The sun had set by the time the dark green of the Colbourne carriage was seen on the front gravel at Heyrick House. The party that poured out of the carriage was a very happy one, with the girls laughing and sharing memories, and Charlotte and Alexander holding hands and smiling at each other in utter bliss.

Mrs. Wheatley stood on the front step, as she had been watching through the windows for the carriage's arrival. She would not put Xander in the difficult position of hearing the news while Charlotte was still in the house, and she needed to know of their plans for the evening. Eva did know that Charlotte tended to linger before going home, and that Xander generally made it very difficult for her to leave. Eva hoped the wedding would be soon – the two of them were so deeply in love that one never seemed to want to be parted from the other.

Usually this state of affairs gave Eva great joy, because the house was always happier with Charlotte in it. But this evening, there was something gnawing at her soul and she knew that the only way to alleviate the stress of it was to simply get it off of her chest.

She had held the secrets of the estate for far too long in any case. For a time she thought she might be able to take them to her grave and spare Xander more heartache in an already pain-filled life, but the arrival of Miss Lambe and Mr. Arthur Parker on the doorstep this afternoon had turned that into an impossibility. Xander would never forgive her if she did not forewarn him. He was a grown man, and at least he had the strength of his love for Charlotte and hers for him to help him through what was to come.

Miss Lambe may have thought that running into Mrs. Wheatley in town was a happy accident, but it was not. Once Eva had heard that Mr. Sidney Parker had brought Georgiana back to Sanditon with him, she had made it her business to find out as much as she could about the young heiress.

A part of her cursed Sidney for bringing her here and opening up the possibility that the entire story could somehow be brought out into the light of day. But at the same time, Eva understood why he had done it. He had some premonition that it was not healthy for him to be the only one who knew, and that should the worst come to the worst, and anything ever happened to him, others would step in to give Georgiana a real home and family. Sidney had asked to see Eva last year and had said as much. He and Eva had shared Lawrence Lambe's story with no other soul, so the two of them were the only ones still living who knew.

Or so Eva had thought until this afternoon.

Though Sidney had not been present at the origins of the story, he had stumbled upon it in his work in Antigua. It was astonishing to him that he should travel halfway across the world and find people who knew of the tiny seaside town his brother was developing – and as he became acquainted with, and finally a friend to, Lawrence Lambe, he had learned all the details. It was the primary reason that Lambe had entrusted Georgiana to Sidney.

Mrs. Wheatley had learned of Charles Lockhart's schemings through Georgiana, and the fact that Lockhart had come so close to the truth without finally finding it felt like some kind of serendipity. When he left Sanditon and Georgiana stayed, Eva thought they might all take a deep breath.

What Miss Lambe and Mr. Arthur Parker had shared with her in the drawing room was that Georgiana had been told just hours before by Edward Denham that he knew something of her mother and father that might be valuable, and that Alexander would have the information they needed. Eva knew the house of cards had finally come crashing down.

All of those late-night drunken card games that Jonathan Colbourne had shared in London with the young and opportunistic Captain Francis Lennox had clearly not only yielded information about Lucy's loneliness after all. Jonathan must have said more. And Lennox must have told Edward Denham.

Keeping a secret was like nothing so much as trying to capture water in a sieve, Eva thought, sighing.

"And then, Graham and Daniel conspired to put a spoonful of honey into Meggie's bed and when she pulled back the sheets, all the ants crawled out!" Leonora cried, laughing so hard she could hardly manage to speak the words.

"And do not be trying that trick with me, cousin, or there will be worse to pay than what those boys received," said Augusta, unable to stop laughing herself.

In fact, everyone around the kitchen table, sharing a cold dinner of meats, cheese, fresh bread and butter, apples and preserved peaches, was enjoying the stories immensely, including Mrs. Wheatley.

"And Father says we shall get a cow!" Leonora said.

Eva raised her eyebrows at Xander, her eyes twinkling. "It would save us in milk and cheese, but I wonder who you think will be milking it?" she said.

