“Am I not right here in the middle of a storm saving you?”
“Perhaps,” he agreed. “But I’ve heard of good-hearted souls doing such a thing. But the keeper? Of this lighthouse? My God, it’s in the middle of nowhere!”
“And?” She would almost think he was doing better if not for the fact that now his breaths seemed heavier and faster and he looked even more off-color than before. “No, actually don’t answer that, sir. Please save your strength.”
“My strength is fine.”
“I truly beg to differ.”
He looked like he wanted to fight further but genuinely didn’t have the strength.
“Did they wrap it to apply pressure?” she asked.
He didn’t even bother opening his eyes now; he looked tired enough that perhaps he couldn’t. “The wood is still in there. They said pulling it out will make it bleed more.”
That much sounded true, but shouldn’t they at least have tied something around the arm to staunch the bleeding?
“Lift your arm if you can,” she said, “above your head and heart. It’ll help the bleeding slow.”
He looked too weary to fight her and he lazily put his arm beside his head; his elbow rested on the side of the boat. “How isthis?”
“Better. Just hold on. We’ll be back soon.”
“And there’s a doctor there?”
“No,” she said. With this current, taking him to a doctor was easily an hour or more away. “I’ll take care of it,” she said. “I know basic first aid.”
“Delightful,” he muttered, not at all sounding like he meant it.
CHAPTER 58
He was looking weak as they pulled up to the dock. She tied up the boat as fast as she could manage with the current, but even once she was finished, with the way the boat bobbed and rocked, she wasn’t at all sure how she was going to get him out and onto the dock, especially if he had become a dead weight. From his current lack of movement, it was hard to tell.
“We here?” He lazily opened an eye.
“Here,” she said, offering her hand. “If you hold onto my shoulder, will you be able to make it over?” The dock was currently a foot higher than them due to the tide.
“Look, I—” he said, standing. He swayed and she caught him; his weight pairing with a tricky wave almost sent them both overboard. His face was close, as close as only Kallias had ever gotten, and he seemed to notice it too for his face turned red and he yanked away. “Excuse me.”
“Let’s just get this over with,” she said, taking his arm over her shoulders without his explicit permission and looping hers around his waist. The amount of contact was surely improper, especially between a man and woman, but what was such a ridiculous thing in a situation like this?
“I was just saying,” he continued as though he had never stopped, “that I’ve been on boats since I was four and never have I needed the help of a woman.”
“And never before have you been bleeding like this, I’m sure,” she said easily. “Pride is worthless when you’re dead.”
“It’s not pride!” he protested, but he followed her over the edge all the same, and even on land, he wasn’t quite ready to let go.
She could tell he started to—that he felt he should—so she said, “Today I’m your rescuer. Nothing more. Propriety doesn’t matter when lives are at stake.”
His head leaned against her then, as if only pride had been keeping him upright and he murmured, “Are you always this…definitive?”
She had no idea and so chose not to answer.
Instead, though the wind seemed to fight them at every step, they staggered their way to the lighthouse, and after a tricky pass over the stairs leading up to it, she got him through the threshold of the door.
In this first room was her grandfather’s red velvet sofa. It was the only place for him to lie without climbing more stairs—and given how difficult it had been to go over the wide clusters of steps outside, she could not imagine how it would be possible to help him through the narrow, circular stairs of the lighthouse.
Instead, she sat him in a wooden chair by the door and then lit a candle and ran upstairs to get her bandages, thread, and linen. With a quick check out the window, she saw no sight of the ship, so for now, it was her duty to save this one man. She could search for them later.
