Taming the Wicked Wulfe (The Rogue Agents) (12 page)

***

Thorn felt his wife’s voluptuous body tug against his arms.
 
He only then realized that she had lost consciousness.
 
He swung her up in his arms and looked around, bereft.
 
Should he lay her on the ground until she recovered consciousness?
 
Should he place her in the other carriage?
 
Should he just stand there like a fool and hold her, enjoying the feel of her in his arms.
 
Suddenly he was hit by two waves, one of longing, and one of déjà vu.
 
Having her in his arms swept him with a feeling of familiarity.
 
He shook it off as he looked down at his wife.
 
Her head lolled against chest, and her lashes looked like dark, feathery smudges on her skin.
 
Her skin had lost its honey glow.

“Sir! Sir!” a voice broke into his thoughts.
 

He looked up to see a maid running towards him, her arms flailing in the air to get his attention.
 
Heralding her arrival were the pups followed by the twins.

“Sir, bring Miss, I mean, Lady Wulfe to the carriage.”

Thorn nodded and made his way toward the second carriage, escorted by children, servants, and dogs.
 

“Do you have any blankets?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Spread them in the shade of the carriage.
 
I’ll put her down there.”
 
He waited while the maid spread out a blanket and held another to place over her.
 
Thorn went down on one knee and gently placed her on the blanket.
 
He then took the second blanket and tucked it around her.
 
He cupped her cheek and lowered his thumb until he felt the pulse at the base of her neck beating steady.
 

“Is she going to be all right, Uncle Thorn?” Ivy asked so softly he had to strain to hear her.

“Yes,” he replied, pushing away his doubts.
 
“You two watch over her.
 
I’m going to go get some water for your aunt and check on the carriage.”

“Yes, sir,” the twins chimed in together.
 
They plunked down on either side, each grabbing a hand of their precious aunt, as if they could will her to do what they wanted.

Thorn walked towards the edge of the ravine, but paused when he saw the driver and the footmen gathered around the horses, talking.
 
He changed his direction and joined them.
 
He clapped his hand on the driver’s back.
 
“You saved our lives.”

“Twasn’t me, sir.
 
Sam there did some quick thinking.”

“Oh?”

“Yes, sir.
 
I think it best you not know what we did, just so’s that you know we saved the horses.
 
Otherwise, the team would have been pulled down the ravine as well.”

“Thank you, Sam.”

“How’s the mistress?”

“She keeps losing consciousness.
 
She hit her head pretty hard.”

“I’m sorry, sir.
 
I tried my best,” the driver said.

“I know you did.
 
I need you men to come with me,” he waved them to follow him as he turned and picked his way down the ravine.
 
When he reached the river, he waded into water up to his knees.
 
With the help of the footmen and the drivers, they were able to right the carriage.
 
Thorn walked around the conveyance, eyeing it carefully.
 
The wheels on one side of it caught his attention.
 
He knelt in the shallow water to take a better look.
 
Several of the spokes on each wheel had a smooth cut more than halfway through, then it was rough where it had splintered the last little bit.
 
“Henry,” he called their driver over.

“Yes, sir.”

“When we stopped at the inn, did anyone besides one of our attendants get anywhere near the carriage?”

“Not that I recall, sir.
 
What seems to be amiss?”
 

Thorn stood and waved Henry to take a look at the wheels.
 
“Tell me what you see.”
 
He waited while the man inspected both wheels.
 
“Well?” he prodded when he could not wait any longer.

“Why would someone do this?” Henry asked.

“So, you’re seeing the same thing I am,” Thorn half asked, half stated.

“Yes, sir.
 
Who’d want to do this?”

Thorn merely shook his head, easily making a list of almost two dozen people who would want to see him dead.
 
Most had been fleeced at the
Lady Luck
.
 
He made certain no one knew about his other life, or had he?

“Uncle Thorn, Aunt Bekah’s waking up!” Zachary shouted from the top of the ravine.

“I’ll be there in a moment,” he called back.
 
He watched the little boy wave before running back to Rebekah and Ivy.
 
He turned to the men.
 
“We need to try to get this out of here.
 
One of you take one of the horses and go back to the village we left.
 
See if you can hire some help.”

“I’ll do that,” Henry said before climbing to the top of the ravine.
 

Thorn turned and opened the carriage door.
 
He found most of the items that had been in the basket had been strewn across the inside of the carriage.
 
He pulled the basket close and found a jar still intact with some sort of food inside.
 
After upending the contents on the ground, he stalked over to the river and rinsed the jar out several times before filling it up with cool water.
 
He climbed back up the ravine and saw that Rebekah now sat up, but held her head in her hands.
 
The children were talking and giggling, recounting the events of the carriage flipping, and the dogs were barking.
 
The maid kept raising her voice to be heard over all the noise.
 
Thorn smirked and decided that perhaps he should save his wife from a fate worse than death.

“Ivy, Zach, why don’t you take the dogs to play over there in the clearing.
 
Don’t run off though.”

“Yes, Uncle Thorn,” Zachary said, then he grabbed Ivy’s hand and dragged her away from her aunt.

