Part 34 (1/2)
”That's not how it looked to me,” she retorted thoughtlessly. ”Liama””
He tried to shake her, but his grip had remarkably little power. In fact, his skin was draining of color, his eyes darkening with paina ”Liam?” She reached for him and tried to focus. He was moving back and forth in her line of vision, undulating like a s.h.i.+p on the ocean. But it wasn't because she was dizzy. He was the one doing the tiltinga”crumpling, falling, his coat sleeve awash in blood.
She thought she screamed, or maybe it was the sound of police whistles coming closer and voices calling out in warning. She felt the vibration of many footfalls through the ground beneath her, recognized Chen's distinctive accent above the others. Uniformed men with guns and nightsticks swam in her vision.
”Miss MacKenzie!”
She looked up at Chen. ”Pleasea get help. Liam's hurta””
After that she didn't hear Chen's reply, or any of the hubbub around her. She knelt in the sticky dirt, cradled Liam's head on her lap, and stroked his wet hair away from his forehead.
”This is the last time I'm going to come to your rescue, Liam O'Shea,” she said, choking on tears that wouldn't stop. ”You'd d.a.m.n well better recover, or I'm never going to let you forget it.”
For once he had no retort.
Chapter Twenty-Two.
Time's glory is to calm contending kings, To unmask falsehood and bring truth to light.
a”William Shakespeare ”HE'LL BE FINE, Miss MacKenzie, I do a.s.sure you. They are only flesh wounds, and you did well to stop the bleeding so quickly.”
The portly doctor closed his bag and gathered the other two watchers in with his gaze. ”I'll grant you, if the knife had struck a little more to the right, it might have been far more tricky. But under the circ.u.mstances, I've st.i.tched him up and all he'll need is a bit of rest.”
Rest, ha, Perry thought. Liam would be on his feet within a day, if Perry knew anything about the Irishman.
And he did. He'd come to know more about many things in the past two weeksa”more about Liam, and Caroline, and himself.
As for Miss MacKenziea She was wan and pale, a mere shadow of her usually robust self; she sagged in relief at the doctor's news. She'd hovered at Liam's side all the way back to his house, ignoring Chen's anxious presence and Caroline's questions and the police Chen had summoned.
Now the police were gone. Chen listened intently as Rose questioned the doctor at length; Caroline was downstairs with Mei Ling, comforting the girl as best she could.
Perry smiled softly. Caroline. She'd surprised even him today with her bravery and common sense. He'd been shocked to see her in Chinatown with Rosea”and then not so shocked, knowing how much rebellion lurked under that lovely, delicate exterior.
But they'd both underestimated Caroline's stubbornness. She'd had the sense to stay out of the fight until the hatchetman came for her; then she'd fought tooth and nail instead of swooning or screaming.
Perry was proud of her. He knew she must have followed him when he'd stopped to watch her house for a few brief moments before facing the ordeal in Chinatown; she'd followed out of concern for him. She'd stayed by his side, obeyed his instructions like a woman with twice her experience. Even when Perry had been helpless to save her from the hatchetman and Liam had thrown his knife, she'd never lost her courage.
At the end of it all she'd run to Perry, not Liam.
He counted it a sign of hope. Hope that she was beginning to see him as more than merely a friend; hope that the pain he'd given her would fade quickly. Already she was thinking beyond herself, staying with Mei Ling and doing what she could for the dazed young woman. Perry's brief explanation of the fate that awaited girls like Mei Linga”a fate Caroline had been ignorant ofa”had roused her immediate indignation.
It was the first stirring of the woman Perry knew she could be. Would be. He'd heard only a trace of bitterness in the last words she'd spoken to him: ”I know Liam has no need for me. Nothing can ever truly hurt him.”
In that she was wrong, Perry thought with a twinge of sadness. It wasn't the physical wounds that mattered most. From those a man recovered. But that was not something she could yet understand; Liam had hurt her youthful pride, torn her admiration of him to tatters, and she would need time toa Time to fully realize how wrong it would have been to marry her guardian, to see that things had worked out for the best. Time to recognize what love could be. That was all she needed nowa”time and love.
Perry knew how to be patient.
”Mr. Sinclair?”
He came back to himself. ”Doctor?”
”Mr. O'Shea asked me to send you in. I advised him to rest, buta”” The doctor shook his head. ”I trust you won't tax him.”
”You may trust me,” Perry said gravely. He nodded to the doctor and glanced at Rose. She stood frozen against the wall, her face a mask to hide what Perry knew she must be feeling.
Liam hadn't asked to see her.
Perry went to Rose and clasped her shoulder. She looked at him with such desperation that he almost mouthed the plat.i.tudes he knew she had no use for.
Instead he squeezed her shoulder and turned to beard the lion in his den.
Liam lay on the bed, propped up against a bundle of pillows, his arm and chest swathed in bandages. He was as pale as Rose, the hollows under his eyes and cheekbones p.r.o.nounced, the lines around his mouth deepened with pain. He opened his eyes as Perry shut the door.
”So,” Liam said. ”It seems you saved Mac's life. And mine.”
Interesting, a part of Perry thought distantly, which action Liam mentioned first. ”I know that surprises you, old man,” he said. ”But perhaps now you're prepared to believe I never wanted you dead.”
Liam laughed and hissed as the motion wrung a protest from his body. ”No. Just out of the way.”
Perry pulled a chair close to the bed. ”Do you mind if I sit down?”
”I'm not in any shape to stop you.”
”Of that I wouldn't be too sure. But I do trust your common sensea”now.” He sat down and crossed his legs. ”Where shall we begin?”
”I don't know.” Liam pa.s.sed his uninjured hand over his face. ”I don't know what to believe anymore.”
From Liam it was a shocking admission, especially to one he'd considered an enemy. ”You want to know why it appeared that I was working with the tongs,” Perry prompted. ”You want to know what really happened with the carriage, and the drugged wine, and the ambush in Chinatown. Is that a place to start? Or do you perhaps still suspect I was behind the jungle attack?”
”Should I think what happened with the guerrillas was coincidence?” Liam said heavily.
”It seems to be the truth. Odd, isn't it? It was that coincidence that led you to a.s.sume I was responsible for the carriage accident as well. I learned of the sawed axle soon after it happened. I suspected you might hold me responsible for it even before I knew you had better reason than I'd supposed.”
”And that's why you disappeared.”
”Only in part.” Perry uncrossed his legs and sat forward. ”Hear me out, old man. You may have trouble believing what I tell you, and I don't ask for your trust. I knew you wouldn't listen before, but nowa”
”I owe you,” Liam said. ”Maca””
Ah, yes. ”Mac.” ”As I owe you for Caroline's life. Hard as it may be for you to accept, I didn't go to the tongs hoping they would help me eliminate you, and then suddenly have a change of heart. A dramatic scenario, I grant you, but not accurate.”
”Then why?”
”I don't deny that everything I did was to free Caroline from youa”and save both of you from a disastrous alliance.”
”n.o.ble of you, old friend,” Liam said bitterly.