Half the day of Emmeline’s miraculous revival had passed with George and Emmeline, Noah and his mother telling their side of the three-month experience, trying to come to an understanding of it all, and examining where they now stood. But there was one issue that Noah needed to fix, the one with his grandmother.

The Dowager Duchess wasn’t going to be glad when he told her that he was marrying the “Grant chit”, but Noah didn’t care. God had been gracious enough to grant his sole wish and return his love to him, a wish Noah hadn’t expected to be granted while he was living. Now that he had Emmeline back, nothing was going to stop him from making her his–especially his evil grandmother.

Noah stood at the doorway of his grandmother’s room with Leverton’s granduncle’s book in his grasp. It was time this madness, his grandmother’s erroneous suspicions, ended.

“Noah,” Emmeline’s voice cut through his thoughts as his intended laid a hand on his arm. “Are you sure about this?”

Cupping his hand over hers, Noah nodded, “It’s about time she knows the truth and if she cannot accept it now, there will be no time for her to do so at judgment day.”

“I understand,” Emmeline replied, while softly removing her hand, “but I don’t think she would take lightly to seeing me.”

Anger flared a little in Noah’s stomach, “She tried to have you killed, my love. Even if she didn’t succeed, it still is counted as righteous reparation to show her that her nefarious plans haven’t succeeded.”

Hesitant golden eyes darted to the door before her lips quirked, “And you’re sure seeing me won’t send her to the grave?”

“She has already damned herself,” Noah returned. “But, my love, if you’re not sure, let me go in first and then you’ll come in, agreed?”

“Discretion is the better part of valor,” Emmeline added with a wry tilt to her lips.

“But tact belays truth, my love,” Noah reprimanded, “And I do not think tact is the formula I need with to solve this problem.”

Knocking brusquely on the door, Noah entered without an invitation to do so. He purposely left the door open to allow Emmeline to hear what was going to be said.

“Don’t you have any manners, boy?” the Dowager Duchess screeched like a true hawk. “You have no right to come into my quarters as you have.”

“Actually, as head of the family, I do,” Noah replied, “Yet if I hadn’t had a firm purpose I would have resisted. But my motive is firm and my actions follow. Grandmother, this is the last time I will tell you that your husband was not killed by Leverton, and this time I have proof.”

“What proof?” his grandmother huffed. “Have you inquired of a soothsayer and spoken to my husband’s spirit?”

“No, and I’ll leave all the black arts to you,” Noah replied clearly. “I found your diary, Grandmother and I know that you know grandfather died naturally.”

Her paleness at his words didn’t deter Noah. “I also believe you ordered the death of both St. Maurs, but that is for God to judge. I can give you a chance to see the truth on this matter, and repent. Leverton’s granduncle had written an account of that day when grandfather died and–”

“He was killed,” his grandmother snapped, but Noah didn’t falter his words.

“–the proof that his heart failed him is right here, written in black against white. Read it for yourself.” The Duke offered the leather-bound journal.

“I will not touch the cursed thing,” she huffed while snapping her head away, “Nothing of Leverton’s is untainted.”

“Fine.” Noah replied, “Then I will read it to you and you can either accept it, or forbear the truth. “The hunting party with myself, Duke Jacob Newberry, Earl Barton and Viscount Dalton ended in a tragedy. We had just spotted a massive deer and Jacob, my dear friend was about to level his musket when he dropped it and lurched forward to me, striking me in my arm. As I was the closest to him I reached out to him but he twisted suddenly and my reach was misplaced and he fell off the horse.”

“Lies!” His grandmother called out so loudly that the air rang with her thin scream. “It’s all lies! All of it!”

Nevertheless, Noah continued, “I launched off my mount and grabbed at him, his face was turning blue and his hand was grabbing at his chest. I thought something had struck him so I ripped his jacket and shirt off to see his chest palpitating hard. He then gasped, his eyes rolled to the back and he started to shudder. I recalled some medical training and placed my hand on the middle of his chest pressing hard to massage his heart, but though he was gasping he soon went still under my hands. I did not–could not–move from my friend, colleague and sometimes competitor, until his body went still and my heart felt frozen in my chest. He died there, under my hand and I have marked that tragic day in my mind for the rest of my life.”

