His Saving Grace by Sharon Cullen

her eyes bright. Grace stood quickly, as did Michael. The woman stopped short when she saw Michael. Her mouth opened in an O before she slapped a hand over it.
    “Sara.” Grace moved toward the woman named Sara, but she didn’t move fast enough. Sara’s eyes rolled into the back of her head, and she collapsed before Grace could get to her.

Chapter Five
    “Oh, dear.” Grace knelt next to Sara and gently cradled her friend’s head in her lap.
    Tarik appeared at her side and effortlessly lifted Sara into his arms. He looked at Grace calmly, waiting for direction.
    “The sitting room,” Grace said, taking charge of the situation. “We’ll put her there.”
    Once Tarik had settled Sara on the settee, they all gathered around the unconscious woman and stared down at her.
    “Lady Sara Emerson?” Michael asked, pulling from his memory the woman who had been one of Grace’s good friends. It happened that way. He couldn’t remember what he’d had for breakfast, but past memories came easily to him.
    “Yes.” Grace tenderly brushed a stray hair off Sara’s forehead and looked up at Michael. “I fear this will be the reaction of everyone who comes to visit if we don’t announce your arrival soon.”
    The stab of panic that Michael felt was unwarranted and unwanted. Of course he would need to announce his arrival. It was, after all, one of the reasons he returned home.
    “It might be best if you two left the room for a bit,” Grace said. “She probably thinks she saw a ghost.”
    Michael and Tarik left Grace with Sara and stepped out into the hall.
    “What are you waiting for?” Tarik asked.
    “The right time.”
    Tarik rolled his eyes. “There is no right time. She needs to know.”
    “I know that, damn it.” Michael pressed his fingers into his aching temples and closed his eyes.
    “If you weren’t ready to return, you should have stayed away,” Tarik said.
    —
    Sara’s eyes fluttered open and she looked at Grace, who was seated next to her friend on the edge of the settee.
    “What happened?” Sara sat up and put a finger to her head. “Why am I lying here?”
    Grace smiled at her friend and patted her hand. “You fainted.”
    “I did not.” Sara sounded highly affronted. “I never faint.” She swung her legs off the settee and smoothed her skirts. She stared at Grace with narrowed eyes that suddenly widened. “I remember now. I saw…At least I thought I saw…”
    “Michael.”
    “Yes. Yes, I thought I saw Lord Blackbourne—or at least the former Lord Blackbourne. Not Lord Nigel. But that can’t be right—”
    “He’s alive, Sara.”
    Sara’s mouth snapped closed, and she stared at Grace for several long beats of silence. “What did you say?”
    “Michael is alive.”
    “But…how?”
    “I don’t know. He hasn’t told me much, just that he was so severely injured that he couldn’t return home until now.”
    “He stayed away an entire year? Grace—”
    “He’s not even been home a day. I haven’t pushed him for answers. Yet.”
    “But Grace—”
    “Not yet, Sara. In time.”
    “Very well. But what about Sir Timmons?”
    “I haven’t told Michael about Sir Timmons yet.”
    “Have you told Sir Timmons about Michael?”
    Grace sighed. “Not yet.”
    “Oh, Grace.” Sara squeezed Grace’s hand.
    “He has a man with him. A Russian. I don’t know, Sara. I don’t have a good feeling about any of this. For so long, I didn’t want to believe he was dead. And now that he’s not, now that he’s alive, it’s nothing like I imagined. It’s like we have to start over, getting to know each other. And there’s a barrier inside of him that wasn’t there before.”
    “He’s been gone a long time. War changes people. And we don’t know what his injury is. Maybe when you discover that, the rest will follow.”
    “Maybe. Please don’t tell anyone, Sara.”
    “You can’t keep his presence here a secret. He’s the
earl.
People need to know. Especially the current