Page 4 of Until the Rake Surrenders (Rogue Rules #5)

E verything was dark, just as one might expect it to be in the afterlife. It was also noisy, which was not what Evan had anticipated. Actually, Evan hadn’t given much thought to what would happen when he died. Perhaps he should have done.

Or perhaps it was dark because his eyes were closed. The moment he realized that, pain shot through his head and ankle. He winced sharply.

“Are you all right?”

The question was called out several times. Evan blinked open his eyes and saw a circle of men standing above him. To a one, they stared down at him, their features concerned. Evan looked past them up at the blue sky, where a pair of clouds drifted overhead.

“Evan?” That was a woman’s voice. He might be bad with faces and with names, but he knew voices, and that was Min.

She pushed through the circle of men and knelt down beside him. Stupidly, he worried that her pale-yellow gown would be immediately soiled from the dirt. She did not appear to care, however, her gaze fixed on him with gentle concern.

“So much for your arrogance,” she murmured just loud enough for only him to hear.

Evan smiled and was rewarded with a jabbing pain in his skull. He closed his eyes again and felt Min—at least he hoped it was Min—touch his shoulder.

“We need to send for a doctor,” someone said.

“Where do you hurt?” Min asked softly. Evan opened his eyes again and met her caring gray gaze.

“My head is pounding quite fiercely, but the pain in my left ankle is much sharper.” He tentatively moved his foot and instantly regretted it.

She glanced at his foot. “That’s the one that was stuck in your stirrup as you fell.”

Evan winced, which only made his head hurt more. He wanted to argue that he hadn’t fallen, but of course, he had. He didn’t know what had gone wrong, but he would have plenty of time to consider that.

He gasped softly. “What about Merlin?”

“Is that your horse?”

Evan stopped himself from nodding as that would only bring more pain. “Yes. What happened to him?”

“He slowed down immediately, but I confess I was too concerned about you.” Min looked up at someone. “Did a groom catch hold of Mr. Price’s horse?”

“Yes.” The response came from the marquess, Evan thought.

“And he’s fine?” Evan tilted his head slightly, which hurt, of course, and saw the marquess standing behind Min.

“He is well,” the marquess said. “You, on the other hand, need a doctor. And a bonesetter, I should think. We will need to fetch them from Frome, which will take time.”

Min gently ran her fingertips across Evan’s brow. Her touch was instantly soothing. “We should get you inside. You can’t very well lie here in the dirt until the doctor arrives.” A faint smile teased her lips.

“Do not make me smile or, God forbid, laugh,” Evan said. “It hurts too much.”

“Then I shall only speak to you in a stern, commanding voice,” Min replied, her brows pitching low over her stunning eyes.

“He needs some brandy,” someone called.

“I definitely agree with that,” Evan said.

Min gave him a nod before standing. She turned to the marquess. “Do you have anything that would serve as a litter to carry him inside?”

“I’m sure we can come up with something.” The marquess strode away.

Min turned to someone else and told them to go inside to fetch brandy. Then she knelt back down beside Evan. “We’ll get you inside very shortly,” she said.

She turned her head and called for Ellis and someone named “Iona.” Evan, of course, recognized Ellis, but the other young lady was unknown to him. He hoped he hadn’t met her last night and already forgotten.

Min looked to her companion. “Ellis, will you go inside and arrange for a place on the ground floor to which Mr. Price can be carried? It must be somewhere the doctor and bonesetter can tend to him, and it must have a settee or some other piece of furniture on which he can put up his legs.” She glanced back at Evan. “I think it’s too much to carry him up the stairs.”

He wondered why she didn’t ask for his input but decided it didn’t matter since he enthusiastically agreed with her. The thought of being jostled up the stairs and all the way to his small chamber in a distant corner was utterly repellent.

“I agree,” Ellis replied, settling the matter for good—as if it had ever been up for debate. Ellis and the other young lady left with alacrity.

The weight of everyone’s stares pricked at Evan, adding discomfort to his pain. He closed his eyes once more.

“What’s wrong?” Min moved closer to his side and spoke quietly. “Are you going to lose consciousness again?”

“Did I lose consciousness before?” He did not open his eyes.

“I don’t know. I wasn’t here. Do you remember if you did?”

He tried to think through the sequence of events that happened. He’d plucked up the handkerchief, and he hadn’t been able to right himself on Merlin. Then he’d looked toward the tree where Min and Ellis and the other young lady—Iona—were standing, wondering if they’d seen what he’d just done. That small distraction had made him lose his balance, and he’d slid from the horse, the weight of his body carrying him toward the ground. He hadn’t been able to remove his foot from the stirrup before his ankle was painfully wrenched. Even thinking of it made his extremity throb in agony. At least Merlin hadn’t dragged him, he supposed.