The silence that hung in the air after Noah had finished his recitation felt so heavy Emmeline, even from her place outside the room, felt stifled, but she set her ears to the room.

“Grandfather wasn’t murdered, Grandmother,” she heard Noah say. “He died of natural causes. I agree it was untimely, but who has any say when Death will come for a man.”

“That was not true,” the Dowager Duchess said, even though her strident tone had weakened. “All of what you just read was a lie, a fable, written to throw the light from the real culprit.”

“Look at it, Grandmother. I know you’re not blind.” Noah said, and by that time Emmeline could not hold back her inquisitiveness and peeked around the door. She spotted Noah at the side of a large bed where a woman, a fraction of its massive size, rested. The book was being placed right in front of her face.

Emmeline recoiled in horror. Is that a woman or an emaciated vulture?

The woman was thin–so thin that her skin clung to pure bones. Her face was yellowish and her cheekbones protruded so that her sallow cheeks looked sucked in. Her nose was jutting and the wisps of hair around her skull had given her a predatory look.

“Read it, Grandmother,” Noah encouraged and even placed his finger at the spot.

To Emmeline’s surprise, the woman’s eyes ran over the lines quickly. She stood there, hoping beyond hope that the woman would believe the words that she–Emmeline–knew were true. It didn’t take long for the older woman to read all of it. When she was done, she leaned back on her mound of pillows with a tortured look on her face.

Then her face hardened and she turned to Noah with a hateful look in her eyes, “Lies! That impassioned spiel is nothing but drivel. Don’t you have any sense, boy? This is some trick to make you turncoat on your own family. The cursed Grants are trying to fool you.”

“Grandmother,” Noah said with a still voice, as he closed the journal, “Mark this day, that I have done my duty to you. If the words of the man who was there when grandfather died, the physician’s many reports, and common sense, cannot change your mind, only God himself will.”

His grandmother huffed. “You should be thanking me boy, that Grant chit would have done worse to you if she wasn’t dead.”

“You mean Lady Emmeline?” Noah replied easily, then a sly smile lightened his face. “My fiancée? Emmeline, love, please come inside.”

Taking in a deep breath, Emmeline strode inside to stop right at Noah’s side, “Your Grace.”

The older woman looked like she was facing death itself, as she had gone pale with fright. “You! What are you doing here! You’re supposed to be dead!”

“But I am not,” Emmeline replied calmly, “Despite your best efforts.” Taking the journal from Noah, Emmeline spoke. “My granduncle wrote those words in good faith. He, unlike many others, was not an enemy of your husband. They did compete for your hand but when your husband won, my granduncle gave in with good grace. If you cannot let go of the lies you’ve told yourself, I cannot do it for you.”

The Dowager Duchess’ mouth twisted into a snarl, “Get out, now! And Noah, if you marry that woman, you will regret it–mark my words.”

Shaking his head, Noah placed a hand on the small of Emmeline’s back and spoke to her. “There is nothing more to do, my love. She has admitted her guilt in arranging your death. She refuses to recant her false accusations against your family. I have done all that duty demands.”

“Goodbye, Your Grace,” Emmeline said quietly with a curtsey. “I will pray for your soul.”

“You’re damned!” she shouted to their turned backs, “You and your whole line is damned!”

Far removed from the Dowager Duchess’ rooms, Noah spun a silent Emmeline into his arms and hugged her. With his chin on top of her head, Noah held the softly-trembling woman and rocked her slowly.

“Ignore her, my love.” Noah murmured in her ear. “Her lies have become her truth and now, she’s nothing but shrew. Madness has taken over. Her power is at an end. You are safe now.”

“But she still has a soul,” Emmeline murmured, while surrounded by his warmth, “And I am sorry for her.”

Noah sighed audibly and smoothly untangled himself from her. Taking Emmeline’s hand, he led both of them down to his study and closed the door behind them.

“This is improper,” Emmeline chided softly, “You cannot just secret me off to your study. Tongues will start wagging.”

“Then let them wag,” Noah answered back, as he led the two to the nearest chaise, and gently sat them both. His palm cupped her cheek and his long fingers laced into her hair. Noah felt his eyes drink in the sight of her like a parched man gulping water.

