Chapter 5
Cat was too surprised to do anything when Thane MacPhearson suddenly lost his mind and shoved her roughly against the wall, then had the audacity to warn her not to move.
And what were those loud bangs? Behind her, she heard glass falling to the ground in a strangely delicate-sounding wave, like faerie bells tolling.
“What are you doing?” she finally asked, ignoring the bloom of pain in the back of her head from where it had hit the smooth stone.
“Are you hurt?” Thane asked in a low, urgent voice. It was utterly unlike his previous tone.
“Yes! What did you expect would happen when you pushed me into the side of the house?” She rubbed her neck, and cautiously reached up to the back of her head, surprised to find that there was no wound from slamming against the brick. It was as if her head had been cushioned somehow.
Still, she’d likely have a headache later.
“No, I mean did he hit you?” Thane looked her over, his expression anxious. Again, his attitude was so different from before that it left her confounded. “You look all right. No blood. He must have missed.”
“Who missed? No one hit me.” Was the man drunk and she’d somehow failed to notice until now? Or was he possibly unhinged?
Kai had darted back inside the moment after it happened, and now he returned, his usually pleasant expression serious.
“No one was hurt inside either,” he reported. “Looks like a clean miss, except for the window glass. Found one where it buried itself in the doorjamb of the coat closet past the window.”
Cat shook her head, hoping to clear it. “Found what?”
“A bullet,” Thane snapped.
“What do you mean, a bullet? Why would Mr Buchanan find a bullet?” She realized that her heart was racing, her head was already pounding, and that she didn’t feel at all well.
Thane stared at her as if she were dense. “He found a bullet because someone shot at you.”
Things happened very quickly after that.
Thane herded Cat and Aunt Tacita into the carriage at the street corner, accompanied by the innocent-looking Kai and the considerably less-innocent-looking Calan.
Duncan had stayed behind to carry out some task Thane had given him in a whispered tone.
Even in her shock, Cat noticed how the other men all obeyed Thane instantly, and how they worked smoothly together despite the oddness of the situation.
None of the men would answer any of Cat’s questions, other than to say that they were taking her home, and that everything could be discussed later. Thane and Kai joined them in the carriage (after practically pushing them inside). Without a word, Calan had hopped up to sit next to the driver.
“I was supposed to be home long before now,” Cat said softly, staring out the window. Well, she stared out the window until Thane abruptly pulled the shades down. “Excuse me!” Cat objected.
He just glared at her, so she glared back.
Then Aunt Tacita said, “Perhaps it would help us all to remain as calm as possible.” The statement was clearly aimed at Cat, though her aunt was polite enough to not look directly at her while saying it.
Kai nodded. “You are very wise, Mrs Murray. I hope your neighbors won’t look askance at the arrival of unexpected guests at this hour,” he added, as if the evening’s most dramatic occurrence was a bungled invitation list.
“Our neighbors keep their noses out of our business, an example I wish more people would follow,” Cat snapped, keeping her gaze on Thane.
“Tell Buchanan about your carriage accident earlier,” Thane suggested. “He was curious.”
Perplexed by the sudden change in subject, Cat sighed and recounted the incident. Kai did indeed look quite interested, and asked a barrage of detailed questions, only some of which she could answer.
“You’d have to speak to our hostler and driver for the rest,” she concluded.
“Thank you, I will,” Kai announced, evidently thinking she’d invited him to do just that. “And I think an examination of the carriage will be instructive.”
“Ah…as you wish.” These were the men Brodie spent his life with while in the army? Lord, they were all daft.
Back at the house, the servants seemed to all have purchased their colors in the time between Cat’s departure and return, because from the footmen to the maids to the housekeeper, everyone obeyed Thane’s word as they would Wellington himself.
Kai followed one of the servants toward the back entrance, a path she’d never seen a guest take before.
She’d lost track of Calan entirely. And her head was definitely beginning to ache.
One of the maids helped Cat off with her cloak, and everyone was startled by the sound of glass shards falling to the floor, souvenirs of the window breaking behind her when the bullet flew through it.
“Whatever happened to you tonight, miss?” the maid asked.
“That is a tale,” Cat said.
“One that requires discussion, but not now,” said Thane.
