Imogen’s lips parted and she glanced up at Fitzhugh again. She slowly rose, as did Aurora. “If I could help I would—”
Before she could finish the sentence, there was an explosion of glass from the huge window behind them. Nicholas cried out, diving toward Aurora, pulling her to the ground beneath him as bullets and glass fell around them in a hellish rain. All he could do was hold her beneath him and hope that what they were rebuilding, what he wished to be for their future, wouldn’t be destroyed in a few moments of noise and fury.
Chapter 21
Aurora trembled beneath the heavy weight of Nicholas’s body covering her, sheltering her. The bullets had stopped at last, but no one in the room had yet moved. She didn’t know if that was out of caution or injury, but there was only one thought in her mind at present.
“Nicholas,” she murmured, pushing against him. “Are you hurt?”
He rolled away from her and she followed, running her hands down his body, brushing glass away from his coat as she searched him for wounds. He caught her chin and tilted her face up so their eyes met. “I’m unharmed,” he said, but his voice trembled. “Are you? Are you injured?”
“You protected me,” she assured him as she cupped his face with both hands. “My God, Nicholas.”
“Is anyone harmed?” Barber called out from across the room.
That dragged Aurora and Nicholas back to the room and she looked around. The couples were slowly beginning to move, checking on each other with as much intensity as she and Nicholas had.
“We’re fine,” the Willowbys called out first. They were exchanging a look that said this was not the first time they’d been shot at, nor did they think it would be the last. But the duke caught the duchess’s cheeks nonetheless and kissed her before they got up and began to edge around the room, easing toward the window with their own guns drawn.
“Derrick and I are unhurt,” Selina said, brushing glass from herself as Derrick joined the Willowbys. “Barber?”
“I’m fine,” he said from behind a chair.
“Imogen?” Aurora called out, looking frantically for her friend. They’d been standing near each other when the shooting began, but as Nicholas dove for her, Fitzhugh had come lunging over the back of the settee and grabbed Imogen. Now they slowly rose from behind the couch.
“He’s cut,” she said, her voice shaking as she clung to Fitzhugh’s arm with both her own. His jacket had a hole in it and there was blood seeping from the wound.
“That’s not a cut,” Derrick said, moving forward and unwinding his cravat as he went. “You’ve been shot.”
Nicholas’s heart leapt as he watched his brother glance at the wound with an impassive glance. “It seems I have.”
“Oscar!” Imogen gasped, but she stepped aside as Derrick waved him to remove the jacket and examined the wound quickly.
“It went through,” Fitzhugh said with a shrug that made him flinch slightly. “Wrap it if you will and I’ll have it looked at later.”
Derrick’s brows came up and he cast a quick look at Nicholas and Selina, but did as he’d been ordered. While he did so, Fitzhugh’s jaw set as he looked around the once-fine room that was now riddled with bullet holes and broken glass and furniture.
“Bloody hell,” he muttered.
“I’m sorry,” Imogen whispered.
He looked down at her, brow wrinkling. “Don’t.”
“I don’t see anyone below,” Willowby called out. “There must have been more than one assailant for all this carnage. Diana, Barber, we should go down and question witnesses on the street. Huntington, does that wound need more attention?”
Derrick tied off the cravat with a shake of his head. “It’s fine for now, though he’ll need a doctor later. I’ll join you, you’ll need as many boots on the ground as possible.”
Willowby’s lips thinned. “I’ll send for more men.”
Diana glanced at Selina, who was staring at Fitzhugh. Nicholas could see her concern, despite her earlier dismissal of their brother. “Selina, will you check on the welfare of the servants and anyone else in the building?”
Selina jerked to attention. “Yes. Yes, of course. How many are there, Fitzhugh?”
He pursed his lips in what seemed like annoyance. “It’s a small staff because I closed the club for the afternoon. No more than five. My assumption is they were in the back, but Iwouldappreciate you checking on them and telling them that I’ll take care of this mess and that Will White will be here shortly. He’s my partner and I’ll send for him. Right now, though, I need to take Imogen away.”
Aurora pulled from Nicholas’s arms. “No, wait! Is that for the best?”
Willowby gave his wife a look, and she nodded. As Willowby, Barber and Huntington left the room, Diana approached Fitzhugh with an almost delicate air. Like she was about to tame some wild beast.
