“William!” Maddy cried, chasing after Elvira, who was already running back down the hall. “Where is he?” she asked, catching up with her, Maureen also following at a run. “How badly is he hurt?”
“They laid him on the bed in Hiram’s room. He’s covered in blood!”
Maddy used the door casing to pivot around and came to a sliding stop. “Let me through,” she said, carefully pushing past the sea of people crowded around the bed. “Oh, William!” she cried, reaching out for him.
Kenzie caught her hand. “It’s not all his blood,” he said quietly enough that only she could hear as he turned her to face him. He gave her a shake to make her look at him. “But Trace thinks he might have a cracked collarbone, and there’s a deep slash on his arm that needs to be sewn shut. They said there’s a doctor here.”
“He’s not a real doctor, and I’m not letting him anywhere near William,” she hissed, pulling away. Then she had to shove Trace out of her way. She gently brushed her fingers through William’s wet hair as she studied his pupils, and she smiled when she caught him studying her back. “Don’t look so worried, big guy,” she whispered. “I’m a much better nurse than I am a driver.”
“It looks like the ligaments haven’t been damaged,” Maureen said, having unwrapped the bloody rag covering the lower half of William’s right arm. “But it’s going to need several layers of stitching.” She looked at Maddy. “We have to get an ambulance here; we’re not set up for the kind of care he needs.”
“That’s not going to happen,” Trace said. “None of the roads are passable, and the storm isn’t showing any signs of letting up.”
“Maureen, you worked as a trauma nurse for several years,” Maddy said.
“Fifteen years ago.” Maureen straightened and threw back her shoulders. “But I guess it should be like riding a bicycle. I’ll go see what I can scare up out of the supply cabinet. Come on, people,” she said, looking around. “We all need to pitch in and get organized. You two men,” she said, looking at Kenzie and Trace. “I need you to wheel Mem back to her room—no, take her to the sitting room. Janice and Elvira, you go with them and take Samuel with you. Elbridge, you find a cart and put several pans of hot water on it and wheel it back in here; then you can sit with Hiram. Charlotte, get us more sheets and lots of towels. Lois, you come with me.” She looked at Maddy. “You get him undressed, and I’ll send Lois back with supplies to clean him up.” She looked around as if checking to see if she had everyone. “Have you seen Dr. Lewis?”
Maddy shook her head. “I found out he’s not really a doctor.”
Maureen looked at Trace and Kenzie. “There’s been a man here since around three this morning, but he seems to have suddenly vanished. Could you two search the building for him after you drop off Mem?”
“We will,” Kenzie said, taking hold of the back of Mem’s recliner.
“I’m going to stay and help Maddy,” Trace said. He grinned at Maureen. “With your permission, ma’am.”
“You can help her undress him, but then clean yourself up,” she said, glancing at his wet and muddy clothes. “How much of that blood is yours?” she asked, touching the gash on his arm.
He shrugged. “Not enough of it to worry about right now.”
“Mr. Gregor?” Maureen asked.
He stopped in the doorway and looked back at her. “I’ll survive until after you tend to William,” he said before wheeling Mem out into the hallway.
Everyone else had already headed off on their assignments, and Maddy turned her attention back to William when she felt him pat her bottom.
“I seem to remember telling ye to stay in the truck until I got back.”
She started unbuckling his belt. “I left you a note.”
“Ye also left the door open. The whole interior was soaked, and your note is probably halfway to Ireland by now.”
“Trace, get his boots off,” she said, unbuttoning William’s shirt, only to suck in her breath when she saw the ugly bruise just above his left pectoral muscle.
“William,” Hiram hollered. “Are you going to be okay?”
“Yes, Hiram, I am. I have a good nurse.”
“Ain’t she, though?” Hiram said. “She came all the way here through this storm when Maureen called and told her I had started in dying.”
“You’re dying?” William said, trying to lift his head to look over at the other bed.
Maddy held him down. “He can wait a bit longer.”
