Elmwood
Winthrop had been very apologetic.
“I can’t believe I almost got you killed,” he’d said.
“I have sorted things out for Lord Croft,” said Winthrop.
“I drafted an ironclad will that ensures Lady Croft can protect her right to keep Croftholde for the rest of her days, and I have promised to help her split it into freeholds in the meantime. There’s a case to be made for her to inherit all of the Harrier’s holdings as well, once he’s gone, but she doesn’t wish to.
Maybe you can talk some sense into her? I’d enjoy making her a duchess. ”
“I’ll see what I can do, but once she sets her mind to something, there isn’t much use in opposing her. Trust me.”
Winthrop had also assured him that Lord Croft had no desire to be Charmed again.
Elmwood tried not to be too relieved about that, and of course, he didn’t begrudge Hilde spending her time at her dying husband’s bedside.
But he missed her, and he hated that she was forced to go through this grief a second time.
He almost wished Lord Croft had agreed to be Charmed again, just to spare Hilde this pain.
“Have you buried Rollo yet?” asked Winthrop. Elmwood breathed through the thump of loss that hit him in the chest whenever he thought of Rollo.
“No. He’s in the icehouse. I want to wait for Hilde. He was very fond of her.” He wasn’t even embarrassed that his voice broke as he said it. Winthrop patted him on the shoulder. “I still can’t believe you convinced that magistrate to consider him a lord.”
“Well, once it occurred to me that it would help make your place here more secure if Rollo was officially Lord of Merewyth, I was quite determined to do it. I filed the papers when I was back in Neck. I wasn’t certain the magistrate here would go along with it, but after you left for Croftholde and I was here staring at the poor dead dog, it all came together in my mind, and I thought I might as well try. ”
“ ‘Hyeronymus’ was a bit much. And ‘the Second’?”
“I was trying to distract the clerk from the ‘Badgerhound’ bit.”
“You’re a wonder, Win.”
“I know.”
“I suppose that with Rollo gone, I shall soon have to make way for some new Lord of Merewyth. Who will inherit this place?”
Winthrop began to chuckle.
“Funny you should ask. You see, when I had Rollo declared Lord Merewyth, he was required by law to draw up a will. You can’t hold an estate’s title without a will, you know. It’s illegal.”
“How, pray tell, did you get Rollo to write a will? Bark once to leave everything to Nimsby?”
“Well, if anyone asks, I took dictation, didn’t I?” Winthrop winked at him. “Let me be the first to offer you my most sincere condolences for your loss, Lord Merewyth.”
“Lord…wait, are you telling me that Merewyth is mine? I can stay here?”
“If you wish to,” said Winthrop. “I can’t get you back your larger estate—the pardon didn’t cover that, only the banishment—and there wasn’t time to arrange the case for it passing to Rollo before he…well, before. But this ramshackle old pile is yours for good now, Elmwood.”
Elmwood clasped Winthrop by the shoulder. “I do hope you’ll come visit me here once in a while, old friend.”
Winthrop shook his head, but he was smiling.
“Way out here in the Gaze? Not likely! Don’t look for me for at least a fortnight.”
Winthrop had left the next day. With him gone, Elmwood endeavored to keep busy.
Nimsby came and went much as he had before but agreed to teach Elmwood how to cook for himself, and after several lessons, Elmwood was capable of producing a mostly edible hand-pie.
In the rest of his spare time, Elmwood went for little strolls about the gardens and woods, alone.
He missed Rollo constantly, and Hilde even more than that.
Now he sat in the little alcove of Merewyth’s kitchen steps, contemplating the letter from Lady Isobel. He had put off opening it, nervous of whatever reprimands it might contain, but that was beginning to seem rather silly, so he broke the seal and unfolded it.
It was short but no less impactful for its brevity.
Erol,
I have decided that your imminent death is not a satisfactory punishment for your criminal mistreatment of my heart.
Instead, I intend for you to live a long life, so that you may spend many, many years regretting the loss of my affections and reflecting upon your ungentlemanly behavior.
For each day that you do not die on a Relancian pyre, you have me to thank. I hope it bothers you always.
No longer your loving,
Lady Isobel Warrit
He laughed upon reading it, unable to help himself. She must have intended for him to laugh. She was a good, kind young woman, and he very much hoped that she would find happiness in the world with someone a good deal better than him.
No, not better than him. Just better suited to her.
“Can I ask you a question? I believe it is still my turn.”
He looked up. Hilde was standing at the top of the steps. The light was behind her, making all her edges glow. The joy of her presence, of knowing she had come to him after everything, was almost too great for him to bear.
“Of course,” he said, patting the step next to him. “Come here.”
She walked slowly down the steps, then sat beside him, the evening sunlight turning her face golden and catching in her eyelashes.
He reached for her hand and pressed it against his cheek, kissing it with the corner of his mouth.
He wanted to kiss her mouth, to love her senseless, to show her how happy he was that she had come.
But first, he would answer her question, whatever it was.
“Are you aware that there is a bear on the loose?” she said, surprising him.
“We have had reports of it from no fewer than six people in the village. Apparently, it stole a hive from Margery Lyte’s fields and a pie from Mother Allen’s windowsill.
It’s the first bear to be seen roaming in these parts for a hundred years. ”
He frowned.
“That’s impossible. Nothing I’ve brought back has ever lasted this long.”
She glanced down then, her eyes hidden beneath her lashes, and he could have kicked himself for being so insensitive. Here he was, stewing over his own feelings about his Charm, and all the while she had been at her dying husband’s bedside.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “Is he…?”
She nodded.
“His second passing was peaceful, and this time, he was able to say his goodbyes before going. You gave him that.”
“Hilde, I…”
“What about the bear?”
He nodded, understanding that she would speak more of Lord Croft’s death when she was ready. And eventually, when he was ready, he would tell her about Relance and what had happened to him there. They had time.
“It is our miracle,” she said when he didn’t answer her. “I felt it, didn’t you? Something happened with the bear. Something new.”
“Yes,” he said, reaching out to twine his fingers around the braid that hung over one of her shoulders and give it a gentle tug to pull her a little closer to him. “I suppose we did do something new.”
“It feels like it’s going to stick, don’t you think?”
It was almost too much to comprehend, so instead of trying, he let his forehead press gently against hers.
“I think,” he said, “that together, we may be truly remarkable.”
“Well, we already knew that.”
They sat together for a while, not speaking, leaning against each other.
“I haven’t buried Rollo yet,” he finally said. “I couldn’t stand to do it alone.”
She frowned at him as though he were being stupid.
“Elmwood, the bear is still alive.”
“Yes? I believe we already covered that.”
She shook her head.
“We Charmed the bear together, and he is still alive and acting much like a bear is expected to act.”
“Please tell me what you’re getting at, so we can conclude this bear-talk and I can take you away to bed, where I intend to rub your feet and feed you the hand-pies that Nimsby has been teaching me to bake, and begin making a case for myself as a long-term paramour, and try to convince you to move in with me here at Merewyth.
You know, after a respectable amount of time has passed and you aren’t newly widowed.
” He was babbling now, and he wished his mouth would stop.
She bent forward and stopped it for him.
“What I am getting at,” she said when she eventually pulled back, “is that when I come and live here with you at Merewyth, I will require that we have a dog in residence. And I have an excellent idea for how to obtain one that we already know we’re fond of.”
His heart began to beat rather quickly, and for a moment, he assumed it was his old dread at the thought of using his Charm.
No, he realized, taking a breath. It wasn’t dread at all. It was happiness.
He smiled and laced his Charmed fingers tightly with her own.