“Perhaps you should not witness this, Miss Miller,” he said.
“I am not a flighty girl, Mr. Noonan,” she said, her voice tight. “Worry about my brother, not me.”
He nodded, and resumed his cleaning, then murmured, “Please ask My Lord’s valet for whiskey or brandy.”
Thea knew the estate had no better physician than the steward, who had served as a medic during the war. She trusted him, even when he poured the liquor into Freddie’s wound, making her brother howl in agony. She ignored his wild curses as Mr. Noonan calmly ordered his lord to keep still as he took a needle and catgut to the wound. When Freddie still thrashed on the bed, Mr. Noonan signaled two footmen to hold him down and still.
With the front wound closed, Mr. Noonan and the footman rolled Freddie onto his side so they might tend the ball’s exit wound. Thea could not see it but watched Freddie’s face twist in pain as they sutured that wound closed as well. She offered him a quick smile of encouragement when he looked at her and saw his own lips quirk in response.
At last, it was over. Mr. Noonan wrapped the wound in clean linen and helped Freddie to lie back on the bed. Freddie lay with his head on his pillows, panting, as Mr. Noonan rose from the chair. He glanced at Thea rather than Freddie as he spoke. “He will be all right. He is young and strong, and the ball went straight through. I will give him a small amount of laudanum to help him sleep and ease his pain.”
Thea nodded and stood. “Thank you, Mr. Noonan. I will stay with him a while, and will call for you if I have need.”
The steward nodded and pulled a small brown vial from his pocket. Bending over Freddie, he encouraged him to take a small drink from the bottle. Freddie’s expression altered from weary resignation to disgust as he swallowed. “Lord,” he gasped. “Next time put it in something. That stuff is vile.”
Mr. Noonan gave him a small smile and a bow. “I will, My Lord.”
He placed the vial on the nearby table and bowed to Thea. “I will also return to check on him, Miss Miller.”
As he and the footmen left, Thea glanced at the Baron as she went around the bed to take the chair Mr. Noonan had just vacated. “You are welcome to stay and eat supper, Baron,” she said, her tone stiff. “I apologize for not joining you as I wish to stay with my brother.”
He bowed, his good looking face concerned as he shifted his gaze from her to Freddie. “I understand, Miss Miller, truly I do. Might I also stay with you and Freddie for a time?”
Thea hesitated, staring at him. The man truly cared for Freddie and, as his closest friend, had a right to stand a vigil by his bed. But Thea could not tolerate having him near. Her stomach churned at the very thought of him watching her across Freddie’s bed. “Thank you for your kind offer, Baron. If you stay the night, perhaps you may sit with him after I depart. For now, I wish to be alone with my brother.”
The Baron bowed. “As you wish. I will watch over him later then.”
“My staff will ensure you are attended and fed, Baron.”
She watched as he left Freddie’s rooms, then turned back to her brother in the bed. Discovering him now sound asleep, she wondered if he had witnessed their exchange. Standing, she covered him with a quilt, then sat back down and took his hand.
“What are we going to do, Freddie?” she asked his silent form. “Next time, the killer might not miss.”
* * *
The hour was late when she finally left Freddie’s rooms, instructing Michael, Freddie’s valet, to permit the Baron of Ampleforth to sit with him should the Baron wish it. Tired from her wildly swinging and exhausting emotions, Thea walked down the corridor toward the stairs. She had not eaten since the midday meal and was hungry despite her worry over both Freddie and Liam.
She had sent a footman to find Liam and bring him to her in Freddie’s chambers hours ago, and the servant returned with the admission he could not find Liam Carter anywhere. That gnawed at her stomach as much as her hunger did. Where was Liam? Had something happened to him? Though she had not gone to the lake as she usually did, given the circumstances of Freddie being shot, word around the house would have reached Liam that the lord had been injured.
Though the lamps in the hallways were lit, shadows still played and danced along the walls as she traversed them, deep in her apprehension. “You had better have a good reason for worrying me, Liam,” she growled under her breath. “When I find you, I swear I will –”
A shadow broke away from the wall ahead of her, bent over and shambling. Her heart in her throat, thinking of the killer hiding in the walls, she barely managed to keep her gasp of fear in her throat. She stopped, watching as the figure repeatedly bounced off the wall, walked a few steps toward her before striking the wall again. It held its hands to its head, and there was something familiar about the way it moved.
“Liam?”
The shadow halted under a lamp, lifting its head at the sound of her voice. The light struck his red-gold hair as his hands fell to his sides. “Thea,” he mumbled.
“Oh, God, what happened?”
Thea rushed down the corridor toward him, reaching him just as he slumped against the wall again. He slid down to sit on the floor, his back against the plaster. Now closer and in the light, Thea saw how pale his flesh was, how his mouth bowed down in pain. “Liam?”
He tried to raise a faint grin. “I found the spy’s lair – in the tunnel. He hit me.”
“Dear God.”
Standing, she hurried down the hall toward the stairs, finding two footmen climbing them toward her. “One of you fetch Mr. Noonan right now, the other come help me.”
Obeying her, one ran back down while the other trotted up the stairs, taking them two at a time. “I think this room is empty,” she said, pointing at a door as she led the way toward Liam. “Get him up and help him into the bed.”