"Augusta!" they all cried out at once, as Leonora collapsed in giggles, and Augusta simply shrugged and nodded proudly.

"Augusta and Leonora proved themselves to be exceptional farm girls," Charlotte said, looking affectionately at each in turn. "My mother remarked a number of times that they were very good helpers."

Eva shook her head, smiling broadly. "Twelve children. Your mother is in line for sainthood, I should think."

Charlotte smiled, "She should be, that is certain. You and she will get along very well, Mrs. Wheatley. You are very much alike."

"From the stories you have all been telling, I shall take that as the highest compliment, Miss Heywood."

Charlotte took her hand. "As we are to be married soon, and I shall be living here, might we call each other by our Christian names? I feel you are more friend than anything else now."

Mrs. Wheatley smiled. "I should like that very much. Charlotte."

"Eva," Charlotte said, smiling and squeezing her hand.

"And when might this wedding be?" Eva said, raising her eyebrows to Xander.

Alexander looked at her somewhat sheepishly and gazed down at his plate, toying with a piece of bread. "We are hoping for the third of June, here at the estate, out by the pond. With a dinner afterwards here in the house."

Eva took a deep breath. "That should be manageable, though it is soon…"

"There is more, Eva," Alexander said, finally meeting her eyes. "The Heywoods will all be joining us for a few days before the wedding, and staying here."

For a moment, Eva was quiet. Then her mind began to work, and she said, "So. At least seven, perhaps ten bedrooms to prepare, new linens and full cleaning, rugs and curtains to beat free of at least a decade's worth of dust, meals to plan and prepare, the dining room silver and all candlesticks polished, linen napkins to sew, new candles to make, fresh flowers in all the rooms, new wash basins… we can hire on some additional housemaids and serving girls from town, the groundskeepers will need to clear the area around the pond…" She was muttering to herself in deep concentration, and she seemed to have forgotten that anyone else was sitting around the table. Finally, she looked up,

Charlotte was looking at her with such consternation that Eva reached out and took her hand again.

"Oh, Eva, this sounds like so much work. Perhaps my family could just come in for the day, or not everyone, or they could stay at the Inn…"

"Not a word of it!" Eva said vociferously. "This old house has needed to come alive for more than twenty years. There has not been a party, or a formal dinner, or even a tea held here in that long, and it has felt like nothing so much as a colossal waste of space!" Now she was nearly laughing. "It will be so good to hear voices in this house again, and music, and laughter." She turned to Alexander. "Dancing?"

He nodded, smiling broadly.

"Good! Dancing. We will need to find musicians."

Yes, there were still painful things to talk about, and there would be some trouble around the corner – but for now, there was joy. And what Eva Wheatley had learned above all else was that one needed to take one's joy where they could find it, and find pleasure when it presented itself.

Leonora had so enjoyed the story that Catherine had read to her for her bedtime at Heywood House, that she asked Charlotte to read one to her before she went to sleep. Exhausted from the long day, Leo was asleep in Charlotte's arms before she had made it through two pages of The Swiss Family Robinson. Closing the book and covering Leonora quietly with the blanket, Charlotte could not resist kissing her tenderly on the cheek and whispering, "Sweet dreams, Leo."

When she stood to go, she saw Alexander in the doorway, and the look on his face was one of such pure love that she smiled at him and went immediately into his arms.

"You are my treasure," he said softly, kissing the top of her head. "And I will be eternally grateful that I was not foolish enough to let you go."

"I do not believe I would have stayed away for long. I could not," she said, her voice muffled in the white linen of his shirt. He had unbuttoned his waistcoat and removed his cravat, and there was a small area of bare skin covered in soft dark brown hairs where her head lay. She breathed deeply at the intimacy of it, and of the now-familiar scent of musky sandalwood that she would forever associate with Alexander.

