side to avoid the knife now plunging toward him. He wasn't quick enough; the tip of it sliced into him, scraping across his ribs as he went, but he ignored the stinging pain and straightened, tossing the sand at his adversary's eyes.
The trick worked. The man stumbled back, reaching for his face and Robert charged, bending at the waist to ram his shoulder into the man's chest. The tackle took the fellow down and Robert landed on him hard and then began slamming his fists into his hoodcovered face and stomach until he simply couldn't hit him anymore.
Much to his relief, when he stopped and knelt over the man, his attacker didn't move or suddenly rise up to start hitting back. It appeared he was unconscious. At least he could see that his eyes were closed through the eyeholes in his mask.
Robert sank back on his haunches with relief and then glanced down at his chest, grimacing when he saw the long slice in his shirt and the blood staining it. His gaze then shifted to where Lisa lay in the sand. It was probably good she was unconscious. She would have fainted if she'd seen the blood anyway, he thought wryly. Lisa had never been very good with blood.
His gaze swiveled back to the attacker and he started to lean forward, intending to remove the man's mask, but paused as the cut in his stomach protested. Sighing, he sank back without removing it. He would send Richard and Daniel for the fellow and they could unmask the man and tell him who he was. Right now, the more important thing was to get Lisa safely back to the others. His wound was bleeding quite a bit, and Robert was growing weaker by the moment. Should the hooded man wake up and have another go at him, he wasn't at all sure how he'd fare.
Taking a breath, he forced himself to his feet and then stumbled through the sand to Lisa.
Lisa moaned and turned over, wondering why her head felt like someone was dancing on it. She then opened her eyes slowly. She was in bed in her guest bedroom at Christiana and Richard's home. "Oh, thank goodness. You're awake," Christiana murmured, suddenly appearing in her line of vision as she pent to peer at her. "Chrissy?" Lisa said uncertainly. "What happened?"
"Don't you remember?"
That question from her other side brought Lisa's attention to the fact that Suzette too was there. She glanced at her uncertainly and then peered back to Christiana, her gaze sliding over the dresses they wore. The same dresses they'd been wearing at Pembroke's picnic.
"Oh," she breathed, recalling heading out for a walk, her words with Robert and then the big man with the hard fists. "Did Robert save me?"
"I'll say, and damned near died in the doing," Suzette said grimly.
"What?" Lisa asked with horror.
"It's all right. He's fine," Christiana assured her, glaring at Suzette for scaring her. "But he took a nasty wound to the chest saving you. And he bled quite a bit while carrying you back to the picnic. But the doctor thinks he'll be fine."
"He carried me wounded?" she asked with dismay.
"Yes. He didn't want to leave you there unconscious and unprotected," Christiana explained gently. "And as it turns out, that was smart. He knocked out the fellow who attacked you, but when Richard and Daniel went back to find him he had regained consciousness and gone. If Robert had left you behind . . ."
She let her words trail off, but Lisa supposed they didn't really need to be said. If Robert had risked leaving her behind while he went for help, she might very well have been gone too. Sighing, she massaged her forehead unhappily trying to ease some of the aching there.
"Is your head hurting?" Christiana asked with concern.
"Aye," Lisa said with a grimace, and Christiana turned to pick up a glass beside the bed.
"The doctor left a tincture for you. He said it would help, but would make you a bit woozy. So don't get up and try to move around after you take it."
Lisa sat up with Suzette's help to drink the tincture. Once she'd downed the last of it, she sank back with a little sigh and then asked, "Is Robert here?"
"Across the hall," Christiana answered, setting the empty glass down.
"Oh," Lisa said quietly, and then glanced at Christiana sharply. "How are you?"
Christiana's eyebrows rose slightly. "I am fine. I was not the one knocked out or