He smiled again, softer this time, and pressed his forehead to hers. Around them, the room buzzed with movement, with voices and orders and the aftermath of violence, but Madeline scarcely noticed.
She was safe. She was loved. And she was no longer alone.
CHAPTER 30
“Hold still.”
Wilhelm huffed a breath through his teeth, more out of habit than pain, as the physician adjusted the bandage at his shoulder with irritating precision. “I am holding still.”
“You are scowling,” the man replied mildly. “Which is not the same thing.”
Wilhelm shot him a look that would have sent most men retreating, but the physician only chuckled and pressed a little more firmly, as though determined to make a point of it.
“There,” he said at last, stepping back. “Clean. Healing beautifully. The bullet grazed muscle, nothing more. You’ll have a scar, but it will not impede movement. I see no reason for concern, provided you refrain from further heroic gestures for the next few weeks.”
Wilhelm flexed his fingers, rolled his shoulder cautiously, and felt only a dull pull beneath the linen. Annoying, but survivable.
“So, I am not dying,” Wilhelm said flatly.
“Hardly,” the physician replied, already gathering his things. “Your body has no such intention.”
The door opened before Wilhelm could respond.
Tessa burst into the room first. Her curls bounced. Her eyes were bright with unshed tears. Madeline followed immediately behind her, her hand hovering as though ready to catch the child if she tripped. Her face was pale with lingering fear that had not yet fully loosened its grip. Henry brought up the rear, leaning casually against the doorframe, though Wilhelm knew better than to mistake the posture for indifference.
“Well?” Henry asked, lifting a brow. “Is he to expire dramatically before luncheon, or may we relax?”
The physician smiled. “You may relax.”
Tessa did not wait for further clarification. She ran straight for Wilhelm and threw her arms around his middle with all the force her small body could manage.
“Papa,” she said, her voice muffled against his chest. “You scared me.”
Wilhelm’s throat tightened painfully as he wrapped his uninjured arm around her, holding her close with instinctive protectiveness. “I know,” he said quietly. “I’m sorry.”
She pulled back to look at him, studying his face with solemn intensity. “You promised you would bring her back.”
“And I did,” he replied.
Her gaze flicked instantly to Madeline, who stood a few paces away, hands clasped before her, as though she were holding herself together by sheer force of will.
“You kept your promise,” Tessa said with great seriousness.
“Yes,” Wilhelm said, and meant far more by it than she could know.
Henry cleared his throat. “Well. If we are finished with emotional reunions,” he said lightly, his gaze flicking pointedly to Tessa, who still clung to Wilhelm’s side as though afraid he might disappear again, “some of us would like to inspect the patient.”
Wilhelm huffed a quiet breath, one arm wrapping instinctively around his daughter’s shoulders as she leaned into him with her cheek pressed firmly against his chest. “You only wish to confirm that I am not, in fact, mortally wounded.”
“On the contrary,” Henry replied cheerfully. “I wish to confirm that you are sufficiently wounded to be mocked without mercy.”
The physician took that as his cue and excused himself, closing the door behind him with a soft finality that seemed to loosen something invisible in the room. The tension that had lingered since morning ebbed at last and was replaced by a fragile tenderness that felt almost unreal in its gentleness.
Tessa did not move away. Her small fingers curled into Wilhelm’s coat with quiet determination. He rested his hand at the back of her head, breathing her in as though committing the weight of her there to memory.
Then, he lifted his gaze again. Madeline still stood a few paces away. The moment their gazes met, the room seemed to narrow around them. The sounds of breath and shifting fabric faded until there was only the pull between them, unspoken and unmistakable. Relief, longing, fear, love, all tangled together in a look that lingered just a second too long to be accidental.
Wilhelm felt it like a quiet ache beneath his ribs.
