Page 33 of Marriage Most Scandalous
She didn’t finish. His head fell back against the man carrying him. He’d fainted.
“He did that twice on the way here,” she heard from one of the men carrying him, detecting a slight French accent. “The monsieur, he’s not staying awake long. Likely the fever,” the fellow added when Margaret stared at the blood dripping under Douglas.
“Someone send for the doctor, please.”
“Already sent for, m’lady,” the other man carrying Douglas quickly assured her. “’E should be ’ere shortly.”
With no more orders to give, her hands began to tremble. Douglas’s fever worried her, but his bleeding frightened her. It wasn’t a steady stream, but it was definitely leaving a trail behind him. And until she knew the extent of that wound, she wouldn’t rest easy. She followed the men upstairs to help get Douglas settled.
The blood concerned Sebastian as well. As soon as Margaret was out of hearing range, he turned to the remaining man, the one who’d announced the accident. He caught sight of Denton, though, which gave him pause.
His brother was also staring at the trail of blood on the floor and looking quite horrified. He didn’t recall Denton’s being squeamish at the sight of blood. While that could account for his pallor, Sebastian didn’t think so. Denton had gone as pale as a ghost the moment he’d learned of the accident. He almost looked as if he were in shock.
“Snap out of it,” he told his brother a bit harshly. “Go see that water gets heated and sent upstairs. Bandages as well. And send up a few more men to help get Father out of those wet clothes.”
Denton finally glanced at him, nodded, and hurried off toward the kitchen.
Alone with the remaining fellow, Sebastian gave him his full attention. Not surprisingly, the man took a few steps back from him. Sebastian was used to that. When The Raven appeared, all other birds flew away, so to speak. Not that he wanted to frighten the man. He’d simply lost his knack for putting people at ease.
“What’s your name? And who found my father?”
“Yer the disowned son? The one that—?”
The man didn’t finish and took yet another step back. He wasn’t just looking wary now, but downright frightened. Sebastian sighed.
“Yes, him. Now you are?”
“Robert Cantel, m’lord.
I’ve been gardening ’ere for five years now. We moved to the west section o’ the grounds about midafternoon, to do the trimming there. We work in groups. Couldn’t see yer father so far away there in the ditch, but could make out ’is ’orse standing there alone through the trees.”
“Where exactly was this?”
“Where the property butts up against White Oaks land, by the edge o’ the road leading into Edgeford Town. Figured ’e was either coming or going from Edgeford when he took the fall and landed in the ditch.”
“Where’s he bleeding from?” Sebastian asked.
“Nasty gash on the back o’ ’is ’ead. Turned the water in the ditch all pink, it did.”
“So he lost a lot of it?”
“Looks to be.”
“I’d like you to show me exactly where he was found.”
Robert glanced up the stairs first, as if hoping one of his companions would appear so he could pawn off the task. Sebastian usually had the patience to deal with the fear he inspired, but not today.
“Now.”
The threat wasn’t in his tone. He’d said the word quite softly. It was definitely in his expression, which promised mayhem if the fellow didn’t start moving immediately. Fear shot the man out the door. He barely glanced back to make sure Sebastian was following.
Sebastian knew the general location the gardener had mentioned. It was about a ten-minute walk, which didn’t warrant getting a horse from the stables. He could have let Robert go about his business, but he wanted to be sure of the exact spot. And he might have more questions and didn’t want to have to chase the man down later to answer them.
Exactly where Douglas had taken his fall was obvious, though. The rainwater was puddled in the ditch that ran alongside the road, about four inches deep. Sebastian could see evidence of the blood, which hadn’t been completely diluted yet.
There were trees along that stretch of the road, on both sides, all the way up to Edgewood at the end. Many branches crossed the road, shading it. There was also a narrow woods along this western edge of the property that stretched around to the thicker woods to the north—where The Dueling Rock was located.
Sebastian abruptly pulled himself away from that thought. It was reputed that Edgewood as well as the old village of Edgeford that had long ago been attached to it got their names from this stretch of woods. The Townshends had owned the village back then. They still owned most of the land the town of Edgeford sat on.
