Persuading Her: A Modern Persuasion Retelling (Pemberley Estates Book 2)

by Keena Richins

Rick forced a laugh, rolling his eyes. "It helps you have the fastest horse."

  "Of course! Only the best for me. Let's go again!"

  Rick, however, wasn't in the mood to lose again. The girl didn't seem to care how much of an unfair advantage she had.

  "Louisa," Charles called out, saving Rick the need to persuade the stubborn girl. "We need to head back. Mary's already in the van--"

  "Oh, Mary can suffer a bit longer. She always gets her way but I want mine this time! This place is heaven. Come on, Rick," she shot a daring grin, "come with me for another ride."

  Rick got off his horse. "We should let the horses rest." James came up and Rick handed him the reigns.

  Louisa rolled her eyes. "They're horses! They'll be fine."

  Again, she was acting as if she owned the place. He was getting really tired of her inability to listen to reason. "Louisa," he began in a warning tone and reached for the reins of her horse, but she jerked them out of his reach and glared as if he'd insulted her.

  "Fine! I'll go myself!"

  "Louisa!"

  "HA!" She yelled, slamming her heels into the horse's side, but the big horse reared up onto its hind legs instead, its neigh like a scream for help to get the annoying woman off its back. Louisa grasped the reigns but forgot to grip with her legs. Yanked by the reigns, the horse took two steps backwards, the movement dislodging Louisa from the saddle. Her arms no match for holding her weight, Louisa screamed as she lost hold of the reigns and flailed her hands as if they could somehow catch air and keep her up. But the weightless air refused to comply and she fell, toppling off the horse and landed with a crunch on the back of her head.

  Chapter 14

  "Louisa!" The scream tore out of him. He had seen men land like that. They had never moved again.

  He waved his arms at the rearing horse as if that would make it move out of his way so he could reach Louisa. Someone else came running--James--and went after the horse, allowing Rick to drop by Louisa's still form. She lay on her back, eyes closed, arms thrown out, legs and back curved at a bad angle.

  Rick had learned basic medical training in the navy and everything told him Louisa was either dead or permanently paralyzed. Refusing to believe either, he grasped her wrist, praying for a pulse. At first, he thought he had one until he realized it was his own pulse pounding in his ears. He gripped her wrist tighter, hoping to produce something, but couldn't detect anything. The blood drained from his face. She was dead. Really dead. And it was his fault. He hadn't been firm enough, strong enough, harsh enough to combat that brainless, stubborn personality of hers.

  He looked up, desperate for help, for comfort, for anything, and his eyes found chocolate ones. "I-I can't find a pulse!"

  Anne whipped out her phone. "Someone needs to call 911!"

  "It will take too long for them to get here," Harv yelled. Rick hadn't known he was in the vicinity. Relief flooded through him. He'd know what to do.

  "My wife's a paramedic!" Harv limped toward the house.

  "No, wait," Anne called after him, "You're too slow. Charles!" She grabbed her brother-in-law who looked like he was about to tumble to the ground himself. Words passed between them, too low for Rick to hear, not with the pounding pulse in his own head, but whatever she said invigorated Charles enough to run toward the farmhouse. Harv followed after him, probably to help update his wife on what was happening. But Rick wanted him to stay put, to tell him what to do, to give him orders. He stared down at Louisa, cursing himself for being such a fool, and pressed his hand against her wrist, hoping a pulse would magically spring up.

  Knees dropped beside him and he looked up to find those chocolate eyes on him. Her face was white, but she had a no-nonsense look, like his commanding officers in a crisis. "What should we do, Anne?"

  She didn't even hesitate. "Is she breathing?"

  Brilliant idea. Why hadn't he thought of that? He bent his head and put his cheek next to Louisa's nose. Despite the pounding pulse in his ears, he felt the smallest puff of air against his cheek.

  He snapped his head up, the biggest grin on his face. "She's breathing!"

  Her smile matched his own. "She is?"

  He wanted to wrap Anne into his arms and squeeze her tight. Louisa was alive! She wasn't dead!

