A Thin Line (47 page)

Mack quickly dismounted and tied his horse before moving to the phaeton.
 
“Mikala, step aside.
 
Send three strong footmen to me,” he directed the butler.
 
“Have a stable man retrieve a man named McGregor.
 
His is an old military surgeon.
 
Tell him it’s urgent,” and he gave them directions.

Sarah barred the door with her body when Mack and the three footmen started carrying Gabe into the house.

“I will not have that bastard enter my house!” She screeched.

“This is my house now and if you do not want me to put you in Bedlam, you will step aside and let us do what is best for my husband!”
 
Stunned at the way Mikala spoke to her, the group found it easy to push past the older woman.
 
Kala opened the door to their bedchamber and pulled down the bedcovers.
 
She laid thick toweling under his shoulder.

“Mikala,” he mumbled incoherently.

“I’m here, Gabe,” she said, taking his hand and pushing his sweat-matted hair off of his forehead.
 

“Should have protected you better.”

“You did,” she said.

“McKenzie.”

“Hawke.”

“Take care of her.
 
They’re still after her.”

“I will guard her with my life.”

“Thank you, brother,” he said before passing out.

“I wanted you two to become friends, but not like this,” Mikala said, still holding Gabe’s hand as sobs racked her body.
 
Mack pulled her into his strong arms, so like his brother’s.

“Whore!
 
Not even dead and you turn to another man!
 
And that bastard!”

Mikala dropped her husband’s hand, jerked away from Mack and stormed across the room.
 
She brought her hand back and slapped her mother-in-law.
 
“Get out now!” Mikala growled before slamming the door in the other woman’s face.

“I don’t think she likes either of us very much,” Mack mused.

“The feeling is mutual,” Mikala wiped at the tears on her cheeks, smearing blood across her face.
 
Hamlin and Gabe’s valet shuffled around the room, readying things for the surgeon.
 
The fire blazed and Mikala stripped off her cloak.
 
She sat on the empty side of the bed, taking Gabe’s hand once more.
 
The surgeon that Mack had sent for was the same man that had dealt with her sister-in-law’s head injury.

“Your Grace, you should leave the room,” the old man said.

“No, I have to stay with him.
 
I have to know he will make it.”

“Mikala, you should listen to McGregor.”

“No.”

“Then stand back.
 
We are going to have to hold him down and you need to be out of the way.”

Mikala stood back and watched the surgeon unwrap the bandage.
 
Blood oozed around the wound.

“Bullet is lodged.
 
I’m going to have to dig it out,” the surgeon said.

“Dear Lord.”

“Whisky.”
 
Hamlin handed him a full bottle of the amber liquid.
 
“Hold him down men.”
 
Kala watched as each of them took up a position around her husband’s prone body.
 
As McGregor poured whisky into the wound to disinfect it, Gabe yelled and tried to thrash about.
 
He took a pair of pincers from his bag, and after pouring whisky over them as well, he set about digging the ball and bits of cloth out of Gabe’s shoulder.

“Roll him onto his side.”

Mikala stared as the surgeon flushed the wound with whisky once more.
 
Gabe groaned, gritting his teeth.

“Hold on, brother,” Mack said as they rolled him onto his back once more.

Mikala watched the usually jovial older man cross the room and take a piece of metal out of the fire, the end wrapped in cloth.
 
“What are you going to do?”

“Mikala, I would leave if I were you,” Mack grunted as they fought Gabe.

“No,” she stiffened her back, bracing for whatever came next.
 
However, she wasn’t prepared for what happened next in the least.
 
The surgeon sprinkled some sort of powder on the wound before placing the heated piece of metal in the wound to cauterize it.
 
The scream that ripped from Gabe turned her heart over as much as the stench turned her stomach.
 
The next thing she knew, she had fallen to her knees and felt for a chamber pot so she could lose her lunch into it.

Unaware of how much time passed, she felt a fresh breeze in the room.
 
Mack helped her to her feet and passed her off to Gabriel’s grandmother before shutting the connecting door.

“I need to go back in there,” she said weakly.

“Not until you get yourself cleaned up.
 
What did you think you were doing staying in there?”

“I had no idea it would be that bad.
 
Judith, I can’t lose him.”

“My grandson is hard to get rid of.
 
He will be fine.
 
But first, let’s take care of you.”

After a bath and a change of clothes, Mack allowed Mikala back into Gabe’s room. “How is he?”

“Resting.
 
He keeps calling your name.
 
Perhaps he’ll settle down a bit if he knows you are close by.
 
McGregor said we need to watch for fever.”

“Is there anything special that should be done?”

“No.
 
Treat it like any other fever.
 
We must also change his bandages twice a day.”

“We?”
 

“I am not leaving you alone, even with the guards he has posted.
 
He would kill me.”

“All right.”
 
Mikala saw the look in Judith’s eyes when she looked upon the man that favored Gabriel.
 
Taking pity on the woman she made introductions long overdue, “Judith, I want you to meet someone very special.
 
This is your grandson, Stuart McKenzie.
 
Mack, meet your grandmother.
 
Now, I am going to check on my husband.”

Kala walked away from the pair and towards her husband lying prone on the bed.
 
His face looked ashen and sweat had beaded up on his body.
 
