“Can you trust this friend?” I asked.
“He will be using his own money, so that is the risk he is willing to take,” Connor responded. “But I will make sure he allows me to win at least half of the money back for you,” he promised.
“It will be worth it, to see Aldridge be brought to his knees, and then discover I own his estate,” I smiled.
“Very well, tonight is the night, then.” Connor kissed me on the cheek. “I want to be with you, when you tell Aldridge the bad news,” he chuckled, and then patted my cheek, where he had kissed me.
I sat looking out the window, as Connor, and his friend drove away in the buggy. His friend, Mr. Giller, was a well-dressed dandy, and assured me he knew a little something about playing cards. I hoped he was right, but since he was putting his own money on the line, I had to believe him.
I sat in the window seat for a very long time, staring out on the street, which the street lamp illuminated, making shadows appear to be ghosts that were coming back to haunt me. I thought of the dead people I had helped the old man unload from the wagon, and I gave a shiver. That seemed so long ago, I thought to myself.
Eventually I went to the parlor, to sit and wait for Connor’s return. I fell asleep on the settee, while waiting. Suddenly there was a commotion, which woke me with a start.
“We need a doctor!” someone was yelling, and Sally, my maid, who apparently had opened the door, when Mr. Giller had banged on it, was beside herself, as she watched Mr. Giller helping Connor into the house. “Help me take him to his room,” Mr. Giller said to no one in particular. By this time, my Governess, Miss. Porter, along with the housekeeper, Mrs. Hadley, had joined Sally in the entrance hall, and all three were giving Mr. Giller a hand.
“What happened?” I shrieked, as I came up beside them.
“He’s been shot,” Mr. Giller stated. “Your so called Godfather, is a bad looser. He tried to shoot me, as well!”
“He’s not going to die, is he?” I asked, feeling shocked, as I looked into Connor’s face.
“I think I’ll live,” Connor barely murmured, only he did not look good. His face was pale, but he managed to give me a weak smile, before he closed his eyes. Blood was dripping down his arm and landing on the stairs, as Mrs. Hadley and Miss Porter, helped Mr. Giller with Connor.
“Go tell Sam to get the doctor,” I told Sally, and she turned and went out to the Carriage house, where Sam had his apartment.
Mr. Giller laid Connor on his bed, and began pulling away his shirt, as Connor groaned in protest. Blood was everywhere, and Mrs. Hadley was cleaning up the drips on the floor, while Miss. Porter brought a towel and handed it to Mr. Giller. Mr. Giller, placed the towel over the place where all the blood was oozing out of a hole, and Miss Porter left to get a pan of water, to wash the blood off of Connor’s body.
“Press against the towel, to help stop the bleeding,” Mr. Giller told me, and I took a shaky hand, and did as he instructed.
Miss, Porter returned with the pan of warm water and a wash cloth, but she let Mr. Giller wipe the cloth over Connor’s body, seeing as how she was a spinster, and it wasn’t proper for her to touch a man’s body that way. In fact, she left the room as soon as she handed the bowl over to Mr. Giller. She looked pale herself, and I knew seeing all that blood must be a shock to her senses. Mrs. Hadley was cleaning up the blood on the steps and down in the entrance way, so it was just me and Mr. Giller in the room, with Sally at the doorway, looking in.
Mr. Giller glanced at me, seeming to realize how young I was. “You should probably leave,” he told me. I noticed he had blood all over his fine clothes.
“No,” I stated. “I am not as innocent as you believe me to be. I cared for my parents when they were sick, and watched my father die,” I said boldly. “What happened?”
“I will talk to you about it later. For now, we need to tend to Connor,” he told me, and had me lift the cloth temporarily, while he cleaned the wound, and then I pressed it down again. “But I will say one thing. You will be in a position to foreclose on Mr. Bogart within three months’ time, unless he manages to come up with money we did not count on. Knowing him, he will probably try to win it in a game, and lose even more. When Connor informed him he had been working for you, Mr. Bogart became enraged, and that is when he pulled a gun and shot Connor.”
“We should have him arrested,” I insisted.
“I don’t think it will do any good. He will claim that Connor cheated.”
“But what if Connor dies?” I cried.
“Let’s pray he doesn’t. If he does, there may be grounds for an arrest, though. I will be a witness against Mr. Bogart.”
“Were you the only one’s playing?” I asked.
“No. There were others, but by that time, they had all left, since they had lost too much money. It was just the three of us at the end. We doubled what you had lost, with the winnings of the others there,” he informed me.
The doctor came through the door, and told me to leave the room, but he allowed Mr. Giller to remain. They closed the door, and Sally and I stood in the hall, waiting until the doctor, Mr. Matthews, came out again.
Sally was upset, because she had blood on her apron, but I told her not to worry about it. She could throw the apron out, if she wished. When Mr. Matthews, finally came from the room, his face looked grave. “I managed to remove the ball,” he told me, “but the doing of it, caused Mr. Price to lose consciousness. He will need tending to for several days. I suggest you hire a nurse, first thing in the morning.”
