Her Lord and Protector (formerly titled On Silent Wings) (27 page)

“Yes, sir!” The
boy ran to take the reigns from Alex. “Are you all right, sir?”

“Yes. Fine,”
Alex muttered. His shoulder throbbed in waves of pain. Gray rings danced in his
vision as he trudged back to the main street and approached the front of the
brothel. There, a crowd of boisterous men, some stumbling as if drunk, milled
about. With effort he straightened, pulled his cloak closed around himself, and
adopted an equal look of excitement.

“Lord Drayton, I
see you’ve come to see how she fares!” came a booming female voice at the door.
Patsy gestured toward him. “You have this man to thank for the doe-eyed whore.”

The men cheered.
Alex sucked in air through his teeth and fought the blackness threatening to
overtake him as friendly hands slapped his back and shoulders in good natured
camaraderie.

The grimace he
held must have been taken for a grin because no one seemed to notice his pain.
He walked through the crowd to Patsy and held out two gold guineas. “I want her
first.”

“Oh ho!” Patsy
threw back her head and laughed, then greedily licked her lips as she dropped
the coins between her cleavage. “Sometimes the needle’s stiffer in a brothel,
eh? But I’ve already let in the first one.”

With effort,
Alex kept his lips spread in a smile. “How long ago?”

“Mayhap five
minutes.”

Thank heaven.
Alex pressed another coin in Patsy’s hand. “Make him wait.”

Patsy peered at
him. “What’s your hurry? You could have had her at home.”

Alex pulled out
two more coins. “Like you said, the needle’s stiff and ready.”

Patsy hooted and
dropped the money down her bodice, where it clinked with the other coins.
“You’ve just made me a rich woman, Lord Drayton,” she said. “That Katie, she’s
a spirited one. I sent in the biggest man to break her in.”

Alex itched to
shove Patsy aside and race into the house. But he didn’t know where Katherine
was.

“All afternoon
she tried to talk to me in that squeaky voice, but I do not have time to be waiting
on her like she’s royalty,” Patsy said, and finally led Alex through the front
door. “I told her to keep her mouth shut. I will get more money if the men
think she cannot talk at all.”

The heavy smell
of roses mixed with stale ale assaulted Alex as he followed Patsy past a lush
pink parlor where several woman had gathered on the chairs and couches. When
they spotted Alex, one spread her thin legs and ran her tongue around her lips.
Another grasped her small breasts and lifted them.

“He wants the
half-mute,” Patsy called to them as she passed. She put up a hand toward Alex.
“Wait here. I will have to get the other one out.”

Just then, a
thick man with black hair and beard trudged down the hall, rattling the floorboards
with each heavy step. “She’s locked herself in her room, Miss Eberly,” he said,
his voice almost a whine. “She will not let me in. I didn’t want to break down
your door.”

Alex almost
laughed with relief. “I will just go in,” he offered to Patsy.

“Wait in the
parlor, Garson,” Patsy purred to the man. “Let those ladies give you some attention
until she’s ready for you.”

“Not too long,”
he said, eyeing Alex suspiciously.

Alex hoped to
God he wouldn’t have to fight again. He hadn’t the strength.

“Don’t wear her
out,” Patsy said as she went down the hall ahead of Alex. “Like I told Garson,
all those men outside want to tumble with her, too.”

“I will take
care of her,” Alex promised.

Patsy stopped
midway down the hall and pushed at a door. “She’s got something blocking it.
Katie, open up.”

There was no
response.

Patsy banged on
the door. “Katie! Open this door right now!”

“Katherine, ’tis
Alex,” he called softly. “Please, open the door.”

There was a
scraping sound inside the room, and then more silence.

“Spoiled bitch
needs to learn her place here.” Patsy pushed at the door again, and this time
it opened.

Katherine wasn’t
in sight.

“She gives you
trouble, let me know. I told her I’ll have her tied naked to her bed if she
puts up a fuss. Have a go, Lord Drayton. I’ll send the next one in thirty
minutes.”

Alex smiled at
Patsy and waited until she had turned the corner to go down the hall, and then
he pushed open the door and stepped inside. In a moment, he would have his wife
out of here and heading home.

A blur of white
greeted his vision before something hard crashed onto his head.

“Wake up, you
mongrel.” Katherine watched Alex’s eyelids flutter as he moaned.

She hated him.
Having her brought to this whorehouse and then requesting to bed her was as
vile and cruel an act as any he could carry out. And she’d married him. Loved
him!

As his eyes
slowly opened and focused on her, she picked up a shard of the broken vase.

“Katherine,” he
faltered, and tried to sit up.

She pressed the
glass under his chin and saw a raw cut on his throat, but her fury wouldn’t
allow contemplation. “Stay down, you lecher. Why did you do this to me?”

Astonished, she
watched the corners of his lips curve in a bare smile.

“You are speaking.”

“Yes. Now hear
me say that I am going to kill you.” And afterward, she would hang herself. She
would sooner be dead than have to live a life such as this.

He grunted. “How
much time has passed since you hit me?”

“You mean how
much time do you have left to further violate me?” Her voice was frustratingly
thin and weak, nothing like the outrage exploding in her heart. “You have no
more time. You sent me here and now you want to play your sick game.”

“I came to get
you out. Please...how long?”

“Why? Did you
think of a worse punishment?” He grasped her arm. She shook him off. “About
twenty minutes.”

“We have to
leave.”

“Not until you
tell me why you did this to me, you contemptible worm.”

“Mistake.” He
closed his eyes and took a deep, ragged breath. “You will do me in if you cut
me.”

She hesitated,
studying again the wound on his neck, his worn, pale face. His chest rose and
fell with labored breaths. “What happened to you?”

