Chapter 14
Alastair cradled Arabella in his arms, shocked that she almost toppled into the river. He saw her head hit the ground, and she lay stunned, barely moving but she had a tight grip on his arms.
“Arabella?” He sat up. “Arabella, are you all right?”
“What on earth happened?”
Sebastian was running toward them, the dog bounding along beside him as if it was proud of what it had done. His face paled when he saw Arabella.
“Oh, my! What…”
“Get that dog away from her,” Alastair growled, glowering at the animal. “It’s the reason Arabella’s been hurt.”
Sebastian didn’t need to be told twice, and he ushered the dog away. Just then, Fairleigh rushed over, his face bright red.
“What do you think you’re doing?” he demanded, grabbing Philip by the arm and trying to lift him up. “Get your hands off my sister!”
Alastair snarled and yanked his arm back. “Perhaps you should look at your sister and realize that she’s in shock?” he snapped. “If I hadn’t caught her, she’d be in the river because of someone’s careless beast.”
Fairleigh faltered a little. Before he could say anything in response, Arabella moaned, and her eyes fluttered open. Alastair leaned over her.
“Arabella? Are you all right?”
“I… what…” Arabella began to shake. “Oh…”
What was happening to her? It was like she’d retreated into herself. Alastair eased her upright and urged her to stand.
“I think she should be going home,” he said to Fairleigh over his shoulder. “I don’t think she should be around anyone right now.”
“I… of course.” The viscount cleared his throat and backed away. “I’ll just get the carriage. I…”
Then he hurried away just as Helena and Edmund approached, both looking concerned.
“What happened?” Helena went to Arabella’s side. “Arabella, are you…?”
“She’s had a fright,” Alastair answered. “I think she needs to return home.”
“Already?” Sebastian looked a little bewildered by that. “But she’s barely been here.”
Alastair glared at him.
“She’s been here for three hours, at the very least. And I don’t think she wants to be a spectacle for the rest of the day. She’s going home.”
He was confused as to why his cousin was upset about Arabella leaving, but his focus was mainly on the woman in his arms. She’d taken a hit to the hit, and she was clearly affected by it, but there was something else. Something that was just behind her eyes. It was fear.
What had happened to her just now? Something more than just the fright had shaken her up.
“Alastair…” Arabella whispered.
“I’m here.” He tightened his arms around her. “I’m right here.”
“I… I’m so cold.”
“I know. We’ll get you home.” He nodded at Helena. “Could you make sure her belongings are in the carriage?”
“Of course.”
His sister hurried away, and Edmund shadowed Alastair as he led Arabella up the slope toward the street, where a litany of carriages were lined up.
He was aware of people openly staring at them and was sure several of them were whispering.
It was irritating that people were just gawking and not helping at all.
They were just interested in the spectacle.
“Do you need me to do anything?” Sebastian asked as he caught up to them. “Maybe I can escort her home…”
“I’ll be doing that,” Alastair cut him off. “You stay here and keep your picnic party going. We don’t want upset guests, do we?”
“But…”
“Just go, Sebastian. I’ve got this.”
He didn’t have time for his cousin right now. Arabella was more important, especially in her current state, which was frightening him.
Fairleigh was standing by his carriage, waiting impatiently as Helena and a footman put Arabella’s belongings into the trunk on the back of the carriage. He ushered Arabella over to him.
“Let’s go. Thank you for your help, Your Grace. I’ll take it from here.”
“I’m coming with you.”
The viscount stared at him in surprise. “What? No, you’re not.”
“I want to be sure she’s all right. I wouldn’t be able to rest until I’m certain that she’s got home safely.”
“Do you not trust me to look after my own sister?”
Alastair didn’t answer that. He just helped Arabella into the carriage and clambered in after her.
If Fairleigh had a problem with that, he could deal with it later.
His priority right now was looking after Arabella.
After seeing her drop like a stone in his arms, especially with the knock to her head, he was more than a little concerned.
It had frightened him more than he liked to admit.
Fairleigh looked as if he was going to order him to get out, but, instead, he jumped into the carriage and slammed the door. The journey to his townhouse was silent, Fairleigh sitting across from them glaring at Alastair with a few scathing looks at Arabella.
She didn’t seem to notice, however, leaning against Alastair as she trembled. She had barely spoken, and there seemed to be a faraway look on her face. Alastair wished he knew what he could do to get her out of her confusion.
Something more had occurred; he was certain of that. He just didn’t know what.
When they finally arrived at the Fairleigh residence, the viscount was the first out, turning back to help his sister out.
“I’ll give you five minutes here,” he said briskly to Alastair. “I’m going to get the staff to heat up water for a bath. My sister needs to get warm.” He touched Arabella’s hand. “She’s still cold.”
Arabella gave him a tiny smile. Grunting, Fairleigh turned away and hurried inside, the front door remaining open and the butler peering out at them. Grateful for just the few minutes, Alastair turned to Arabella.
“How are you feeling now?” he asked, rubbing her arms.
“Still a little cold.” She frowned. “My head hurts. And I feel sick.”
“I’m not surprised. I thought you were unconscious for a moment.” He peered at her. “What happened to you? Something flipped inside you; I can tell that much.”
“I… I was just…” She turned her wide eyes up to him. “I felt like I was going through what Father did. That he fell and… and I almost ended up with the same fate.”
“Oh, Arabella.”
Alastair didn’t care if people could see them. He put his arms around her and held her against his chest, feeling her tremble against him. She leaned into him, her head on his shoulder, and he rubbed her back gently.
“You won’t end up the same way,” he said softly. “You were safe. I was there.”