I told Sally to go back to her room, and I joined Mr. Giller beside Connor’s bed. He pulled a chair up to the side of the bed for me to sit in, and I took Connor’s limp hand in my hand. “He can’t die,” I mumbled.
“The doctor said he most likely would recover, as long as the wound didn’t get infected. It has to be kept clean and dry,” he informed me, in a quiet voice.
“You should stay,” I said. “You must be tired.”
“I am,” he admitted, rubbing his temple.
“I’ll show you to the guest room,” I told him, getting up from the chair.
“You sure it is not an inconvenience?”
“Of course, not! You most likely have saved Connor’s life. If you had not been with him, Aldridge would have killed him for sure, and then buried his body where no one could find it, and taken all the money back.”
“You are probably right. He was very upset, when he realized Connor had been tricking him all this time, and we had come in for the kill. Then, when Connor informed him that he was your legal guardian and was looking out for your best interest, Mr. Bogart had murder in his eyes.”
“He hates me, because my mother refused to marry him and wed another. I can’t imagine why she would have ever made him my Godfather?”
“Well, you have gotten your way. I just hope you don’t regret it, in the end. Getting revenge can sometimes be a dangerous game.”
Mr. Giller patted my hand, and then went into the room I had brought him to. “I will see you in the morning,” I said, and then returned to Connor’s bedside. He couldn’t die, I told myself over and over again.
CHAPTER TEN
I could feel someone squeezing my hand, and I realized I had fallen asleep, sitting in the chair, beside Connor’s bedside, holding his hand. I opened my eyes, and looked down at my hand. Connor had been squeezing it, and my eyes went to his face. He gave me a weak smile.
“You didn’t have to sit here all night,” he barely whispered.
“Oh, Connor,” I cried, falling to my knees beside the bed, and burying my head against his chest. “You gave me such a shock. You can’t die. Do you hear me?” I begged.
Connor’s hand came to my head and stroked my hair. “I’m not going to die,” he murmured. “I told you I was going to live. I have to remain here to take care of you.”
“It was all my fault,” I sobbed. “I never should have made you do that. I knew Aldridge was a dangerous man.”
“I won’t make you do anything like that again,” I promised.
“It was worth it, my little ward,” he mumbled. “Seeing the look in his eyes when I told him I represented you, and that you owned the mortgage to his house, and that his son would never be allowed to marry Tamara Bronson by the time we were through with them, gave me great satisfaction. Even if I had to take a ball in the shoulder, in order to inform him of what he had to look forward to.”
“Now I am afraid he will try to shoot me,” I whimpered.
“I doubt he will, considering that his home will still be owned by your estate, even if you die. But once he learns that he will be reliant on you for shelter, his tone may change. If he loses the house, my cousin will explain to him that you do not wish to oust him from the residence, only that he will become your hired hand, once you take over his estate.”
“I wish I had never gone to Heather Ridge House,” I sighed. “Nothing good ever came of it.”
“Soon you will own it completely, and do whatever you please with it.”
“We must bring Chandra here. She played no part in my treatment. She was always kind to me, and Aldridge cannot support her now. I do not want her to remain there, or to suffer because of this.”
“I’ll tell Mr. Giller to go fetch her, if you wish, only I don’t know if Aldridge will allow her to leave.”
“He will have to. He won’t have any other choice. If he has no money, he can’t support her, and if he no longer owns Heather Ridge House, he has no roof to put over her head.”
Connor gave me a weak smile. “You are a rather sweet person, you know,” he said, quietly. “It is really a pleasure to be your guardian. If you bring Chandra here, it seems I will become a guardian twice over.”
“I’m glad you are my guardian,” I told him honestly. “ The doctor told me I need to hire a nurse to take care of you.”
“Let Giller stay,” he said. “He and I go back a ways. He was in His Majesty’s service, you know. He will know what to do.”
“What is Mr. Giller’s name?” I asked. Connor had always just called him Giller.
“Leonardo, but he doesn’t like his name, so everyone always called him Giller,” Connor smiled.
“Doesn’t he have a place to live, or go?” I asked.
“He is independently wealthy. He only joined the ranks to please his father. He looks the dandy, but is braver than he lets on to be. He saw the gun before I did, and pushed me out of the way, so the ball only went into my shoulder, instead of my heart, like Aldridge had intended. Aldridge started to reload, but Giller pushed the table up on end, causing him to be knocked down, and then helped me to the buggy.”
“He never told me how it all happened,” I responded, gaining a great respect for Mr. Giller.
“He is rather humble. I would rather have him caring for my wound, than a fussy old nurse,” he winked.
I remembered how Mr. Giller had taken charge, and told me how to hold the towel down on Connor’s wound. “Then I will send him to you, as soon as he wakes up. He was rather worn out, by the time everything was over, and the doctor had left.”
“You know, if you ever change your mind about marriage, Giller would make a good husband. At least, if he found interest in you, he wouldn’t be marrying you for your money. After all, he is loaded.”
“Silly,” I laughed. “You cannot play match maker, since I don’t plan on marrying anyway. Besides, I am too young to even think about such a thing, right now.”