“Evan, did I lose you?” Min prodded him, pressing her hand against his upper arm.

He opened his eyes and met her concerned stare. “No, I was just thinking of what happened. Bloody humiliating,” he muttered.

“I thought it was brilliant.” Min smiled. “Right up until you fell, of course, but you even managed to make that look exciting.”

Evan grinned, and once again, pain stabbed through his head. “Damn it, Min, I told you not to make me laugh or smile, and now you’ve made me curse in front of you.”

“You know I’ve heard much worse at the Grove every summer. Do you recall whether you lost consciousness or not?” she asked again.

“I think I must have,” he replied. “At least for a moment or two.”

“Well, I can’t imagine this is how you’d hoped to spend your house party,” she said with a sigh.

“Definitely not.” He’d be cooped up in his tiny chamber far away from everyone. When he managed to make his way up there, and right now, he couldn’t countenance it. Perhaps he’d just stay wherever they carried him to.

The marquess returned. “We’ve found a board that should support you. We’re going to transfer you onto it and carry you inside. Move aside,” the marquess said, waving at the men standing to Evan’s left.

Min remained on his right side as a pair of grooms put a board down next to Evan.

Frowning, Min looked at the grooms in succession. “That isn’t long enough.”

“It will be sufficient,” the marquess said, though Min hadn’t been speaking to him.

She turned to address the marquess, one hand moving to her hip in a thoroughly managerial stance. “His left ankle is injured, as is his head. With that board, one of those appendages will be hanging over either end.”

“My head is an appendage?” Evan asked.

Min tossed him a faint scowl. “You know what I mean.” She returned her attention to their host. “They need a longer board, else Mr. Price risks further injury.”

“I would rather not endure that,” Evan put in, glad for Min’s advocacy.

Frowning, the marquess looked at the board, and then at Evan, and then back to the board. “I didn’t credit you for being that tall, Price. What are you? Six feet?”

“About that,” Evan replied.

The marquess exhaled and looked to one of the grooms. “Find a longer board, please.” As the grooms bent to pick up the board they brought, he added, “And take that one with you.”

“Don’t make too much of a fuss,” Evan mumbled, hating to be a nuisance.

Min pursed her lips at him. “I’m in charge right now, and I will make all the fuss that is required to ensure your care and recovery.”

“You’re in charge?” he asked.

She nodded primly. “For now, someone has to be. Look around you. Nothing but useless men,” she said quietly, her eyes darting from side to side.

Evan fought against another grin. “I am glad for your management.” Without it, he would have been hauled inside with either his ankle or his head dangling over the board—or perhaps both. Neither of which sounded particularly pleasant.

“I brought brandy,” someone said. Evan couldn’t see who it was.

Min turned her head and looked up at whoever had spoken. “Did you not bring a glass?” she asked sternly. “You can’t expect him to drink straight from the decanter.”

Evan stifled another smile, which was only slightly less painful than actually smiling.

“That didn’t occur to me,” the man replied, sounding utterly nonplussed. “I’ll fetch a glass.”

“Please do,” Min said.

“It’s a very good thing you’re in charge,” Evan said. “How absolutely gauche to expect me to drink from the decanter.”

She pressed her lips together and shook her head at his sarcasm. “How do you expect to drink at all, lying there in the dirt? I’m not sure why I bothered with a glass. If you open your mouth, I suppose I can just pour some down your gullet.”

A laugh bubbled in Evan’s throat, which lifted his head slightly. That also meant his head came back down on the earth. He winced. “I can wait until I get inside.”

“Here comes another board. Let us hope this is an improvement.” Min’s gaze moved to his left. The same two grooms put another board down on the dirt next to Evan.

“Excellent,” Min said with approval after assessing its length. Bizarrely, he wondered if she might provide the same quick judgment when perusing the lengths of other things. What a horribly indecent thought. Particularly involving Min.

“Who’s going to move him onto the board?” Min asked, jolting Evan from his lewd meanderings.

“They can do it,” the marquess said.

Min looked from one groom to the other and back again as she spoke. “Be very careful. Make sure you put your hands beneath Mr. Price’s shoulders and lift him as gently as possible. Actually, try not to lift him much at all. It’s best if you keep his left ankle as stable as possible, as it may be broken. Try to scoot him onto the board.”

The grooms knelt, one behind Evan’s head and one at his feet. He tensed, anticipating a burst of pain.

“Be very careful,” Min repeated as the grooms slipped their hands beneath him.

Evan closed his eyes and braced himself. They picked him up and slid him onto the board, and as the groom who held his shoulders moved back, Evan’s head dropped against the board, sending a new wave of agony through his skull. He heard Min suck in her breath.