Cat turned to him, surprised. “Wait, what? Why not now?” Although Thane annoyed her every minute he was nearby, the thought of him just up and leaving with no explanation was somehow even more vexing.
“Our objective tonight was to ensure that you both got home safely. Now, you and your aunt ought to go to bed. Which bedroom is yours, by the way?”
Cat gaped at him. Gentlemen did not ask unmarried ladies where their bedrooms were located.
“Er, upper floor on the right, looking out toward the back,” the housekeeper said when Thane leveled a look at her after Cat’s continuing silence.
Thane nodded his thanks to the housekeeper. “Good. Make sure all the windows in that room are locked and that the curtains are drawn completely. Miss Ross, bolt your door from the inside as well.”
“It doesn’t have a bolt,” Cat said, before thinking that this was also a potentially scandalous tidbit of information.
Thane looked heavenward. “Then prop a chair under the knob before you go to bed. I trust you are capable of that?”
“I’m capable of a great number of things, Mr MacPhearson. But I usually like to know why I’m ordered to do them.”
“Tomorrow is soon enough for that. Good night, Mrs Murray.” He bowed to Aunt Tacita, and then left without another word.
“What just happened?” Cat muttered, not to anyone in particular. “He left Kai behind, and did Calan even come inside? He explained nothing. And he’s very rude!” She added that last observation just in time to notice Tacita regarding her with an odd expression on her face. “What?”
Tacita smiled slightly, but then shook her head.
“My dear, I cannot put two thoughts together at the moment. But MacPhearson was correct about one thing. We ought to end this evening now. Go and get ready for bed, child. With luck, we’ll understand more about what happened when the gentlemen return tomorrow and explain what they’ve found. ”
“Gentlemen,” Cat said with a snort. “More like ruffians, the way they practically kidnapped us.”
“Darling, one could only wish for a kidnapper to escort one home at such speed. Now go to sleep. And don’t forget to say your prayers.”
“Of course, Aunt.” Cat gave her a fond kiss on the cheek and then climbed the stairs to the upper floor, a trek that seemed more arduous than usual.
Her maid helped her out of the black evening gown and into her night shift (which was her old white one, for Cat had drawn the line at mourning while unconscious). After declining the offer of a tisane, Cat climbed into bed and blew out the candle.
Staring up at the canopy above, she could hardly believe what had transpired in the last few hours. All that was certain was that from the instant Thane MacPhearson ran into her in the hallway, her life had spun out of control. The cause was obvious: Thane himself.
Where was the daft man now? Probably off carousing with his comrades, laughing about how easy it had been to pull a prank on Catriona Ross…
She shook her head, immediately revising the image. Thane MacPhearson wouldn’t carouse or laugh or pull a prank. For one, the man was as dour as the grave, and for another, he obviously despised Cat as much as she despised him.
“Well, if he’d watched where he was going, none of it would have happened!” she whispered, entreating the darkness for sympathy.
But if he hadn’t been there, would the evening have possibly gone much worse for her?
Cat’s mind shied away from the full meaning of the incident on the front steps.
Perhaps that was why it was easier to focus on the details, like the fact that he’d been pressed against her so tightly that she heard—or felt—his heartbeat, which seemed like far too intimate a thing to be privy to, considering they’d been aware of each other’s existence for a grand total of one hour.
Though she’d been too shocked to register it at the time, now she recalled how his breath had hit her cheek, and the rumble in his chest when he spoke so close to her. She’d be living with that memory for a long time.
As Cat dealt with the secondhand embarrassment at reliving that moment, she frowned. His heartbeat. Something about it was a bit strange, wasn’t it? (Aside from the fact that she’d been close enough to sense it at all.)
Then she realized. Her own heartbeat had trebled the moment he pushed her out of the path of the bullet. And he was far more aware of the danger surrounding them than she had been. Yet his had remained slow and steady.
He’d stepped into the possible path of a bullet with no more concern than most men would if they’d stepped out for a newspaper.
A thin sigh escaped Cat’s lips. If Thane did that for someone he didn’t even like, what would he do for those he cared about?
He’d move the earth, Brodie told her in her mind.
Cat half turned her head, as if her twin might be there in the room with her. The feeling in her chest surged from the mild fluttering of her silly heart to something too big for one person to hold.
“Brodie,” she murmured in the darkness.