They Gave the Doomed Duke the Wrong Bride novel · Chapter 25 of 32

Chapter 25: Midwinter Road

Everard came back out of the pines an hour later, alone, with snow to his thighs.

"He had a horse tied in the trees," he said. "Saddled and waiting. He planned the back stairs before he ever sat down."

"Of course he did. He plans everything."

The magistrate was already writing at the parlor table, coughing between lines.

In the yard the commander had my father's twelve men lined up in the snow without their horses.

I stood at the window where my father had stood.

"He knows where the ledgers are," Everard said quietly. "What did he mean?"

"He meant my mother."

He waited.

"She lived in his house for six years. She hid bread from him, the same way I did." I touched the key through my collar. "He must have seen a cupboard go empty once. Then he saw his strongroom go empty. Today he saw his stable."

"So he'll tell the Prince about the key."

"He'll tell the Prince that every page that can hang them is behind a door only I can open."

Everard understood it before I finished.

His face went very still.

"Then they don't need the books," he said. "They only need you."

"Dead, or in a cellar until I forget my own name. Either way the books never come out."

He didn't say anything for a long moment.

Then he said, "Tell me what you want to do."

He'd kept that promise every single time. I'd started to count on it.

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