“My whole family’s here, William,” Hiram continued. “Just like you said they’d be. Only I think they’re getting impatient.”
“You tell them they’ve waited all these years,” Maddy said, working William’s wet pants down with Trace’s help. “They can wait another day or two. And if you want a piece of your beautiful cake, you’re going to have to wait until William is all patched up, so he can have a piece with you.”
When Maddy saw the knife Trace had taken from William’s boot and set on the nightstand, she scoffed it up and stuck the blade in William’s shirtsleeve, stopping to smile at him. “Let’s see how you like having your clothes cut off.”
He actually smiled and relaxed back into the pillow. “Have at it, lass.”
Trace covered him with a blanket, and Maddy grabbed her cousin’s sleeve just as he turned to leave, pulling him to lean over the bed. “That guy Maureen mentioned,” she whispered so Hiram wouldn’t hear. “I think he’s the . . . tiger William left me with,” she said, glancing at William and then nodding at his frown.
She took a deep breath. “Maureen called my cell phone when I was in the truck, and told me Hiram was dying. And the tiger heard our conversation, and he somehow opened the door and started walking to the nursing home . . . taking his bubble of light with him.” She glanced at Trace to see his reaction, only to find his expression unreadable. “I came inside and the tiger sat down by the front door, but while I was changing into my scrubs, this guy suddenly showed up at the nurses’ station, claiming he was Dr. Lewis and that his car was stuck in a ditch down the road. Only he wasn’t wet from the storm, and when I went to look, the tiger was gone.”
“Did he say anything in particular,” William asked, “that would make ye think Dr. Lewis was really the tiger?”
Maddy felt her cheeks grow hot. “I-I just have a feeling. He mentioned something I’d said to the tiger on our walk here.”
“What aren’t you telling me, Madeline?” William asked. “What did he do?”
She went back to cutting off his shirt.
Trace stopped her. “Okay, I need to know why you aren’t totally freaked out by what’s going on here.”
She gave a humorless laugh and went back to cutting off William’s shirt. “I’m saving up for a total mental breakdown later.” But then she grabbed Trace’s sleeve when he started to leave. “Um . . . just don’t shoot the tiger, okay?” She smiled tightly. “He might be a jerk, but I do believe he’s on our side.”
“Our side?” Trace softly repeated, his storm-gray eyes searching hers.
She took another deep breath. “I became a member of your exclusive little club by default last night, don’t you think?” she said, glancing down to find William staring at her just as intensely.
He nodded ever so slightly.
Trace pulled her across the bed to kiss her on the forehead. “Welcome to the magic, Peeps,” he whispered, straightening away and walking out the door.
Maddy set down William’s knife and gently pulled his shirt out from under him.
“When are ye going to tell me what the tiger did to you?”
She straightened with a laugh and threw his shirt on the floor. “When you’re too old to even lift your sword.” She suddenly sobered, staring directly into his eyes. “You are going to grow old, aren’t you?” she whispered.
He shot her a wincing smile as he reached out and patted her backside again, and then cupped it with his large hand. “Aye, Madeline, we will grow old together.”
�
�And you’ll show me what’s in the box you gave me last night when you picked me up, that you had me run up and slide under my bed?”
He arched a brow. “Is your box under there with it?”
Her throat closing with emotion, she merely nodded.
“And are ye ready to show me what’s inside yours?”
His hand on her backside rubbed her soothingly when she started to tremble, and Maddy slowly nodded again.
“Then we will open them together.” He scowled. “And then you will tell me everything that happened after I left the truck.”
Elbridge walked in rolling a cart loaded with tubs of steaming water sloshing over the sides, followed almost immediately by Charlotte, her arms stacked so full of towels and sheets it was a wonder she could see where she was going.
Maureen came in looking ready to do battle, shooed everyone but Elbridge and Maddy out, and then went to work on William. It took them an hour and more than sixty stitches to close no fewer than five wounds on his body—most of the stitches in William’s handsome, muscular right forearm.
