Touched By Danger (A Sinclair & Raven Novel Book 3)

by Wendy Vella

  Essie moved through the tent, looking at the display of scarves. She would purchase one for her aunt, and then return to the others. She had told Lilly she was going to see the herbalist, and her sister-in-law had said she would tell Dev if he asked, but made her promise to take care.

  “Hello, darling.”

  The stench of alcohol made her nose wrinkle. Searching the face of the young man who had spoken, she did not recognize him.

  “Good day.”

  “Are you here alone?”

  “No, my family are with me.”

  “Well now, perhaps we could have a bit of fun before you return to them.”

  She tried to wrench her arm free, but the man had a fierce grip.

  “Unhand me or I will scream.” Essie slipped her free hand into the bag she had just purchased and gripped a handful of the ground thyme inside. Dev had made her leave her pistol behind today.

  “I just want to be friendly.” He moved closer. “Lovely lady like yourself must understand that.”

  She threw the herb into his eyes, and he released her instantly. Staggering back, he started rubbing his face.

  Essie turned and ran into a hard wall of muscle.

  “Is he bothering you?”

  She looked up at Max. His arm was around her, holding her close to his side.

  “Yes... no, I took care of him.”

  “With what?”

  They both turned to look at the man, who was still howling and rubbing his eyes.

  “He shouldn’t rub it, it will make it worse,” Essie said. “It’s only ground thyme, but it will be extremely irritating if he keeps doing that.”

  “Excellent, then let’s hope he continues. But first, did he touch you?”

  “No.”

  “Tell me the truth, Essex.”

  She saw the anger in his tawny eyes, and shook her head.

  “Honestly, he didn’t.”

  Whatever he saw in her expression appeased him slightly. Seconds later she was being dragged outside.

  “Why did you leave your family?” He led her behind the tents, where several wagons stood, and then stopped.

  “I wanted to see that man’s stall. The one selling things I could use to treat my patients.”

  He looked skyward.

  “This is not a place to walk off alone, Essex. There are pickpockets and muggers here. And as evidenced by what just happened to you, men who have overindulged and would see a lush creature like you and want to take advantage.”

  “I-I am not a creature,” Essie said, when what she really thought was that Max saw her as lush.

  “No, you’re a beautiful lady,” he said softly. “And that alone means you should not have gone off by yourself.”

  “I can protect myself, and Eden would have heard me had I called.” The minute she finished the words, she realized what she had said. Dear Lord, only with this man could she lose her ability to hold her tongue.

  “Why would Eden hear you?”

  “I... ah, pardon?”

  “You heard me.” He took her arms and pulled her closer as she attempted to back away. “Tell me what happened that day in Samantha’s bedroom, and why your sister has hearing better than any person I know. Tell me why your brother’s eyes can see what mine can’t, and their color sometimes changes, and his pupils almost fill his eyes.”

  “No, Max, please, I don’t know what you are talking about.”

  “Cam sniffs the air, almost like a dog catching a scent. And you,” he whispered. “You have an uncanny ability to heal a person. Plus, how is it you all know when you need each other, when danger is near or someone is hurting?”

  Essie had gone cold inside.

  “I am an observer, Essie. Living your life on the outskirts of everything and everyone makes you do that. Now tell me what I want to know.”

  “No!” She wrenched free of his arms. “There is nothing to tell, and I will not let you hurt them with your lies.”

  She ran then, as fast as she could back toward her family and away from Max. He caught her, grabbed her arm and turned her to face him.

  “I don’t want to hurt you,” he said. “Please, Essie, tell me you know that.”

  She wanted to believe it, wanted to see him as a good man, but her fears keep her silent. It was then they both heard the screams.

  “Dear Lord, what has happened?”

  Taking her hand, Max towed her to a barrel, then leapt on top. He scanned the scene.

  “The elephant is free and stampeding, we must leave!”

  “No, my family!” Essie ran from him and tried to make her way through the terrified people.

  “Left!” Max caught her around the waist and settled her behind him. He then started plowing through people.

  “Essie!”

  “Thank God.” She found herself surging forward with her family seconds later.

  Warwick was on Cam’s shoulders, and he held Emily’s hand. Dorrie and Essie were clinging to Dev, with Lilly before him, and Samantha was on James’s back, with Eden before him. Toby was struggling to stay abreast as adults buffeted him. Max grabbed him around the waist and hoisted him onto his shoulders. He held out a hand to Essie and she gripped it hard.

  They heard screams and the wild cry of the elephant as panic urged it on.

  “Right!” Max roared. Taller than her brothers, he could see over heads. “Ahead, a fence. Get to the other side!”

  Her lungs screamed but she held on to Max and did not let go. A scream behind her made Essie look, and she saw a woman fall, her head hitting the ground hard. Her hesitation was brief, but that second was enough for people to crash into her.

  “Essie!”

  Max felt her fingers slip from his, and he turned but did not see her. His heart pounded with fear as he tried to stop. Hands pressed to his back, forcing him forward; seconds later he reached the fence.

  “Can you see her, Toby?” Max lifted the boy down.

