Page 50 of Her Magnificent Mistake
She’d expected to find her unrepentant brother grinning at her, arms wide, as he swept her into a hug and expected praise for interfering withherinvestigation.
She didnotexpect Gabby’s tear-stained face or Rupert’s worried expression as they straightened from their candlelit vigil beside a still figure on the bed.
“Marcia,” Gabby choked. “He’s…”
Marcia’s heart froze in her chest.Do not be dead, Bull. You cannot be dead.
As if pulled by an invisible string, she stumbled toward the bed and the recumbent figure. The relief she’d felt when she’d heard he couldn’t recall anything—when she remembered his plan to have amnesia, and assumed that was what this all was—was gone. The anger she’d felt when she thought about Bull swooping in to rescue her…gone.
Replaced with dread.
Marcia fell against the bed, her palms going to the mattress to keep herself upright…and realized she shouldn’t have discounted her brother so easily.
Bull blinked up at her, his grin crooked beneath a white bandage. “Hello, Marsh,” he croaked.
Her knees gave out and Marcia sunk to the floor beside the bed as her lungs once again obeyed her brain, and decided to breathe. “Bull.Bull. What the…”
His hand fumbled for hers. “Hell. Aye, I heard ye.”
Exhaling shakily, Marcia glanced at Gabby, whose smile looked watery as she dabbed at her eyes with a handkerchief. “We could not get him to wake up for the longest time,” she confessed. “But he seems better now.”
“Better,” Rupert agreed somberly, reaching for Marcia’s elbow, “but he still cannae remember much about the day. Rest, hydration, and gentle brain stimulation such as puzzles or reading, or playing chess with yer younger brother.Thatis what is best for head injuries.”
Marcia allowed her younger brother to help her off the floor, and she ended up sitting on the mattress beside Bull as Rupert hovered over them both. Frowning, she bent over Bull.
“You remembered who I was just fine,” she accused him.
Bull shrugged, then winced at the movement. “I can remember arriving at Tostinham, and learning ye were off alone with a murderer. I remember thinking I needed to save ye.”
Marcia felt her cheeks heating in embarrassment, though there was no way her brother could know exactly how she’d spent the afternoon. Covering the awkwardness with anger, she poked him sharply in the shoulder. “Save me? You are no knight in shining armor, Bull Lindsay.”
His grin was crooked as he captured her hand, but he quickly sobered. “Kenning what the bastard has managed in the last few years, I could no’ chance the two of ye being alone out in the wilderness.”
Gabby took up the story. “He shoved his hat back on his head, jumped back on his horse and rushed off again, heading toward Pook’s Glen. The next we knew of him, Artrip was dragging him into the house.”
Certain her cheeks were flaming—despite the reminder that Bull didn’t actually know what she’d been up to with Hawk—and desperate for a distraction, Marcia focused on the details.
What did they know?
“Artrip brought him back?” That was right; the butler had said he’d been the one to find Bull. “What happened?” She leaned over her brother, reaching for the bandages to carefully unwind them.
Bull winced again. “Told ye, I dinnae recall.”
“Seriously?” She pierced him with a glare. “You do not have to pretend for us, MisterWhat If We All Had Amnesia?”
Removing the bandages revealed a bloody bruise above his hairline, and an abashed Bull. “It’s still a good plan, Marsh. It’s just…”
“Youreallycannot remember anything? Really-really?” She glared down at her brother.
“Really-really,” he assured her.
“This is not part of some convoluted amnesia-trope plot? Where one of us pretends we do not know who we are to manipulate some poor bastard into falling in love with us?”
Gabby snorted, Rupert shook his head ruefully, and Bull’s lips curled downward.
“I dinnae even ken what that means,” he sighed in exasperation. “Besides, despite what half the family seems to think about my proclivities, Hawk isnae my type. I’m no’ pretending.”
Fine. Marcia supposed she ought to accept the truth.
