Page 123 of A Mother for the Blind Duke’s Orphans

Someone shouted her name. Perhaps it was Hector. Perhaps it was herself. She saw Aurora clutch Princess against the blanket. Saw the horse bearing down—not malicious, only terrified, which made no difference at all.

A hard force struck Poppy from the side.

Hector’s arm closed around her with brutal urgency. He drove her away from the path of the horse, taking her weight and the fall together. The ground hit her shoulder. Air left her lungs.

The horse thundered past.

For a moment there was only dust and shouting.

Poppy pushed herself up, dazed. “Hector?”

He was on the ground several feet away.

Too still.

“Hector.”

She crawled to him first, then stumbled, then reached him on her knees. His cane lay beside him. His dark hair had fallen across his forehead. His eyes were closed.

“No,” she said, and the word came out small, useless. “No. Hector.”

The stable yard erupted around her—men running, Aurora crying, Princess wailing—but Poppy heard all of it as if from underwater. She touched his face. Then his shoulder. She was afraid to move him and more afraid not to.

“Hector, wake up.”

He did not.

Poppy bent close, her hand trembling against his chest until she felt it rise.

Once.

Again.

She closed her eyes for half a second, then opened them.

“Send for the physician,” she said, and this time her voice carried. “Now.”

Hector woke beneath an impossible weight.

For several seconds, he could not place himself. There was warmth pressed across his chest, a small elbow lodged somewhere near his ribs, and hair tickling his chin. His head ached with a dull, punishing throb. The room smelled faintly of linen and something medicinal. Not the stable yard, then. Not the sharp dust. Not the horse.

He shifted.

The weight made a distressed sound.

“Do not move,” a small voice commanded.

Hector opened his eyes.

Light blurred. Shapes gathered slowly: bed hangings, pale walls, a small dark form sprawled across him with absolute ownership.

“Aurora,” he said, his voice rough.

She jerked up. Unfortunately, she used his chest to do it.

He grunted.

“You are awake!”