  “She’s beside a woman who has fallen, follow the same line and you will find her!”

  He lowered the boy over the fence. “The others are up ahead, go to them now!” Max turned back into the fray.

  Christ, let her be all right.

  Fear gripped him, made his skin feel tight, and his body tense. She had to be all right. People crashed into him, but he felt nothing, intent only to reach Essie. His eyes swung from left to right.

  “Move, you fool!”

  He ignored everyone, and it was then he saw the elephant. It had changed course and was coming their way. Still some distance away, but definitely headed directly at Max. Desperate now, he waded through people. He felt her presence, then two men parted briefly and he found her on the ground. He had her in his arms seconds later.

  “Thank God!” He lifted her high, turned, and ran. “Essie, talk to me!”

  Her arms were around his neck, face pressed into his chest, but she said nothing. Reaching the fence, he found her brothers and handed her to Lord Sinclair. He climbed the fence and joined them.

  “To the carriages,” Cambridge roared, running ahead.

  Max wanted to take Essie back into his arms; instead, he followed. They found the little Sinclairs standing outside as they approached.

  “Get her inside.” Max reached the carriage door and opened it. Lord Sinclair walked in with his sister in his arms, and he wanted to follow, but the duchess entered before him. Instead he had to stand in the doorway and watch on helplessly.

  “Essie, talk to us, love.” Her brother lowered her to the seat.

  She was pale, and dirt ran in streaks down her cheeks. Max imagined her hands desperately dashing away her tears as she struggled to regain her feet. He wanted to growl, he wanted to roar; God, he just wanted to hold her.

  “Essie, you are frightening us!” He heard the fear in the duchess’s words.

  “I-I am all right.” She struggled to rise, but her brother placed a hand on her chest, holding her down.

  “Easy now. Tell us where it hurts?�
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  “I am fine, I promise.” Her voice was weak, and she winced as she struggled against her brother’s hand. She was doing what she always did, being the strong, stoic one. The sibling who tended others. Well, to hell with that.

  “No, you are bloody not!”

  All eyes turned to Max.

  “For once tell the truth! Tell them you are hurting, tell them how you feel.” Rage was spiraling up inside him. Anger that he could not hold her, that he had not reached her before she was hurt, and at her insistence she was well. Something seemed to have snapped inside him. So he turned his anger on her siblings.

  “She believes she is inferior to you all. Do you know that?”

  “Now see here, Huntington—”

  “Do you know that she does what she does because she believes herself unworthy of being a Sinclair sibling?” Max continued. “She never stops. Never gives a thought to herself, because she believes each of you is so much more than she could ever be!”

  Shock etched the two faces.

  “Did you know that after she tends very ill patients, her hands shake and she feels the fear she would not allow herself to feel while treating them? Fear that if she had not succeeded, they would have died.”

  “Stop it, Max.” Her words were not loud, but he heard each clearly. They broke through his anger, and allowed reality to return. What the hell had he just done? He had no right to speak the way he had. No rights to Essex Sinclair.

  “You should have known these things about her,” he rasped before stalking away.

  Finding his horse in the chaos, he rode as if the hounds of hell were on his heels, yet it was not hard or fast enough, because all he could see was Essie, lying broken and hurt as he tried to reach her.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  Five days after the Bartholomew Fair, Essie rose early but did not leave her room, instead taking her breakfast on a tray. Her face was still bruised, and they marred her body, dark and angry, a reminder of what could have been.

  She had never really been unwell in her life. Not seriously. She’d experienced pain, but not this type. It had been agony, and she was quite sure she had no wish to endure so much of it again at any time in her future.

  Essie remembered falling, and then the feel of people stomping on her in their panic to flee. She had tried to get to her feet, but had not succeeded until Max found her. When his hands reached for her, she’d known it was him, and that she was safe. The absolute belief that he would look after her was startling, as until that moment she’d only ever felt that with her siblings. Essie remembered him holding her close, sheltering her with his body, and for those brief moments the fear had subsided.

  “Lord, what a mess.” She sighed.

  Her siblings had walked around her tentatively for five days, but she had read the questions in Dev’s, Eden’s, and Cam’s eyes. Max had told them things about her they had not known, and they wanted to ask her about his words. She could shake him for that. He’d had no right. Those were her thoughts to air should she wish it, not his.

  Getting off the bed, Essie knew she could not stay in her room, or her brother’s house, forever, so she decided to wash and dress, and then visit with Eden. Her sister would not pepper her with questions if she asked her not to. Actually, she would, but Essie could ignore Eden. Her brothers were more determined.

  Leaving her room, Essie made it down the stairs and to the front entrance.

  “And where do you think you are going?”

  Looking up, she saw Dev leaning over the bannister, glaring down at her.

  “Out. I planned to see Eden and help her with the nursery.”

  “You are not well enough.”

  “I want to go, Dev.”

  “I will accompany you then.”

  “No, you will not.”

  He started down the stairs, his long strides taking them two at a time. Seconds later he was before her. Even when she was angry with him she loved this man who had been the head of their family for so long. She could not fault him for his commitment to each of them, and they never doubted his love. Dev would lay down his life for any of his siblings.

