Page 170 of The Earl She Once Saved

“Could Roland challenge them on the ground that you were never lawfully his wife?” Rafe asked.

“That is another question for Henshaw,” she replied. “But if Roland uses the truth about our marriage to dispute my authority, he risks having to explain his first marriage before a court, and he may prefer to leave these agreements alone.”

She spoke steadily, but Rafe knew what it cost her to examine Edgeworth as land she would soon leave to Roland. She could still tell him where every lane flooded after rain. The people whose names filled these books would go on living here under his title.

“I wish I could make it certain he will keep every promise you made them,” Rafe spoke.

“So do I.” She dipped her pen. “We can give them their papers and tell them where they stand. I will not have them learn of a change when a notice arrives at the door.”

Rafe pulled up a chair. She gave him a list of the holdings whose copies were missing. For an hour, they worked across the table from one another while Harris fetched old agreements and answered Verity’s questions.

Rafe recognized fields he had ridden through without knowing the names of the families who paid rent on them. Verity knew which children had been ill, which roofs required repairs before winter, and which tenant had promised timber from his own land if the estate supplied the cart.

Harris left to find another volume. Win came in as he went out. She held the keys to the house in her hand. At first, Rafe thought she had come about the servants’ wages. She stopped before Verity, drew a breath and looked down at the keys.

“I have something to tell you, my lady.”

Verity set aside her pen. “Come and sit.”

“If I sit, I may not manage it.”

Win tried to smile. It did not last. She stood beside Verity through Roland’s return, through the night Verity rode away, and the hours she had been locked upstairs. Rafe saw her looking at the woman who had given her work when she was widowed and understood why notice was so hard to give.

“Ezra is going to London,” Win inhaled deeply. “He has asked me to go with him.”

“I hoped you would,” Verity answered with a smile.

“I cannot simply leave you.”

“You are not leaving me without a friend, Win. You will always be mine.”

Win’s grip tightened around the keys. “I am giving notice.”

She could say no more. Verity rose and went to her. Win held out the keys as though she must surrender them before she changed her mind, but Verity folded her hands around them instead.

“You may give your notice,” Verity smiled. “You need not hand me the keys this morning.”

Win laughed once through tears. “There will be inventories. Someone must teach the next housekeeper where everything is kept.”

“There will,” Verity agreed. “You can decide what time you need.”

Rafe looked away while they embraced. At the door, he found Ezra waiting in the passage. His friend wore the exhausted expression of a man who had spent two days on horseback and a sleepless night wondering whether the answer he hoped for would hold.

“She has told her,” Rafe nodded.

Ezra looked into the room and saw Win’s hands resting on Verity’s shoulders. His face softened.

“I will find us a place in London,” he revealed. “Win has told me exactly what the rent must be before I consider it.”

“That sounds wise.”

“It sounded like an order.”

“You have followed those before.”

Ezra gave him a look and went in when Win called his name.

The other notices came by degrees. Tunstall brought his first, asking whether Verity might know a household that needed a senior footman. Two maids who had come to Edgeworth during its poorest years asked if they might go with her wherever she settled. The cook said she would remain long enough to see the kitchens properly handed over but would not serve Roland beyond that. Others chose to stay. They had families in the village and could not risk leaving their wages. Verity heard each of them and pressed no one to follow her.