Page 104 of Rogue of My Heart

“My lady, I’m so sorry, but your fiancé is dead,” Lord Boleran said.

Marie blinked and checked anxiously on Christian before she realized Lord Boleran was talking about Miles. She swallowed hard and stopped struggling in his grip. The thought that she had been released from her engagement after all turned her stomach instead of making her feel light, like it should have. But it also made her heart bleed more heavily for Christian.

“Please,” she begged Lord Boleran, her voice little more than a wisp. “Let me go.”

Lord Boleran sighed and released her. Marie thought about dashing around him and crouching by Christian’s side, but Christian’s initial bout of grief seemed to have passed. He was stony-faced and grave now—a look that didn’t suit him at all—as he spoke with the doctor.

“She’s alive,” the doctor said, directing the words to Marie and Lord Boleran. “She has several fractures to her arms and legs, and I fear she may have punctured a lung. There’s no way to tell what other internal injuries she’s sustained.”

“Will she live?” Christian asked, his voice strangely hollow.

The doctor sighed. “I don’t know. If there were a hospital nearby, I would urge you to take her there for whatever care they could give. But seeing as the closest hospital is miles away….” He shook his head rather than finishing his sentence. “I’m afraid the journey there would kill her for sure.”

“Can we move her back to Kilrea Manor?” Christian asked.

“Carefully,” the doctor said.

Marie could do nothing but sit back and watch as Christian, the doctor, and several of the men who had arrived on the scene moved Lady Kilrea to the farmer’s wagon. The wagon’s bed was cleared and packed with as many cushions and as much straw as could be found so that the journey home would be as painless as possible. Lady Kilrea didn’t regain consciousness, and the whole time the men worked to move her to the wagon, Marie feared the woman truly was dead but no one had realized it yet. She tried her best to reach Christian’s side, but every time she came close to him, someone pulled her away.

“I’m so sorry for your loss,” Lady Aoife said when Marie ended up by her side at the edge of the accident scene. “I know you hadn’t yet had time to grow close to Lord Agivey, but he was your fiancé.”

It took Marie a few moments to catch up, not only to what Lady Aoife had said, but to the fact that she was there at all. “How…how did you get here?” she asked, too traumatized to think of anything better to say.

“Benedict and I were on our way to the engagement party,” Lady Aoife said. “We were within sight of Lord Kilrea’s carriage when the driver suddenly lost control.

Marie sucked in a breath so hard at that bit of information that it caused a coughing fit. Lady Aoife slung an arm around Marie’s waist and held her carefully. As soon as Marie recovered, she asked, “What happened? Did you see the wreck?”

Lady Aoife bit her lip, looking haunted. “I did.”

“What happened?” Marie repeated, pivoting in Lady Aoife’s embrace to grab her arms. “Please tell me what happened.” Perhaps there was a chance that the carriage hadn’t broken apart because of Christian’s prank after all. Christian had only loosened a few bolts. Surely, that wasn’t enough to cause such catastrophic damage.

“I don’t know,” Lady Aoife said, tears slipping from her eyes. “They were driving fast. Too fast. Then all at once, there was a twist. The horses broke one way and the carriage looked as though it had been rent in two.” She swallowed. “Its occupants went flying in all directions.” She finished with a wail, unable to go on.

Just like that, Marie was the one comforting Lady Aoife. It was the last thing she wanted to do, considering that more wagons had arrived and men from the nearest village had moved to lift Lord Kilrea and Miles’s bodies into another wagon. A second set of men lifted the driver’s body to a separate wagon. A few others were taking care of the poor horses as well. Something about the whole thing felt desperate and dire to Marie.

“I need to look at the carriage,” she said, not necessarily to Lady Aoife. “I need to see what happened.”

She stepped away from Lady Aoife, feeling horrid for doing so, since the poor dear had no one else’s shoulder to cry on. But a sense of urgency filled Marie. She had to see the wreckage up close. There had to be a way to prove that the disaster hadn’t happened because of the bolts Christian had loosened. The whole thing couldn’t be his fault, it just couldn’t.

She made it halfway across the expanse of grass separating her from the twisted metal and splintered wood before two men whom she didn’t know rushed forward to stop her.

“Stay back, my lady,” one of them said. “It could still be dangerous.”

“But I have to see,” Marie pleaded with them. “I have to check the bolts.”

“No, my lady,” the other said.

“Yes!” Marie shouted. She began to struggle against them in earnest, shouting, “Unhand me! Let me go!”

“Hush, Marie.” The command came from Shannon.

Marie turned, startled to see her oldest sister there at the scene of the wreck. She launched toward Shannon, grabbing her sister’s arms as she reached her. “We have to examine the wreckage,” she said. “Christian thinks he caused the accident. We have to determine whether his prank is the reason the carriage fell apart. He won’t be able to live with himself if it was his fault.” Her face crumpled at her last statement as grief swelled within her.

“Christian tampered with the carriage?” Shannon asked, eyes wide.

Marie swallowed hard, then nodded tightly.

“Then perhaps the very last thing we want is to examine the wreckage,” Shannon whispered. “If he did cause it, he might be guilty of murder.”