Thank God for the little bit of rapport he’d managed to build with her.
“I won’t hurt you,” he assured her again. “I’m here to help you, Bridget.”
She hesitated for only half a second more before wrapping herself securely in the thick cloak and scrambling through the window into his arms. He held her frail body against his chest, the anger that had driven him here slowly abating. He would not have his reckoning with Roger tonight, but he’d found the girl he’d been searching for so long.
“You’re safe,” he whispered as he carried her through the night. “He’ll never hurt you again.”
Chapter Nineteen
“What is wrong withyou?” Fiona asked grumpily when Adrian roused her from a deep sleep an hour later.
Bridget shivered in the hall behind him, ready to bolt at the slightest provocation.
He raked his hand through his hair in frustration. “Besides the obvious?”
Fiona gave a gruff laugh as she slid into her robe and lit her bedside lamp. “You’re the last person I expected to see tonight, of all nights. Don’t you have something... better you could be doing?”
He ignored her jab and pointed to Bridget. “I’ve brought you someone new.”
Fiona gave him one last measuring look, then shook her head, and focused on the girl. “Hello, sweetheart. What’s your name?”
Bridget bit her lip and stared down at her dirty bare feet, hugging Adrian’s cloak tighter around her thin shoulders.
“Her name is Bridget,” Adrian answered for her. “She’s had a rough night, Fi. She could use a hot bath and something warm to eat.”
“Of course,” Fiona murmured soothingly. “I’ll show her to the bathroom and get her some warm nightclothes, if you’ll go wake Christine and have her make something to eat.”
Adrian gave a huff of irritation. “Christine can sleep. I’m perfectly capable of finding my way around the kitchen.”
“All right then,” Fiona agreed, her eyes twinkling. “Let’s go get you settled, Bridget, shall we?”
Bridget dug in her heels, giving Adrian a pleading look, obviously unwilling to put herself in the hands of yet another stranger.
Adrian squeezed her shoulder. “It’s all right,” he told her softly. “You can trust Fiona. She only wants to help.”
Giving him a long searching look, Bridget finally nodded and followed Fiona down the hall.