“Now lift the board slowly and gently,” Min instructed. “Can the two of you manage the board and Mr. Price alone, or will you need help?”

“They’ll be fine,” the marquess replied as if the grooms were mute.

Min stood and directed two other men to help with the board, one of whom was the Viscount Claxton. He gave her a charming smile. “It is my pleasure to do your bidding, my lady.”

Evan steeled himself once more as they lifted him. The jostling was painful, but they made it into the house with only a slight bobble as they moved through the doorway.

Ellis was waiting for them just inside. “This way. We’re taking him into the ladies’ library.”

They walked past the large main library into a smaller room with far fewer books and exponentially more pink, along with flashes of yellow. It was as if a bright summer garden had exploded inside the room.

“Set him down over by that settee,” Min directed. “Carefully,” she reminded them. They set him down on the floor, and as Claxton stepped around the makeshift litter, his boot grazed Evan’s left foot. Evan gasped as pain tore through him.

Min was at his side once more. “What happened?”

“Claxton bumped into my foot,” he growled.

She sent the viscount a surprisingly vicious glare that brought Evan far more glee than it should have. Served the man right for being an ass.

Claxton retreated as Min asked the footmen to gently lift Evan to the settee in the same manner they had moved him from the ground onto the board. This was far more painful, as they weren’t just moving him in a parallel fashion. They had to lift him and set him down. He was now almost certain his ankle was broken.

He was thoroughly peeved at himself.

There was an influx of women then, led by the marchioness. The marquess also came in, along with a few retainers. Several gentlemen brought up the rear until the exceedingly floral ladies’ library looked as if it were about to host a performance.

“Wonderful,” he murmured. “I’ve become the party’s entertainment.”

“Being the party’s entertainment is what delivered you here,” Min pointed out.

“Can’t you just make them all leave?” he whispered. “You’re very good at ordering people about. I’m most impressed.”

“I will do my best. But let me see about getting you that brandy first.”

“Wait, I need to sit up instead of lying flat. Are there pillows you could put behind me?”

“Yes, in fact, one of the maids already has them,” Min said, sounding pleased. She and the maid worked together to plump pillows behind him and get him situated on the settee.

“Brandy, if you please,” Min asked the maid.

The marquess moved forward to the settee, along with his wife. “I’m dreadfully sorry this has happened. We’ll make sure you are well cared for.”

“I appreciate that,” Evan replied. “Min is doing an excellent job. Lady Minerva, I mean.”

The brows of the marchioness—and to a lesser extent the marquess—arched in silent question.

“We are well acquainted,” Min explained. “Mr. Price’s sister is a close friend of mine, and my brother is a close friend of Mr. Price’s.”

The maid arrived with a glass of brandy before anything further was said.

Min took the glass from the maid. “We shall need some cold compresses.”

“Right away, my lady.” The maid departed once more.

Min addressed their hosts. “While I understand everyone’s curiosity, I think it’s best if we let Mr. Price rest until the doctor and the bonesetter arrive.”

“I agree,” the marchioness said. “I shall have Marguerite sit with him to attend to his needs.” She glanced toward another maid, who was rather dour faced.

“I will be staying with him,” Min said firmly. “As I said, we are friends, and it will probably do him good to have someone he knows at his side.”

Evan could find no quarrel with that. In fact, he didn’t want Min to leave.

The marchioness frowned. “Still, Marguerite should stay in case you need assistance, or perhaps I should send Mrs. Ogilvie down.”

Min exhaled. “Just what do you think might happen between me and Mr. Price in his current condition? Furthermore, he is like a brother to me. There is nothing for anyone to be concerned about with regard to propriety. Think of me as his sister providing care in his time of need.”

“This isn’t exactly a secluded place,” Evan put in. “People are in the library all the time. I guarantee you, I’m in no condition to do anything but drink brandy and perhaps sleep, although I don’t think the latter is possible in my current state of extreme pain.”

Min sent him a concerned glance.

The marchioness seemed to consider their arguments, and ultimately, an expression of defeat passed over her features. “Very well. I shall still ensure a maid checks in regularly, in case you need something.”

“That would be most appreciated,” Min replied. “For now, if you could clear the room so that Mr. Price may rest until the doctor and bonesetter arrive. I think that would be best.”

Min did not wait for their hostess to respond. She turned her back to the marchioness and held up the brandy. “Do you need my assistance to drink this?”

“I don’t think so.” He took the glass from her, his fingers grazing hers. A quick but wholly shocking jolt of awareness shot through him. First, the inappropriate thoughts outside, and now this. How hard had he hit his head?