All the time she worked, Maureen kept trying to decide what had caused the gashes, unable to believe William’s explanation that it was merely flying debris from where he’d been caught in the storm. Personally, Maddy thought some of them were claw marks, and she’d swear the deep gash on his arm was from a sword.
She was a little disconcerted that William remained so calm through the entire procedure, considering they didn’t have anything stronger than a topical anesthesia to take the sting out of the needle being pushed through his flesh, and only a couple of pain pills that didn’t seem to make him even a little bit drowsy. But more often than not, it was William patting her bottom to reassure her that he wasn’t in any pain—although he did give her a good squeeze every now and then while Maureen was working deep in his arm.
A half hour after they tied off the last stitch, they had him bandaged and lying on clean bed linens, and Maureen was off with her supplies to tend to Kenzie and Trace.
“How are you doing over there, William?” Hiram asked, having just woken up from another nap.
“I’m right as rain, Hiram,” William said. “And you? How are you doing?”
“I’d be doing better if I could have a piece of my cake.” He looked at Maddy expectantly. “Can we get back to the party now that William’s all patched up? I feel myself fading, but I don’t want to go before I get my cake.”
She looked down to find William smiling at her. “Every man deserves to die with his belly full of sugar,” he said. “And come to think of it, I’m having a hankering for something sweet myself.” He arched his eyebrows. “So unless you’re willing to crawl in this bed with me, I suppose I’ll have to settle for some of Hiram’s cake.”
Hiram chortled like a teenager. “You be careful about flirting with our Maddy girl, William. When Doc Lewis stopped in to say good-bye, he told me to make sure I stay on Maddy’s good side, or she just might help me along before I’m ready.” He laughed again. “The Doc said she’s got a tongue sharp enough to cut a man clean in half, and I reckon you don’t need any more stitches right now.”
William snapped his gaze to Maddy.
But it was Elbridge who spoke first, as he stood up from his chair beside Hiram’s bed. “Did Dr. Lewis bother you, Maddy?” he asked. “You should have come and gotten me, and I would have escorted him out, storm or no storm.” He suddenly frowned and looked at Hiram. “When did he come say good-bye to you? Almost everyone’s been in here with you all morning.”
Maddy saw Hiram frown in confusion. “I don’t remember,” he said, glancing from Elbridge to Maddy. He gave a confounded snort. “Maybe I just dreamt he came in.”
“I’ll go get your cake, Hiram, and tell the others to come in and watch you blow out your candle,” Maddy said.
She started to turn, but William caught the hem of her shirt and pulled her to a stop. She reached out and placed her hand on his forehead. “That’s quite a frown you have going there, Mr. Killkenny. Are you in very much pain? Maybe instead of those pills, I should give you a big fat needle full of painkiller.”
“I will find out, ye know.”
“And then what?” she whispered, leaning down so Elbridge and Hiram couldn’t hear. “Believe it or not, William, I am quite capable of defending my own honor—if I happen to be feeling honorable, that is.” She leaned in so that her lips were just brushing his ear. “But if I’m feeling dishonorable toward a man, I have been known to blow his stockings all the way to Ireland.” She straightened, gently pulled his hand off her scrubs, and laid it over his stomach. “Any more questions or complaints?” she asked, throwing his words from the cabin back at him.
“Can I have ice cream with my cake?”
“And sprinkles,” Hiram piped up. “And whipped cream.”
“Hiram, you’re going to overdose on sugar!”
He chortled again. “That’s my plan, Maddy girl.”
Maddy rolled her eyes to cover her horror that they were discussing his dying so casually, and turned and headed out of the room. “Come on, Elbridge. I’ll get the cake while you get the others. I’m sure these two . . . gentlemen can babysit each other.”
