Chapter 21

Chapter Twenty-One

" W ell, I can't quite believe that he actually left," Lady Carfield admitted, breaking the shocked silence in the solicitor's office. "I was expecting him to put up a fight for a while longer."

"Even the most vicious predator will know when he's defeated," Mr. Hargrove said, although his voice shook slightly as he spoke. "In truth, I thought he would last longer. But something you said to him, Your Grace, seemed to finally beat him into submission…"

The solicitor was looking admiringly at Phineas, who smiled vaguely at him. His own thoughts were muddled, and he felt lightheaded and dizzy. He'd said everything he wanted to say to Lord Carfield, but he still felt thrown from the conversation. After all, he hadn't expected the Viscount to be here.

He'd come to Mr. Hargrove's office to try and discover what legal actions he could take against the Viscount without involving his wife or any other members of her family. He'd been shocked when he'd arrived at the office, only to be told by the secretary that Her Grace and Lord Carfield were inside.

It had terrified him, to think of Iris and her father in the same room, and he had rushed inside half-expecting to find Lord Carfield pointing a pistol at her.

But no, Iris was safe, and Lord Carfield was gone. He wasn't just gone—there had been something in his eyes, when Phineas had begun speaking of his parents, that he hadn't seen on the Viscount's face since he was very small and used to watch him and the late Duke and Duchess late at night, laughing together in the drawing room.

Is it possible that he feels regret? Or at least remorse?

It wouldn't stop Phineas from pursuing justice against him, but it was heartening to think that Lord Carfield could feel remorse and that he might have a chance at redemption—at least, redemption of his soul. As far as Phineas was concerned, the Viscount would never earn redemption from him or Iris.

Iris .

The word rushed through Phineas like the first hint of spring. Like dawn after a dark and stormy night. Like music after a lifetime of silence.

Where is she?

Phineas turned, and his eyes fell on his wife. She was still standing where she had been near Mr. Hargrove's desk, her back pressed against it, a nervous expression on her face. She was watching him, and as he looked at her, she colored slightly.

"Iris," he murmured, "my beautiful, brilliant wife. How did you figure it all out? How did you find a way to bring your father down?"

Iris blushed even more deeply. "The credit is not all mine…" she began.

Lady Carfield snorted in a most undignified manner. "Don't listen to my daughter's attempt at modesty, Your Grace," she said. "It is all her doing."

"Well…" Iris smiled. "I did discover who it was who had been passing information to my father about us. It was my lady's maid, Anna."

Phineas turned in surprise to look at his wife's maid. Until that moment, he had barely noticed the girl. She had kept to the corner, her head down during the whole interaction with Lord Carfield. Now, she looked up, and her eyes brimmed with tears.

"I'm s-so sorry, Your Grace," she whispered, staring at him beseechingly. "I r-regret it ever so much."

Before Phineas could say anything, or even ascertain his own emotions correctly, Iris cut in. "You mustn't be cross with her, Phineas. My father had threatened to kill her brother if she didn't comply. She was scared, and there were many times she almost came to me with the truth."

Phineas forced himself to take a deep breath. As much as his instinct was to rage at the maid for putting his wife's life in danger, he respected that Iris knew best in this situation.

"Anyway," Iris continued, "once I realized who was passing Father the information, I knew we were safe to find a way to get back the evidence he stole. So we decided to steal back the documents…"

Then she explained briefly everything that had happened since then, first with her going to her father, then Anna explaining the plan to Violet, Violet's stealing of the documents, and finally Anna bringing the letters back.

"As much as I don't approve of young ladies putting their lives at risk," Phineas said when she was done, "I must commend you for your bravery and cleverness. Thanks to all of you, Anna included, Carfield will actually see the inside of a prison."

"Do you really think so, Your Grace?" Lady Carfield asked. She glanced at Mr. Hargrove as well. "Will these documents really be legal and binding? Will a judge believe us?"

"Undoubtedly," Mr. Hargrove replied at once. "Lord Carfield's threats were hollow. These documents are ironclad. And with the backing of His Grace, I am confident that we will be successful."

"That's wonderful." Lady Carfield beamed. Then her expression clouded. "And my complicity?"

"We will have to wait and see," Mr. Hargrove said with diplomatic grace. "But we will strive to prove that you were a victim of Lord Carfield, not his collaborator."

"Thank you, Mr. Hargrove," Iris said warmly. She then turned back to Phineas and smiled nervously. "Violet also found letters showing that my father forged the report stating the mines are safe. So we can shut down the mine and ensure it doesn't simply pass down to my father's next male heir."

"I am glad to hear that." Phineas smiled. "Although once we prove the bill of sale was forged, I hope to get back my lands anyway. And then we can make all the improvements we want to the mines."