She looked around the room and found a washcloth.
 
Kala dipped it in a bowl of clean water and rinsed it out.
 
She moved back to the bed and crawled up in the middle of it and began to gently wipe his body down, needing to touch him to know he was still with her.
 

“Kala,” he moaned.

“I’m here,” she said, grabbing his good hand.

“Not hurt?”

“No, I’m not hurt.”

“Mack will take care of you.”

“You are going to be the one taking care of me.”

“Until I’m well.”

“Yes.”
 
Kala crawled up on the bed beside him and held his hand tight in hers.
 
She gently caressed the scar on his cheek, knowing he had once again sacrificed himself to protect her.
 
He fell into a fitful sleep and within the hour, a fever came upon him.

Chapter 34

Mikala fought Gabe’s fever throughout the next three days.
 
She only rested when Judith or Mack forced her to leave her husband’s side, and then she stayed gone just long enough to satisfy them.
 
She forced him to take in small amounts of liquids and gruel.
 
He moved between chills to burning up.
 
On one of the rare occasions that he rested quietly, Hamlin delivered a note to Mikala.

“Thank you, Hamlin.”

“Your Grace,” he bowed before leaving the room.
 
Mikala opened the missive, reading through the letter twice.
 
She lowered her head allowing silent tears to stream down her face.
 
Just when they had come to a kind of truce, their lives had begun to unravel all over again.
 
First Gabe gets shot.
 
Then he contracts a fever.
 
Now, her solicitor found her a cottage.
 
Funny how I had forgotten that
, she thought somewhat sadly.
 
She laid the piece of paper on the dressing table when Gabe became restless once more.

During the worst part of his fever, Mikala gained more knowledge of her husband’s body as she sponged him in an attempt to keep him cool.
 
She felt no lust at this time, just a fierce determination to see him through this.
 
When chills shook him so that his teeth chattered, she quickly undressed and crawled beneath the covers with him to lend him the warmth of her body.
 
Exhausted she drifted off to sleep.

“No!
 
Admiral!”
 
Mikala awoke to Gabe kneeling over her, his silvery blue eyes glassy.
 
He gripped both of her upper arms painfully tight and shook her roughly.
 
“Admiral, can you hear me?
 
I’ll see the bloody bastards dead!”

“Gabe!”

“All guns made ready!”

“Gabriel!”

“For the sake of Admiral Nelson, let your aim be true!
 
Ready men?”

“Gabriel!”

“Fire!”
 

Kala found herself pinned to the mattress, unable to move.
 
She felt his grip slacken and twisted just enough so that he fell back onto the bed with a groan.
 
He grimaced and reached up to touch his shoulder.
 
Mikala quickly grabbed his hand and held it in hers.
 
“Gabe, darling, you must lie still.”

“Admiral Nelson’s dead,” he murmured.

“Yes, he is.”

“I should’ve saved him,” he groaned.
 
“Standing right next to him.”

“You did all you could.”

“No, not enough.
 
Just like Mikala.
 
I’m going to lose her, too.”

“No, you’re not.”
 

“Not able to protect her.
 
Dreams.”

“Dreams?”

“Covered in blood.
 
Reaching for me.
 
Can’t save her.
 
Oh, God, I want to save her,” he said brokenly.
 
“Love her,” he whispered before falling into a troubled sleep.

Mikala looked at him, tears brimming in her eyes.
 
Did he really love her?
 
If so, why couldn’t he tell her when he was lucid?
 
She slipped off the bed and pulled her dressing robe about her, tying the belt.
 
Mikala climbed back on the bed and brought her knees up.
 
She propped her chin on them as she watched over Gabe.
 
He continued to remain unsettled, continually calling out Kala’s name.
 
He apologized over and over for not saving her, for not getting to her sooner.
 
She would try to soothe him and it would work for a little while, and then the cycle would begin again.
 

Kala walked across the room and saw the discarded letter on the dressing table, exactly where she had left it.
 
She picked it up and read through it once more. Pacing the room, she considered her options as she stuffed the letter in her pocket.
 
She saw only one left available to her that would protect those that she loved.
 
If God allowed Gabe to beat the fever, she would leave.
 
She would not risk putting anyone else in danger.
 
Knowing he lived, even if they were separated, was more important to her than being with him.

On the fourth day of the fever, Kala noticed a change.
 
His breath came out slow and even and no sweat beaded his brow.
 
She reached out with a shaky hand and laid the back of it against his cheek.
 
He felt cool to the touch.
 
Mikala felt the bristle that covered his lean cheek turn into her hand and nuzzle her.

“Sweetheart,” she heard a faint whisper, and his eyes met hers before they drowsily closed once more.
 
Kala started to awaken Judith in her bedroom, but decided to let her sleep.
 
Instead she went to her empty bedroom and began to pack.
 
She only packed the basic things she would need and then reached deep under her mattress.
 
Her hand came out clasping a purse full of coins and pound notes.
 
The money had been pin money saved from both Derek and Gabe.
 
Perhaps it was wrong to use his own money to leave him, but the ship had not yet returned from the islands.
 
She also took a handful of jewelry that would not be missed.
 
Once packed, she looked back in on her sleeping husband.
 
He remained cool to the touch and slept peacefully.