you.”
“I can walk,” she protested, though the spinning of her head made clear there would be no walking in her immediate future.
“I think not.”
Rachel tensed her eyes against the dizziness and clasped her hands behind his neck. She felt the strong muscles of his shoulders bunch and then he stood. The smell of his shaving soap—the scent of almonds—wafted off his cheek, his face was so near to hers. Shifting her weight, he ascended the steps.
“But what about the apple seller?” Rachel tried to peer around his arm. “She is still in the street.”
Curious onlookers knotted around the girl, forming a wall that prevented Rachel from seeing the child. Mrs. Mainprice’s familiar frilled white cap peeked between arms and bodies.
“Mrs. Mainprice will tend to her until a surgeon arrives.”
“But the girl needs help now” The child had been shivering and Rachel had sent Mrs. Mainprice to get a blanket to keep her warm. There had been so much blood, and the way her arm dangled . . . Rachel’s head reeled and she closed her eyes. “The poor child was run over like a dog in the road.”
“I know, Miss Dunne.” Weariness edged the doctor’s voice. He passed through the open front door, and they entered the cool darkness of the hallway. The sight of the crowd was lost to Rachel. “But I will see that she’s properly tended to.”
“Will it be enough?” she whispered.
If he heard, he didn’t answer, though she thought she felt tension move through his chest, crushed tight against her own.
He carried her down the hallway and into his office. Carefully, he settled her onto the settee.
“Molly, bring a lap rug and some hot tea for Miss Dunne,” he ordered the maid, who had followed them into the room.
She missed the comfort of his arms the moment he withdrew them. Silly Rachel. “I shall be fine, Dr. Edmunds. You do not need to stay with me.”
“Let me decide what you need.” He smiled a doctor’s comforting smile and pressed his fingertips to the pulse in her throat. “Good. Steady” They swept along the line of her cheek, soft as a feather stroke, before lifting away to leave the feel of them on her skin.
He inhaled a rapid breath and stepped back.
“Is anything the matter?” Rachel asked.
“Not with you.” He wiped his hands together as if trying to remove something from his fingers. “I believe I shall send Mrs. Mainprice in here to sit with you until you’re feeling better.”
“Can’t right sees ’em as yet.” Joe swiveled his head the other direction and poked it farther through the open window in Rachel’s bedchamber. “Nope. Not comin’ that way either.”
“It’s quite all right, Joe. I should not be so curious.” What Miss Castleton looked like was none of her affair, anyway. Besides, Rachel’s room was so high up from the street, she’d likely see nothing more than the top of the woman’s bonnet.
Joe pulled himself back into the room. “But women are always curious ’bout other women.”
“Well, this woman needs not to be.”
“Eh.” He winked. “If you don’ mind me sayin’, yer a hundred times prettier than ’er, Miss Dunne.”
“A fine compliment, Joe.”
“A true one.” The bells chimed in the nearest church towers, striking five. “Cor, is that the time now? I’ll ’ave me ’ead boxed if I don’t get those water glasses shined up afore the company arrives.”
He scuttled out of her room.
“Thank you for bringing up my tray,” Rachel called after him.
She sighed and pulled shut the window before the temptation to lean out it herself took hold. Her tray of food waited on the chair by her bed. A quiet and simple meal compared to the feast that would be going on downstairs. A very boring one if she didn’t occupy her mind with something other than pondering the Castletons.
Rachel headed down the stairs, bound for the library and a borrowed book, just as Dr. Edmunds appeared in the second-floor hallway.
“Miss Dunne, I’d just been coming to check on you.” He was dressed in evening clothes, his fingers fumbling with his cravat. He was gloriously handsome, the sharp points of his collar emphasizing the line of his jaw, the deep indigo of his tailcoat turning his eyes the shimmering blue-gray of rain-misted pebbles.
All for Miss Castleton.
Rachel bobbed her head, pulling her gaze off his face before he realized she was staring. “I was heading down to the library to borrow a book to read. If you do not mind.”
“Certainly not. You are recovered, then?”
“I am,