The Duke's Protector (The Duke’s Guard Book 2) by C.H. Admirand

Author:C.H. Admirand [Admirand, C.H.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Romance, Historical
Publisher: Dragonblade Publishing, Inc.
Published: 2022-11-30T18:30:00+00:00

“Come on now, Sean,” a deep voice urged. “None of that now, or I’ll be telling Aunt Eileen that her oldest has the constitution of a woman.”

O’Malley heard the words and chuckled. “She’d box yer ears.” The sound of a breath whooshing out had him opening one eye. “Worried were ye?”

Emmett denied it. “Nay, takes more than flaying open an O’Malley’s arm to keep him down.”

“Is it deep then?” O’Malley asked. “I don’t remember passing out.”

“Dropped like a stone,” his cousin told him. “I was pulling a bit of rope from me pocket to tie up yer attacker, Sean. I’m sorry I couldn’t break yer fall.”

O’Malley nodded and winced. “Explains the pain in me head.”

His cousin snickered. “Yer block head slammed against the sidewalk, nearly took a chunk out of it!”

“Me head?” Sean tried to lift his hand to his head but couldn’t.

“The sidewalk,” his cousin replied.

“Am I still bleeding?”

“Don’t worry, ye’ve plenty left.”

“Have ye no compassion for an injured man?”

“Not unless he’s at death’s door which, by the grace of God, ye don’t appear to be.”

“Sean!” The worry in Mrs. O’Toole’s voice bothered him. She only worried when one of his family was badly injured. “I’m fine, Mrs. O’Toole,” he assured her. “Just a scratch.”

She leaned over him and, for the first time he could remember, her eyes glistened with unshed tears. “Don’t cry over the likes of me. I’m fine.”

“Not at the moment,” a familiar deep voice remarked, “but thanks to my impressive skill with a sharp needle and boiled threads, you will heal…in time.”

Finally able to keep both eyes open, O’Malley scanned those gathered in the small room near the kitchen…the same room he’d carried the lass to recently. Meeting Dr. McIntyre’s direct gaze, he stated, “I’m not dead yet.”

Emmett laughed. “Faith, ye’re too hardheaded to die. If it had been a Flaherty, we’d be planning yer wake. We all know their heads are not as hard as we O’Malleys’.”

“Thank ye for evening out the odds, Emmett.”

“’Twas a pleasure—especially yer attacker’s reaction. When he turned and tried to run.”

“I understand a number of people went in search of the Watch, hearing the er…was it the Garahan or O’Malley battle cry?” Dr. McIntyre queried.

“O’Malley,” Emmett and Sean answered at the same time.

The physician’s eyes were filled with laughter—a good sign, O’Malley thought to himself. Dr. McIntyre would not be making light of the situation if O’Malley was in danger of bleeding to death.

“Thank ye for putting me back together.”

“You’re welcome. Although I would not recommend taking on another knife-wielding attacker anytime soon. You’ve lost too much blood, O’Malley. I’ve sent word to Coventry who will inform the others that you will require a fortnight—at the very least, to recover from your injury.”

“I’m to return to Madame Beaudoine’s shop tomorrow. Between the crew Coventry hired, we’ve finished half the repairs.”

Dr. McIntyre shook his head. “A fortnight, O’Malley.”

He ignored that last, telling his cousin, “Help me up.”

“Slowly,” the physician ordered.

With two pillows behind his back and his arm elevated on

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