Page 13 of A Touch of Charm
“Why didn’t you tell us you were bleeding?” Andre asked.
“It hurt, but I’ve been wearing the black evening coat and—” Stan winced. “Ah! I didn’t realize how bad it was until I carried the trunks in and saw some blood on my cuff.”
Stan shifted on Nick’s operating table, and Andre helped him out of his coat.
A large red spot on Stan’s white shirt spread from the collar to the elbow, and the ivory waistcoat was also stained.
Thea came to his side. “Ar fi trebuit sa-mi spui!”You should have told me! Thea’s concern was evident in her voice when she spoke Romanian with her brother.
“Nu ?tiam ca este atât de rau,” I didn’t know it was so bad, Stan mumbled. “I’ve been hurt so much worse than this.”
“You didn’t pay attention to your bleeding shoulder?” Thea couldn’t hide the exasperation in her voice.
“Eu nu am fost atent? Nici macar nu ?tiam ca e?ti în Anglia ?i apoi a trebuit sa ma lupt cu trei criminali înarma?i calare ca sa te salvez!”I wasn’t careful? I didn’t even know you were in England and then I have to fight off three armed criminals on horses to save you!
Thea opened her mouth to retort, but her words faltered as her gaze dropped to Stan’s shoulder. Her fingers brushed against the torn fabric, now soaked through with blood. “You’re bleeding,” she stated the obvious, her voice softer now, almost trembling.
Stan waved her off, his jaw tightening. “It’s nothing.”
“It’s not nothing,” Thea snapped, but her eyes darted to the shadows around them. “We need to get out of here before—”
A sharp crack echoed from the floorboards, freezing them both. Stan spun toward the sound, his hand instinctively reaching for the knife in his boot. Thea’s grip on Stan’s arm tightened.
“We’re safe here,” Andre whispered, his voice barely audible.
Stan nodded, his expression grim. “The door’s locked. They’ll strike again but we don’t know when.”
Thea’s breath hitched, and for a moment, the three of them stood motionless, listening. The forest seemed to hold its breath, the darkness pressing in around them. Then, from somewhere outside on the street, came the unmistakable sound of hooves.
“They’ll be back,” Thea whispered, hugging herself and rubbing her arms as if she could comfort herself. “But you can’t lock me away. Not in England.”
Stan straightened and narrowed his gaze with a look so stern that it could have come from their father. “We have to pay attention. You can’t ever be out of my sight from now on.” Stan winced, seemingly unable to ignore the pain in his shoulder.
Andre glanced at Thea, his voice firm as he nodded to Stan. “I’m here, too. Stay close. No matter what.”
As Andre tended to Stan, the sound of hooves grew louder outside. The town on the other side of the walls was alive with the promise of danger. And somewhere in the distance, a low, guttural laugh echoed from a nocturnal animal, sending a chill down Thea’s spine.
Chapter Five
Andre sighed whenthe prince and princess bickered like he used to with his siblings, except that the stakes were higher now with his high-born guests, one of them injured, and the Prussian baron on their heels.
“The reason I left was so that I could be free here,” Thea said in Romanian, cringing when Andre exposed Stan’s wound.
“And what has this freedom gotten you? If I hadn’t overpowered them, what do you think they would have done with you and the little girl if I hadn’t saved you?” Stan growled back in Romanian through his teeth, trying to look at his bleeding shoulder while Andre patted it with a clean cloth.
Observation, diagnosis, treatment. The first step was done exposing the wound; now he had to see how deep Stan’s injury was.
“Well, I’ll save you now,” Andre looked at Stan, “and then I will take care of you,” he said to Thea. They both raised their eyebrows simultaneously and gave him the same deadpan look. They looked quite alike, as siblings often did, Andre thought. He sighed at seeing the brother and sister couple and felt that familiar pinch in his heart every time he missed his siblings.
“You understood everything again,” Stan remarked, more of a statement than a question.
Andre shrugged. “I had a brother and a sister, too.” But before he could say more, he bit his tongue and reached for the knob of Nick’s drawer of instruments and picked out the largest of the scissors. “This will hurt,” Andre warned, glancing at Thea.
She held her breath.
“No, not the shirt but the wound I mean—” And with a swift motion, Andre cut Stan’s bloody shirt open starting at the cuff and exposed the wound on his shoulder. Thea couldn’t tear her eyes away from him, filled with concern for her brother and fascination for the doctor.
Stan tsked when he twisted his torso to see the injury at the back of his shoulder.