Evan sipped the brandy, careful just to not down the contents. “I don’t suppose the brandy bottle is nearby. I foresee needing that when the doctor and bonesetter arrive.”

“Yes, that is probably true,” Min replied. She turned to ask Marguerite if she could provide a bottle of brandy, or perhaps whiskey, if there was any to be found.

Marguerite slid a glance toward Evan and gave him the very slightest nod, her eyes narrowing in what appeared to be a commiserative manner. “I’m sure I can find some whiskey,” she said in a quiet tone to Min.

Evan would not have guessed the maid with the sour expression might be his savior, proving that one should not judge someone based on their appearance or their demeanor.

After Marguerite left, Evan said, “We may have an ally in the household.”

Min’s brow arched. “Time will tell.”

The room was soon empty of everyone save Min. Evan closed his eyes briefly with relief. “Thank you for doing that.”

“Well, you need your rest,” Min said. “Enduring the doctor and the bonesetter will be quite taxing, I’m sure.”

Evan grimaced, which again reminded him that his head felt as though he’d been in a fight and lost. “Let us not speak of it. I’m trying not to think of my disappointment or how angry I am at myself. I confess I’m not looking forward to whatever comes next.”

“We should perhaps try to remove your boot,” she suggested, moving toward his foot.

“I’m not sure that’s wise,” he said.

“You may be right. The bonesetter will likely want to cut it off.”

Evan moaned. “These are my favorite riding boots, and they were not inexpensive.”

“Better to have a new pair of boots than to lose an appendage,” Min said.

He blinked at her. “I’m not in danger of losing my bloody foot.”

She lifted a shoulder. “I am not an expert in such matters, and neither are you.”

“I changed my mind,” he said. “You are far too depressing to stay. You should go as well.”

Min shook her head with a faint smile. “My apologies. I am merely concerned. I’m sure everything will be fine. You don’t even know if your ankle is broken. Let us not get ahead of ourselves. We shall wait for the doctor and the bonesetter to examine you. In the meantime, I will stay here, and we will not speak of such things.”

That would be best. Evan already knew that he wouldn’t be allowed on horseback any time soon. He scarcely went more than a few days without riding. He would miss Merlin and the feats they accomplished together more than he could contemplate.

Min moved back to his head, then pulled a chair next to the settee and sat down beside him. “What shall we discuss while we wait?” she asked.

Evan looked about the extremely floral room with its bright, feminine colors. “I suppose we could converse about the decor. There’s plenty to say about it.”

“I’m surprised to hear you say that.” She looked about the room. “I wouldn’t think this color scheme would be appealing to you, whereas I like it.”

Evan turned his head despite the pain, to see if she was being serious. She was.

“I had planned to roast the décor.” He wrinkled his nose and regretted doing so for the pain it caused. “It’s awful.”

“I beg your pardon.” She sounded affronted. “Pink is a lovely color. My suite at Henlow House is decorated in pinks. Indeed, the sitting room is quite similar to this. I suppose I can see where it may not appeal to you. What would you prefer? Brown? Perhaps a dark, muted blue?”

“In fact, my bedchamber back home in Wales is decorated in blue and chestnut brown. I don’t really know what chestnut brown is—and don’t tell me it’s the color of a chestnut. Who pays attention to such things? But that’s what my mother calls it.”

Min laughed. “So, you take issue with this room because of the color. The excess of flowers doesn’t bother you?”

“Oh no, I find that equally appalling,” he said. “I suppose you like them?”

“I do like flowers, but I’ll allow that this is perhaps a bit too fussy. That is what it shares in common with my sitting room, which my mother decorated.” She made a disagreeable face that somehow made her more attractive, not less. Yes, he’d definitely sustained a major head injury. The doctor could not arrive soon enough.

“Thank you.” He sipped his brandy. “You are quite putting me at ease.”

“I am happy to do it.” Min clasped her hands in her lap. “If I can spend the remainder of the house party here with you instead of fending off rogues, I will count myself lucky indeed.”

“Then embarrassing myself horribly and potentially breaking my ankle was all for a good cause,” he said.

She gave him a smile that lit her eyes to an astonishingly silvery hue. “I think that is the best way for us to look at it, don’t you?”

Evan could not disagree. He just hoped his ankle wasn’t broken. It was bad enough that he’d suffered a mind-scrambling head wound that was causing him to look at his friend’s sister in an altogether different light.

He needed to remember what she’d said—that he was like a brother. That reminded him of what he’d said to her last night. “Why is it I’m like a brother to you today, but when I offered my brotherly services yesterday, you declined?”

“Because I don’t need your brotherly help. You , on the other hand, require my sisterly management.” She gave him a stern but lively stare.

He wanted to argue, but the truth was she was right.