Page 25 of A Fearless Heart
Lady Arcadia was the one half flung across that table.
Chapter 12
Cady felt like a tonof granite had been lashed to her body, pulling her down, down, down into fathomless depths. Somewhere above, there was a faint light, but she couldn’t reach it. Her thoughts came to her in a dreamy, abstracted way, and one of the thoughts was that perhaps the solution she synthesized worked perfectly…too perfectly. She would never escape this abyss. Cady wanted to move, to open her eyes, to wake up. But she simply couldn’t. Her limbs had been replaced with lead, her head was stuffed with wool, and everywhere was the velvety darkness urging her to sleep.
Then a voice broke through the deep haze, and something gripped her and yanked her roughly into consciousness.
“Jesus Christ, you’re alive,” a deep voice rumbled.
Cady blinked slowly, things coming back into focus. She frowned at the dark-haired man in front of her, trying to put a name to that face. “I know you,” she whispered, suddenly frightened by the weakness in her own voice.
“It’s Gabe,” he said roughly. “Your…gardener. I found you here, unconscious. I thought you were dead…oh, no, you don’t! Don’t close your eyes. Tell me what happened. There’s broken glass everywhere, and something spilled, it smells godawful…”
Ah, yes. The solution that she sampled.
Cady sighed, and with a monumental effort lifted one arm to point at the worktable. “Green bottle, yellow label. I need to drink some.”
He frowned. “A drink? Now?”
“It’s an…antidote…” Lord, she was tired.
Gabe put her down gently, warning her to stay awake. He stood up and fetched the bottle from the marble-topped table. He uncapped it and grabbed a small empty glass as well.
“How much?” he asked, returning to her.
“A capful,” she said, thinking hard. “No more.”
He carefully poured a little into the glass and held it to her lips. Cady opened her mouth and he let the liquid trickle onto her tongue. She swallowed, instinctively licking her lips after tasting the honey-based substance. “All right. Put the lid back on.”
“What if you need more?”
“More might kill me. Just give it a few minutes to take effect.”
He capped the bottle and then moved a bit to hold her upright, which had the result of her leaning into his chest. She could feel his heartbeat, rapid but deep. In a few moments, her own sluggish heartbeat should match his pace.
“What happened here?” he asked. “Why did you have an antidote handy?”
“It’s not an antidote, exactly,” she explained, her head already clearing a bit. “It’s a heart stimulant. It counteracts the effects of the solution I imbibed earlier, which is a sedative. I think the concentration of the salvia’s sap was stronger than expected. I’ll have to adjust the proportions next time.”
“Nexttime? What are you doing, trying to kill yourself?”
“Don’t be absurd.” Cady felt a flutter in her chest, a sign that the dose was working. “It was a simple experiment, with an unexpected result.”
“A result that could have killed you if I hadn’t found you.”
She blinked, realizing how odd it was for anyone, let alone this particular person, to be in her private workroom. “Howdidyou find me? My laboratory isn’t open to anyone.”
“I heard glass break,” he said.
It was not an answer, but Cady let it go for the moment. She didn’t have the mental fortitude to interrogate her handsome but huge gardener about how hejust happenedto get past a locked and walled garden to even hear the sound of breaking glass in a further, also locked laboratory.
She sighed, letting her eyes close.
“Don’t,” he ordered, laying one hand on her chin and turning her head toward him. “Open your eyes. Don’t fall asleep.”
“The danger is past,” she told him, finding his gaze intent on her face.
“How can you know that?” he asked, his brow furrowed.
