Ellie touched his ankle gently, checking the swelling. “Furthermore,” she said, “it makes more sense that he sustained the injury before he threw you. After all, there must be some explanation for his distress. He's never thrown you before, has he?”

“No,” Charles said.

She turned the ankle slightly. “Does that hurt?”

“No.”

“Does this?” She turned it in a different direction.

“No.”

“Good.” She dropped his foot and looked up at him. “I think you're lying to me.”

Charles noticed that Leavey and James had conveniently disappeared.

“What really happened to Whistler, Charles?” When he didn't reply fast enough, she leveled a hard stare in his direction and added, “And remember that I'm as stubborn as a mule, so don't think you're going anywhere without telling me the truth.”

Charles let out a weary sigh. There were disadvantages to having such an intelligent wife. There was no way Ellie wasn't going to ferret out the entire story on her own. Better she hear it from him. He told her the truth, finishing up by showing her the rusty nail Leavey had left sitting beside him on the bench.

Ellie twisted her gloves in her hands. She'd taken them off before tending to his ankle, and now they were a wrinkled mess. After a long pause, she said, “What did you hope to gain by hiding this from me?”

“I just wanted to protect you.”

“From the truth?” Her voice was sharp.

“I didn't want you to worry.”

“You didn't want me to worry.”

He thought she sounded unnaturally calm.

“You didn't want me to worry?”

Now he thought she sounded a little bit shrill.

“You didn't want me to WORRY?”

By now Charles figured that half the staff of Wycombe Abbey could hear her yelling. “Ellie, my love—”

“Don't try to weasel out of this by calling me ‘your love,’” she stormed. “How would you feel if I lied to you about something this important? Well? How would you feel?”

He opened his mouth, but before he could say anything, she yelled, “I'll tell you how you would feel. You would be so angry you would want to strangle me.”

Charles thought she was most probably right, but didn't see the point in admitting it just then.

Ellie took a deep breath and pressed her fingers against her temples. “All right, all right, Ellie,” she said to herself, “calm down. Killing him now would be counterproductive.” She looked back up. “I am going to control my temper because this is such a dire and serious situation. But don't think I'm not furious with you.”

“There is little danger of that.”

“Don't be glib,” she bit out. “Someone has tried to kill you, and if we don't figure out who and why, you might end up dead.”

“I know,” he said softly, “and that is why I am going to hire extra protection for you, Helen, and the girls.”

“We are not the ones in need of extra protection! You are the one whose life is in danger.”