Chapter 23 #4
Gabriel watched as Eleanor closed her eyes briefly, the force of relief clearly overwhelming her.
“Mrs. Hartley is free to go,” he finished. “That will be all.”
For several seconds Eleanor did not move. Then she released a breath that seemed to come from somewhere deep within her. Gabriel turned toward her.
“You are free.”
Her eyes filled with tears.
“So is Sophie.”
She looked at him, and the relief in her expression nearly undid him.
Across the courtroom, Julian remained standing. He had lost, and everyone knew it. His reputation had been badly damaged, his scheme exposed, and the people who had served him had turned against him.
But he was not arrested. There was not enough evidence to prove that he had personally ordered the poisoning or engineered the hunting accident. The missing stable hand left the most dangerous part of the case unresolved.
Julian gathered his papers. As he passed Gabriel, he paused.
“Do not mistake the court’s inability to prove what you did for innocence,” Gabriel warned.
Julian simply smiled and continued toward the doors. Eleanor watched him leave.
Gabriel had hoped that when the case ended, Julian would be taken away and the danger would finally disappear. Instead, he walked into the morning air a free man, disgraced but untouched by the law.
She lowered her gaze to their joined hands. The poisoning charge was gone, Sophie was safe, and the court had finally cleared her name. That was what mattered.
The crowd outside the courthouse had grown thick by the time Eleanor stepped through the doors.
People had gathered along the pavement to see the Hartleys emerge.
Some looked disappointed, having come expecting scandal and spectacle, while others offered Eleanor sympathetic smiles.
They barely noticed any of them. After everything that had happened inside, the ordinary noise of Bath seemed strangely distant.
Gabriel stopped in front of her. He had spent the entire morning beside her, yet the sight of her as a free woman felt different. His gaze moved over her face. He had never doubted her, but it was clear that the proof being clear enough for everyone to see had helped her tremendously.
“I was afraid,” he admitted. “I thought they might take you from me.”
There were so many people around them, yet she felt as though they were standing alone. His hand lifted slightly, then stopped before reaching her.
“Gabriel,” she whispered, her eyes wide, “I wanted to tell you—”
“Eleanor!”
Beatrice’s voice broke through the moment. She hurried toward them with the dowager close behind, both of them looking more relieved than Gabriel had ever seen them. Beatrice embraced Eleanor before she could say another word.
“My dear girl, you are free.”
Eleanor laughed through the tears that suddenly filled her eyes. “I am.”
The dowager took Eleanor’s hands when Beatrice released her.
“Today is worth celebrating,” she said, turning to Gabriel. “And you. Do not think you are escaping without being congratulated.”
Gabriel smiled. “I had hoped to avoid a public display.”
“You have married the wrong woman if you wished for a quiet life.”
Eleanor laughed again, and Beatrice caught her arm.
“Come. Everyone is waiting.”
Eleanor glanced back at Gabriel, and their eyes met once more. The words she had begun to say remained between them, unfinished. He wanted to hear them, but they had missed the opportunity.
By evening, the mood in Ravenscourt had changed completely.
Beatrice insisted on opening a bottle of wine for the household, and William was brought downstairs for a short time so that he could hear the news himself. The family had survived the worst of the case. For a few hours, it almost seemed possible to believe the danger had ended.
But Gabriel knew better. While the house celebrated, his investigator was searching Bath for Julian. They had found his town house empty. His servants had been dismissed, and his carriage was gone.
His accounts had been drained as far as the investigator could determine, and several creditors had already begun making demands. Julian had lost the legal battle, his reputation was damaged, and his remaining resources were rapidly disappearing.
By nightfall, he had vanished.
“He had debts,” his investigator explained as they spoke in the study that night. “Considerable ones. He also has several enemies, so he has every reason to disappear. He also has every reason to blame your family.”
“That is what concerns me.”
Eleanor was cleared, and the guardianship motion was forgotten, but Julian had not been defeated in the only way Gabriel truly wanted.
He had been exposed, disgraced, and forced from Bath, but he remained free.
Worse, he had lost the legal means by which he had tried to destroy Eleanor, and a desperate man deprived of lawful avenues could well choose more dangerous ones.
Gabriel went to the window. He had spent months fighting a threat he could see, but that threat had disappeared into the dark.
And that made it far more difficult to protect the people he loved.