Diana paced the parlor, certain she would wear a hole in Lucas’s parlor carpet before this terrible day was through. She glanced at the clock on the mantel and sighed. He’d been gone far too long. It could not be good news that would come home with him.
The door opened in that moment, and she pivoted to watch as Lucas entered the room. His face was very serious and his eyes were locked on hers. Worried. Soothing. The same expression he’d had in the three days since her entire world had fallen down around her, everything she believed destroyed the moment her father had reappeared, alive and well.
“What was the decision?” she asked, her voice trembling.
Lucas came to her then, taking her hands in his as he searched her face like he could find peace there. She had no idea how that was possible, considering she felt none within herself.
“It was a long argument,” he said. “Stalwood and I took up in your father’s defense and presented the evidence that he had actually turned against Caldwell in the end. That he took that bullet in order to protect me. We left you out of it, of course, as we agreed upon.”
She pursed her lips. “Yes,youagreed upon that, you and Stalwood and my father. I still think I should have been there.” She turned away and paced to the window.
“You should have been,” he said softly. “This decision will affect no one more than you. But it is the only way we can protect you in some way from the truth of what your father did and why.”
Her hands shook as she faced him. “What was the panel’s decision in the end?”
“They considered his injury and his actions as a whole.” Lucas let out a long sigh. “And determined that he should not be hanged for treason.”
Diana’s legs nearly went out from under her. She leaned heavily on the window ledge as she stared at him in disbelief. “Truly? They won’t put him to death?”
“No,” he said. “They won’t. But he…he will be transported, Diana. As soon as his injury allows for travel, a week or two at most, he will be sent away. The panel felt he would at least be able to do some good amongst the prison population.”
She stared at him as numbness overcame her. Transported. Although it was better than death, the end result would be the same. She would never see her father again. Perhaps he would be allowed a letter to her from time to time, but the distance between them would be insurmountable.
“I see,” she said at last, the only thing she could think to say. “It is fair, I know.”
“Fair to him,” he corrected. “None of this is fair to you, Diana. You will be able to see him as much as you like in the time you have left. Stalwood and I demanded that be true. Stalwood will actually be monitoring him in his own home until the time is right.”
She nodded slowly. “Stalwood was a friend, for his part of the bargain. Were there any other censures?”
He shifted, and she knew there had been. “His lands have been seized. His property and funds now belong to the crown.”
She bent her head. “So I have nothing.”
“Yes.” He cleared his throat. “I did not tell them about your daughter’s grave, but I did argue that you ought to be able to live in the home if you’d like. They agreed to lease the property to me, though it will still belong to the crown. You won’t lose the ability to visit Mirabelle there for as long as I’m alive.”
Her heart stuttered as she looked at him. “You did that for me?”
He nodded. “I would do anything to lessen the pain of this. Anything in my power.”
“Thank you,” she whispered, her love for him bubbling up in her. But she didn’t speak it. She had done so in the height of their terror a few days before, he had said the same. In the time since, she had stayed at his home, and the topic had not come up again.
She had to assume he had only said those words out of terror in that moment. Facing death, they had seemed to have less meaning to him. Now he had forgotten them.
And she could live with that. There was so much else she’d have to face now. Losing Lucas was just the worst of it.
“We can go there whenever you’d like,” he continued. “Just say the word.”
“You would take me home to the country?” she asked. “No, that would be too much. I ought not even stay with you anymore. I think my family has trespassed on your good graces long enough.”
He wrinkled his brow. “Take you home?Thisis your home, Diana.”
She stared at him in blank surprise. “Lucas.”
“It has been madness since you were taken. Madness for longer than that,” he said, and ran a hand through his hair. “I should have been clearer, but I didn’t want to overwhelm you when there was so much for you to handle already.”
She swallowed, but she could think of nothing to say but his name. “Lucas…”
He shook his head. “I love you, Diana.”
