Page 75 of Wolfhaven

How many ways did they plan to murder him, anyway?

“Don’t worry, we’ll make sure you go down nice and easy,” Bess was saying. “It’s the least we can do for⁠—”

Bess Cogswell’s head jerked back. Her eyes went wide. A silver blade poked right through her dress, flooding the white shift with crimson blood.

Gareth threw himself to one side. His ankle protested, but he managed to dodge the shotgun blast. It hit Vernon directly in the chest. He staggered back.

The axe fell.

So did the groundskeeper.

The thick blade split his face in two.

A screech seared his eardrums. Bess wasn’t yet dead. She pulled herself off the blade and threw herself at Gareth with murder in her eyes.

“You killed him!” she shrieked. “My husband is dead!”

“Better him than me,” Gareth said. The injured woman screeched and threw herself at him. Racing for the axe.

He reached for it. Missed.

A single pistol shot rang out.

Bess fell on top of her husband, dead.

Stunned, Gareth lifted his gaze to find Evaine and Hazel silhouetted against Wolfhaven’s severe outline.

“I told you I was a good shot,” Hazel said.

In Evaine’s hand was his father’s bloodied sword-cane.

Chapter 33

Evaine

“You came back,” Gareth repeated for the umpteenth time. He couldn’t seem to stop staring at Evaine. She had wiped the bloody blade on the wet grass and sheathed it before handing it back to him. He leaned on her as much as he did his walking stick.

Worn out from the ordeal of this afternoon.

First, finding the body of Marina’s lost baby. Then nearly getting killed by his own supposedly loyal servants.

“We couldn’t just abandon you,” Hazel said tartly. “Although it did take my granddaughter several miles of road before she came around to the idea that we should come back and make sure you were all right.”

“I didn’t deserve that from you,” he said remorsefully. His blue eyes found Evaine’s. “I’m sorry I choked you.”

“I daresay I provoked you,” she said wryly. “Accusing you of murdering Marina without thinking through the facts. My timing was atrocious.”

“Still no excuse. I couldn’t think of any other way to scare you into leaving.”

“I eventually figured out why you’d done it. You did scare me quite thoroughly. You’re a terrifying man when you want to be, your lordship.”

They all chuckled uneasily at that.

All was not yet mended. Evaine wasn’t sure things ever could be repaired between her and Gareth. Wolfhaven had brought them together. The house’s secrets were also tearing them apart.

Whoever—or whatever—had moved her statues, the message was plain. She and the duke were not meant to be together.

Apparently, they would be spending one last night at Wolfhaven after all. They fell into their familiar routine. Gareth lit the boiler for hot water. Evaine made tea, and they all ate a cold supper around the kitchen table. Then Evaine ran a hot bath for the duke and made up the beds again for one final night.