“I rest easier knowing she cannot hurt anyone else,” he replied. “As to whether or not the terror will fully fade? I do not know.” He kissed her crown. “But I know your love is as fierce as it is tender, and that will be my light.”
She closed her aching eyes and inhaled his scent.
“Rest, darling.” He made the hammock rock. “Tomorrow you become a future duchess.”
Chapter Twenty
THE NOISE OFthe crowd swelled in the courtyard. Chev pushed down the cap resting low on his head, and glanced urgently to Emmaus, still engaged in animated conversation with Ithwick’s most loyal tenant, who’d heard Emmaus was to leave, following a competition for Penelope’s hand.
Chev ran his fingers over the cobalt bead fastened to the special string hidden in his pocket.Still there.
As planned, the competition had begun without him. But they were due inside.Now.
Readiness surged within his body.
“Patience,” Emmaus said. “Do not make a decision of this magnitude in haste.”
“Even if there are no other farms to let in the whole of the county,” the renter argued, “I will not renew my lease.”
“Has Ithwick sunk so low?” Cheverley interrupted.
“Ithwick was never an easy place, but now it’s run by unscrupulous men. I cannot in good conscience continue to fill their coffers with my rent.”
Emmaus and Cheverley exchanged a glance.
“Listen to Emmaus,” Cheverley said.
The renter shifted his position and gazed at Chev in surprise, as if he only just noticed him. His eyes settled on Cheverley’s missing hand and then slowly returned to Cheverley’s face.
The renter squinted as he studied.
“Lord Cheverley!” The renter paled. “Are you ghost or man?”
“Quiet! I beg you.” Chev gripped the man’s shoulder. “I am very much a man.”
“How can I be sure it is you?” the renter asked.
“You cannot,” Chev replied. “When I am duke, Ithwick will have stewardship akin to Pensteague, not greedy abuse of the land. Ithwick and Pensteague will again be one. Her ladyship will guide the transition.”
“Lady Cheverley shows excellent judgement,” the renter said.
Chev agreed, although he wasn’t sure he would have given himself the same second chance as she had given him.
“Well, let us go in then,” the renter exclaimed. “What are you waiting for?”
Emmaus snorted.
Cheverley opened the gate and, together, the three of them headed into the courtyard.
All the residents of Ithwick and Pensteague combined lined the courtyard’s walls. Cheverley made his way through the crowd, listening to Thaddeus speak.
“Both you and Thomas have failed to even string the bow,” Thaddeus said. “If I shoot the arrow through all twelve axes, you will you swear to leave my mother and my land alone?”
“As it is an impossibility, I give you my word,” Anthony replied.
Thaddeus stepped through the bow, just as Cheverley had shown him the very first day he returned. He could have easily finished stringing the bow, but he looked up, scanned the crowd and caught Cheverley’s eye.
Cheverley shook his head no.
