Chapter 13

The square was quiet again. Only the snow kept falling, soft and slow in the lamplight.Lucy put her hand into the pocket of her old brown coat, and she took out a little black notebook. "My lord," she said, "I have something that belongs to you, I think."She opened the book to the right page and held it out.He took it. He read the words in the faded round hand:Harry, St. Anne's, 8 years old. Fever and a bad chest. Gray mittens with the star. Please God, let him live.The Earl of Wexley, the richest man in the county, stood in the middle of the square and read that one line over and over. His hands began to shake. And then, in front of the whole town, he put his hand over his eyes and wept.Nobody laughed. Nobody looked away. Old Mrs. Green was crying too, and so was Mr. Pike, and so were half the people there."She prayed for me," he said at last. His voice was broken. "She did not even know me, and she prayed for me.""She prayed for every one of them," said Lucy softly. "Every child. It is all in the book. She died when I was twelve. She never knew if any of them lived.""That one did," said the Earl. "Tell her that one did." He closed the book carefully and gave it back to her. "Why didn't you tell me that night in the shop? You knew. I saw your face. You knew."Lucy looked down at the snow. "Because you had been looking for an angel for twenty-five years, my lord. And all you would find was a shopgirl with cheap wool and sore hands. I could not bear to see your face when you found out."The Earl was quiet for a long moment. "Miss Ward," he said, "I was never looking for an angel. I was looking for the one who cared. The one who walks out in the dark when no one is watching, and does the good thing, and asks for nothing. I have met a great many fine ladies since I was ten years old. Not one of them would walk to that step in the snow. You have done it for five winters."And then, in front of the whole town of Millbrook, the Earl of Wexley went down on one knee in the snow. A sound went round the square like wind in the trees.

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