“Nobody was there for Father, were they?” Arabella said miserably. “Not even whoever hurt him and then pushed him into the river. They didn’t care.”
Alastair stilled. “What do you mean by that?”
She looked up at him, her eyes shining with tears. She bit her lip, and Alastair found himself wanting to kiss her. That stunned him; what was wrong with him? A behavior like that shouldn’t elicit such a reaction.
“I think Father was killed,” she whispered. “Someone made sure he ended up in the river.”
It made sense, and yet at the same time it didn’t. Alastair eased away a little. “You’re not going to suggest that I had something to do with it, are you?”
“What? No, no.” She shook her head gingerly. “I don’t think you did that, but…” She hesitated. “Something happened. I just wish someone would be honest about it.”
He didn’t know what to say to that. While he’d come to a similar conclusion himself, hearing it out loud made it sound strange. Arabella bit her lip and clasped his hands.
“Thank you for your help, Alastair,” she said. “I appreciate you being at my side when I needed someone. And my brother isn’t exactly the best person to be comforted by.”
“I’m sure he’ll be delighted to hear that.”
That made her smile a little, and her expression relaxed a bit. Alastair wished he could make her smile more, but then Fairleigh had exited the townhouse and was by his sister’s side again.
“Come along, Arabella. You need to get inside.” He gave her a scathing look before nodding brusquely at Alastair. “Good day, Your Grace. Thank you for your concern, but I can take it from here. My carriage will take you back.”
“It’s fine. I’ll walk.” Alastair gestured at the sky. “The weather’s nice enough that it won’t be a problem to just walk.”
Fairleigh grunted as if he couldn’t care less, and then he steered Arabella toward the house.
As they stepped over the threshold, Arabella looked back at Alastair and gave him a smile.
This one was more open and genuine, and it seemed to relax her.
Alastair smiled back, and then the door was closed, cutting off their contact.
Knowing there was no point in waiting around, he began to walk back in the direction of the park. It wouldn’t take long to get there, and Sebastian would have everyone busy with games and various activities. With any luck, the guests would’ve forgotten about the scene by the time he got back.
That was when he remembered that he had planned to tell Arabella about asking Sebastian for help, but there hadn’t been a good moment, and the situation by the river had put it out of his mind. He would tell her another time, not wanting to distress her further today.
He thought about what Arabella had said about the night her father died and knew there was some truth in what she said.
There was a possibility that the last Viscount Fairleigh had come to a more gruesome demise, but with no witnesses it was hard to make anyone change their minds.
Especially when the coroner had already put it down as an accidental death, that he’d hit his head while trying to kill himself.
If there was more to that, it would be chilling. Knowing that someone had killed Fairleigh and had decided to keep quiet about it was walking about today without a care in the world. Alastair didn’t think he could kill anyone; he wouldn’t be able to cope with that.
Finally, he arrived at the park and found most of the guests still present, carrying on as if they hadn’t just seen someone get hysterical about having a dog jump up on them. The animal itself was lolloping around, bouncing across blankets and people as if it didn’t care.
Alastair rolled his eyes and walked over to where he and Edmund had been sitting.
Helena was with Edmund, her maid sitting nearby as the pair chatted easily between them.
While annoyed that his friend was ignoring the warning to keep away, Alastair had no strength to tell Edmund to walk away.
He collapsed onto the blanket beside his sister.
“Alastair!” Helena turned to him. “How’s Arabella? Is she all right?”
“She will be. I think she’s mostly over the shock.” He sat up straight, stretching his legs out in front of him. “I don’t think she’ll be going anywhere near water or dogs anytime soon.”
Helena shook her head. “Honestly, I don’t know what Miss Linton was thinking, bringing that hulking animal here.”
“What? Miss Linton?”
“It’s her dog. Her maid was walking it and keeping an eye on it, for the most part, but then it suddenly got away.”
Alastair didn’t like how that sounded. He looked over his shoulder and saw Rosamund Linton nearby, talking to two matronly-looking women. The dog was sitting at her side, its tongue hanging out as it panted.
He hadn’t realized it belonged to her. She hadn’t appeared to be with a pet when she arrived, and Alastair hadn’t really been paying attention. Why had she kept this from him?
And then another thought made him sit up.
Had she deliberately made her dog jump up at Arabella?
At this point, Alastair wouldn’t have put it past her; Miss Linton was very upset about being pushed aside for someone else, and he’d made it clear when she spoke to him earlier that he wasn’t having his head turned by anyone else.
She didn’t like his answer. Maybe she wanted to humiliate Arabella?
“Anyway,” Edmund said quickly. “Sebastian is planning on making us play some more games in a while. Perhaps we could slip away before that happens? Some of the games we played earlier were a bit… well, I wasn’t comfortable with them.”
“Neither was I.” Helena frowned. “I felt like he was trying to play up to Arabella and get her endeared to him. She looked just as awkward about it as I did.”
Alastair peered at her. “What makes you think Sebastian might’ve wanted Arabella’s attention?”
“Apart from the fact he keeps coming over to check on her more than anyone else, and he purposefully chose her to be his partner in the games?” Helena snorted. “I know you’re not blind, Alastair. Sebastian is conniving when he wants to be. Maybe he thinks he can sneak her out from under your nose.”
Edmund laughed. “I don’t think that’s going to happen. Alastair isn’t about to be bested by Cousin Sebastian.”
Alastair didn’t laugh. All he felt right now was jealousy bubbling up in his chest. Something that hadn’t happened to him in a very long time, and it felt strange sitting there.
Somehow, even though he didn’t have much against Sebastian, he didn’t want his cousin anywhere near Arabella.