Page 73

“Yes,” I replied. “Yes, I think it is.”

I forced myself to stay calm as thunder rumbled, Ciel still sleeping soundly nestled on my neck. No worry or fear, just total trust in his mother and uncle to always protect him.

But that fire. Who would set a fire in the mountains? Who would take on the Pinoteaux compound, protected with high gates, guards, and bars?

That fire could only be one person. One reckless, dangerous, wild person.

One person who would have timed a dangerous, violent raid right before a thunderstorm so the fire didn’t spread. . .

I forced myself to eat normally, try to act normally. After all, I didn’t know what had happened for sure.

After lunch, a few Savatier scouts came back to report that the Pinoteaux compound was on fire, the grounds covered in Bastide men leaving destruction in their path.

Ciel and I watched the rain from the porch, as it soaked the billowing smoke. But had it extinguished Étienne’s burning revenge?

He had timed it right. He had kept the fire contained.

But what had happened back on my homeland?

“I think that’s your husband now,” Hugo put in, nodding at the road as SUVs began to descend the muddy driveway.

“Coming to buy my forgiveness with blood,” I said, although my emotions felt chaotic and unstable.

“Want me to order him chased away?”

“No,” I said. “I want to see what he has to say, or he’ll just keep coming back.”

Who had been killed? And why should I congratulate him for adding my family’s lands to his own?

Snuggling Ciel in his wrap, I picked up an umbrella and walked slowly down to the gate.

Étienne was pacing back and forth, and every time he passed the entrance, he gripped the bars, the tendons in his arms standing out starkly as the rain soaked his skin.

“Léonie,” he breathed as soon as he saw me. “I have a present for you. I’ve conquered the Pinoteaux lands for you.”

He held out his hand and in it was my Da’s heavy gold ring.

There my husband was, stretched tall and arrogant, his eyes ordering me to open up the gate.

To jump into his arms and forgive him for everything.

“Here it is. Some of men are combing through the bodies. Making sure we’ve killed anyone who could be a threat to you. I’ve taken all their lands away, I’ve destroyed their dominance. They don’t deserve any of it for what they were they were willing to do to you.”

“I can’t believe you’re here wanting praise for expanding your own lands.”

I stepped closer, and he looked hungry. Like a man who hadn’t had nourishment in a while.

He even looked like one thing I’d never imagined.

Desperate.

“I didn’t do it for me.”

“You never do anything that doesn’t profit you.”

“It’s for you. To do whatever you want with these lands.”

“What?”