An Icy Christmas Engagement (Christmas Matches of Worth #1)

Chapter Twenty-One

Someone shouted.

Caroline gasped, looking from the cobblestone she’d been staring into for the past few minutes. She blinked away the tears that had somehow formed in her eyes once more as a hazy figure appeared near the doorway of the building.

“Cedric?”

She started forward. The figure was large and she realized that it was two people instead of one, trudging forward at a slow pace. Caroline rushed forward.

“Cedric!”

Harrison was right on her heels. He was faster and he raced ahead just in time to grab Cedric before he collapsed to the ground. He was holding on to someone who was unconscious but one of the men dousing the fire slipped in to grab him as well.

Caroline rushed to Harrison’s side. Cedric was covered in soot, his clothes singed and there was a line of blood running from his temple. His eyes fluttered as he looked at her before they drifted close.

Her heart stopped. She couldn’t breathe. “Is he…”

Harrison shook his head. “He’s breathing. He’s just unconscious.” Looking over his shoulder, he bellowed, “Help me carry him to the carriage!”

“I’m coming with you.”

He was already shaking his head. “I understand your worry, my lady, but I think it would best if—”

“You may say what you wish but it will fall on deaf ears. I am coming with you. Even if I have to follow behind your carriage on foot.”

The determination in her voice must have convinced him because he sighed. “Very well.”

With a grunt, he heaved Cedric to a stand, but his large body nearly had Harrison crumpling back to the floor. One of the other men swept in to assist and together, they brought him to the waiting carriage .

Caroline couldn’t take her eyes off him. She waited until they’d propped him up in the seat before she climbed in after them. His heavy body slumped against hers. The only thing that calmed her a little was his soft breath against her cheek.

She tried to calm the distressing thoughts that raced through her mind. She didn’t know where they were taking him and she didn’t care. Anywhere he went, she would follow. She couldn’t leave his side until she knew he was well.

At last, the carriage pulled up to a stately townhouse—Lady Hutton’s, she realized. Harrison and the other man carefully brought Cedric out of the carriage while the coachman rushed off to inform the servants inside. Lady Hutton was already meeting them at the door by the time they arrived.

“What happened?” she asked, her voice sharp.

“A fire at the office,” Harrison explained, grunting as he hurried into the house. “You should send for the physician.”

Caroline hovered at the door, staring after Cedric as he was brought up the stairs. She wanted to go after him but her manners kept her where she was. She couldn’t just barge in without saying anything to Lady Hutton.

Lady Hutton turned her eagle-like eyes to her, frowning.

“I cannot leave his side, my lady,” Caroline explained softly. “I know it will be seen as scandalous, but I simply cannot.”

She was almost certain Lady Hutton would send her away. Any proper lady of society would.

So Caroline felt a jolt of surprise when Lady Hutton nodded and said, “Come along then. There is no use standing at the door.”

She turned and followed after the men. Caroline hurried behind her. They went to the spare room Cedric had been brought in and her heart collapsed in her chest at the sight of him lying prone on the bed. Caroline immediately went to his side, taking his hand. Despite the heat he had emerged from, he was cold to the touch.

The physician took entirely too long to arrive, in her opinion. She was bouncing anxiously in her chair by the time he made it. He demanded privacy and it took a lot of convincing for her to leave. Only when he told her that he was likely to strip Cedric to search for any more injuries or ailments did she give in .

But the moment he emerged from the room, Caroline flew back to his side. She listened as the physician informed Lady Hutton that there was not much he could do, that it was simply up to Cedric to wake up. She felt her heart splinter into pieces at those words but she held on to that small glimmer of hope.

Cedric was alive. He was breathing. He was within reach.

So in the end, he had to be all right.

***

Voices brought Cedric from a dark pit of nothingness. Two of those voices he recognized. The other he did not.

He opened his eyes. For a moment, his mind was a haze. He couldn’t understand what he was looking at, nor could he come to terms with where he was. The voices grew louder and he realized that they were coming from the left.

Cedric turned his head slightly. He recognized his aunt, standing with her arms crossed and her eyes narrowed as she listened to what the tall man before her was saying. Harrison was by her side, looking uncharacteristically serious. Cedric couldn’t make sense of what the man was saying, nor could he see him fully since his back was turned.

There was another person present. She sat right by the bed, but her back was turned to him paying attention to what was being said. Cedric studied her from behind, a comforting warmth spreading through him. He wanted to reach out and touch her before he even realized who she was.

“He claims that this is important, my lady. And he wishes to speak directly with Lord Colenhurst.”

“For God’s sake, he can speak to me,” Harrison said. “Did you not tell him that Cedric is currently indisposed?”

“I did. He does not believe me.”

The tall man was Grace’s butler, Cedric remembered suddenly.

“Send him away,” Grace said dismissively. “This is not the time for such discussions.”

“We don’t know when he will wake up,” Harrison said to her. “It wouldn’t be best to put this off for the unknown. ”

“It has only been three days since the fire. I’m sure he will wake up any minute now. That private investigator of yours can go away until Cedric is well enough to receive such information.”

At last, she spoke.

“What is the matter?”

Cedric’s heart skipped a beat. He watched the side of her face, admiring the way her brows dipped delicately into a frown.

Harrison looked at her, ready to respond. But then he noticed Cedric. “Cedric!” he gasped. “You’re awake!”

Caroline swiveled in her chair. Cedric would have given up everything he possessed just to witness that look of pure happiness and relief on her face one more time.

“See?” came Grace’s voice. “I told you it would happen at any minute.”

They crowded his bed. Caroline shot to her feet as he began to sit up. “You shouldn’t move just yet,” she said worriedly. “We should have the physician take a look at you.”

“I feel quite well,” he told her gently. “Doesn’t feel at all as if I have been sleeping for three days.”

