Free Miss Goldsleigh's Secret by Amylynn Bright Page A

raised his voice, and then the tears started. “I didn’t fall.”
    “Oh, sweetheart.” Olivia brushed the bangs from his forehead, surprised by his sudden change in mood. “It was an accident and no one is upset with you.”
    “Dalton will never want me to go anywhere with him. Now I’m a nuisance, and I’ll never get to go anywhere good ever.” Now that his tears got a foothold, the young-man façade slipped away and her brother was ten years old again, hurt and confused and sad.
    “I don’t think that’s true.” Olivia stroked his leg over the blankets. “Lord Dalton was quite concerned about your fall. He actually thought
I’d
be angry at
him
for letting anything happen to you.”
    Warren sniffed and wiped at his eyes with the sleeve of his nightshirt. “Really? You’re not mad at him, are you? It wasn’t his fault, you know. Or His Grace’s fault either.”
    “No, I’m not,” Olivia assured her brother with a pat on the knee.
    Warren pursed his lips and creased his brow in thought. He appeared to be vacillating whether or not to tell her something. Olivia waited a moment for him to decide, watching his face while he contemplated whatever it was that disturbed him. It was a struggle, but she waited and was finally rewarded when Warren cleared his throat and made eye contact with her. She smiled in as encouraging a fashion as she was able.
    “I didn’t fall.” When she didn’t respond, he continued, “I was pushed.”
    Olivia eyed her brother with suspicion. “You’re not trying to say Lord Dalton pushed you?”
    “No!”
    “And His Grace didn’t push you either.” It was a statement not a question. The boy wasn’t usually prone to flights of fancy such as this. Maybe the pain was getting to him even more than she suspected.
    Warren sighed heavily, allowing his annoyance with her to show. “Don’t be stupid. Of course the duke didn’t push me. Why would he push me?”
    “I’m sure I don’t know why anyone would push you.” Olivia rose from the bed and adjusted the covers, smoothing out the wrinkles and folding the hem of the sheet over the blanket before pulling it up over Warren’s chest.
    “Stop tucking me in like I’m a baby,” he insisted. Olivia withdrew her hands and straightened next to his bed, giving him her full attention. “I’m not trying to say Dalton or Lord Morewether pushed me. I’m saying
someone
pushed me.”
    Pushed him?
“How can you be sure? Everything must have happened very fast. It was probably confusing with all the crowds and the noise.”
    “I felt two hands on my back shove me.” His voice and expression matter-of-fact.
    Who would have shoved him? Why?
“I don’t know what to say to that, honey. Mrs. Greene and Mr. Fennyman couldn’t know where we are, and they certainly wouldn’t be at Tattersall’s buying horses.”
    Warren shrugged at her, his countenance grim. “I’m just saying I was pushed.”
    “I believe you, but still, it must have been an accident.” It had to be. “Let’s not think about it any more tonight.” Olivia measured out a small amount of the laudanum the physician left to help Warren rest. “Whatever happened, honey, I’m glad you’re all right.” Warren eyed the glass and the liquid it held skeptically. “Come on. Mamma always said you heal best while you’re sleeping.” When he wrinkled his nose, she laughed at his boyish display. “I know your arm hurts, and you won’t get any sleep if you don’t drink this. Stop trying to be brave.”
    After he drank it down, she tucked him in with a kiss and closed his door tight.
    Pushed? Certainly not.
She couldn’t take any more complications right now.

Chapter Nine
    Olivia stopped to check on Warren before she headed downstairs for breakfast. When she poked her head in the room, she found her brother lazing in bed and Lord Dalton’s youngest sister, Helen, reading to him from a massive book of tales of King Arthur.
    “How are you feeling this