What happened next all seemed to unfurl in a blur.
As the cavalry arrived, so too did the barking Norbert, and within moments the silhouette of the captain reappeared down below. His lantern was gone but as she raised hers to light his way back, there was no mistaking he was carrying a child.
Simpkins and one of the other men scrambled down the bank, and within moments, a pale, shivering, and sobbing Felix was passed from man to man back up the bank and into her waiting arms.
“I slipped,” he muttered as he buried his face in her neck and sobbed for all he was worth. “And I’ve hurt my leg.”
“We’ll fix it.” She cuddled the boy close and rocked him like a baby while it took all the men, including Simpkins, who still loudly proclaimed hatred of the scabrous bag of fleas, to get Norbert back up to the top of the bank. As soon as his paws hitterra firma, he flung himself at Felix and licked the distressed boy’s face. Then he licked Georgie’s, and then, as the captain tried to heave his belly over the edge of the slippery bank, he thoroughly licked his face too.
ChapterEIGHTEEN
“Thank the Lord it’s just a sprain. Only Felix could get himself lost and injured chasing a butterfly.” The captain returned to his sleeping nephew’s bedside after seeing the physician out. He smiled as he whispered, his relief at his nephew’s safe return so palpable she could feel it.
That it was just a sprain did little to make her feel better about it and, she reasoned, nor should she. In the last two hours, the what-ifs had consumed her. Georgie knew the blame lay with her. If she hadn’t left him sulking in the stable yard, Felix wouldn’t have stormed off and wouldn’t have gone on to fall down the riverbank where he could have, very easily, been more seriously injured.
“I never ever thought I’d ever hear myself say this in a million years—but thank the Lord for Norbert too.” The devoted dog and undisputed hero of the hour had flatly refused to leave his injured master to sleep in the stable—much to the turncoat innkeeper’s complete disgust—and was currently stretched out and snoring next to him on the bed. He twitched and gave a little sniffle as Captain Kincaidstroked his ear. “I owe him a year’s worth of sausages for saving the day. Flora would have murdered me if her precious son had come to any serious harm while under my care. Of course, she might still murder me for losing him in the first place.” He chuckled at that. “Flora is like a lioness when it comes to her cubs.”
“She won’t. You were the hero of the hour.”
He refused to take that compliment and shook his head. “Even in daylight I doubt we’d have spotted him in that deep ravine without Norbert’s guidance. If Felix had fallen a couple of inches either way, the river would have taken him. Something, or someone, was certainly looking out for my troublesome nephew tonight. He’s a very lucky boy indeed.”
A couple inches either way from death! New and sobering information which only made Georgie feel worse.
“It is me that Flora should murder. I’m the one who lost him.” The guilt of that was so unbearable Georgie could barely stand to be in the same room as herself. “The innkeeper was right—Iam thesomeonewho should have been looking out for him!”
“This really isn’t your fault, no matter what that idiot innkeeper said.” He placed a comforting hand on her elbow, which Georgie vehemently shook off. In this precise moment, she deserved neither his misplaced kindness nor his comfort.
“Felix had been delegated to my care and I should have known that he would wander off and I should have insisted he accompany me inside. All the signs were there. Miss Prentice trained me better than that.” Every time she looked at the boy’s many bruises and grazes, it was all she could do not to burst into wretched tears of recrimination.
She had hovered on the cusp for a good hour now and that showed no signs of abating. In fact, the more time she had to think of all the horrors that could have happened, especially now that she knew poorFelix had been but a scant couple of inches from certain death, the closer those tears came.
The captain’s smile was much too forgiving. “Miss Prentice teaches her protégés how to read minds?” His hand grazed her arm again before he clamped it behind his back. “Had I known you possessed that skill, I’d have paid you treble and worked harder to censor my thoughts.”
In case she blubbed in front of him, which was suddenly a very real possibility, she surged to her feet and fled to the door. “I shall go check on the girls and then rest assured, I shan’t let Felix out of my sight again till morning.”
That was the very least she could do before the captain inevitably dismissed her in the unforgiving cold light of day, as he had every right to. Before he did, she realized that the only decent thing to do was fall on her sword, so she paused at the door without turning around, as she did not trust herself not to disgrace herself while she did it.
“Obviously, as I have let both you and the children down with my lackadaisical neglect, I shall tender my immediate resignation.” That broke her heart too as she adored the children and, as much as she had tried to fight against it, she was coming to adore him. After tonight, the captain had risen to at least nine-tenths likable and possibly even nine and a half. He had been relentless in his quest to first find Felix, then to get him home safely, and then to get him the best medical care. He had ridden to fetch the local physician himself and brought him back at record speed, then stood over him while he examined the boy and bandaged his swollen ankle. He had even paid the man a ludicrous amount of money to then tend to Norbert’s cuts and grazes too, reminding her of what Lottie had said about how much you could tell about people from the way they treated animals.“But obviously I will stay as long as it takes you to find a suitable replacement.”
Georgie practically ran to the sleeping girls’ bedchamber, where she took a few moments to compose herself. Then, only when she was certain she had her emotions completely in check, did she leave to relieve their uncle.
Except the captain wasn’t still sitting with Felix as she had expected. He was standing on the narrow landing of the inn and obviously waiting for her with more concern in his eyes than she deserved.
“There is absolutely no way that I am going to accept your resignation when this really isn’t your fault, Miss Rowe.” As if he knew that she was blaming herself and feeling utterly wretched as a consequence, he smiled. “I cannot imagine why you could possibly think that it is when I heard you give Felix very clear and precise instructions to stay put and not wander off alone. Then I reiterated those instructions, and he still willfully chose to ignore them.”
“Because he is the child, Captain Kincaid, and children are unpredictable beings at the best of times. I am being paid handsomely to know that and anticipate it.” The dratted tears pressed against her eyes again and she wrestled them back.
His fingers brushed her cheek, and it took all her strength not to lean into his big hand and weep. “You could not have stated plainer that you expected him to stay put unless you had nailed my rebellious nephew’s feet to the floor.”
She swiped that away. “Stop being kind, Captain. I deserve to feel awful. He was my responsibility but thanks to me, F-Felix could h-have…” Before she could stop them, the floodgates opened, and she felt her face scrunch into an ugly mess. Mortified, she covered it with her hands. “H-he c-could h-h-h-have… d-d-d-died!”
Through a crack in her fingers, she could see his eyes widenedwith fear at the prospect of a blubbering woman collapsing in a wailing heap before him, but to his credit, he did not bolt. Nor did he reprimand her for such an unseemly display of unnecessary and self-indulgent emotion as the colonel would have. Instead, he rummaged in his muddy coat for a handkerchief before he held it out to her, and that thoughtful gesture alone only served to make her cry harder.
“There, there.” When she failed to take either the handkerchief or his advice, he waved the linen square in front of her face. “Please don’t cry. This isn’t your fault. Boys will be boys and Felix has always been a naughty one. Might I remind you that if you hadn’t heard Norbert down on that riverbank, I’d have marched right past him and Felix would still be all alone and in pain down there. You are more hero of the hour than I.”
“I only heard N-Norbert because I fell over while trying to get myc-compactlegs to keep pace with yours.” Which was hardly an act of intrepid heroism. “It was more by luck than j-judgment that I happened to fall where I did.”
“So?” He chuckled. “Even in the midst of chaos there is always opportunity.”
