The Lost Son Returns as the Duke novel · Chapter 16 of 24
Chapter 16: The Duke Rides In
"Read it aloud," I said, through the door.
"Lodger?" Osgar sounded pleased. "I'd hoped you'd be here."
I took the bar off the door myself.
Edith caught my sleeve.
"Wait," she whispered. "He has thirty men."
"He has thirty men who've never seen a Duke."
I stepped out onto the step and shut the door behind me.
Cold air struck my face.
Torches lit the lane from the hedge to the mill gate, and the faces behind them were a hundred shapes I knew.
The cooper stood at the front with his wife.
The broad red-armed woman from the well was there too, with a shawl over her nightdress.
Windows stood open all along the lane.
Osgar unrolled his vellum.
"By the writ of His Grace the Duke of Mercia," he read, "the croft of Edith Cobb is forfeit for debt, her goods seized, and all persons within held for trial on the charge of theft from the church."
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–12 of The Lost Son Returns as the Duke are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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