Jade Star (Star Quartet 4)

He drew the sheet lower, and sucked

in his breath. There was blood clotted between her thighs. “Shit,” he said very softly. “Maggie, fetch me some hot water and some clean cloths. Now, Victoria, tell me what the bastard did to you.”

Victoria drew a shuddering breath and whispered, “He hurt me, Saint.”

Dear God, I can see that well enough! “Why are you bleeding? How did he hurt you here?”

He listened to her jerking voice with growing anger. The man had dug his fist into her, tearing her. “He wasn’t normal, Saint, and when I started yelling, he got crazy and hit me more.” She stopped, and burst into tears.

Saint gently stroked her hair from her forehead, muttering soothing sounds to calm her as he waited for Maggie to return with the hot water. “It will be all right, Victoria. Just a few stitches, and you’ll be fine, I promise.” As he spoke, he remembered Maggie asking him once, teasingly, why he didn’t want any of her girls. “I’d go to hell first,” he’d told her, and he meant it. He knew, in all fairness, that Maggie was greatly upset now, for nothing like this had ever happened before. But dammit, something like this should never happen!

“All right, Victoria, I’m going to put you out for a while. It’s just chloroform. You understand me? I just want you to breathe in, deeply. Don’t fight it, now.” She nodded, and closed her eyes as Saint gently placed the dampened cloth with its sweetish liquid over her nostrils.

He carefully stitched the torn flesh, then bathed her and pressed soft cloths against her.

“Thank you, Saint,” Maggie said quietly when he rose. He said nothing until he’d pulled a sheet and blankets over Victoria’s body.

“Would you like a brandy?”

He nodded, still looking down at Victoria. “She won’t be out for much longer. Yes, a brandy is just what I need. Give her a bit of laudanum in water when she wakes up. And have one of the girls stay with her, Maggie.”

He followed her from the room.

“This is damnable, Maggie,” he said as he accepted the brandy snifter from her.

“I know.” He saw the pain in her fine eyes, and just a bit of his anger melted. “I heard her scream, and ran into the room. The man . . . well, I smashed him over the head with a lamp, then called Caesar. The man wasn’t really unconscious and he began struggling. He pulled a derringer, and Caesar killed him. Will she be all right, Saint, truly?”

“Yes, in time. I think, though, that you’ve lost yourself a whore.”

Maggie winced at his term, but said nothing. It was true, no matter how one dressed it up fancy in one’s mind. She shook her head and sank wearily onto a chair. “I’ll see that she’s well taken care of. But she’s alone, Saint. Like all my girls, Victoria chose to be a . . . whore. Hell, she’s getting rich off all the horny men in this city.”

“I wonder what her choice is now?”

“I’ll take care of her,” Maggie repeated. “She’s earned quite a bit of money during the past year. She’ll be just fine.”

And she’ll probably go through life now never wanting another man to touch her. “She’s going to need some close nursing for a couple of days. I’ll see her tomorrow morning. Keep her quiet. I’ll take the stitches out in a week or so.”

“Thank you, Saint. Lord, I wish Brent were here.”

“He and Byrony will be back soon enough. He couldn’t have prevented what happened, in any case.”

“No, I suppose not,” Maggie said. She rose and shook Saint’s hand. “Thanks, Saint, for coming so quickly.”

“What did you do with the bastard who hurt her?”

“Caesar dumped him somewhere, I don’t know.”

“I hope it wasn’t in the bay. Wouldn’t want the fish to get polluted by such scum.”

“I owe you, Saint.”

Saint grunted, too weary to argue or preach anymore.

He went home and drank half a bottle of whiskey before falling into oblivion near dawn.

3

Aboard the Sea Shroud