As the doctor was finishing stitching one of the last gashes, the bedroom door opened, and Da stepped inside. With his face and clothing blackened with smoke and his hair a dusty gray from ashes, James Shanahan looked as though he’d spent the night fighting fires.
Had he gone out to the brickyard and helped?
“It’s a mess.” Da came farther into the room. “But we salvaged what we could.”
Before Kiernan could think of a response, his da was staring at Torin on the bed, bandaged and bruised—and naked except for a sheet now covering the lower half of his body. “Who’s this?”
“Alannah’s brother.”
Da’s eyes rounded. “We were told he was dead and that you were taking him to the cemetery on your way back into the city.”
“We did. As far as everyone else knows, he’s dead and buried.”
Da scanned Torin’s motionless body.
With as much morphine as the doctor had administered for pain, Torin wouldn’t waken for some time.
“’Tis a smart idea, Kiernan. But there’s just one problem.”
“There’s no problem.” He’d been thinking through all the options. “Once he’s better, I have a plan.”
“Oh aye, you haven’t been considering Alannah in all this, have you?” Da’s voice was grave, so grave that Kiernan’s muscles tightened. When Da motioned to the hallway, Kiernan followed him out of the room, dread building inside him. He’d left Alannah safe and secure at Oakland. If something had happened to her...
“What about Alannah?” he demanded as he closed the bedroom door. Winston had lit one of the gilded sconces on the wall, and Kiernan could see the serious lines furrowing in his da’s forehead.
“Shaw and one of his men came to Oakland looking for her not long after you rode off.”
Kiernan’s pulse pattered to a halt. That meant Shaw probably hadn’t been at the brickyard when the gang had come to destroy it, or at least hadn’t stayed long. What if he’d intended it to be a diversion so that when he arrived at Oakland, no one would be there to defend Alannah?
His heart picked up its pace again, this time slamming hard against his chest. “You didn’t let them take her, did you?”
“Of course not. They searched the place and couldn’t find her.”
“Where did she go?” Kiernan felt as though he was standing on the edge of a precipice about to fall off with one wrong answer.
“Zaira helped to hide her. Then later, Zaira said she exchanged her cloak with Alannah’s and rode down to the brickyard to distract Shaw.”
“Did he hurt Zaira?”
“Thankfully, they didn’t touch her.”
Although Kiernan was grateful to his youngest sister forher assistance, next time he saw her he intended to scold her for getting involved. He hated to think what might have happened if Shaw had realized Zaira’s part in the deception.
“She sent Alannah away on her horse, though.”
“What?” Kiernan began to fall, plunging down the precipice, with nothing to grab to stop him. “Where to?”
“She’s at Bellamy’s.”
Kiernan snagged on to the words of hope and clung to them. “Then she’s okay? Shaw hasn’t found her?”
“Not that I’m aware of.”
Kiernan spun on his heels and stalked down the hallway. He had to go to her, had to make sure she was safe. The pounding of his heart and the pounding of his blood reverberated through his body. His need for her was almost painful.
“Wait, Kiernan,” his da called.
“I’m going to her.” Kiernan wouldn’t have been able to slow his steps, not even if someone had chained him.
