Danice Allen Read Online Free

raining. The cool water on his face was refreshing, so he stood there for a minute with his eyes closed as his stomach thankfully began to settle.
    A noise was intruding on his serenity, though. A distant thunderous sound. He felt vibrations through the soles of his boots. But his brain was so muddled by booze, he couldn’t remember where he’d heard that sound before.
    The sound was getting louder, coming closer. He opened his eyes and realized he was standing in the middle of a highway. Terror struck him as he suddenly recognized the sound and anticipated his fate. Coming round a bend in the road was a coach-and-four being driven at a spanking pace.
    As he lunged to the side in a desperate effort to avoid the imminent trampling of his sorry bones, he speculated wryly that death was certainly one way to avoid marriage but not the sort of escape he’d have willingly chosen. So awfully permanent, you know…

Chapter 2
    The driver shouted a curse, the horses whinnied, and Amanda lurched forward as the coach rocked and shuddered to an abrupt stop.
    “Good heavens!” she exclaimed as she righted herself in the seat and pushed the rim of her bonnet out of her eyes. “We must have hit a cow!” But when she scrambled out of the coach, she found Theo kneeling beside the prone figure of a man, the two outriders standing over him with lanterns.
    Amanda’s stomach twisted with empathy and apprehension, and for a moment she was unable to move. The man’s long legs, clad in light gray breeches and tall black boots, were the only part of him she could see from where she stood; his face was entirely hidden from view behind Theo’s broad back. The man did not lie directly in the path of the agitated horses but was sprawled just off the road to the side. He was very still. Too still.
    “Good God, Theo, we haven’t killed him, have we?” she asked her coachman in a tremulous whisper.
    “We didn’t trample ’im, if’n that’s what ye’re wonderin’, miss,” answered Theo, turning to look at her. As he was crouched directly under the lantern glow, Amanda could see her coachman’s distraught expression quite clearly.
    “Then what happened, pray tell? You wouldn’t look so milk-faced if there was no reason for concern. Why does he lie so still?”
    “He was standin’ dazed-like in the middle of the road, miss. He got out th’ way just in time, but it appears he hit ’is head on a rock.”
    “Is he breathing?”
    “Yes, miss.”
    “Is he … bleeding?”
    “Like a faucet, miss.”
    “Then stem the flow!”
    “Beggin’ yer pardon, miss, but with what?”
    “Good heavens, Theo, use your imagination!” Amanda said, exasperated. She watched Theo cast his eyes about the wet, leaf-strewn ground in a helpless manner for no more than thirty seconds before she lifted her skirt and tore a flounce from her petticoat. Theo and the two young outriders averted their gazes.
    “Here, use this!” ordered Amanda, thrusting the length of muslin toward her embarrassed servant. “When a man’s life is in jeopardy, ’tis ridiculous and deadly , I daresay, to be a prude!”
    “Yes, miss,” mumbled Theo, taking the delicate ruffle with shaky fingers and wadding it into a ball.
    “No, Theo! Fold it!” admonished Amanda, advancing till she stood next to him. “Fold it several times, then press it to the wound!”
    Theo tried to do as he was instructed, but he was as ham-handed as possible, even dropping the fabric twice on the sodden ground. “What’s the matter with you, Theo?” Amanda demanded. “Your ability as a horse doctor is well known!”
    “But this ain’t no horse, miss,” Theo complained miserably. “This here’s a swell if ever I seen one! Nursin’ a nobleman ain’t no joke! What if he turns up ’is toes and they string me up fer murder?”
    “Nonsense!” scolded Amanda.
    “It could happen, miss,” Theo assured her. His round face, framed by muttonchop whiskers, was etched with worry.
    “Don’t be