  "Don't move her!" Star's voice commanded. He jerked to see her vault over the railing as if it was only three feet high instead of five. He'd forgotten how fast Harv's wife could move during a crisis. Trained as a military medic before her marriage, she could handle practically anything.

  "We haven't!" Rick said. "I couldn't find a pulse but she's breathing. I can hear her breathe."

  "All right, make room," she barked and they both complied, giving her space as she dropped beside them and pressed two fingers against Louisa's twisted neck.

  "She fell off the horse--" Rick began, but she cut him off.

  "Charles told me what happened." She checked Louisa's mouth for blockage of the airway. "Has she said anything? Moved anything? Opened an eyelid?"

  He wished she had, but he shook his head. Star frowned. "This is serious. We need to get her to a hospital. The ambulance struggles to find this place; it will be faster if we transport her in our van. James!"

  He came running over. "Bring the board and collar in my medical supplies." As he ran off, she faced Rick and Anne. "Harv will need help taking out the seats--"

  Rick jumped to his feet. "I'm on it--"

  "No, no, I'll need your help here. You and James have steady hands--"

  "Anne has very steady hands." He'd seen those hands on the piano so many times, always controlled and poised. Even now, they were steady, while his own hands shook slightly.

  "Good. Three helpers will be better."

  "Charles can help empty the van." Anne offered. Rick stared at her, impressed with her second brilliant idea while he had just stupidly waited for orders. But when he looked at Charles, the man looked as white as a ghost, his hands gripping the railing as if he was drowning in open air.

  "Harv," Star called. "Help Charles before he falls and hurts himself as well."

  "I'm okay," Charles said weakly but hobbled along with Harv toward the van.

  James soon rushed in with the board and collar and Star directed them how to properly strap her onto the board. Once she was on, they hoisted her up, Charles and Star on one side and Rick and Anne on the other. The second he hefted the board up, he could tell Anne didn't have the strength to maintain her end so he scooted further down in order to handle more of the weight, an irrational part of him hoping Anne would be impressed at his strength. She didn't seem to appreciate it, though, and stubbornly tried to keep her end up as much as she could. So much for that.

  By the time they reached the van, its seats littered the grass. The four carefully slid Louisa into the emptied van, then all turned to stare at Star, the impromptu leader. The next problem was obvious: not everyone could fit in the van. Some would have to go in another vehicle. Since Rick and Charles had left their vehicles in Lyme, their only option was Harv's old truck.

  "It's a stick shift," Harv added with a worried frown.

  "I can drive stick," James offered but Harv shook his head. "Sorry, James, but I need someone to stay and look after the animals."

  "I can drive," Charles said, raising a shaky hand, his other arm around a sobbing Mary.

  Star shook her head. "You're still shaking. I don't need another accident on our hands."

  "I told you we should never have come here," Mary blabbered between sniffles. Anne stepped toward her like a wise, old mother.

  "Mary, we can wait in the farmhouse--"

  "No, they're not leaving me behind--"

  "I can drive manual," Rick cut in. The more time they wasted figuring out the car situation, the fewer chances Louisa had to survive. "Anne can go with Star and Harv and I'll take Mary and Charles in the truck."

  Unfortunately, Mary, like her near-lifeless-sister-in-law, refused to back down. "Me? What about Anne? Why is Anne
going with Louisa and not me? Louisa means nothing to her. Louisa is MY sister-in-law!"

  Rick was so sick of Mary and her childish tantrums. "Out of YOUR family, Anne has been the calmest--"

  "I can be calm!" Mary screamed like a spoiled kid. "Anne is not going somewhere I can't!"

  Fury roared with Rick and he wanted to shake the stupid woman. But Anne abruptly wrapped her arms around her sister. "I'll go with Mary."

  She was doing it again. Bending to someone else's will. "But--"

  She leveled those chocolate eyes on him, full of fierce determination. "Charles is her brother. He should go with her in case..." She let the sentence hang like an ominous prophecy.

  Star stepped forward. "All right, Charles and Harv, you're with me. The rest go with Rick."

  "What about the seats?" Anne asked, looking at the discarded seats in a jumbled pile.

