Page 34 of Devil at the Gates
George stumbled to a stop, looking down at his chest where a dark-red spot appeared on his white shirt, growing bigger every second.
Harriet stared in stunned silence as he then stumbled back toward the edge of the cliff. A second later the dirt gave way, and he fell into the darkness below.
“Harriet?” a voice called out. She clutched her aching head and turned to see Redmond there, a pistol raised.
Redmond had shot George, had stopped him from reaching her, or else she would’ve fallen over the edge too. She slowly crawled backward, afraid the ground beneath her would also give way. Redmond reached her a moment later and wrapped his arms around her, carrying her away from the edge, just as he’d done two weeks ago when he’d saved her life after she’d followed a ghost to the cliffs.
“Red…” She collapsed into his arms. They both fell into the grass, holding each other.
“Are you all right?” he asked, cupping her face.
She threw her arms around his neck, and he held her long after she stopped shaking. “Yes. I am now.”
The clouds parted, and a full moon shone down, casting eerie beams of light where it reflected off the snow around them.
George was gone. The monster who had kept her in fear for the last six years was no longer there to haunt her. She started to close her eyes, but then she saw it. A flickering moonbeam that for but a moment seemed to be…Thomas. Staring at her and Red, a sad smile hovering about his lips before the moonlight vanished behind a cloud again. The specter of George’s evil in her life was ended, and for the first time in a long while, she could breathe. She felt happy, safe…and now she was with Redmond again. She marveled at how it was even possible that luck would have brought her such a fate.
“It’s over,” Redmond said softly. “You’re safe now. He can’t hurt you anymore. I’ll see that the magistrate in Faversham retracts anything he might have signed about you.”
“You can do that?”
“Now that Halifax is dead and I can attest to his attempt to murder you, any paperwork put before a magistrate will be suspect given the man’s motives to harm you.”
Harriet leaned into him, relaxing for the first time in six years. It was over. George was gone. She was safe.
He kissed her forehead and pulled back to look down at her. “Are you ready to go home, my darling duchess?”
Harriet stared up at his handsome face, wondering how anyone could have ever thought him unattractive. He was perfect in every way.
But what had he just said? Duchess? He couldn’t…
“Red, you don’t have to…” He didn’t need to marry her. She knew he might never again wish to marry after what had happened with Millicent. As long as she could be with him, that was all that mattered.
“You are my duchess. I thought I wasn’t ready to marry again, but after almost losing you, I knew I couldn’t let you out of my life again. So you’ll have to marry me, Harriet. I won’t have it any other way.” He kissed her on the lips, a deep, sensual kiss that sent flutters through her lower belly. It banished all thoughts of the horrors she’d faced tonight, leaving only relief and joy.
“Is that so?” She felt so giddy that she couldn’t resist teasing him. “Don’t I have a say in this?”
Redmond smirked. “None at all. And if you resist me,” he murmured seductively, “I may have to fight you for it. I’m not bad with a fencing foil.”
She laughed and buried her face in his neck. “You’re not terrible. But I’m better,” she reminded him. “But perhaps I’ll let you win.”
“Would you indeed, minx?” He laughed, the cheery, open sound erasing all fear and heartache she’d suffered.
She was no longer losing him; she was going home with him.
“Come on, let’s get back and hire a coach. Poor Devil may still be waiting at the gates for you.”
“What?” They both stood and headed toward the distant flickering lights of the inn.
“He chased your carriage all the way to the gates and has been there ever since. He knows, like I do, that you belong at Frostmore.”
“You know, he’s really not a devil. Perhaps you can rename him? Angel, perhaps?”
Redmond laughed again. “He’s a black guard dog. If you start calling him Angel, no one will fear him.”
“Perhaps that would be a good thing?” She laughed. “For when the children come? We wouldn’t want to scare the little ones.”
Redmond jerked to a stop. “Children?”
