Christmas in the City - Jill Barnett Page 0,65

her into the dirt lot and out of the path of the supports, which now lay where the woman had been.

His ability to breathe was gone and for startled moments he lay with the woman atop him, rocks and stones cutting into his back and legs from the weight of two bodies. She did not move. Had she fainted? He had tried to protect her head.

The curled feather on her hat was in his face. Surely he hadn't knocked her out? Was she breathing? Panic speed through him as he realized what he had just done, done on pure instinct and without any thought.

To his immense relief she lifted her head and he first saw her face under the wide brim of her hat--porcelain skin that was smudged with dirt, dark lashes and brows above doe eyes the color of a summer sky, wisps of dark blonde hair at her temples and neck. "Are you hurt?" he asked.

She moved so swiftly he was caught off guard and then realized when she wiggled free that his hands had been griping her buttocks.

"Let me go!" Her face flooded with a deep red flush, her bosom was pressed against his ribs, and her small chin rested on the Windsor knot of this tie. For a moment something passed between them--something earthy like desire.

Dust had settled around them and then Hal spoke, "Good God, Ed. Madame. Are you hurt?"

Sanity returned and Ed said, "Help the lady up, Hal."

She shoved off of him, scrambling to her feet as Ed winced and got up, his bruised back and shoulders shooting with pain. she appeared unharmed as she vigorously dusted off her clothes.

A cloth bag lay open nearby and pieces of fabric, bits of ribbon and such lay scattered in the dirt of the lot.

"Oh, no...." she gasped and bent to gather up a strip of dirty gold braid, ribbon, and swatch of pale blue wool.

Ed moved his foot off of what looked like a swath of curly beaver, dusted it off and held it out to her. "Let me have this cleaned or replaced."

"Are you harmed, Miss?" A police officer stood at her side, concern on his face.

"I'm not , sir," she said in a sweet, low voice.

"I'm sorry, but the support was coming right at you," Ed said.

She looked at him again and the same awareness of her ran through his blood again; it seemed to have stolen his voice.

"Perhaps we should take her to the hospital. Make certain she is unscathed," Hal said.

"No. No, please," she said quickly and held up a gloved hand holding a dirty piece of silk, looked at it and frowned, then added, "I am not hurt. I assure you. But you, sir, are." She nodded at Ed.

He looked down to see his coat torn and a red bloodstain on this white shirt

"It's nothing. The rocks cut my clothes. these are scrapes that look worst than they are. I'm fine."

"If you won't go to the hospital, at least let us take you home," Hal said.

She looked from Hal, to Ed, to the others standing around her. "I don't think so. You are complete strangers to me, sir."

"I'm Edward Lowell. This is Hal Green, of Lowell & Green."

"The architectural firm?" she asked. "You were named "Man of the Year."

Edward was embarrassingly silent but Hal...not so much.

"And now hero of the day," Hal said. "I think that tumble must have saved you from great harm."

"What is your name, Madam?" the police officer asked

"Everdeane," she said.

"Well, Miss Everdeane, one of us should escort you home."

"I'd rather not," she insisted. “I’m unharmed." She shoved the last of the fabric into her tapestry bag, then set it on the ground and readjusted her hat so the feather curled from the hatband down to wisp her smudged jaw line behind where an earbob hung from a delicate earlobe.

"We will escort you home," Ed said, clearly showing he was unwilling to accept no.

She shook her head. "I believe we have had enough contact for today, Mr. Lowell. You should have your wounds looked after."

"Get her a cab, Hal."

"And I will escort her," the police office said, none of them willing to let her merely walk away and clearly ending the discussion. "You will accept my company, Miss Everdeane. You should not have to walk the streets after such an ordeal. A close call, it was."

She looked from Ed to Hal to the officer and reluctantly agreed.

Ed watched as she and the officer climbed into a horse-drawn cab