Thrown Out on Christmas Eve, She Took Shelter in an Empty House — Unaware the Duke Was Coming Home
Chapter 17
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"The charge against Miss Hannah Lowe is dismissed," he said, "with the apologies of this court. And I will add something which is not strictly the business of this court, but which I am too old to keep to myself." He looked at Hannah. "Your father was a good man, Miss Lowe. You have done his name proud today."Hannah said, "Thank you, sir." And then found, to her great surprise, that she could not say anything else at all.The room was emptying around her. People were touching her arm as they went past and saying things to her—kind things that she could not take in. Mrs. Tibbs had her arm around Sam, and then the room was nearly empty, and there was only one person left standing by the wall.Edmund came forward slowly. He stopped a little way off from her, as if he were not sure he was allowed any closer."You didn't need me at all," he said."No," said Hannah."I knew you wouldn't. I wanted to be here anyway." He hesitated. "You were magnificent.""I was terrified.""Yes. That's what made it magnificent."Hannah looked at him then properly for the first time since Boxing Day: he looked tired; he looked as if he had not slept much; he looked, she thought, like a man who had been waiting outside a door for a long time without knowing if it would open."Why did you do it?" she asked. "Truly. Why did you let me think you were someone else?"Edmund was quiet for a moment. "Because when you looked at me in that kitchen," he said, "you didn't see the Duke of Ashmere. You saw a man with snow on his coat, and I hadn't been that man in so long I'd forgotten he existed. I wanted one night of being him, then one day. And every hour I meant to tell you, and every hour I thought, 'Just one more.'" He looked down at his hands. "It was cowardly. You were right about all of it. I should have come home years ago. I should have looked. If I had, your father might still have his shop. I don't expect you to forgive that."Hannah looked at him for a long time."My father," she said at last, "used to say that a candle can't help where it was set down; it can only help how it burns." She paused. "You came home. You looked in the end. That's something.""Is it enough?""I don't know yet," said Hannah honestly. "Ask me again.""When?""When you've done something about this valley," said Hannah. "Not for me. For them."Edmund looked at her. And then, slowly, for the first time in nine years, the Duke of Ashmere smiled the way his mother used to say he smiled when he was a boy: all at once, with his whole face.