Chapter 28
Yuri couldn’t remember the last time he’d felt so tired.
It was almost as though his entire body was ready to collapse into sleep, and yet his mind wouldn’t let it.
His hair was still damp from the bath he’d taken, but the scent of smoke still clung to his hair and skin, and judging by the way the kitchen smelled, the whole family would probably need to take baths for a week straight before the stench of smoke dissipated completely.
“At least it was only the lumber.” Sacha ran a hand through his damp hair from where he sat directly across the table from Yuri.
“What are we going to do?” Kate rubbed a hand over the bulge in her belly, as though the gesture might somehow protect the child growing inside her.
Yuri glanced around the table, where his siblings and their spouses had gathered.
They should probably all be in bed. The children certainly were.
But here they were, seated around the same table they’d gathered at after they’d buried their mother, then their father and his second wife, and then their brother, Ivan.
It only seemed fitting to sit here now.
“I’m sure Jonas will launch a full investigation,” Alexei said from where he slouched at the head of the table. “This wasn’t an accidental fire, and we captured one of the arsonists. He’ll talk eventually.”
“The other two probably left the island while our building was still burning.” Sacha grabbed one of the teacakes from the platter at the center of the table, then tossed it into his mouth, swallowing so quickly he couldn’t possibly have tasted it.
“How badly did this fire set us back?” Mikhail picked up a cup of tea, only to set it back down on the table without taking a sip.
“Several thousand dollars in lumber.” Alexei blew out a breath, his shoulders sagging. “Like you said, it’s a setback, but it didn’t ruin us.”
“It could have,” Nathan gritted, his jaw hard. “Had you not been there when the arsonists came.”
“And had it not started raining.” Sacha tossed another teacake into his mouth, once again swallowing after barely chewing. “I know the entire town was trying to prevent the flames from spreading anywhere else, even in our shipyard, but without that rain, I’m not sure we would have been successful.”
“The Caldwells are mad that Secretary Gray is coming for a visit,” Alexei said flatly. “They blame me. The governor said something to me about it just yesterday. I bet that’s why they did it.”
“I was wondering if they did it because they found out we have their seal ledgers and they wanted to destroy the evidence.” Mikhail picked up a teacake but didn’t eat it.
Yuri hadn’t thought of that, but a chill traveled through him at the idea. “I don’t think they know. I saw Rosalind in town today with Millicent and Jane and Freya. If her father knew about the ledgers, I can’t imagine he’d let her out of the house.”
And Rosalind’s father definitely would have injured her, but he wasn’t going to think about that. Two more days. That’s all the longer they had to keep the ledgers secret before he could whisk Rosalind away.
Pounding sounded on the front door. “Is anyone there? I need help.”
Alexei met Mikhail’s gaze; then they both stood from the table and rushed to the door.
Yuri didn’t recognize the voice, but he couldn’t say whether his brothers did. All he knew was that both Alexei and Mikhail strode down the hallway as if flames were still licking at their shoes.
Yuri scooted his chair back and followed them, right along with everyone else.
Another round of pounding sounded. “Hello? Is anyone awake?”
“Can I help you?” Alexei opened the door to reveal a vaguely familiar man standing on the porch wringing his hands.
“I heard the woman doctor is in town. Is she here?”
“I am.” Kate stepped forward. “Where are you injured?”
The man shook his head. “It’s not me. It’s Miss Rosalind. She’s in the carriage.”
Miss Rosalind? Everything inside Yuri turned hot.
The man was pointing to the carriage, but Yuri lunged forward and grabbed him by his collar. “What did he do? What did her father do to her?”
The man, whom he now recognized as the Caldwell’s butler, just shook his head. “I don’t know all of it, but it’s not good. She needs a doctor.”
“Then stop standing there and bring her to the kitchen. I’ll get my medical bag.” Kate was already dashing up the stairs, her steps fast despite her protruding belly.
Yuri released Foster, who turned back toward the carriage, but Yuri was faster and raced ahead of the older man.
He reached the carriage door first and wrenched it open, then flinched. Rosalind was curled into a heap on the bench seat, eyes closed. Her face was pale though otherwise untouched, but her breathing was choppy and uneven.
His heartbeat doubled. He didn’t have to be a doctor to know something was very, very wrong.
“Rosalind?” he asked gently.
Her eyes fluttered open. “Yuri.” She licked her lips. “It hurts. Make it stop hurting.”
“What hurts, sweetheart?”
