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“I understand your hesitance in allowing your son to marry my niece now,” Uncle said. “She is a little worse for wear at times, but I assure you, she can behave.”

Mr. Foss shook his head as he opened the door himself. His son walked out first with a fleeting glance at Morvoren, who emerged slowly toward the entryway where they all stood, but the elder Mr. Foss lingered behind.

With his hat in his hand, he shook his head. “I have far less qualms about my son marrying Miss Hollow than I have regarding my business being associated with yours. After all, she spoke the truth.” He paused, promptly placing his hat on his head. “You did not.”

Then with a nod in Uncle’s and Morvoren’s directions, he left the house without a glance back.

The moment they left, the happiness that had filled Morvoren’s heart slipped away, for Uncle turned on her, all feigned politeness gone as his sneer turned vicious.

“You,” he said, “you were the cause of this, weren’t you? You were the one to spread word about your time with those forsaken drifters.”

Morvoren pulled in her remaining strength and shook her head fiercely. “Don’t ye dare blame me for this. I’ve done nothin’ but what ye’ve wanted me to do for days, Uncle. I held true to my word, just as I do now.”

He shook his head, and she wasn’t even sure if he’d heard her. “You think you have won, but you haven’t. I’ll just find another man for you to marry, another company to merge with my own. That contract is still binding, and you’ll do as I say, regardless of the man I choose for you.”

Before, Morvoren would have humbly accepted his words. But now, having been reminded how freedom felt beneath her wings, she would never go back to the way things were.

She raised her chin and made her way up the stairs in silence, Uncle calling behind her.

“Yes, that’s right. You had better go to your room. And don’t expect to be let out until I’ve found for you another husband to benefit the family!”

Morvoren didn’t respond, merely continued up the steps at a slow pace before reaching her room and leaving the door ajar. At the same steady pace she’d kept before, she moved straight to her wardrobe, retrieving her reticule and her mother’s shawl before wrapping the warm fabric around her shoulders.

Then she made her way straight from her chambers and headed back toward the stairs.

She felt strange, as if she were floating above the ground as she moved.

Before when she left Uncle’s, she’d been rushed and frightened, sneaking out in the dead of night. Now she was calm, collected, and sure. When once she’d stolen a few of Uncle’s pennies to make her way by stagecoach, now she left without tuppence to her name.

She continued down the steps, her mind and body strong as one, even as Uncle’s voice called up from the main floor.

“Did you lock her door?”

Her heart lurched. He thought she was a maid, coming down from barricading Morvoren in her room. But she’d never allow that to occur again.

“No, she didn’t,” Morvoren stated firmly.

Uncle’s footsteps thumped angrily forward, his eyes red as he stared up at her. “I thought I told you to stay there,” he spat out.

“Ye did.”

“Then what are you doing?”

“Leavin’.”

He barked out a cruel laugh. “No, you are not.”

“Yes, I be. And ye can’t stop me.”

“You will cease speaking in such an improper manner, Miss Hollow,” he growled, reaching for her arm. He squeezed her tightly and drew her near to him, anger alight in his eyes. “And you will return to your room, or I’ll alert the authorities.”

Morvoren had expected this. She’d prepared for this. She’d meant to respond coolly, to let him know just how greatly she didn’t care what he did any longer. But a spark of anger lit within her. Anger at herself for allowing this man to injure her for so many years and anger at Uncle for doing the injuring.

“Then report me, Uncle,” she bit back through clenched teeth. “I’d rather die by hangin’ than spend another moment in your presence.”

She tried to step past him, but he blocked her way. “If you leave now, I’ll see that the Honeysett’s lugger is never fixed.”

She sniffed with derision. “Ye can’t threaten that. The contract was signed. The lugger has to be completed by now.”