  "We'll bring them in the truck." He waved at the rest of them. "You three, get Louisa to the hospital."

  The others obeyed, climbing into the van, while he headed for the seats. To his surprise, he spotted Anne prodding Mary to help. Actually, he shouldn't be surprised. Anne was always helping someone--it was like an innate need of hers. However, he had no desire to let that whiny Mary help. She'd cause more trouble than be of help.

  "I'll take care of them, Anne. You get your sister into the truck."

  He hefted one seat onto his shoulder and headed for the truck. It was an old one, with a front bench where two people plus the driver could sit, and a very cramped back seat where three people could uncomfortably sit. He dumped the van seat in the open back of the truck and hurried to retrieve the other two. Once those were in, he opened up the truck--and found that Anne had positioned herself to be in the middle and thus next to him.

  Had she done that on purpose? Did she WANT to sit next to him?

  Why was he even wondering about that? Louisa was on a deathbed!

  Focusing on the truck, Rick expertly eased it into gear while an illogical side of him hoping Anne noticed how well he drove an old, manual truck. But she didn't say a word. Neither did Mary. Probably both lost in the horror of the moment. Unlike Mary, though, Anne had kept her head like a good soldier. No, Anne wouldn't make a good soldier. She was too sweet for that. Too calm, courteous, and kind. She'd make an excellent combat nurse, though, and have every wounded soldier in love with her by the day's end. He frowned at the thought, that pang of not-jealousy stabbing him again. Besides, he didn't like the idea of her seeing the trauma of war. He wanted to keep her safe and pure.

  And there he was going again, thinking as if she belonged to him, completely forgetting about Louisa. But Anne was so good! A paradigm of women!

  Maybe instead of trying to get over her, he should be trying to change her mind? Fate had been throwing them together a lot this week, almost as if trying to hit him with a sign. And Louisa had mentioned Anne had turned Charles down, a man she had no reason to turn down. Her family should have been happy with him. But she had refused, claiming she loved another.

  He reviewed that fateful day eight years ago, the day she had rejected him. Hours before, she had giggled with glee when he'd proposed, as eager as him to start their new adventure. But their happiness had been marred when she remembered she was underage and needed her father's permission. She had been afraid, fretting her father would never approve but Rick had insisted he'd succeed in changing the father's mind, assuming that even if the old man refused, Anne would run away with Rick anyway. But in the few hours apart, something had happened. And when he came to convince her father for permission, Anne no longer seemed so eager for the elopement, suddenly more interested in finishing high school and attending college. He knew it had been her family's doing, that her father and that godmother of hers had convinced her he wasn't worthy of her, but he had figured her love had withered as well. But maybe it hadn't?

  He frowned, unable to remember the exact words she had said before he had parted for good. His anger and hurt had shaped it into complete rejection, but he couldn't tell if it was altered memory or not.

  Yet, even if she had remained in love with him, why had she been so cold? She had hardly said a word to him or even looked at him!

  Then again, he'd done the same.

  An alarming thought hit him. What if she thought HE didn't like her?

  He glanced at her, but she gazed ahead, lost in her thoughts. Probably thinking about Louisa. Who he wasn't thinking about, like usual.

  He focused on the driving. Now was not the time to decide if the woman next to him was in love with him or not. He first needed to ascertain another woman wasn't dead yet.

  When they reached the hospital, the parking lot was nearly empty, allowing him to spot the parked van. He eased the old truck next to it, then clambered out. He waited for Mary and Anne to get out but Mary was taking too much time. She was probably upset over something trivial. He hurried over and promptly lifted her out of the truck, settling her on her feet in seconds. She looked up at him in shock, but he didn't have time for her antics. He turned to help Anne out, but she was already out. How had she moved so fast? A second later, and she was running along her sister into the hospital and he had to sprint in order to catch up.

  They soon found a white Charles in the emergency waiting area. Rick searched the area for his friends but failed to spot them.

  "Charles," Anne said. "Sit down before you fall, please!"

  He sat down with a big sigh. "They think she has internal bleeding in the head but they don't have the right equipment here. They're going to life flight her to Hartford."