"We?"

He could hear the hope in her voice, and it broke his heart. He had given her so many reasons to doubt him, and yet still, she had hope.

"Yes," Phineas murmured. "We." He then laughed. "I can't believe it was your lady's maid the whole time. More than that, I am astonished that James was right… I'll never live this down. He really will begin to think of himself as the cleverest man in England."

"James suspected Anna?" Iris asked, marveling.

"Not Anna specifically, but a servant. He never… he never believed that you would betray me."

Iris studied him for a long moment. "And what do you believe?" she asked at last. "What you said to my father about how I'd made you feel you could trust again. Was that true?"

"Yes," he said simply. "It was."

"But…" Iris worried her bottom lip. "At Eavestone House, you accused me of spying on you for my father. You didn't believe me, no matter what I said…"

Tears were filling her beautiful eyes, and Phineas wanted to reach down and wipe them away. He wanted to do much more than that if he were being honest. He wanted to take her in his arms right then and there and kiss her. But he couldn't do that until he had done right by her.

"Iris," he said very seriously, "I cannot apologize to you enough for what I said at Eavestone House. I was out of my mind with anger and pain, and I did not mean those terrible things I said. Even as I said them, some part of me knew I couldn't possibly believe you would betray me, but I felt so twisted up and confused inside…" he trailed off.

He was going about all this the wrong way. He had to be honest with Iris if he was truly going to win her back.

"I was terrified," he admitted, and behind him, he thought he saw Mr. Hargrove do a double take. The fearsome Duke of Eavestone did not readily admit to fear. "I was afraid that you might have been killed."

Iris blinked, and her mouth hung open slightly. "Why were you afraid of that?" she asked, baffled.

Phineas shook his head. "I kept thinking that if those vagrants had come even a little earlier, or if you had returned early from your outing, you might have tried to stop them. And then… who knows what they might have done? Perhaps Carfield had told them not to harm you, but men like that always give in to their basest, most violent instincts. And even if they hadn't meant to kill you, something could have gone wrong, and then you might have been taken from me…"

His voice cracked, and he had to clear his throat before continuing. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Mr. Hargrove and Lady Carfield exchange awkward glances, but he didn't care.

"And then there was the possibility that your father wanted them to kill you," he continued when he had composed himself. "He's killed people he loved before. Would it really be such a surprise if he were to do it again?"

"I had the same thought earlier," Iris whispered. "That he might kill Mother, or Violet, or Rosalie."

"And when it hit me that you might have died, a deep, instinctual need to protect you kicked in. And to protect myself, I think. I had to distance myself from you, to keep myself from feeling the pain of your death. That's why I pushed you away. And I think I also thought, unconsciously, that if Carfield believed I didn't care for you, he might not harm you. You heard him earlier—he was jealous of my parents. He wanted to take away from them what he himself didn't have. And you and I also have something he never had—a happy marriage."

"We do?" Iris's lip was quivering now, and it was the most adorable thing Phineas had seen in his entire life.

"Of course we do," he murmured, and he reached up and touched her cheek very lightly. The feel of her soft skin sent a current of warmth through him. "We have the happiest marriage of any couple since my parents. I swear to you, I did not mean the terrible things I said. They were just me trying to protect both of us from Carfield."

"And you really didn't know what you were doing?"

Phineas shook his head. "James had to point it out to me." He frowned and released her. "Perhaps he really is as clever as he thinks he is. But I'm glad he did because if it weren't for him, I might still be stuck in my head, believing you are capable of such things."

"I did all of this to show you that I was trustworthy," Iris admitted, indicating the room at large. "I thought that by bringing down my father, I could prove to you that I hadn't been on his side."

"I'm glad we took your father down for your own safety," Phineas said, "but you didn't need to do anything to prove your innocence to me. It was on me to realize that there was no validity to my accusations, that you could never be guilty of treachery. I behaved like a fool, Iris, and I only hope that you can forgive me."

She opened her mouth to speak, but he shushed her.

"You don't need to forgive me right away," he said softly. "But I promise you that, if you allow me, I will spend every day for the rest of our lives trying to make it up to you and prove my undying loyalty and love."

"Love?" Iris whispered. She was smiling up at him with the most brilliant radiance he had ever seen. "You still love me?"

"I never stopped loving you," he whispered, and his heart felt as if it were about to burst out of his chest. He had never meant anything more in all his days. "And I will spend my life proving it with my actions. And I will keep proving it until my dying breath. If you will have me, of course."

"Of course, I will have you," she breathed. "You are everything I hoped for, Phineas. Everything I fought and suffered for. There's nothing and no one I want as much as you."

And then, propriety be damned, Phineas leaned down, took his wife in his arms, and kissed her for all the world to see.