“My ribs . . . I can’t . . .” A breath shuddered from her lungs, followed by a squeal of pain.
“I’m going to carry you inside. Kate and Nathan are waiting.”
Rosalind whimpered and pressed her eyes shut, then gave a subtle nod.
He tried to be as careful as possible picking her up, but the moment he slid an arm behind her back, she gave a sharp cry.
“I’m so sorry, but I have to get you to the kitchen.” His voice broke on the words.
“Do you need me to help?” Sacha asked from behind him.
Yuri shook his head. “Handing her to you will only cause more pain.”
“How do you know?”
Maybe it was because of the tight way she was curled against his chest, or the short, panicked gasps coming from her lungs. He wasn’t sure. All he knew was that he wasn’t going to hand her off to another person, not even Sacha.
“What did that monster do to her?” Alexei came up beside Sacha, his dark eyes sweeping over Rosalind.
Yuri just shook his head. That was yet another thing he didn’t know. In fact, he wasn’t even sure that he cared. All he cared about was getting Rosalind to breathe normally. Was that something Nathan and Kate could fix?
He carried her toward the house, but she made tiny whimpering sounds with each step, and when she tried to suck in a deeper breath, a strangled wheeze escaped.
“Just a minute, love. We’re almost there.”
She didn’t respond. Instead, her body loosened in his arms, and another chill swept through him.
“In here.” Kate met him in the doorway, then gestured to the hall that led to the kitchen. “Is it her lungs? Does she have a broken rib?”
“I don’t know. She was conscious in the carriage, though she couldn’t seem to talk. But now . . .” He glanced at her white face resting limply against his shoulder, and a fresh wave of terror coursed through him.
“Set her down gently. Don’t move her shoulders if you can help it.” Nathan held the kitchen door open, his sleeves rolled up and his hands stained with the dark orange liquid that he and Kate used to disinfect things.
Yuri set her down on the scarred wood as gently as he could manage. She didn’t make a single sound, but that only made everything seem worse. “She was in a lot of pain before she went unconscious.”
Yuri stepped away from the table, and Nathan slid a pair of scissors straight down her nightgown from collar to hem.
Yuri looked away. As a doctor, Nathan might have to examine an exposed woman, but he wasn’t about to look. But the gasps from both Nathan and Kate had his eyes flickering back toward Rosalind for the briefest of seconds.
Just long enough to see that her chest and abdomen were covered in black and blue bruises, and that there was one place near the bottom of her left side where her ribs bulged and then caved inward.
He ran to the waste bin and retched.
“I’m going to kill him,” Bryony said. “I’m going to take one of Mikhail’s guns and march straight up there and—”
“No, you’re not,” Jonas said. “This is grounds enough for me to arrest him. No killing necessary.”
Yuri wiped his mouth and then straightened, turning to find that every one of his family members had poured into the room, including Jonas.
When had he gotten back from the jail?
Never mind. It didn’t matter. What mattered was that there was a lawman here to record things, and he could also testify in court later, if needed.
His brothers were all like him, trying to find something to look at that wasn’t Rosalind’s black-and-blue body, but the serious looks on their faces told him that they’d glanced at her for long enough to understand what had happened.
Jonas, on the other hand, had stepped even closer to the table and was vigorously writing notes on the pad he always kept tucked into his breast pocket.
Yuri turned to Kate, but she wasn’t flying into action or calling for a long list of medical tools. She’d covered the bottom half of Rosalind’s body with a blanket, but now she was standing next to the table with one hand resting on her stomach and a tear streaking down her cheek.
“Don’t tell me you can’t help. You have to do something, please. You have to try!” Yuri lunged forward, about to grip Kate by the shoulders. Why wasn’t she moving?
Sacha hooked an arm around his waist before he reached her, pulling him backward. “She’s doing everything she knows to do, but she’s not God. She can’t heal everyone.”
Tears scalded his eyes. “I should have forced Rosalind to leave sooner. I shouldn’t have let her wait for a full week. I should have . . .”
“Stop talking,” Nathan snapped. He was moving at least, even if he was pressing on her misshapen ribs in a way that surely would have caused her pain had she been conscious.
His ministrations weren’t helping, though. Each breath Rosalind drew seemed weaker and weaker.
“Do you know what a needle thoracostomy is, Kate?” Nathan glanced at his wife.
Kate shook her head, then wiped another tear away from her cheek. “I’ve never heard of it.”
“I need the large-bore trocar and cannula from my medical bag.”