Night Storm by Tracey Devlyn

Author:Tracey Devlyn [Devlyn, Tracey]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2014-09-19T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

Adair wondered what it would take to earn back Charley’s trust. He couldn’t change the past any more than she could. In her innocence, Charley thought her sojourn to Scotland had been all about seizing a rare opportunity to apprentice under a distinguished healer. What she hadn’t known was the meeting her father had had with him the month before.

The son of a dockhand and a maid hadn’t been good enough for an apothecary-surgeon’s daughter. When Charley had enthusiastically announced her plans to him, only he had understood the lengths in which her father would go in order to remove his daughter from his poor influence.

Worst of all, Adair had silently begged for Charley to see through her father’s manipulation. But she hadn’t, and he hadn’t been able to enlighten her. She had accepted her parents’ wishes with only a naïve belief he would, or rather, could follow her.

When it was all said and done, had she ever wondered what he would do all those years without her? How he would yearn to walk with her to the market, ache to hear her voice, hunger to feel the warm press of her lips against his?

He’d gone away that day hurt and filled with an undisciplined rage. A rage that still simmered beneath the surface to this day, driving him, focusing him, eating at him.

Without looking at Charley, he asked, “Won’t you at least explain to me what you hope to learn from the medical examination?”

A long silence followed, then finally, she said, “In the passageway, I noticed bruising around her ladyship’s neck.”

“Made by a man’s hands?”

She shook her head. “I don’t think so. The line of discoloration was much too narrow and appeared to be a single ring.”

Charley had an eye for detail. Most people who happened upon a dead body would not pause long enough to notice the bruising at all, let alone if the marks left on the victim’s neck were consistent with strangulation. But Charley’s healer’s eye missed nothing.

“Did you notice anything else unusual?”

Adair could not stop himself from taking in the delicate lines of her face, the slender plane of her throat, the uneven rise of her bosom.

He had thought her lovely five years ago. Now, he would not dare use such a bland term to describe what he saw. Tragedy and responsibility had matured her, molded her into a beautiful, self-possessed woman.

His woman.

Adair swirled the possessive words around his tongue, feeling them, memorizing them before swallowing them back into the darkness of his heart. No matter how badly he might wish to reconcile with Charley, his life had become far too dangerous to share it with the likes of her.

He must content himself with rekindling their former friendship—if she would have him.

“I wouldn’t call it unusual,” she said. “More like curious.”

“How so?”

“Mr. Riordan informed you about the laceration to her left cheek?”

He nodded.

“Why mar her?”

“Pardon?”

“Why would Lady Winthrop’s assailant damage her countenance after inflicting a mortal wound to the abdomen? It makes no sense.”

“You’re certain he slashed her after and not before?”

She stared off to the side, considering.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.