Awakening Love: Reborn to Be His Duchess novel · Chapter 31 of 32
Chapter 31: The Year Is Up
The study at Wexmoor smelled of leather and cold ashes, and I had hated it for six weeks.
Alaric shut the door behind us and went to the desk.
He took a folded paper from the second drawer.
The seal on it was his own, the wolf's head, pressed in black wax.
"I wrote this the night after we set the terms," he said. "I put my name to it, and I have kept it where I would see it every time I looked for a pen."
"What is it?"
"Read it."
I broke the seal with my nail.
It was one page in a hand that had been very careful.
It said that the Duchess of Wexmoor was free to leave his house at any hour of any day she chose, with her father's debts cleared and her own fortune in her name.
It said that no argument, no court, and no word of his would be raised against her going.
It was signed in full, and dated the day after our terms.
"The terms said a year," I said. "I never saw this."
"I did not want you to know it was here."
"Why not?"
"Because I thought if you knew you could go tomorrow, you would."
He said it plainly, without looking away.
"I kept it in case you ever asked."
"You did not need to keep it for a year."
"No." He took a breath. "I need to hand it to you now. You are free, Linnet."
"Your father is safe. Rook is in the Tower. You do not have to stay in a house with me because of a bargain, or a plan, or a grudge."
"If you want to leave, the carriage is at the door."
I looked at the paper.
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