Chapter Twenty-two
Hiram’s party had wound down sometime near noon, everyone having eaten so much ice cream and cake they couldn’t stop yawning, and one by one, after giving Hiram a kiss on his cheek, the residents had left to go have naps. Maureen had said she was going to catch a few winks in the spare bed in Mem’s room, and Kenzie and Trace were resting on guard at each end of the building.
It had taken William a good ten minutes to talk Maddy into curling up in bed with him, but the lass had been so tired she’d fallen asleep before he’d finished wrapping his good arm around her. He had then spent the next two hours quietly talking with Hiram, before the old man had given in to the lure of his ethereal visitors and fallen asleep for good this time.
Now William was just staring up at the ceiling, listening to the rain gently patter on the window as the storm moved away, remembering his horror at finding his truck empty when he’d insisted Trace and Kenzie help him get back to Madeline.
The last time he recalled ever being that scared was when he’d galloped through the splintered gates of his keep and found his family, his people, and every damn animal he owned slaughtered and left to rot in the sun. That was the day he’d started his vengeful march toward hell, and last night, as he’d stared into the empty cab of his truck, he’d felt as though he had finally reached it.
He kissed Maddy’s hair and then rested his lips on her soft curls with a sigh.
It wasn’t that he’d thought Mac had failed to protect her; but rather, he’d been terrified the bastard had stolen her. Because if Maximilian Oceanus had decided he wanted Madeline for himself, there was a very good chance William had lost her forever. Protecting his woman from the evil was one thing, whereas protecting her from a powerful drùidh known to walk both sides of the magic just might prove impossible.
What in hell was Mac doing here, anyway?
William had recognized the magic maker immediately, although it had been the first time he’d shown up as a tiger. The bastard had plagued William for centuries, dangling the prospect of vengeance for his family under his nose. Mac usually claiming it wasn’t within his power to grant, but then hinting it might be possible for the right price.
So was Mac here to continue their centuries-old sport or for another reason?
When William had told Kenzie about the drùidh’s sudden appearance last night, the highlander had grown deeply concerned. Maximilian Oceanus was legendary in every century—revered by most, hated by many, and feared by all.
Except maybe not feared by Kenzie’s brother, Cùram de Gairn, whose own legendary temper was equally well known. And anyone foolish enough to cross either drùidh . . . well, those who did live to tell of their misfortune usually wished they hadn’t.
But Mac had taken an unusua
l liking to William for some reason, when the two of them had met on a battlefield in the thirteenth-century in middle Asia, when William had tediously been working his way through time toward Kenzie.
William suddenly stiffened, his arm tightening enough to make Maddy stir. He immediately loosened his grip and let out a sigh of relief when she remained asleep.
Dammit to hell, he knew why Mac was here! It was for the same reason he’d been in Asia back then: he was still chasing after his spoiled brat of a sister, trying to hold on to the slippery girl long enough to talk her into going home to face their father.
That damn harbor seal pup was Carolina Oceanus!
And she’d come here seeking sanctuary, hoping that Kenzie could protect her not only from her father, but also from being wed to a man she despised.
Which meant that the jilted bridegroom was probably the evil entity chasing her.
But Mac had told William that his father had retracted the proposal once he’d found out that his daughter had good reason to fear her betrothed. Only Carolina wouldn’t stop long enough to hear the news from her brother.
Christ, Midnight Bay had become the battlefield of warring entities engaged in a domestic dispute over a headstrong girl with more power than she knew how to control yet, who was determined to choose her own fate.
And in her youthful impetuousness, she had chosen Trace Huntsman.
Maddy stirred again, but this time when William forced himself to relax, she didn’t fall back into sleep. She blinked up at him, and then blushed profusely when she realized exactly what part of him she’d been holding on to under the blankets.
She pulled her hand away with a gasp and sat up, being careful not to push against his chest, and then rubbed the sleep from her eyes as she looked over toward Hiram—only to go perfectly still.
William held her in place when she tried to get off the bed. “He’s not there, Madeline,” he told her gently. “He left us about an hour ago.”
“You should have woken me up,” she whispered, still staring at her friend.
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