Page 173 of The Earl She Once Saved

Win tightened her hold on Verity’s arm.

“He is here,” Verity whispered.

“He had better be.”

They reached the front. Rafe looked from Ezra’s face to Verity’s and gave her a smile he seemed unable to keep back. Verity took her place beside Win while the vicar opened his book.

The service was short. Win’s voice shook over her first answer and grew stronger over the next. Ezra spoke quietly, with a care that made Verity think he had learned the words by heart and feared forgetting one. When he took Win’s hand, his thumb moved once across her fingers. She looked up at him, and whatever uncertainty she had carried down the aisle fell away.

Verity heard the vows, but she watched their faces. Ezra asked Win to leave everything familiar and begin again with him. Win once believed that happiness would ask her to abandon someone who needed her. They had found their way here after both waited and let each other say what was difficult before asking again.

Rafe stood beside Ezra, grave and attentive. His eyes met Verity’s once across the narrow space. She knew he was thinking of the vows they could not yet speak. She was thinking of them, too.

The church court had the record from Edinburgh and Arabella’s sworn account. Henshaw expected the formal papers, though he would not promise when they would arrive. Verity and Rafe decided to start their journey south and let his letters follow them. When the papers finally settled every question, they would marry along the road.

She thought waiting would trouble her. Today, she was glad Win had reached the altar first. Win stood beside her through years when neither could see a way out of Edgeworth. Verity wanted to see her friend take Ezra’s hand and have her happiness before Verity asked anything more of her own.

The vicar finished. Ezra looked at Win as though the rest of the church had gone away. She smiled at him, astonished and certain at once.

Outside, the cold found them immediately. The guests gathered on the path, offering good wishes while their breath clouded the air. Someone pressed a paper packet of sugared almonds into Win’s hand. Coombes’s youngest boy tried to scatter petals from a basket, found that the wind carried them back toward his mother, and laughed so hard he nearly dropped the lot.

Ezra and Win came through the church door together. Before she turned to anyone else, Win turned to Verity. They faced each other in the bright cold. Verity wanted to say that Win had kept her from despair more times than she knew. Win’s eyes shone as though she had words of her own and could not trust them to her voice. She put both arms around Verity. Verity held her tightly, mindful of the greenery pinned in her hair.

Neither spoke. When they drew apart, Win brushed a tear from Verity’s cheek and found one on her own.

Ezra waited beside them. Verity stepped back at last and let him take his wife’s hand. His expression held so much gratitude that she had to look toward Rafe before she lost her composure again.

“You remembered the rings,” she told him.

“Ezra reminded me twice.”

“I reminded you once,” Ezra said. “Win sent a note.”

“She knew you would be busy,” Rafe replied.

Win shook her head at all three of them, but she was smiling.

There was a wedding breakfast at the village inn. It ran longer than anyone intended. Tunstall offered a brief toast and sat down looking relieved. Cordelia spoke kindly of Win’s years at Edgeworth, then had to stop while the room applauded her.

Harris produced a list of small contributions from the tenants and servants, enough to buy furnishings for the London rooms Win and Ezra had taken. Win tried to protest that it was too much. Coombes told her that his family had heard her use those very words before and paid no attention to them now.

By the time the carriages were ready, afternoon light slanted over the church roof. Their bags had been packed the night before. Win and Ezra would take the London road, and Verity and Rafe would travel on toward the southern ports. They agreed to meet again before the year turned, wherever the road found them then.

At the inn door, Win checked that her small traveling case was properly fastened. Ezra stood behind her with his cane and waited until she had finished before taking it from her.

“Write when you arrive,” Verity urged.

“I shall write before Ezra has found the key to our rooms.”

“I heard that,” Ezra said.

“You were meant to.”

Verity embraced her once more. Win’s wedding gown had been changed for a dark traveling dress, but the little sprig of greenery still held in her hair.

Cordelia came to wish them all a safe journey. She had chosen to stay near Edgeworth for a while, being provided with a sufficient sum of her own, close enough to help tenants who still came to her with questions, but no longer in Roland’s house. Verity held her aunt’s hands and promised to send word from the road. Aunt Cordelia looked at Rafe and appeared satisfied that he intended to see the promise kept.

Sergeant had been waiting in Verity’s carriage. He refused to climb in without help, then refused to come out when someone offered it. His broad head appeared at the window as Verity approached.