“Why don’t you go see that they don’t run off,” he said to the maid.

“Yes, sir.”

“Thank you,” he heard Rebekah whisper.

“For?”

“Making the noise go away, or at least lessen.”

“My pleasure.
 
Here, take a sip of this,” he held out the glass to her.
 
He watched her take a sip of the clear water, and smiled at the little moan she let escape.
 
“Better?”
 

She started to nod, but thought better of it when her head began to pound crazily.
 
She put a hand to her temple and tried to open her eyes, but when she saw two Thorns swimming in front of her, she thought better of it, and closed them once more.
 
“What happened?”

“One of the wheels broke,” he said, evading the truth.
 
“The carriage rolled down a ravine.
 
You seem to have suffered the worst.”
 
He looked at the sky and the sun that had begun to set.
 
“We need to make a decision.
 
Either we go back to the village we left or we push on to London.”

“How much further to London?” she asked.

“An hour, perhaps two.”

“I would rather push on to London.
 
I want the children settled and not have to see to them in an inn.”

“Would it be easier to ride horseback with me?
 
Less jostling that way.”
 
He saw the look on her face.
 
He knew she was fighting with herself trying to decide which would be the lesser of two evils.
 
Finally, she lifted her free hand towards him.

“You win.
 
I don’t think I would make it five minutes with the coach swaying, the dogs barking, and the twins talking non-stop.
 
Just thinking about it is making my stomach churn.”

“All right.
 
Stay here while I gather everyone together.”
 

She waved him away and moved to lie on her stomach, resting her head on her arms.
 
She felt the blanket being tugged over her once more and let herself drift off, hoping the pain would go away.

Thorn gathered up children, dogs, and servants as if he had been doing it his entire life.
 
Just as he was about to wake Rebekah, one of the footmen rushed up to him.

“Sir, one of the men is missing.”

“What do you mean?”

“The new footman.
 
I don’t know exactly when he disappeared, but he’s gone.”

Thorn looked out among the trees and hills.
 
His overcoat hung open, billowing out where his hands lay fisted on his hips.
 
“What did he look like?”

“I couldn’t say, sir.
 
Kept to himself.
 
I just noticed when I was doing the headcount.
 
We were missing two, the driver and the new man.”

“Do you recall anything at all about him? Anything will help.”

“No, sir.”

“Thank you,” he said, disappointed.
 
“Let’s get going.”

“We aren’t going to look for him?”

“I believe he is far away and doesn’t want to be found.”

“Yes, sir.”

Thorn walked to Rebekah.
 
“Rebekah, it’s time we left.”
 
He pulled the top blanket from her and threw it over his shoulder.
 
He heard her cry out when she started to push herself up.
 
“Forgot about your wrist, did you?” he asked before helping her stand.
 
She moaned when he put his arm around her.
 
“You must be black and blue under that dress.”

“And as I said before, it will not be the first time.
 
Let’s just go.”
 

He felt her body stiffen and a change in her demeanor after the exchange.
 
Once he had her in the saddle in front of him and the blanket wrapped around her, the group continued on to their destination.
 
They were thirty minutes down the road before she finally relaxed against him.
 
Once again that feeling of déjà vu swept over him.
 
What spooked him the most was how right she felt in his arms.
 
He had never experience that before with any other woman.
 
Aimée was just someone he could slake his lust with.
 
That’s all women had ever been to him.
 
Why her? Why now?

“Why do I feel like I’ve had you in my arms before?” he asked the question aloud.
 
She immediately stiffened.
 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said.

“Really?” he queried, picking up on her agitation.

“I think you need to focus on the road.”

“‘The lady doth protest too much, methinks,’” he quoted from Shakespeare’s
Hamlet
.

“You think so?
 
If I am, tell me where it happened.
 
Can you do that?”
 
There was a pregnant pause.
 
“That’s what I thought.
 
Now, can we stop talking?”

“Whatever you wish,” Thorn said.
 
The couple shared not one word the remainder of the trip to London.

Chapter 7

The twins were settled in their new rooms, and Rebekah escaped into hers as soon as they had drifted off to sleep.
 
She had passed a maid and several footmen leaving her room as she entered and saw their efforts in front of the cheery fire.
 
Although it was the middle of summer, a cold front had moved in the last part of their journey, bringing with it a cold rain and leaving her even more miserable.
 
She studied the lock on the door for a long while, thinking about the twins in the nursery.
 
What if they woke during the middle of the night?
 
Then her thoughts drifted to Thorn, her husband, who was somewhere in this house.
 
She locked the door.

Rebekah turned and began stripping out of her sodden clothes.
 
She left a trail of clothes to the bath before crawling into the steaming water.
 
Rebekah inspected her body and
 
saw grotesque purple and blue bruises developing on her left side.
 
She lowered her hands to her flat stomach, remembering that other time.
 
She forcefully lifted her hands and watched as the water dripped from her fingertips, before tightly gripping the lip of the bath.
 
Rebekah forced the memories away, refusing to let them encroach.