Chapter 12
“Hear me out, man! You can’t go another hour without rest!”
Adam shook his head, though he knew Donovan was right. He’d never felt so exhausted after what had been the worst two days of his life.
He glanced from the door where he stood with Donovan to the bed where Linette appeared to be peacefully sleeping, though in truth, she still lay unconscious and had yet toopen her eyes after the trauma she’d suffered. Dear God, if she didn’t stir soon he feared she might never wake!
“Adam, let me sit with her while you go lie down. Miss Biddle made up a room for you just down the hall. I’ll let you know at once if anything changes.”
Adam exhaled heavily, no longer surprised by the Duke of Arundale calling him by his given name. These past few days had bondedthem as fast as brothers, which meant more to him than he could say. Reluctantly, he nodded, but he couldn’t leave without first checking on Linette one more time. He strode back to the bed, Donovan not far behind him.
“Her breathing is steady and calm, a good thing. There’s no festering in her wound and I just changed the bandage a few moments ago. If only she would open her eyes…”
Donovan’sexpression as solemn as his, Adam could not help but stand there staring at her, the grievous injury she’d suffered filling him with fury.
The shot from the pistol had penetrated the top of her left shoulder, but fortunately had exited without shattering any bones. Yet she’d bled so much, a stark memory that made him grit his teeth. Add to that the purplish bruise on her right cheek where hercaptor had struck her, the whole terrible incident tearfully recounted by Estelle, and Adam wished he’d been the one to kick those bastards’ bodies into their unmarked grave. Yet he’d been occupied doing everything he could to save Linette’s life—
“We mustn’t lose hope,” Donovan said quietly, interrupting the dark turn of Adam’s thoughts. He nodded, and bent down to lift one of Linette’s slimhands in his own. Warm, but not too much, though she didn’t respond to his touch at all. Not even a flicker of her dark eyelashes against her pale skin.
“Go on, Adam. I’ll sit here right by the bed.”
“Very well.” His reluctance to leave her almost choking him, he nonetheless knew he needed to rest. The thought of lying down for even an hour or two made him feel twice as exhausted.
Without anotherword he left the room, not surprised to find a somber maidservant awaiting him to lead the way. Clearly, Donovan had been determined this time that Adam heed him.
His gut clenched as he walked down the hall, every footstep taking him from Linette’s side like a physical pain. Yet he could not deny that the freshly made bed inside the comfortable lamplit room beckoned to him. As the maidservantclosed the door behind him, Adam sat down in an overstuffed wing chair to tug off his boots.
He never made it that far. Leaning his head back and closing his eyes, he was asleep before the mantel clock finished chiming eight o’clock in the evening.
***
“Adam! Did you hear me? Wake up!”
“W-what?” Jarred so abruptly from sleep, Adam for a moment wasn’t sure where he was…until he saw thegrim look upon Donovan’s face. He jumped up from the chair, staggering until Donovan caught him and steadied him with a firm grip on his arm.
“It’s Linette, Adam. She’s awake.”
He didn’t need to hear more, a quick glance at the clock in the flickering lamplight showing half past two o’clock. He lurched for the door, the draperies pulled so tight he had no idea if it was deep in the night orearly afternoon—
“Easy, man!” Donovan steadied him again, but this time he held on tightly to Adam’s arm to prevent him from lunging into the hall. He appeared older, his face lined with worry. “She’s awake, Adam, but she didn’t recognize me. Miss Biddle sat near the bed, too, and Linette didn’t know her, either—by God, what has happened?”
Adam didn’t answer, but wrested his arm away and careenedinto the hall. Yet by the time he reached the door to Linette’s room, his senses couldn’t have been more acute in spite of his hammering heart.
She was awake!She was awake!
He burst into the room so abruptly that Miss Biddle exclaimed in surprise, but she moved out of the way as Adam rushed to the bedside. He thought he might sink to his knees in relief at Linette’s lovely brown eyes fixedupon him, though her sudden grimace of pain forced him at once to calm himself.
That, and the distress that followed, Linette crying out as she tried to shift in bed.
“No, you must lie still,” he said in a voice he scarcely recognized, hoarse, ragged. He swallowed hard, telling himself fiercely again that he must tamp down his rampant emotions. She needed him to be a doctor at that moment, onlyher doctor!
He could see that in addition to her pain, she appeared confused, her brow knit as she stared at him. He waved for Miss Biddle to hand him a glass of water.
“You must drink, Linette,” he urged her gently, leaning down to lift her head from the pillow. “You’ve been asleep for several days—”
“Linette?”
His heart sank at that moment, but he nodded. “Yes, that’s your name, Miss LinetteEaston. I’m Dr. Whitaker…Adam.”