“You had thought about it with Sheldon,” Connor reminded me.
“But that was to be two years away. Besides, Sheldon tricked me into thinking I had to marry him. Now I am not fit to marry anyone. Please do not tell Mr. Giller about my incident with Sheldon,” I begged.
“Of course, not. I would never tell anyone. It is your place to share that story. I just thought if you actually grew to like Giller, there might be a chance for you to have a happy future. All he talked about, on the way to Heather Ridge House, was how beautiful he thought you were, and insisted you acted older than your years.”
“Well, it doesn’t matter. How old is he, anyway? And why isn’t he married by now, if he is such a wonderful catch?”
“He’s twenty two. He did his service, when he was eighteen, until he was twenty. It was in the service he learned to gamble. He did it for sport, considering he didn’t have to support himself. He got so good at it, that he started traveling all over, once he left the service, just to test himself at his skill. He is a wanderer, much like I have become, and that is how we met, only he owns a huge estate that he seldom visits. He has a caretaker that watches over it for him, now that his father has died. He plays the dandy and a fob, in order to discourage women into thinking he is anything other than a playboy. But there is more to him, than meets the eye. He is just looking for the right person, is all.”
“Well, he would never want me, no matter what you say, once he discovers I am ruined goods.”
“I should like to think he has better character than that,” Connor mentioned, drawing his brows together. “You said yourself that someone with strong character could forgive Tamara for her interaction with Sheldon. Why not the same for you? After all, it was neither her fault, or yours for the treatment Sheldon gave you. You can’t insist on blaming yourself for it.”
“But I did it willingly. I even enjoyed much of it, until the end. I am not all innocent,” I insisted.
“I am happy to hear that you enjoyed some of it. A woman should always enjoy such activities, if she is truly in love with the person she is doing it with. Hopefully her husband, that is.”
“I do not wish to talk about it,” I insisted. He was looking too intently at me, and I was beginning to feel self-conscious. “Why are you all anxious to get me married, anyway? Are you already tiring of being my guardian?” I asked, thinking how much he hated staying in one place for any length of time.
“I just want to know, once I leave here, that you will be happy and contented with someone who truly cares for you. Perhaps Vance could be that person, as well. Only I know Giller better, and would not have to worry, if you ended up accepting him as your future husband.”
“I didn’t know it was part of your duty to make sure I married well, before you left my service.”
“I would never do it out of duty, Floriana. I hope you know I would do it out of love.” He gave me a long look, and I ended up lowering my eyes, because his stare was too intense.
“Please do not worry about me. It will be a long time before I could even consider a man, on any level, other than a good friend,” I told him.
“Then I hope you and Giller become good friends,” he smiled, giving my hand a squeeze. “I think I should rest for a while,” he mumbled.
“I’ll have the cook bring you up some broth, later,” I told him. “And if you are real good, I will even feed it to you,” I smiled, and winked.
“I think I would like that,” he smiled back. “Send Giller, when he wakes up. I need to talk to him, about going after Chandra, and other things.”
I left the room, thinking about what we had been talking about. Connor was anxious to see me settled, so he could be on his way, I decided. It made me sad, because I was starting to like the fact that he was there looking out for me. I didn’t think I could bear it, if he left. I must be wearing him out with my demands about Aldridge, I thought. After all, because of me, he had gotten shot, and could have been killed, if Mr. Giller had not been with him. I began to feel guilty about that, as well.
As I passed the guest room door, Mr. Giller appeared from behind the door, and almost knocked me down, because he hadn’t seen me there. His hand went out to steady me. For a moment, we merely looked at each other. I was thinking about what Connor had been telling me, and I wondered if he could read my thoughts?
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br /> “Oh, there you are,” I said, after a moment of not knowing what to say. “Connor wants you to remain and care for him. Would that present a problem?” I asked, trying to sound business like.
“Is that so?” Mr. Giller smiled. He seemed to be entertained by the statement.
“Do you have a problem with remaining for a time?” I asked.
“Actually, I would most enjoy remaining. I haven’t seen Connor for some time, and we have a lot of catching up to do. But I will have to send for my things from the inn.”
“I could send my groom for them, if you wish,” I offered.
“Yes. That would be splendid. Thank you for allowing me to remain.”
“It was Connor’s idea, but I wish him to have whatever he desires. Besides, he is probably bored with just my company. You will keep him entertained, while you care for him.”
“I am sure your company could never bore anyone. I understand you are full of adventure, considering what you asked Connor and me to do, not to mention how you ended up having to go to Heather Ridge House, in the first place.”
“Connor told you of that?” I asked, hoping that was all Connor had mentioned about my experience of Heather Ridge House.
“We had to talk about something along the way to the card game, and I did want to know what grudge you held against Aldridge Bogart to want to win away all his money.”
“And what did he tell you?” I asked, holding my breath.
“Something about Aldridge making you a servant and locking you in a tower room. I would love to hear the story behind it, some day. I understand your escape was quite harrowing.”
“Yes, maybe someday,” I lied. “I think you should go to Connor now. I need to get the cook to make him some broth.”
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