Chapter 7: The Registry

"Put the pen down, Leland."

Rowan did not shout it.

He lifted two fingers off the arm of his chair, and the front door unlocked from outside.

Six men in dark coats came in.

They stood along the walls of the hall without a word.

The two heavy men who had locked the door looked at them and then at the floor.

"Who locked my door?" Rowan asked.

Nobody answered.

"Take them to the gate," he told his driver. "They aren't coming back."

The driver took them by the elbows.

They went quietly.

Leland stood very still with the pen in his hand.

"This is a family matter," he said again.

"She isn't your family anymore."

"She's my sister."

"She's my wife," Rowan said. "As of two o'clock today."

The hall went quiet.

I had not agreed to two o'clock.

I looked at him.

He looked back with no expression at all, and I understood that I had two hours to decide whether to be furious with him.

"Mr. Peverell," my father said, hoarse. "She's been home one day. You can't marry her this afternoon."

"I have her consent. Her own."

"She hasn't been a Penhallow long enough to sign a lease," Leland said.

"I wasn't asking for yours."

Delphine moved first.

She came across the marble in her white dress and dropped to her knees beside his chair.

"Brother Rowan, please. I've loved you for two years. I watched you from my window every day. I'm a thousand times better than she is. Look at me."

"Take Miss Delphine home," Rowan said to his driver.

"Brother Rowan!"

She caught his sleeve.

He took her wrist off his arm with two fingers.

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