  "Hartford?" Mary asked. "She can't go there! That's too far away!"

  "It's about an hour from here," Anne said, calm as ever and displaying her phone which showed the estimated time on a map.

  "I told them Providence would be better for us," Charles continued. "But that's outside the region or something. I didn't really understand what they were saying. Your friends, Rick," he motioned down the long hallway where Rick spotted his friends chatting with two doctors, "Are trying to convince them for Providence, I think. Or maybe finding out more about Louisa. I didn't understand half of what they were saying..." Charles covered his face, looking like a man who had lost everything. Crises where not his forte. They weren't Rick's either, but information always helped.

  "I'll talk to Star." He headed down the hallway, confident Star and Harv would understand the situation better, especially since both of them had spent a lot of time in hospitals over the years. They'd understand all the hospital jargon the best.

  As he walked toward them, the two doctors waved goodbye and his friends hurried to him.

  "What's the situation?" Rick asked.

  "Honestly, not good," Star began. "She doesn't seem to have any fractures in her spine or her skull, but they believe there is swelling in the brain. I have a cousin in Boston who specializes in these types of surgeries but I can't get a hold of her, so they'll life flight her to Hartford since she needs immediate help."

  Rick blew out his breath. "So, death is still a possibility?"

  "A lot of things are. Even if she lives, she could sustain a lot of brain damage and when she wakes up, assuming she wakes up, she may not be the Louisa you once knew. She could end up a vegetable for all we know."

  Rick ran a hand over his face. "This is all my fault."

  "No, it's not," Star stated.

  Harv clapped him on the shoulder. "I was there. I saw her make the choice to try to run you over with a horse."

  "But her parents--she was my responsibility."

  "You were actually dating then?" Harv asked.

  Rick jerked. "What? No. We just met this week."

  "Then she wasn't your responsibility. We, on the other hand..." Star sighed.

  "What do you mean?"

  "The accident happened on our land, with our horse. They can sue."

  "Which could ruin us." Harv's shoulders sank. "We didn't have them sign anything before getting on the ho
rses."

  "Hey, no, Harv, they won't sue. I know the Musgroves. They're not the type to blame others. Look, I'll handle this. I'll speak with her parents and assure them you had nothing to do with this accident."

  "I hope so," was all Harv said.

  Frustrated he couldn't give a better assurance, Rick motioned them to follow him. "Let's tell the news to Charles."

  They found Charles and Mary in chairs while Anne crouched beside them, holding their hands.

  "They might not even get here in time!" Mary stated, her voice shrill.

  "What's going on?" Rick asked, his eyes on Anne, but it was Mary that answered. "Charles' parents don't have a landline."

  "Someone will need to drive over there and let them know," Anne added.

  "We could take someone," Harv offered, but Rick shook his head.

  "It's too far out of your way--"

  "What?" Mary exploded as if he'd insulted her entire family. "You're going to just let them go home when it's MY sister-in-law that nearly died on THEIR horse?"

  Harv leaned heavier on his cane while Star wrapped a comforting arm around his shoulder.

  The old anger burned within Rick. He would never let this spoiled woman hurt his friends--

  "Mary," Charles cut in, confronting his wife, "it wasn't their fault."

  "Yes, it was! It was THEIR horse that dumped Louisa--"

  Anne stepped between them. "Let's focus on telling your in-laws first, okay?" Her voice was calm and consistent, completely at odds with her half-hysterical sister.

  "You go tell them. Rick has a car. He can take you."

  And now the snobby woman was ordering HIM about? "What about your kids?" Rick hoped that might knock some sense into her. Unfortunately, Mary was incapable of sense.

  "Anne can take care of them, too. Louisa is MY sister-in-law."

  Rick fumed. The woman would only make things worse, probably even cause her precious sister-in-law to die because of her stupidity!

  "Listen--"

  "Rick," Anne was suddenly standing before him, "Is it okay if you take me to their house?" She laid a warm hand on his arm. It sent jolts of electricity through him. He wanted to grasp that hand, to raise it up high and lecture Mary about how amazing her sister was and could she please start acting like her for once!