Page 87 of So Wild A Heart

He hugged her, held her at arm’s length to inspect her and make sure she was all right, then pulled her to him again. “When I got home and you were gone, I knew something was wrong. I had already realized as I was riding home that I had been wrong about Leona—I mean about her trying to kill you. She looked utterly blank when I accused her of it. She is skilled at deception, but I knew that look was real. She didn’t know what I was talking about. So I questioned the servants, and one of them remembered seeing Strong and Rupert heading out the back with a rolled-up rug, which they put in a wagon. That seemed decidedly odd, and it looked even odder when a groom told me they had brought back the wagon and rug, then gone out again on horseback. I followed them. And when I got close enough, I saw you running. What happened?”

He held her out at arm’s length again and looked at her. “What is going on? Why in hell were Uncle Rupert and Strong trying to kill you?”

“Well, it’s a long story.”

Devin glanced toward the two prone figures on the ground. “That’s all right. I think we have a while before these two wake up. Tell me.”

Quickly and concisely, Miranda related what had happened that morning after he left for Vesey Park to confront Leona. Devin listened in amazement.

“But why?” he asked, when she had finished telling him how Rupert had threatened her with a gun, then knocked her unconscious and taken her to the abbey. “Why would Uncle Rupert want to hurt you?”

“They thought I was about to discover their secret—although I’d been so stupid about the whole matter, I rather wonder if I would have. In short, they were cheating you, Dev. I think they must have been taking money from the estate for years and pretending that it was actually losing money. In reality, only you were losing money.”

He stared at her. “I can’t believe it. The estate was actually prospering?”

“I think so. I knew that the entries were incomplete. I thought Mr. Strong was stupid…a bad manager. In reality he was quite clever. Perhaps I would have caught on if I hadn’t been so, well, caught up in you, but I’m not sure. Anyway, they were afraid that I would find out. And they didn’t want us to visit Apworth Mountain.”

“What?”

“It was something that Rupert said when he was talking about why he had to kill me. He’s set up mines on your estate that you know absolutely nothing about.”

“I can scarcely take all this in.”

“I know. It is so bizarre.” Miranda shivered. “It’s amazing, the lengths that people will go to for money.

Rupert intended to kill me.” She leaned against Devin’s broad chest. “But then, fortunately, you came along and saved me.”

“It seems only fair, my love,” he said lightly, holding her out from him and looking into her eyes. “After all, you saved me.”

He bent to kiss her, and, with a happy sigh, Miranda surrendered her lips to his.

Epilogue

Miranda rose and stretched. Pushing back her chair, she left the estate manager’s office, locking the door behind her, and strolled across the yard into the main house. It was quiet inside Darkwater now that the day was ending and the workmen’s hammers and saws had stopped. The renovation of the house was proceeding nicely, but Miranda had to admit that she would be grateful when she and Devin left for their belated honeymoon trip to Italy and she would no longer have to hear the sounds of the workers rebuilding the house. They would have left long ago had she had not felt the need to spend the last month making sure that the estate’s affairs were all in order.

But that was all settled now, she thought, and she could turn her attention to packing. Also, Joseph and Elizabeth had gotten back yesterday from their extended trip to Scotland, and Joseph could tend to the renovations now, while Miranda and Devin spent the next four months traveling.

Time, Miranda knew, would heal all wounds. She could and would forgive Elizabeth for the attacks on Devin. But it had been much less awkward with Elizabeth gone for the last month, and it would be easier, too, for them all to deal with each other after a few more months. Devin had spent the last month getting better acquainted with his daughter, though, of course he had not—and would never—let Veronica know even by a hint that she was anything other to him than a younger sister-in-law.

Rupert and Strong were both now in prison. Miranda had suggested letting them emigrate to a colony, instead, to avoid scandal for the family, but Devin had insisted on turning them in to the authorities. “They tried to kill you,” he told her, his eyes bright and hard as stones. “If they were not to go to prison, I couldn’t let them live.” Miranda had quickly agreed that prison was called for.

Miranda went up the stairs and along the corridor to Devin’s studio. It was where he could usually be found. He turned at the sound of her footsteps and smiled.

“Miranda. Come look. I finished your portrait.”

Miranda smiled and went forward obediently to look. It was the fifth of her portraits he had finished and, according to Devin, his favorite. It would hang, he had decided, in the entryway downstairs. In the painting she was wearing a bloodred gown, vivid against her white skin. Like all of Devin’s paintings, it was filled with light and color, and it made Miranda look, she thought, more beautiful than she really was. However, she never complained to Devin about his paintings in that regard.

“It’s lovely,” she told him, slipping her arm around his waist.

“I still haven’t quite captured that quality,” he mused, studying the portrait.

“What quality?”

“The quality that is uniquely you.” He grinned down at her. “That is why I’ll keep on trying.”

“People may get tired of your painting my face over and over again,” she teased.

“Ah, but you see, that’s the beauty of it—I don’t care. I don’t have to sell my paintings. I am, after all, a wealthy man. You told me so yourself.”