  “Do you know how much it hurts me to see you hurting?”

  “I am hurting no more, Dev.”

  He lifted her chin, looking at her bruises. “These hurt you, but it is the pain inside you that worries me, and that I didn’t see what Huntington, a stranger, did.”

  “His words were not the truth, Dev.”

  “Unfortunately, I fear they were.”

  Lying wasn’t something Essie liked doing. Especially not to this man, when she owed him so much.

  “Please, Dev. Can you not let this rest?”

  “Why have you not told me how you felt? How could you believe yourself inferior to any of us, when the truth is so very different.”

  She did not speak, could not speak. How did she tell the man who had been so strong all his life that she had felt weak?

  “Come, let’s walk.”

  Morning sun greeted them as they stepped outside and started along the street. He took her hand as he had when they were children, and swung her arm as they walked.

  “I spoke with Eden and Cam last night, and we talked about you. Like me, they were shocked at Huntington’s words.”

  “Dev—”

  “Shocked because it is you who keeps this family strong. When you are not here, we flounder about, at a loss, Essie. You are our backbone, and it saddens me that we have never shown you how important, how special you are to us.”

  They walked a few paces while Essie grappled with her brother’s words.

  “I will not lie to you, Dev. I have felt inferior. You are such strong people. Vibrant and commanding, and I… well, I cannot even sit a horse.”

  “Sitting a horse is easy. Taking out bullets and coming to the aid of young boys who have suffered unimaginable horrors, now that takes strength. Forgive us for not allowing you to see yourself as we always have, Essie.”

  “Oh, Dev.” She hugged him right there on the street. “You and the others never made me feel that way. That was all my doing.”

  “I still should have known. The problem was that you always seemed so calm and strong. We never saw the fears or insecurities.

  “Come.” Dev released her, and took her hand again. “It is not bad enough that the other residents on this street think we are outrageous, we must add to their belief.”

  Essie smiled for the first time since the fair. Her family thought she was strong. It was a wonderful feeling.

  “Promise that you will talk with me in the future, Essie. Come to me, or one of the others, when you heal someone and are scared for what could have been. When your hands shake. Let us care for you.”

  “I promise, and for the most it is wonderful, but there are times when I am scared that I cannot save or help someone.”

  They walked in silence along the street, both deep in thought.

  “There is something between you and Huntington, and I would like you to tell me when it started.”

  And with those few words, her wonderful feeling fled.

  “There is nothing between us,” she lied. “I was aware of him when he came to Oak’s Knoll, I will not deny that. He is a handsome, intriguing man, and at the time I thought him a wanderer with no possessions.”

  “Well, you got that wrong.” Dev snorted. “But I know there is something between you, Essie. His behavior toward you is clear for anyone to see. Plus his concern, and the way he spoke after you were injured. That was not an uninterested man.”

  “Let it alone now, Dev. Please.”

  “You’re asking a great deal from me, Essie. I love you, as does Cam. We know how broken Tolly made you feel, and it hurt us all, Essie, to see you in pain.”

  “I know, and I love you for it.” She patted his arm.

  “Did he compromise you?”

  “Dev!” She had not expected that. “How could you think that, when I have just told you there is nothing between
us!”

  “Well, did he?” The words were gritted out. “Because I will tear him apart if he did.”

  “He had a bullet hole in his side, and I had Cam, Bertie, Josiah, and Grace to chaperone me. There is also the small matter of you believing your sister would be a trollop.”

  Dear Lord, I was a trollop. But Essie would never regret that.

  “I know men,” he gritted out. “They can be persuasive.”

  “Were you persuasive before you married Lilly?”

  “I can’t believe you just asked me that.” He shot her a harried look.

  “You asked me.”

  He swung her hand.

  “That I did. I always forget how devilishly quick-witted you are.”

  “Even after all these years, brother, how foolish of you to underestimate any of your sisters.” Essie saw the smile he was attempting to keep from his face.

  “I love you, and hate that you may have been hurting and I did not know.”

  “Oh, Dev, you cannot fix every hurt, but in this case there is nothing to fix, I promise you.” She felt bad lying to him, but it was for the best.

  “And you are a prize, Essie. Never forget that.”

  “Thank you, Dev.”

  “For what?” He looked down at her.

  “For being you. Fierce, loyal, and annoyingly protective. The very best big brother a sister could ever wish for.”

  “You’re welcome, and I am not annoyingly protective.”

  “No, you are. I can only imagine you will be worse when the twins come of age.”

  He groaned loudly. “Please do not remind me of what is to come.”

  They had reached Eden’s front door. Dev knocked.

  “Now I’m here, I better see James. He has a map he wishes to show me. One only hopes he also has food.”

  “He is a duke. Should he require food, he need only ask,” Essie assured her brother. Kissing his cheek, she left him to find his way to James, while she found her sister.

  “Hello, sister dear.” Eden yawned loudly. Dressed in a loose day dress with her hair bundled on her head, she looked lovely. “I felt the baby last night.”

  “Really!” Essie could not help the squeal of excitement. She hugged Eden close.