limbs, which hopefully meant she’d hadn’t broken a bone.
He jerked his shirt out of his trousers and ripped off a swath of linen. Then he moved Victoria’s hand out of the way, used the fabric to stanch the flow, and pinched her nose closed.
She winced.
“Sorry,” he said.
“It doesn’t hurt too much.” Her voice was nasally.
But his apology went deeper than the nose bleed, especially as the reality of what had happened began to sink in. Victoria had almost been abducted. And it was his fault.
“This shouldn’t have happened.” In the hot sand with the sun beating down on him, sweat trickled down his back.
“I fell against the opposite seat,” she said.
The maid hadn’t fared as well. She was sitting in the doorway. From the way she cradled her arm, Tom suspected she had a fracture.
He could only shake his head in frustration. “I should have noticed that man wasn’t Davis.”
Victoria pushed Tom’s hand away from her nose and took the ripped piece of his shirt from him. “He looked exactly like Davis. None of us noticed.”
“I should have. That’s my job.” How had he missed it? His powers of observation were usually so keen. What had caused him to make such a terrible mistake?
She dabbed at the blood still flowing from her nose. “Don’t blame yourself. At least I’m free. And you scared him away.”
He’d been captivated by Victoria when she’d come out of the front door, and he hadn’t been paying attention to the carriage or Davis at that point. He’d been admiring her instead. Then she’d started to run away, and he’d been distracted while trying to calm her down.
Inwardly, he groaned. He’d let his personal feelings and interactions affect his ability to do a thorough job for his client. Just as he had the night he’d almost kissed her. This time his ineptness had been disastrous. Victoria could have been taken away to only God knows where and held for ransom. Or worse.
“Let’s look on the bright side.” Victoria smiled tremulously. “I’m perfectly fine, and once my bleeding stops, we can make it to the church without being overly late.”
He raised a brow. He hadn’t expected her to want to continue on her way to the wedding so soon. He figured he’d have to send a messenger ahead and let everyone know about the delay and, more specifically, inform Mr. Cole about what had happened. “Your maid needs medical attention first.”
“Yes, of course.” Victoria gave the woman an apologetic smile.
“And I’ll need to find someone to help me pull the carriage back to the road.”
Victoria nodded. “Very true.”
“While I do that, you can clean up and put on a different dress.”
A frown creased her forehead. “A different dress? That’s absolutely unthinkable.” She glanced down to the white satin that had pooled around her. Then she uttered a cry as she took in the blood that streaked through the tiny pearls sewn into the bodice. Against the unblemished white, the red stains were vibrant. There was too much blood to hide with quick cosmetics. In fact, she was covered with so much blood, it looked as though she’d just come off a battlefield. He’d seen enough during the war to know.
“My dress is ruined,” she wailed, spreading out the material even as more blood dripped from her nose onto the skirt. She buried her face in her hands as though she couldn’t bear to see the dress a moment longer. “And now my wedding is ruined too.”
“It doesn’t have to be.”
“It is,” she said into her hands. “It’s utterly and completely ruined.”
“We can postpone—”
“I thought this time with Nathaniel, I could do it. I really did,” came her teary voice. “But I should have known it wouldn’t work. I should have known I’d end up doing something to ruin it.” Her sobs were muffled but heart-wrenching.
Tom sat back on his heels and wiped the perspiration off his forehead. He was accustomed to crying women. He’d been around theatrics and tantrums and drama as long as he’d been a bodyguard. But this was different. She wasn’t putting on a show or attempting to manipulate him. Her pain was genuine and went deep.
He watched her, unsure what to do. She didn’t need his platitudes or promises. And she didn’t need to hear all his doubts, especially that he hadn’t thought Nathaniel was right for her in the first place.
All he could think to do was lay his hand on her back. At his touch, she leaned into him and pressed