Page 165 of The Earl She Once Saved

“You should both eat.”

“We will.” Rafe hesitated. “I did not tell you before we left because I had only a name from Crote and a letter I had no right to read. I wanted to bring you something certain.”

“I wish you had told me you were going.”

“I know. I am sorry.”

She held his gaze. He could see the hurt beneath her understanding. He found proof that she could trust him and still let her wake to an empty stable. He would have to remember what that absence had cost her.

“Next time,” she urged, “tell me.”

“I will.”

They went out into the passage together. The guard retreated to the far wall. Sergeant rose and put himself beside Verity, sniffing her hand before allowing Rafe to lead the way.

At the stairs, Aunt Cordelia stood when she saw them. Win had come back into the hall with Ezra. His weight rested heavily on his cane, but he had stayed there to make certain they came down.

Verity stopped beside her aunt. “I am safe.”

Aunt Cordelia touched her arm. Win looked from the papers in Verity’s hand to Rafe’s face. Ezra gave a small nod, but he had kept their purpose to himself.

“We have found someone Roland must answer to,” Rafe divulged. “I will tell you what we know.”

He would tell Henshaw first what the documents proved, then let Verity decide whom she wished to have near her when Roland heard it. There was time before dusk to make copies, to send for witnesses and to see that no servant obeyed an order to confine her again.

Outside, the afternoon light lay across the drive. Roland was still somewhere on his land, believing he would return to a guarded room and a woman with no way out of it.

Rafe stayed beside Verity as they went into the morning room. When his brother came home, he would learn what Arabella had given them. Rafe meant to be there when he did.

Chapter 29

By dusk, the guard had gone from Verity’s door. She watched him cross the drive with his bag an hour earlier. Win paid him for the day and told him his services were no longer required inside the house. He asked to see Roland. Win told him he could wait by the gate if he wished.

Tunstall was back in the hall. He had not even unpacked his trunk. Verity asked him to stay until the evening was over, and he put on his coat and took his place beside the front door as though he had never been dismissed. The sight of him steadied her each time she passed through.

In the morning room, Henshaw arranged Arabella’s marriage line and sworn statement upon the table. He read them with Ezra as witness, then wrote to the neighbors Roland had approached about Verity’s health. Riders carried word to Mrs. Fenwick, the Marchmonts, and the magistrate at Harrowby that afternoon. Others would hear it from them before the night was out.

Verity felt exposed when Henshaw told her. The county would learn that she had never been the Countess of Edgeworth. She thought of every time she had borne the title while pleading for more time to pay Roland’s creditors, and every time a tenant used it with affection. Losing it hurt in a way she had not expected.

Then she remembered the locked door upstairs and she knew she could let the title go.

Rafe stood at the window. He changed out of his dusty riding coat, but weariness remained about his eyes. Ezra sat near the fire with his bad leg extended, while Win spoke to him in a low voice. Whenever Rafe glanced toward Verity, he found her looking back.

Henshaw closed his inkstand. “The copies have gone where they need to go.”

“What will Roland do?” Cordelia asked.

“I cannot predict his temper,” the solicitor shrugged. “He may dispute the documents. Mrs. Vane is prepared to give her account in person, and we can obtain further confirmation from Edinburgh. Until then, he has no grounds to confine Miss Calder on the claim that she is his wife.”

Miss Calder.

Her father’s name sounded strange in a room where she had been Lady Edgeworth for six years. Verity touched the edge of the table. She could almost see her father’s face when he called to her across a crowded hospital tent, before she learned how much might be taken from a woman in the name of protecting her.

Wheels sounded on the drive. No one spoke. Win went to the door, and Tunstall was already there. Verity heard a carriage stop, then Roland’s voice outside, impatient with a groom. He had come home as he always did, expecting someone to take his coat and tell him his instructions had been carried out.

The front door opened. His steps crossed the hall.

“Where is my wife?” he demanded.