Page 97 of Marry in Secret
Lily rode up beside him. “Rose, are you all right, Rose?” she called distressfully. She brought her horse up close and took one of Rose’s limp hands. “You’re going to be all right, Rose. Isn’t she, Thomas?” Her eyes were wet with tears.
Rose made a little sound and stirred in his arms.
He kept his voice calm. “I know it hurts, love, but I think it’s just a flesh wound. I’m taking you home. You’re going to be fine, just fine.” Flesh wound? He had no idea what kind of a wound it was. He couldn’t tell because of all the blood.
They left the park and entered the traffic. His horse sidestepped suddenly to avoid a piece of rubbish blowing along the road, and Rose gasped and clutched at him.
Her pain burned him. “Hold on, love. Not long now.”
“Love you, Thomas.” Her voice was a thread.
He wanted to pull her tight, shower her with kisses, force her back to wellness, to wholeness, to turn back time. But all he had were words, useless words. “And I—” he began. But she’d fainted.
Lady George had ridden ahead to warn Emm of thesituation, and when Thomas reached Ashendon House he found them ready and waiting. Rose was gently lifted from his arms and carried upstairs to her old bedchamber. Emm and her maidservant peeled off the blood-sodden clothing and washed the blood away. They soaked a clean pad in vinegar and kept it pressed against the wound. Lily fluttered around, useless in her distress.
Rose barely stirred. She was breathing, at least.
Thomas watched, clenching and unclenching his fists in helpless anguish.
“It looks nasty,” Emm told him, “but I don’t think it’s fatal.”
Thomas said nothing. Emm meant well, of course, but what would a gently reared society lady know of gunshot wounds? People died all the time of quite small injuries. A tiny cut on a finger, a scratch from a thorn or a fishhook could turn septic for no apparent reason and suddenly the person was dead.
He bent and smoothed back the tumbled golden hair from the pale forehead. Where the hell was that blasted doctor? Not that he would necessarily help. Treatment by doctors often made no difference. There were no guarantees.
“I’m told my own wound looked almost as bad,” Emm said quietly, and he stared at her in shock. With an understanding smile, she touched her shoulder. “Just here. I was shot in the park, too, in mistake for my husband.”
The doctor arrived then, and shooed everyone out except for Lady Ashendon and her maidservant. “I’ll tend to the patient better without having all you people hanging over my every movement,” he said brusquely. “A couple of sensible women, that’s all I need. No brooding husbands, no fretting sisters.”
Thomas didn’t want to leave, but Ashendon drew him aside. “He’s good. When my wife was shot, he brought her through it without incident.” He coaxed Thomas out into the hallway, fetched a couple of chairs from a nearby room, sat him down and poured him a brandy. Thomas tossed it down in a single hit.
“Lady Ashendon really was shot?” Thomas said when he could talk.
Ashendon nodded. “In the shoulder. Long story, but someone was after me, and shot her by accident.”
“And this same doctor treated her?”
“Yes, and she recovered perfectly, as you can see.”
A slender thread of hope to hang on to. “Did you get the man who shot her?”
“I did,” Ashendon said grimly.
“I don’t suppose you saw who shot Rose?”
Ashendon shook his head. “Kirk and Galbraith are scouring the park as we speak, looking for the swine.”
Thomas sank his head into his hands. “But why? Why would anyone want to shoot Rose?”
“Could be an accident. Might not have been Rose they were after.”
“You think they wanted me? Then curse their bad marksmanship. I’d happily die in her place!” He stared at the closed bedchamber door in frustration. “What the devil is taking them so long?”
Ashendon poured him another brandy.
***
The doctor had finished treating Rose. “I’ve done all I can for her now,” he told Thomas, adding when he saw how Thomas had blanched, “meaning I’ll come back tomorrow and see how she’s progressing. I’ve removed the ball and we’ll see how she goes from there. It’s quite high, almost at the shoulder, and no vital organs are affected, and as far as I can tell, no bone was shattered. I have every reason to hope she’ll make a full recovery.”
