"Someone help me get justice! Finn Acevedo married me six years ago in a proper ceremony. I bore him a daughter! He promised to bring me back within three years and make me his lady. But now that he's the Marquess, he left me and my child in the countryside eating weeds! Is that something a human being does?!"
The manor sat on a busy street. The commotion drew neighbors from every direction, and whispers rippled through the growing crowd.
"They say the Marquess is famously devoted to his wife. He's got two children with her and won't even take a concubine. So where did THIS wife come from?"
"Probably a fraud. I mean, look at her. The Eastholm Marquess Manor is high society. She claims to be his wife, but she looks like a beggar off the road. Bet she's just some grifter trying to latch onto a noble house."
I listened without a flicker of emotion, then reached into the bundle I'd brought and pulled out a marriage certificate.
"Take a good look. This is Finn Acevedo's own handwriting. If he refuses to acknowledge me as his wife, I'll take this certificate straight to the courthouse and beat the drum for justice."
The head steward, lurking in the shadows, caught a glimpse of the handwriting on the certificate from a distance. His brow furrowed.
He leaned toward the gate guard. "Stay here and watch her. I'm going in to inform the Marquess and the lady of the house."
I saw every bit of it.
Sure enough, before a quarter hour had passed, Finn Acevedo came striding out of the manor, and right behind him, draped in gold and silver, was Edith Henson.
The steward pointed at me. "My lord, this woman claims to be your wife. If she's a fraud, I'll have her thrown out at once."
Finn looked down at me from the top of the steps. "Lift your head."
I tilted my chin up slowly, the ghost of a smile on my lips.
The moment he saw my face, every drop of color drained from his.
"Narelle, is it really you? What are you doing here?"
He strode over and lowered his voice to a hiss.
"If you wanted to see me, you could have sent word through the servants. Why make a scene in front of everyone?"
"Besides, I told you in my letters not to come back on your own. When the time was right, I would have sent someone to bring you."
I held my daughter tight and stared at him in cold silence.
Five years apart, and Finn looked even more handsome than before. Younger, somehow.