"He's trying to take my home," she said. The words falling into the quiet room like stones into a deep well. He wants me to become so tired, so impoverished, so utterly defeated that I will sell him my birthright for a pittance before the deadline at Michaelmas. The hunt. I thought if I could just show that I was still part of the county.
Still here. Still fighting. I thought perhaps someone might see. He understood then. The ride on the plow horse was not an act of folly.
It was a flare sent up from a sinking ship. A desperate signal. "I saw, Miss Vance," he said, his voice low and intense. I saw. He rose from the chair and walked to stand before her.
He was much taller than her and he was conscious of the power his physical presence projected. He kept a respectful distance. Your cousin is a fool. He said, but he is a dangerous one. This tactic, this war of attrition is insidious.
But it is not unbeatable. A flicker of something, hope, fear, crossed her face. I have no one to turn to. My father's friends have fallen away. "You have me," he said.
The words were out before he had even consciously formed them. They felt truer than anything he had said all day. "If you will have me. " He was the Duke of Blackwood. His resources were vast. His influence absolute in this part of the country.
He saw the path forward with perfect clarity. My estate manager is the best in the north of England. He will review your ledgers, your tenant agreements. He will find a way to make this land productive. To satisfy the terms of the will.
My lawyers, he continued, the plan forming as he spoke. Will engage with your cousins. They will bury them in paperwork. They will counter every challenge with a dozen of their own. We will fight his war of attrition with an arsenal he cannot hope to match.
She was staring at him. Her lips slightly parted. The exhaustion had been replaced by a stunned, fragile hope. Why? She whispered.
Why would you do this? It was the essential question. He was a man who did nothing without reason, without calculating the advantage. Helping her offered him no material gain. It was a complication, a distraction.