Devon wasn’t sure what he was expected to do, but stood near the grave where his father now lay. People were milling about, most of them he’d never met. Devon knew they were not there to pay their respects, but to be sure that the man of the castle was indeed dead. His father had never been someone that people would call a friend. Devon hadn’t even wanted to call him father, but he’d done so. But only when necessary.

He looked out over the four graves next to his father. Women, none of them his biological mother, but women who his father had thought would replace her in some way. Most assuredly, he thought, they’d heel to him. Devon was sure that his mother had taken her last breath to escape the man who had died three days ago. But since he’d never met her, he had no idea. Her grave was some yards away, never to be associated with the man she’d married. But the castle, her legacy from a long line of her family, would be left to him now.

When someone said his name, Devon turned to look at Benshaw.

“You should come away now, sir. So that the men there can do their work.” Devon looked at the men standing nearby leaning on shovels. “They’ve a mind to cover him up, and won’t with you there.”

“I’d like to see him buried. I want to see him beneath the ground, never to rise.” He had no idea if anyone there knew the real relationship between him and his father, but Benshaw would. He’d been the butler in their home since before Devon was born. “Tell them to go on, do their jobs please. I want to be sure he’s there when I walk away.”

Benshaw nodded and moved to where the men were. When they came forward to fill in the deep hole, Devon stepped back far enough that he’d not be in their way, but not so much that he could no longer see the coffin inside it.

After the men finished—taking longer, Devon was sure, because he was there—he made his way back to the castle and the only house he’d ever known except for the boarding school. He might only be ten, but he knew that this was only a place to dwell…it had never been a home, to anyone living there. As soon as he was in the entrance hall, he looked at the man who had been more of a father to him than his real father had been.

“What do I do now?” Benshaw told him that he had a visitor. “My grandmother. She’s come then.”

“Yes, my lord.” His new title startled him. “You will make her welcome and listen to her as if it were me speaking to you, won’t you? She has a good heart.”

“I can feel it. I can also feel that she has no more desire to be here than I wished to be when he lived. But stay I must.” Benshaw told him to go along and that he’d bring tea. “Scones as well, please. I’ve not had any breakfast.”

“Very good, my lord.” He had no idea what the woman would want; he didn’t know her either. She’d been told, of course, that the lord of the castle was dead. Perhaps that alone brought her to see, much like he’d made sure that he was in the ground forever.

Devon went to the library. It wasn’t a room he’d spent a great deal of time in. His father had told him it wasn’t a place for a child. But Benshaw and the others had brought him books from it, and replaced them without his father ever knowing. Had he known, the people helping him would have been killed.

“Hello, Devon.” He nodded at the beautiful woman in the chair near the fireplace. “I didn’t go down because I saw no reason to disturb you. He is really dead?”

“Yes. Monday morn.” If she didn’t ask him how his father had come to be at the bottom of the stairs with his neck and back broken, he wouldn’t tell her. “Benshaw said that he notified you right after he was taken away. Is that why you’re here? To make sure that he’s dead? I assure you that he is. I watched him the entire time to be sure.”

“You hated him that much.” Devon said nothing. There was no point. No one had liked his father, not even himself. “I won’t lie to you, but I’m sure you know that I hated him as much. If not more.”

“My mother. He killed her, you claimed. Father was most upset when you made those statements concerning her death.” It wasn’t a question but she nodded anyway. “I’m lord here now. I’ve decided to make a difference here and in my life. If you’d like, you may stay here. He will not bother either of us again.”

“I’ve come to take you back with me. To my home.” Devon said nothing as the tea trolley was brought in and set up. His grandmother poured them both a cup after Benshaw left them. “I have a lovely home in the States. It’s nothing like this, but it is nice and you’ll be well thought of there.”

“This is my house now. And I am going to stay. As I have said, you can as well, but I’m not going anywhere.” She sipped her tea and said nothing. “I’m nothing like him. If you come or go, that is up to you. I’m going to be a good man, and a better lord.”

“I believe you.” Devon nodded, putting his cup down. He’d never really cared for the drink, and now that he was in charge, so to speak, he wasn’t going to be subject to it any more. “If I come here to stay, what will you require of me?”

“Require? Nothing. You are a grown woman and I don’t really need you as my guardian. Benshaw and the others, they have raised me for the most part and will continue to do so should you not stay. I go to school for several months out of the year. My grades are good. I have money should I need anything. More now that there is no one to keep it from me. If you stay, I will provide for you, keep you in a manner that you should have been living before he...before his death.” He thought of one thing he might need of her and voiced it. “I’d like to never speak of him again, not between us. Neither of us cared for him, as we’ve said, and now that he is gone, I think that should be the end of it.”

“All right, I can live with that. May I bring my maid and my things?” He told her as far as he was concerned it was her home too. “Then I should like to stay. For as long as you’ll have me.”

Devon nodded, his body spent all of the sudden. Leaning back on the chair, he let his body relax. He thought it was the first time he’d ever felt this way in all of his life. As sleep settled over him he thought of something else. Devon was safe. Again for the first time in his life.