“I prayed, I shouted, I cried, and I cursed,” Noah said quietly. “Just to have you back. I didn’t sleep Emmeline, I couldn’t. I wanted you back. I held on so long, while everyone and everything around me, told me to believe you were gone. And to my shame, part of me did believe it. But only when the last light of hope had been snuffed out.”

He hated to allow it but a tinge of anger burned his chest, amalgamating with the pain and sorrow that had taken his torso as its home three months ago.

“Why…why didn’t you come to me first, Emmeline?” Noah asked a bit more tersely than he wanted. “I could have offered you much more protection than my mother could, and at least…at least my heart wouldn’t have been torn in two.”

Emmeline's eyes lowered and her tone was hushed and sorrowful, “I am sorry, Noah, but keeping me safe wasn’t the only issue. I needed you and George to come to some sort of peace. I needed you two to do away with the feud on your own terms and that meant taking me out of the picture. I am heartbroken that you felt so much pain, but it wasn’t easy on me either. I cried, Noah, so much, but then I remembered it was for a righteous cause. Please forgive me.”

Her words spread soft healing balm over the ragged shreds of his soul and Noah found that though he still felt betrayed on some level, he couldn’t stay angry at her. Her words made sense and he supposed they’d settle in his system over time.

Sighing, Noah rested his forehead on hers and whispered on her closed lips. “I could never hold it against you and I’m so sorry for doing so. Do you remember when I asked you, where do you see yourself in the future, Emmeline?”

Emmeline smiled as she pulled her head away, “Yes, and I replied that I couldn’t speculate what my future would be at that point. I told you that I wished to be married to one I can truly love, not only for money. After all–”

“What is gaining the whole world, but losing your soul?” Noah said with her, before twining his fingers with hers. “Emmeline, I thought I had lost my very life when you were dead. Everything looked so bleak around me that I swore the sun itself was gone. I felt cold, Emmeline, cold and hateful and revengeful. I was not myself. I had no idea that I could become so hollow at times, and such a beast at others. Which is why I now pledge on my life, that I will give you the world, and my soul, so you will not have any reason to lose either of those. I see us, thirty, fifty years from now, with this love we have, grown even deeper. Do you see it, too?”

Emmeline’s head was tilted to the side and a smile was formed by her plump lips, “I never–not for one moment–doubted that. Do you promise to love me when I’m old and frail and misquote Hamlet for Macbeth?”

Noah’s mirth was audible but his face didn’t show it, “I’ll probably be the one calling Claudius for Banquo, not you.”

“And I will still love you for it,” Emmeline said, while leaning forward to kiss him on his cheek. “So…we are getting married.”

Noah looked stricken, “Yes, but God will frown upon me if I don’t do it properly.” He then slipped off the chaise and unto one knee. The sun, shining behind her through the glass, made a halo surround her head–which only made Noah sure he was about to marry an angel.

“Lady Emmeline Harriet Grant, the wisdom to my folly, the peace to my unrest, the love to my loneliness, will you do me the honor of marrying me? A rich but wretched Duke who will calmly explain the rules of physics to an attentive ear, and who will risk life and limb to climb ivy trellises to prove his love?”

A slanted smile blessed Emmeline’s face, “Yes, I will marry this rich but wretched Duke… but I cannot promise to be all that attentive to the laws of physics.”

Noah laughed, stood, tugged her into his arms and hugged her tightly, “Physics is a tedious subject my love, so I will not fault you for it.”

With her arms wrapped around Noah’s neck, Emmeline smiled, “Be that is it may, I’m warning you from now, George is going to be a menace with this wedding. It’s in your best interest to let him have his way.”

Noah chuckled and brushed a strand of her hair back, “Now my love, it’s like you don’t know me at all.”

The Dowager Duchess died shortly after, even before the arrangements were complete to move her to the Dowager’s Lodge in the grounds. The Newberry household had woken up one morning to find the older lady had died in her bed during the night. Opinions on the actual cause varied, from a failed liver to malnutrition, to the devil coming to claim an evil soul–all of which, to Emmeline’s mind, could be true.