Tears swam in her eyes. She reached out to take his hand. “Cedric…”

Whatever she wanted to say was interrupted by the butler clearing his throat. “Shall I see him in then, my lady?” he asked.

Grace whirled on him but Cedric saved him from a verbal lashing by saying, “Yes, bring him in.”

“Cedric, perhaps you should take some time to reorient yourself before you handle business matters again,” Harrison suggested.

“There is no need. I remembered that there was a fire and I went back in to ensure everyone had made it out safely. Is Linton—”

“He is fine,” Harrison assured him.

“Very well. I suppose all is as it should be in the end. Pray, admit him.”

“For Heaven's sake, it may indeed be a fortuitous circumstance that the fire spared your life, given your obstinate resolve to toil yourself to the grave. ”

Cedric could only smile at the dark humor. He squeezed Caroline’s hand and she smiled gently, still crying.

Mr. Thatcher was brought in shortly after. He acknowledged everyone with one curt nod before he began. “I have concluded the matter, my lord. I have found the culprit.”

“Have you now?” Cedric probed.

“In fact, he was revealed to me by someone close to him. Do you know Lord Simon Ashworth?”

The anger was fast and swift. A part of him knew Simon had been behind it. Even with the lack of evidence pointing at him, Cedric was not surprised to know that his former friend had gone out of his way to ruin his life again.

“He is the one who bribed your former steward and orchestrated the attacks on your shipments and your warehouse. He was also responsible for bribing the workers at the dock who stole your goods. The ones we failed to catch even though we had the information. Lady Isabella Ashworth, his wife, came to me with the information after I approached her once to glean what she knew. Apparently, she could no longer handle the guilt and wanted to relieve her conscience.”

Harrison let out a low whistle. “I cannot say that I am surprised. I suppose old habits die hard.”

“Is she willing to confess that information to the authorities?” Cedric asked Mr. Thatcher.

The private investigator nodded. “She says that she is, even if it will affect her as well.”

Cedric nodded slowly. It would be easy to let his anger consume him. He wanted nothing more than to take it out on Simon the way he deserved.

But right now, there was something more pressing he had to deal with.

“Harrison, I shall leave that matter to you then,” he said. “I’d like some time alone with Caroline.”

Grace raised her brows at that but said nothing. Harrison nodded and together, they left the room, Mr. Thatcher on their heels .

Alone, Cedric’s mind filled with a hundred things to say. Before he could choose a single one, Caroline leaned in and pressed a kiss against his lips.

He melted against his pillows. “Why?”

“Don’t you ever frighten me like that again,” she said, though her voice held none of the fire needed behind that threat. “I was worried sick. I thought I would never get the chance to tell you how I feel about you. Cedric, I—”

He put a finger to her lips. “Before you say anything else I should apologise.”

She frowned, the sight so adorable that he wanted nothing more than to kiss her again. “Apologise? For what?”

“I feel responsible for what Ambrose did to you. I can only assume he targeted you because of what I felt for you.”

“I don’t understand.”

He didn’t want to say it but… “He wanted me to marry his daughter. My shipping business was under attack by an unknown saboteur and he offered his assistance in exchange for joining our families. I believe he revealed your secret that night because I told him I could not marry her.”

“Why?” she breathed.

“Because I am in love with someone else.” He moved his hand to her cheek, rubbing his thumb gently across it. “Because I am in love with you.”

“Cedric…”

“I thought myself incapable of loving again. I had once courted Isabella, you see, and wanted nothing more than to marry her. But she was caught in a compromising position with Simon, someone who was supposed to be my friend, and their betrayal struck a chord in me. I suppose that is when they began calling me the Ice Earl. I did not think I would ever find myself in this position again. And then you came along…”

His hand wandered up to her hair, tucking a stray strand behind her ear. The endearing blush on her cheeks made it hard for him to keep still.

“You were like a breath of fresh air. I admired how easily you navigated the world around you, how quickly you smiled and frowned and asked questions simply because you wanted to know the answer in that moment. I could not stop thinking about you after our first encounter and it only grew worse after that. You consumed my very being from the moment we met, Caroline. I had no choice but to fall for you. You gave me no choice.”

“But now you know my secret,” she murmured, hesitant.

“And what a secret it is. I did not think I could fall any deeper in love with you, but as I watched you face the accusations with your head held high, I vowed to make you mine. I wanted to run after you right then and there, but I had to take care of Ambrose first.”

Hope filled her eyes. “So you aren’t horrified at the thought of me being a novelist?”

“I admire it,” he told her. “I support it. If it is your passion, I shall build a room just for you to fill your books in.”

A smile stretched across her face, warming him. “It would be rather odd to have a room dedicated to another person when we are not cohabiting.”

“That can be remedied.” He reached for her hand, kissing her knuckles. “Marry me.”

Her smile slipped. “W-what?”

“Become my wife. Let me shower you in love and adoration. Let us grow happy together.” He hesitated. “Unless you do not feel the same way…?”

“Oh, Cedric, yes!” Caroline threw her arms around him, nearly knocking him over. “Yes, I want nothing more than to marry you!”

Cedric laughed. He pulled her into his lap and kissed her deeply, simply because he wanted nothing more at that moment.

“Shall we do it next week?” he asked her softly. “I would become your husband tonight if possible.”

Caroline giggled. “I think my mother will not take it well if I do not give her the chance to plan the wedding. And it will give you enough time to convince her that you are the perfect match for me.”

“I’ve fought tougher battles.”

“It is cute that you think so,” she laughed. “I love you too, Cedric. With all my heart and soul. ”

This time, as their lips met, Cedric knew he had been blessed. To find a love that thawed his heart and made him whole again was no small feat.

But he knew now that with Caroline by his side, anything was possible.