“Do you really trust these men to keep their word?” Lucien asked. “Don’t be a weapon in the hands of rich men who want to crush families like yours.”
“I failed Moira and the babes. They made sure Moira has enough to make a fresh start. They swore?—”
“Those men are liars. They’ll do whatever they must to get what they want. I know, because my father is one of them. And once, so was I.” The admission cracked something deep inside him.
“There is no way out,” Nolan said. “Not for me.”
Lucien looked at him, knowing he had to tell the truth.
“Maybe not for you. But thereisa way forward for Sibby Rose. For Scrap and Robert and Moira.”
“That is what you are willing to sacrifice yourself for, is it not?” Grace said. She tried to turn to look at Nolan. The candles wavered.
Lucien fought to keep his voice steady. “I have seen what your family goes through. I know how wrong it is. My wife showed me…” His gaze flashed to Grace, his heart hammering in his chest. “Knowing Grace and Sibby Rose and Scrap…changed me. I understand that you don’t want to hurt people, Nolan. You just wantyour familycared for.”
“After today, I won’t be there to look out for them anymore. No matter what I do, the magistrates will take me or I’ll die.”
“Surrender, and you will be sent away, true. But the person or people who put you up to this—they are the guilty ones. I swear on my wife’s love that I will hunt them down and I won’t let your children pay for mistakes you made.”
“Why should I believe you?”
“I’ve made mistakes myself. I’d give anything to change them. I don’t know what will happen to you. But I will hire the finest barrister I know to be besideyou every step of way. I will move your family to my estate Everdene. If you are released, I’ll have a job waiting for you.”
“Sure, an’ a pot o’ gold as well.”
“Not a pot of gold. An honest living.”
“Why would you do this for me?”
“Because I’ve been where you are, used by someone else as a tool for his evil. I know you are trying protect the people you love the onlyway you know how. At the time, I believed that, too. But people I love paid a terrible price I couldn’t fathom until it was too late.”
Nolan was listening.
“Do you really think whoever is behind this will let your family live once you’ve done their bidding? They want you dead, Nolan, then they’ll murder Moira and the children to wipe out any proof that powerful men were involved in this plot. Those men will silence Moira and the children forever to keep such treachery from coming to light.”
He could see the truth bury itself in Nolan like a sword thrust.
“Help me help you,” Lucien pleaded. “Tell me who these men were who hired you. Who is threatening my family and intends to destroy yours. I will stop them.”
Nolan’s hand was shaking even worse now, threatening to topple the candelabra over into the black powder at Grace’s feet. Lucien gauged the time it would take to launch himself at Nolan, knock him backward, but the barrels blocked his path. The chance that the candelabra would fall and the candles roll was too great.
“If nothing else, let my wife go,” Lucien’s voice broke. “My death alone would be enough to ignite whatever outrage thosemen are seeking. Grace has done nothing but try to help your children.”
Grace’s green eyes held his. “I won’t leave you. No more than Moira would leave Darragh.”
“Grace, for the love of God?—”
“You and my husband are more alike than you know, Darragh,” Grace said. “Forced by a ruthless man to make an impossible choice. Lucien was only a boy when it happened, but he believed his choice damned him for all time. I saw who he was inside, a good man. A man worthy of loving, of the kind of loyalty that kept Moira waiting for you for two years. In the end, here and now, it is up to you to decide. Who are you? A man someone else can use as a weapon? Or are you the man your family has been waiting for?”
Nolan’s grip on Grace loosened, and he turned to the side, his whole body seeming to sag. Lucien watched the hand that had gripped the base of the candelabra sink a few inches, feared it would tip. Slowly, carefully, Grace turned to face Nolan. She reached out her hand, and Lucien saw all of the goodness, honesty, and compassion shining in her face as she waited. That expression that made even the wildest, most feral people dare to trust…
People like himself, Lucien thought.
Gently, Nolan placed the candlestick in her hands. The man’s face convulsed, and he crumpled to the floor, a sob tearing from his chest.
Grace held so still, Lucien’s woman of light. The gilt-painted stars glowed around her as Lucien went to her, curving his fingers around the candlestick’s silver base over hers to steady it. The moment seemed to stretch into eternity. Gazing into her eyes he crushed each flame with his other hand.
CHAPTER 37