“Shot.”

“Where?” She
whipped aside the cloak and gasped at the blood that slicked his waistcoat and
shirt. “Alex!”

His voice was a
breathy grunt. “Help me up. We need to get out of here.”

Katherine tossed
away the shard of glass. With effort, she helped him to his feet.

He sagged
against the wall. “How...?”

“The window,”
she said, rubbing her sore cheekbone. “That awful guard will not be watching
now.”

Once outside,
Alex paused for a moment, leaned against the building with lowered head, and
took several ragged breaths.

“Alex?” In the
daylight, he was positively gray.

“Hurry.” He took
Katherine’s hand and led her behind two more buildings until they reached a boy
who stood with Alex’s horse.

Alex handed him
two coins, and the boy ran off. Amidst the pain on Alex’s face was sorrowful
guilt. He lowered his head and kissed her. His lips felt much too warm.

“I am sorry. I
didn’t intend this.”

“You need a
doctor. And then you need to explain yourself.”

Alex grunted as
he knelt. “Step up. Mind my shoulder.”

A moment later,
Katherine perched atop Neos, who simply had to be the tallest horse in all of
England.

“Straddle him,”
Alex said.

“Oh, mercy.”
Mortified, Katherine spread her legs on either side of the horse and imagined
the disapproving looks she would receive from the townspeople. She made futile
attempts to pull her skirts over her exposed ankles, realizing she had not even
her cloak to cover her head. Behind her, Alex pulled himself up. He reached
around her with his left hand and took the reins.

They ventured
out onto the main road. Down the street behind them, the crowd of men in front
of Patsy’s brothel had swelled. Katherine shivered.

“You can relax,
my lady.” His uneven breath was warm in her hair. “The danger is behind you.”

The danger was
behind her, yes, and she was much too close to it. She scooted forward.

“Move back toward
me,” he said hoarsely. “You do not have to sit so far forward.”

“No. Not after
what you did. Your—what did you call it? Mistake?” She stayed where she was and
stared staunchly over the horse’s head, unable to stem her hurt and anger. Her
voice strained. “You sent me there because of my father’s acts.”

“No.”

“Then why?”

Another pause.
“’Twas my error. I will deal with it.”

“Your
error
?”
She lowered her head, wanting both to lean back into him and run far, far away.
“How could you do this?”

His voice, although
weak, held a trace of its old arrogance. “’Twas a misjudgment I made.”

“I do not
believe you.”

“Katherine—”

“Do not speak to
me.” She swiped tears from her eyes, then slapped at his hand when he slid his
good arm around her. It had no effect. He shifted his thighs and pulled her
closer to him.

“We’ll talk
about it when you are calm,” he said, sounding so very forspent. “I cannot
guide Neos with you up on his neck.”

“You may remove
your arm from me, my lord,” she said, hoping he heard her through her weak,
wavering voice. She kept her back straight so as not to touch him. “Take me to
the inn and leave me there. After you see a doctor, send someone for my trunks
at the brothel. It they’re still there.”

“No. You are my
wife. Come home with me.”

“I will not. I
never wish to see you again. And...I do not know if I could look upon you without
thinking of what my father did to your parents.”

He was quiet for
a moment. “As you wish.”

Katherine’s
heart sank. “You agree with me, then?”

“I want you to
be happy.” He sounded out of breath.

She could never
be happy without him, but didn’t voice this. If he had any more feelings for
her—if he loved her—he wouldn’t have let her leave their home in the first
place.

They fell into a
long silence as they moved along the street, which had all but emptied of
townspeople in the fading daylight and gathering black clouds overhead. On her
right, huddled on the dirt next to a stable, shivered a girl who looked about
eleven or twelve years old.

“Go home,”
Katherine said, hoping the girl could hear her. “‘Twill rain soon.”

She raised bleak
eyes. “I have no home.”

Katherine’s
attention was drawn to Alex’s arm, which had slackened from her waist and now
dropped to his side. His head lowered to her shoulder. “Take the reins. I
cannot....”

Katherine bit
her lip in worry. Who was she to be depended upon? Two neighbor children had
died because she couldn’t get to them. “What do I do?” she whispered.

Only his silence
answered.

Neos snorted
with the unfamiliar set of hands guiding him, but thankfully didn’t test her.

She saw Lobb’s
Inn ahead on the left, and guided the horse to a waiting stable boy. “Get
help,” she rasped as loudly as she could. “This man is hurt.”

Two men
half-carried Alex to a room and lay him on a bed.

After sending
for a doctor, Katherine sat on the bed and touched his feverish face, then
helped him remove his jacket and shirt. “So much blood.”

A shadow passed
over his face. “I killed him.”

“You were only
protecting yourself.”

The doctor
arrived and, one hour later after Alex’s guttural groans of pain, held out an object.
“Here’s the bullet. It didn’t hit the bone.” The leeches made sucking sounds as
he pulled them off the skin surrounding the wound. “I have done all I can. Use
the poultices freely, but his fever is coming on. He may not last the night.”

Katherine
grabbed Alex’s hand. He would die? “No. No. He’ll be all right.”

The doctor
shrugged and snapped his bag closed. “We’ll see. I noticed that your voice is
quite hoarse. I have left some cinnamon drops on the table for you.”

Katherine only
half heard him. A deep trembling had taken hold of her, and after the doctor
left she sat by Alex on the bed. “You cannot die.” She placed her hand on the
side of his hot, pale face. “You cannot. I will not let you.”

Alex didn’t
answer. He was asleep, his breathing labored and slow. Bright red spots
gradually bloomed on his cheeks. She lifted the poultice covering the bullet
hole, made even larger by the doctor’s probing fingers, and studied the tiny
red streaks that had appeared around it.