“Should I aim to kill or to maim?” Alexander called out.
“Wound,” Matthew answered. “You can’t get answers from corpses.”
Charley swore and yanked a scrambling Eddie to his feet. The two men immediately took off at a run. Shoving two fingers into his mouth, Eddie gave a sharp whistle. Two large horses thundered from the trees—fine mounts that men of Eddie and Charley’s ilk shouldn’t be able to afford. The duo from the London stews had definitely been taught to ride as they easily swung onto the warmbloods.
Matthew raced a few steps after them, but they disappeared around the bend. Even if he unhitched one of Tavish’s drafts and tried riding it, he’d never catch them. Shaking his head in frustration, Matthew turned back to the carriage intent on helping Lady Charlotte escape from its ruined confines.
It seemed, however, that the intrepid woman had other plans. Just as she’d nimbly climbed trees as a child, she descended the overturned carriage, using the ornamental crenellation around the roof as hand- and footholds. When she reached the bottom, she immediately turned to grab Alexander’s cane as he handed it to her. Her twin clambered down easily enough, relying on his arm muscles and good leg. Lady Charlotte helped steady him on his final step to the ground.
Matthew wanted to run to Lady Charlotte and throw his arms about her as he surveyed her for wounds. But despite their shared moment in Tavish’s orangery, Matthew knew it wasn’t his place. Even if she hadn’t been his best friend’s sister, he wasn’t bridegroom material for a diamond of the ton.
“Are you okay, my lady?” Matthew called out, somehow managing to keep his emotions from his voice. “Alexander?”
“Yes,” the twins called out in unison.
“I’ll check on the coachman and the tiger.”
“I’m fine!” The young footman, Will, called out, stumbling to his feet. “I had the wind knocked out of me. Sorry I wasn’t of more assistance, sir.”
Both of Tavish’s employees were well aware of Matthew’s fighting prowess and the need to keep it secret. But how much had Lady Charlotte and Alexander witnessed? Even his best friend didn’t comprehend the true reasons for Matthew’s sojourns to the New World.
But with the driver still groaning in the dirt, Matthew had no time to worry about what the siblings may have observed. Instead, he ran over to the prone man, ready to offer whatever medical treatment was necessary.
“Richard?” Matthew called the fellow’s name as he drew near. “How badly are you hurt?”
“My side!” The man forced out between labored breaths as he gripped his rib cage with both hands.
“Did you injure it in the fall?” Matthew asked as he withdrew a knife from its hidden sheath in his boot. Quickly, he sliced through the man’s livery, revealing a horrible welt on his left side that had already begun to turn a deep red.
“No.” Richard huffed out the word as if he barely had enough air to speak. “Logs… like… battering rams… came… swinging… from the trees… on the curve… Hit me… Spooked… the horses.”
As Matthew scanned Richard’s injury, he thought of the surgeon’s report from the inquest into the late Lady Hawley’s carriage accident. The man of medicine had mentioned that the deceased driver had a large bruise on his chest, which had been attributed to being thrown from the coach. No one had survived, and it was a mystery why the vehicle had overturned on a sunny day upon arelatively well-maintained road. There had been no obvious damage such as a broken wheel or axle, and the coroner had ultimately found that the horses must have bolted. But Matthew was now certain that Charley and Eddie had helped Hawley cover up the strangulation of his second wife. They’d placed her body in a carriage driven by an unsuspecting coachman and staged an accident just like this attack. Proving their guilt and linking it to his brother, though, was a different matter.
“We were ambushed?” Alexander asked as he and Lady Charlotte joined Matthew by Richard’s side.
Matthew exchanged a look with his best friend. Even without knowing about the necklace, Alexander probably suspected the viscount’s involvement. The fact that Alexander wasn’t bombarding Matthew with questions about his fighting skills proved his concern.
“Aye. The coach was definitely forced to overturn,” Matthew said as he turned his attention back to Richard, whose breathing had grown both more shallow and rapid. Concern whipped through Matthew as he noticed the man’s lips starting to turn a pale, almost bluish color.
“What is wrong with the coachman?” Charlotte asked, kneeling beside Mathew in the grass.
As Will joined them, Matthew grabbed Richard’s hand to take his pulse. The man’s skin felt cool and clammy, and his blood throbbed rapidly beneath Matthew’s fingers. “He may have bleeding in his lung cavity. I’ve seen this before. I’ll need to cut an incision in between his ribs and drain it to release the pressure. I’ll get my bag from the carriage.”
Matthew had learned the techniques of surgeons precisely for circumstances like these. In the New World, there was much less of a distinction between physicians and those who wielded scalpels.As long as Matthew could save people, he didn’t care if his knowledge came from the allegedly more learned side or from rough-hewn experience.
“I’ll get your tools.” Will volunteered as he struggled to stand. Obviously, the young footman was still shaken.
“You rest,” Alexander laid his hand on Will’s shoulder. “I can manage.”
“No need!” Lady Charlotte called out.
Matthew looked up to see her scaling the overturned carriage, her black widow’s skirt billowing in the spring breeze. Admiration and concern warred inside him as she hoisted herself onto the skyward-facing side.
“Lottie!” Alexander hollered, grabbing his cane for leverage as he lurched to his feet. Matthew grabbed his wrist, staying him. If Alexander pursued his sister, he could startle her or push her into moving faster and less cautiously. They needed to trust Charlotte’s decision.
“Be careful!” Matthew warned, still holding Alexander back. “It could be unstable.”
“I will!” Charlotte promised as she dropped through the open door and disappeared.
