Page 50 of To Claim the Long-Lost Lover
The unmarked anonymous carriage that raced to a halt in front of them seemed to come out of nowhere. Before most of them could push their way from the shop, the carriage door flew open and a man put down one foot and reached out to grab Elias, who had been one of the first to leave, hand-in-hand with Lavie.
From inside the window, Sarah could see it all—Elias being dragged towards the carriage, Lechton throwing himself on the would-be kidnapper’s arm, two of Uncle James’s guard suddenly surging into action from the other side of the carriage, one knocking the driver to the ground and taking the reins, and the other dropping from the roof onto the shoulders of the man hanging out of the door.
The family spilt out onto the footpath, clustering around, all talking at once. Sarah had almost reached her son when Lechton gave an exclamation and threw himself on top of the boy. As two red stains bloomed on the back of her father-in-law’s jacket, Sarah realised that the sound she had heard was gunfire.
Cousin Jamie pointed up to the roof of the building across the street. “There!” he shouted, and raced off with several of the other men beside him. Nate was kneeling next to his father, as Ruth helped Elias out from underneath him. “Your son is unhurt,” she assured Sarah, giving Elias into her arms. She sank down beside Nate.
“Is Grandpapa dead?” Elias wanted to know. Sarah met Libby’s eyes, and they were asking the same question over the top of Lavie and Norie, who were burrowed into her arms.
“Papa and Auntie Ruth are helping him,” Sarah consoled them all.
They moved Lord Lechton carefully back into Fournier’s out of the rain. Val raced off to the Ashton carriage and came back with Ruth’s medical kit. Nate and Ruth sent the other adults off to a far corner to look after the children and wait.
At one point, Nate caught Sarah’s eye and shook his head. At another, Jamie and Drew returned to report they had caught the sharpshooter. “He and the kidnappers were paid by the Beast,” Jamie said.
“But why?” Sarah had finally released Elias, who was sitting with his arms around two of his little aunts. Drew beckoned Sarah and Charlotte to follow him a few paces away from the children and whispered, “They were after Tony. He told them if they couldn’t get the boy to kill him. I’m sorry, Sarah. They didn’t know there were two boys.”
It was all just a tragic mistake, though Sarah couldn’t help but be glad that both boys had survived. “You will have to make sure Tony is somewhere Wharton will never find him,” she said to Charlotte.
After a long time, Nate approached Libby. “I am so sorry, Libby,” he said. “We could not stop the bleeding.”
Libby burst into tears, and Sarah felt like crying, too, at the look on her husband’s face. “Shall we take the children home?” she asked.
“Good idea. I will have to stay to talk to the coroner. I will be home as soon as I can, my love.”
“I will be at your father’s house, with Libby,” Sarah told him.
In the end, they did not leave London for another two days, and then made haste to Lechford for Lord Lechton’s funeral, all of the Winshire family coming along in support.
The reading of the will had Libby in tears. Lechton had left her a substantial annuity to supplement the dower stipulated in her marriage settlements, and accompanied them with an exhortation to be open to marrying again. “For she has been a good wife, and she and our daughters have brought much joy to this old man’s heart. I would wish her to find the happiness she richly deserves.”
Even so, he left the guardianship of said daughters to Nate, whom he called, “My beloved son, who is safely back in his family’s embrace after all his travels.” Nate was also appointed trustee, along with Cousin Arthur—“one of the most honest men I know”—of the dowries set aside for the three girls.
Apart from some minor legacies to servants, everything else went to Nate, either as the new earl, or as a personal bequest.
That evening, Nate wandered off after dinner, saying that he would be back soon. It was a fine evening, and the half moon gave plenty of light, so after an hour Sarah set off in search of him. As she expected, she found him in the little graveyard next to the Lechton family tomb, gazing sombrely on the ornate gothic carving.
“I did not want to be earl,” he told Sarah, as she sat down beside him and took his hand. “Not ever, and certainly not so soon.”
“I know,” she answered.
“I wanted enough time to… I don’t know. Learn to stop being angry with him, I suppose. I think I have resented him all my life, Sarah. It wasn’t just what happened to us. Even before that… When my mother was alive, she would always tell me how important he was, how wise, how worthy. I barely saw him, but that was because he was busy doing God’s work. Then she died, and I grew older, and found that he was an insignificant man in an isolated parish, foolish and too much concerned with appearances and status. I was required to obey him, but he was not someone I could respect.” Tears were running down his cheeks.
Sarah couldn’t think of anything to say. She had hated her own father and had come to hate her brother, but Lord Lechton had not been the kind of monster Sutton was. Just, as Nate said, a foolish man obsessed with status. She squeezed Nate’s hand, hoping it would be some kind of comfort.
“His will! Libby told me she had no idea that he thought her a good wife. Isn’t that sad?”
Sarah could only nod. Libby had said the same thing to her, accompanied by gushes of tears.
“He was a good landlord; did you know that? Several of his tenants today told me of kindnesses. A child’s school fees paid. A rebate on rent in hard times. Perhaps, if I had not been so angry, so distant, when he sent for me, I would have learned these things, Sarah.”
“You are learning now,” Sarah said. “And you are learning to stop being angry with him. He was only a man, Nate. If my father and grandfather had not bullied him, he would not have betrayed us. He was not a bad man.” Damning with faint praise, that. She tried again. “He was a good man, in a way.”
“Perhaps. Probably. Yes, you are right.” His sudden laugh surprised Sarah. “I suppose it would pay for me to stop expecting perfection from my own father now that I have a son who will one day stand in judgement on me from the lofty eminence of his first quarter century.”
He kissed her ear. “Thank you for coming to find me. Is everyone ready for the grand procession tomorrow?”
They were leaving for Wind’s Gate, taking Libby and the girls along with them. And they would return here after Christmas. Nate’s mind must have tracked with Sarah’s, for he laughed again and said, “My father got his own way after all. You and I will be living here at Three Oaks. Come on, darling. Let us go inside. Let us go to bed.”
