ask where you are, I will delay him. Godspeed, Miss Darcy.” She left, shutting the door behind her.
Reverend Reed leaned over Hayward. “Mr. Morgan? Can you hear me, sir?”
Hayward’s eyes opened. “I can. Where is Darcy?”
“I am here, Papa.” She picked up his hand. “This is Reverend Reed and his verger, Mr. Snead.”
“You have come to pray for me, sir?” said Hayward. “Last rites, is it?”
“If you wish it, I will.”
“I have confessed Jesus as my Savior and repented of my sins. Though they were scarlet, He has made them white as snow.”
“Yes, and you may rest easy.”
“Papa, we must get you up,” said Darcy. “I will help you with your boots.” She retrieved them, and kneeling down she slipped them on. Then she wrapped him in his coat. “Not a sound, Papa, as we slip away.”
The men lifted Hayward and held him up beneath his arms. They led him down the stairs to the passageway, to an outer courtyard. The horses sighed and flicked their ears as Hayward was placed in the rear, and a blanket thrown over him to keep him warm. Darcy wrapped her cloak closer and glanced up at the window that belonged to Madeline. A figure passed across it, and she turned away to board the cart. But when the rapid thud of footsteps approached, she froze.
From the gloom of the opening Langbourne stepped out.
Impatience had banked a fire inside Ethan. His time had been spent dealing with Hollen and the conspiracy the seedy little man had brought to their doorstep. Now that he had resolved the loose ends to a difficult situation, he would ride to Havendale and claim her.
He’d ridden all night, through the rain, then by the guidance of a full moon, anxious to reach home. The roads were mire and the horse’s flanks were mud-caked. As he rode into Fairview, he studied the old place where he had spent most of his childhood, first under Eliza’s tutelage, then beneath her motherly hand. To all things, he thought, an end comes, and he felt no sorrow to let the estate go. And how much more content would Darcy be to accept his proposal if it meant living along the Potomac, near the family she loved?
He drew up, wondering what Eliza would say. Surely she’d be happy as well to leave this place of grim solitude with her daughter. The idea of restoring River Run raced through Ethan’s veins as much as it had with Hayward. He would rebuild, start a new legacy, and at last bring Darcy and her mother together again.
When he came through the door, Fiona met him with a broad smile. “Dear me, you are a sight, Mr. Brennan. Give me your coat and I’ll clean and dry it by the fire.”
“I hoped you wouldn’t have noticed, Fiona. You have gotten too old to wait on me.”
Fiona put her hands over her hips and huffed. “No, I am not, sir. Age is in the mind, and I’m young inside mine. Besides I would be unhappy if I was retired from taking care of you and Eliza, don’t you know.”
Ethan slipped off his coat and handed it over. “How is she?”
“Worried over you, and anxious about Darcy. You know I am too, sir, but full of joy that I shall see her again. That child meant the world to me. She was so bright and sprightly when little. You say she is the same even now. Pretty too, I imagine, just like her mother.”
With a sigh, she laid his coat over the back of a chair and turned it toward the fire. Ethan thought about what she had said, how loved Darcy was.
“She is all that you say, Fiona. And she is the most beautiful woman I have ever laid eyes on—inside and out. There is no reason to worry.”
“Well, Eliza cannot help herself. She fretted over you traveling in this foul weather, that you might catch cold. I can tell you, we both long for summer days at River Run.”
He drew his neckcloth away from his throat. “After Darcy and I are married, we will be leaving England to start a new life there.”
Fiona’s eyes lit up and she yelped. “All of us, sir?”
“All of us, Fiona.”
He nudged the old servant’s chin, and went upstairs where at the landing he met Eliza. A change had come over her, as if a dark cloud had lifted and a golden dawn had risen over her. No longer were her eyes forlorn.