The August Sunrise Collection by Farmer Merry

Author:Farmer, Merry [Farmer, Merry]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-12-24T18:30:00+00:00

For a moment, Alex thought he was back in the field hospital in Sebastopol. His side ached, and his head and arm stung. He knew battle wounds when he felt them.

But as he opened his eyes, the sunlight pouring through the window illuminated the room where he lay. His bedroom. In London. Everything was exactly as it should be…and yet not.

“You’re awake, sir.”

Phillips jumped up from somewhere nearby, rushing toward him. The young man’s face was a mask of worry.

Alex pushed himself to a sitting position, the throbbing and stinging increasing. “What happened?”

“You should rest, sir,” Phillips said. “You’ve been injured.”

That much was obvious. Alex winced, but continued to muscle himself to sit with his back against the pillows behind him. Someone had removed his clothes and dressed him in a nightshirt, but they hadn’t been as careful with the bed. The coverlet was irreparably stained with dried, dark red spots of blood. Mrs. Clifford would be beside herself. Marigold would be upset as well.

He snapped his head up. “Where’s Marigold?”

A moment later, Armand strode into the room. “You’re awake?” he asked.

“Evidently,” Alex answered. He shifted his position, gingerly testing his side. “I was shot.”

“And lucky for you, they nearly missed,” Armand said.

“Nearly,” Alex snorted.

“The bullet in your side didn’t go deep, and it failed to hit anything other than muscle.”

“Don’t sound so disappointed,” Alex teased his friend, grunting and grimacing as he swung his legs over the edge of the bed. “Where’s Marigold?”

“Sir, you shouldn’t get up,” Phillips insisted, reaching out as if he would tuck Alex into bed like a child. “You lost quite a bit of blood.”

Alex frowned. He didn’t need to be told things he already knew. “Where’s Marigold?” he repeated, beginning to have the sense his friends were hiding something from him.

“She and Malcolm went after James,” Katya said, stepping into the room as if she’d been hovering just outside the door.

“Katya,” Armand scolded her.

Phillips glared in her direction.

“What?” Katya shrugged, her outwardly calm demeanor failing to hide the anxiety Alex could see in her eyes. “He was going to find out soon enough.”

Alex pushed himself to stand, grabbing the bedside table to steady himself as his head swam. “Whose idiotic idea was it for Marigold to get involved with this?” he hissed.

“Marigold’s,” Katya answered. “Malcolm tried to stop her. He wanted to send Ruby into the Club instead, but as I reminded him—”

“What?” Alex roared, cutting her off.

In a move that was as rare as an eclipse, Katya bowed her head, looking guilty and sheepish. “We concluded that the best way to rescue your son was to attempt to extricate him from Turpin and Shayles’s grasp before they had a chance to move him somewhere out of our reach. Ruby scouted the house in Bethnal Green and discovered they were taking James to the Black Strap Club, so that is where Marigold and Malcolm went.”

Alex raised a hand to his forehead to fight the pain gathering there. “She can’t go into a place like that.

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