Page 109 of Duke of Sapphire

He eased himself out of the bed with care. The mattress dipped, then stilled. Charlotte slipped free on her side, moving with the kind of quiet that comes only from practice.

Ian did not stir.

Henry set the book on the small table. He kept his eyes on the cover, tracing the worn edge with his thumb.

Do not look at her. Do not say anything. Leave. It will be safer if you leave.

He turned toward the door.

A soft knock came.

He stopped and glanced at Charlotte. She had frozen near the foot of the bed.

Henry crossed to the door and opened it.

Mr. Gedge stood in the corridor, a folded paper on a tray. “Forgive the interruption, Your Grace. This was delivered at once from Scotland. The rider said it was urgent.”

Henry’s stomach tightened. “Thank you.”

He took the paper directly from the tray. The seal bore the mark of Nathan’s solicitor.

Charlotte had come to stand just behind him. He could feel her nearness like heat.

His fingers were not as steady as he wished when he broke the seal.

He unfolded the note and read.

Nathan and Eleanor Drummond have been found alive.

Henry read the line again.

Alive.

The words sat on the page, simple and impossible.

Alive. After all this time. After every letter. Every search. Every plan made on the assumption that they were gone. Alive.

It sounded almost too impossible to believe.

CHAPTER 30

“They’re comin’ now, arenae they?” Ian hopped in front of the drawing room window. “Is that one of them?”

Charlotte looked up from the sofa. “You must give the carriage a chance to stop, Ian. If it does not stop here, it cannot be your parents’.”

The carriage rolled past. Ian groaned. “That one didnae stop. What about that one?” He pointed again. “It’s grand. Maybe that’s them.”

“Watch the gate,” she said. “If it comes in, then we shall know.”

Four days of this. I cannot remember the last time I watched a road this closely. My own heart jumps every time a horse passes.

Another carriage rattled along the street. Ian pressed his nose to the glass. “Is that them? It looks like them. It has their colors.”

Charlotte folded her hands in her lap. “Wait, Ian. If it does not stop, it cannot be them.”

The carriage slowed.

“It’s stoppin’,” Ian yelped. “It stopped!”