The Lost Son Returns as the Duke novel · Chapter 15 of 24
Chapter 15: My Father's Letter
Edith did not touch the letter.
She sat with her hands in her lap and looked at the little brown seal.
Outside, the church bell was still tolling, and torches ran up and down the lane.
Hild had pushed the dresser against the door and stood behind it with the kitchen knife.
"That's Da's stamp," she said. "He cut it from a button."
"He did," Edith said.
"There are eleven letters here, Mam."
"There are twelve."
I counted them in the candlelight.
She was right.
Eleven were folded square, with the Duke's name on the outside in a neat tally-keeper's hand.
The twelfth was thinner, and had no name at all, only the seal.
"That one never went anywhere," Edith said. "Osgar sat with me the night your father died."
"He asked me for the tally box, to keep the manor's accounts straight."
"I gave it to him."
Her voice did not break.
She was looking at the wall above my head.
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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