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“I should fetch the earl,” she said. “He will want to see you.”
She was up and gone in a heartbeat. She moved quickly for a little thing. Hadn’t she told him that before? Something about running fast…but he was meant to keep it a secret because running was not a very ladylike endeavor.
Nick smiled at the memory.
The door banged open and Nick flinched.
“You are awake! Splendid!” Robert bounded before him and stopped short of barreling into the bed. He looked…happy. What an odd expression on the usually scowling face.
“They’ll have to try harder than that if they want to take me down,” Nick said. His farmer’s body was tough. He hadn’t lived a life of ease and leisure since returning from school, choosing to work his hands in the fields instead.
“What happened, Nicholas? Who was it?”
Nick furrowed his brows and stared into the distance. “I do not know.”
Robert looked stunned. “But you were shot at from the front. Dr. Mason determined it himself.”
“Yes, and the coward must have been hiding behind a patch of trees. Not the one near the bend—”
“Yes, yes.” Robert waved his hand to dismiss the explanation. “I fetched you in the carriage. I saw where it happened.” He stared at Nick for a long moment. “Know anyone who wants you gone?”
“Who is next in line?” Nick retorted dryly.
“No idea,” Robert replied with feeling. He shook his head and let out a frustrated growl. “Anyone else? Are there any enemies in your past unrelated to the earldom?”
Nick made a show of thinking on the question, but it wasn’t necessary. That is all he had thought about since the attack. At least, when he wasn’t thinking about the dark-haired angel. “The girl—”
“Did she do anything funny?” Robert barked.
Nick responded slowly, his brows pulled together. “No…”
“Good.” Robert nodded once, satisfied.
Nick surveyed the earl. His wild, white hair still fell to his shoulders, his gray eyes still framed by wrinkled, saggy lids. But something was different. His behavior was strange. Erratic, even. “Unless you count saving my life as funny.”
Robert’s eyes seemed to glaze over, unfocused, so Nick gave him the time he needed to process whatever his mind was trying to wrap around. The clock beat slowly on the mantle and quiet ensued, giving Nick adequate time to study the earl. Upon closer reflection, Robert looked as if he had aged in the time Nick was unconscious. Worry lines creased his forehead, pulling his eyebrows close together so they resembled one long, furry caterpillar.
“How long have I been asleep?” Nick asked. Had it been a year and not just days?
The earl looked at him for a moment, coming back to the present. “Nearly a fortnight. The girl took care of you for the duration.”
“Who is she?”
Robert suddenly looked pained. His skin took on a gray quality as if he couldn’t fight to feel alive anymore and he let out a defeated breath. It was frightening; Nick had never seen the man so vulnerable. “My niece.”
Nick went cold. Niece? His niece?
“Do not panic. She has no brothers.”
Nick’s cheeks grew warm. That was exactly what he had worried about. He wanted to ask if the woman had any sisters either, but instead said, “I was under the impression you have no family.”
“I don’t.”
Nick let the thick silence sit on them for a moment. Rushing Robert was never the way to glean information or get what he wanted. He bided his time.
A few minutes passed before Robert broke the silence. “Her father is my—was my brother. Her mother is gone.”
There was something more to tell, but Robert was shuttering his expression. He was not going to offer any more information tonight.
