was ransacking the library?”
“I don’t think he intended any harm. He looked like he’d been searching for something.”
“Did he know yer identity?”
“I cannot be sure,” Macie said. “He never addressed me by name.”
Finn rose to face her. His brow furrowed. “What in blazes did he say to ye?”
Murder.The very thought of the man’s low, desperate whisper unfurled a chill along the length of her spine. Would Finn become too protective if she told him the content of the stranger’s warning? Would he try to keep her away from the mansion?
“He was out of his head with pain. And perhaps fear. It’s possible he was suffering from a delusion and believed me to be someone else.”
“Tell me what he told ye,” Finn pressed.
“First, he called for help. He sounded quite desperate. And then, he rambled on about a murder.”
Finn plowed a hand through his hair. “Bloody hell.”
