How to Steal a Thief's Heart - Bree Wolf Page 0,29
here—in the middle of the night—was because he’d once more gotten foxed and then passed out in front of his office door, which was still locked and the only key in her possession!
“She’s burning up,” Mary said tentatively, her eyes wide with worry as she sat on the bed beside the little girl, pressing the back of her hand to her little forehead.
“Shut up!” Mr. Wolsey snapped at her, then swayed on his feet, his face turning from red to white and then to an alarmingly pale green.
Caroline gritted her teeth, then grabbed Mr. Wolsey’s arm and dragged him out of the room. “You’re far from sober,” she snapped in much the same tone, her patience at an end, “and I will not waste my time trying to talk sense into you.”
He blinked at her owlishly before balance failed him. He stumbled backward and collided hard with the wall. Then his knees buckled, and he slid down into a pitiful mess.
Inhaling a fortifying breath, Caroline knelt down beside him, meeting his bloodshot eyes. “I will now fetch a doctor,” she told him, pointing a threatening finger at his chest, “and if you dare to bother Mary in any way while she’s seeing to the girl, I will personally remove you from these premises, am I understood?”
His lids began to flicker and, a moment later, he passed out again.
Exhaling, Caroline pushed to her feet. Once this crisis was taken care of, she needed to find a replacement for Mr. Wolsey. The man was impossible!
Once more donning her dark cloak, Caroline hastened out into the cold, gritting her teeth against the sharp wind. She knew of a kind doctor nearby and prayed that he was home, would open the door and be in the mood to help!
Little Dorothy’s life might depend on it!
*
Squinting his eyes, Pierce kept his gaze fixed on the children’s home’s large door, praying that his little mouse had not left yet and was somewhere inside and not out on the streets where any number of harms could befall her. Especially on a cold night like this where few ventured out of doors and those that did generally had no good intentions.
Winter was fast approaching, and the cold had a biting sting to it.
Pulling his cloak tighter about himself, Pierce moved his fingers, opening and closing his hands before urging Sport farther down the street. They needed to move, at least a little, to stay warm. But he would not let the door out of his sight.
Minutes ticked by.
And then some more.
Finally, Pierce dismounted, concluding that it would do him well to move his legs. He stayed in the shadows, now and then glimpsing another soul farther along the street in the opposite direction. And then something moved near the children’s home. Someone stepped out of a side street and turned around the corner and onto the pavement, which ran alongside the children’s home.
Two someone’s.
A man with a heavy-looking bag.
And a woman, her skirts billowing in the wind.
Pierce squinted his eyes, but couldn’t be certain from this distance away. Only when they reached the door and the woman turned to speak to the man did he catch a good glimpse of her face.
Indeed, it was his little mouse.
Where on earth had she gone?
Annoyance simmered in his veins that she’d left and he hadn’t even been aware of it. Sometime between Jacob leaving and him arriving, she had to have left to…what? Fetch this elderly gentleman? But why? To the children’s home and at night? Was it some kind of emergency? If not, why not wait until the next morning? What kind of emergency? Perhaps the man was a doctor and seeing to one of the children.
Indeed, that heavy-looking bag had reminded Pierce instantly of his old childhood doctor. The man had had a lazy eye and always carried a handful of caramels in his pocket and a teasing smile on his face.
Sighing, Pierce returned to his routine of walking up and down the street, from shadow to shadow, now and then retreating into a side street to stay out of sight. Here, at least, the wind was buffeted by the buildings surrounding him. The problem was he had no view of the front door.
Unable to stay away long, Pierce returned from one of such retreats to see the doctor walking down the street the way they had come about an hour earlier. Pierce’s little mouse, however, was not at his side.