Page 104 of A Torn Allegiance
Lamoreaux stood, but no one was of a mind to listen. They’d begun communicating again, and Hayes could see why Elsie wished she’d been involved from the beginning. He believed she could make a true difference.
Everly shook his head. “The tenants don’t know what’s good for them. They say they want to stay. They will stubbornly hold on to the land until their skeleton dust spreads across the plains.”
“That’s not true. They are loyal, but not stupid.” Elsie was now standing at the front of the room. “Has anyone asked them?”
Hayes nodded.Good show.
“Why are they not here?” she demanded.
Some of the men seemed to scoff at the thought, but others shifted in their chairs as though considering her suggestion. “We have already had tenants leave.” She put a hand over her heart. “And aren’t we all brokenhearted when a Scot leaves their land?” She took a few steps toward the men, and Hayes had to hand it to her. She was a bold woman. And she spoke with power.
Kristoff leaned over. “Our future queen.”
His words sank deep into Hayes’s heart, and he knew his brother was correct. But how? How could he let her back into his heart? He pressed his lips together. She’d never left. But the hurt... His hand went to his heart again.
Elsie shook her head at something one of the landholders had said. “We must reconvene with a true desire to compromise. We must involve the tenants. And we must all listen more than talk.”
“And when the meeting turns into a brawl, I will be staying at Everly’s estate. Come to me, and we will show you a better way. France is not suffering drought. France is peaceful. After years of internal fighting and revolution, the bloodiest disaster of all, Napoleon has healed France. He can heal you too.”
Hayes held a fist in the air. “No!”
Lamoreaux turned to him. “Ah, the men of Oldenburg keep plaguing us with their opinions. They too need the governing balm of Napoleon. Join us, just as the farmers of your country have.” He sneered, and his face nearly begged to be taken forcibly from the room.
Hayes moved to the front and stood beside Elsie. He didn’t look down at her, but the strength that flowed through her seemed to simmer between them. “Lady Elsie makes the most sense of anyone here. Yes, we are having similar conversations in my country. Men like Lamoreaux have spread their poison among my citizens. But beware. If he cannot convince you landholders, he will move to your tenants, and then you will have an insurrection on your hands.”
The men grumbled louder. The air felt charged, and Lamoreaux seemed less confident.
“This man is not here to unite but to divide. He has simply chosen something you all care deeply about and is using it against you. Yes, the land is dry. Yes, people are hungry. But together, we can do more than if we join with the French in a war that is fought far from our shores. Do not bring yet another problem to those we face already.” He felt like he was talking to his own people. Their faces seemed to change before his eyes, and instead of Scots, he saw his landholders, his own tenants, and his love grew. “Unite. Remember all that brings you together.” When Elsie’s small hand linked fingers in his, he knew he was speaking of his own personal troubles as well. He and Elsie were united. Her people were his people. Or they could be.
“Prince Hayes has come all the way here to learn new farming methods,” Elsie said.
He nodded.Brilliant.He looked to where Bartholomew stood, and he was certain he had his friend to thank for Elsie’s presence in Scotland. “Yes,” he said, “and we have with us His Grace, the Duke of Sumter. He suffered from this very problem of dry earth on England’s northern border and might be of assistance here as well.”
Bartholomew moved to the front then, and while he detailed his new experimental crops and the successes he was having with irrigation, the tone of the room shifted. Instead of despair, the tiniest feather of hope had floated in, and the conversation turned productive.
Elsie clung to Hayes’s hand as if she might never let go.
He remained near her, hoping to encourage her while they watched Bartholomew and the others begin to solve their problems. “This is much better.”
“Aye.”
He smiled at her Scottish response.
She turned to him. “Forgive me.” Her soft eyes pleaded with him, and it was all he could do not to pull her swiftly into his arms and kiss her full mouth. Had he ever felt so much hurt? Never. But he’d never felt so much love either.
“Aye.” He grinned.
And her face lit with so much happiness, he almost laughed out loud. “But hold that thought. We have much to discuss.”
She nodded and turned back to the meeting.
One of the men turned to Everly. “Might we fence in the sheep, then?”
Now they were compromising. Hayes felt a great amount of relief. There was hope for his country. Positive change could happen. His brothers came to stand beside him and Elsie, and he knew his work in England was finished. He knew he could fight Napoleon’s lies. And he just might have some new solutions.
But, most of all, he might have Elsie. And, at the moment, that seemed the most important solution of all.
Later, they stood on a ridge of her Scottish estate of Argyll, side by side, and a new chill joined the wind, rattling their clothes. Hayes resisted a shiver, but nothing could dim Elsie’s smile. She looked all around her as though she could not get enough of the sight, and then she turned to him with the same expression of longing. “Here you are.”