She felt his heart begin to race under her ear, as hers did the same, and she could tell he was very aware that they were alone, in his house, at night, with Leonora sleeping just feet away from them. This would be their life. But instead of going downstairs and kissing each other goodnight at the carriage, they would walk hand-in-hand to their bedroom just down the hall.

Charlotte took another deep breath and moved away to look up at him. "I should be getting home to Georgiana," she said quietly, though it was clear to both of them that she did not want to.

Alexander leaned down and let his lips graze hers tenderly, closing his eyes and sighing softly. "Yes, you should." For a moment longer, he stayed there, with his lips on her cheek as both of them simply breathed together. So right. It felt so absolutely and completely right to be in each other's arms with a sleeping child nearby, in the quiet of the great house.

Finally, Alexander took her hand and said, "There is something I wish to show you first."

He walked her down the long hall toward the schoolroom and stopped at the telescope. "I promised you I would show you Cassiopeia," he said softly. He gazed out of the window first to see where it was, and then moved the telescope slightly. "It is one of the constellations that is always visible from England," he said, peering into the eyepiece. "Best seen through the darker, longer nights of winter, but still can be seen now."

Charlotte watched him, admiring his economy of motion and the graceful way he did everything. She looked out of the window at the stars and said, "Many people think that the constellations were discovered, when in truth, they were invented. The stars have always been there, we humans simply needed to arrange them in such a way that we could find them again and get our bearings. So we made them into warriors and queens and gods…"

Alexander looked up and smiled. "And archers…"

Charlotte realized they had never talked about that day, and she shook her head lightly. "You must know that I missed that shot because I was so awfully nervous about being the reason you would lose…"

He laughed softly and put his arm around her. "I worked it through later, but when Lennox said he was glad to have you on his side, I would have been well-pleased to turn my bow in his direction and let loose an arrow of my own," Alexander said. He kissed her forehead and said, "I should never have put you in that position. I was so angry because I was furious with myself for doing it." He pulled away and looked directly into her eyes. "You were right to chastise me and tell me I did not own you. I fell in love with that fire in you – your courage and independence, the way you wouldn't stand down even when I was bullying you." He pulled her tightly into an embrace. "I hope you will someday understand how new and bewildering it was to finally be in love. It was something I had not envisioned for myself since… since Lucy. And the paradox is that now I have found you, I know that I was never in love with her at all."

"I do understand," Charlotte said. "I told you that I had suffered heartache and betrayal, and I also believed that what I felt was love. When I told you that I could never have such tender feelings for someone who showed me so little respect…"

"I roundly deserved that…" Alexander said, sighing.

"Yes, you did," Charlotte said, looking up at him, "But it wasn't only you I was speaking of. And I now know that the greater part of that chastisement was meant for someone who no longer can hear it."

"Sidney Parker?" Alexander asked softly.

Charlotte's face registered surprise and then she nodded. "Yes. How have you heard of him?"

Alexander exhaled and looked back out of the window. "Remember that I have lived here for much longer than the Parker brothers have been working to turn Sanditon into a resort. I was not entirely welcoming of their efforts, and I fear I may have been somewhat rude in expressing those opinions."

Charlotte smiled and raised an eyebrow. "I can only imagine…" she said cheekily.

Alexander laughed and leaned down to kiss her. "I have decided that I shall kiss you every time you are impertinent, and thus I shall never want for kisses…" he said, leaning her back and making her dizzy with the heartfelt and deep connection of his lips to hers.

"As I was saying…" he said, taking a moment to catch his own breath, "Sidney came here after Tom Parker was unsuccessful in his pleas that I assist him both financially and socially in making Sanditon a resort destination. I am not certain why he would think my answer would be changed, but if you will pardon me, I did get the impression that Sidney was fairly certain of his own charm."

Charlotte had to laugh. "You were not wrong. Sidney had great confidence in his ability to sway people."

Alexander turned to her, his face open. "You just said that you thought it was love – your feeling for Sidney. Was it? Love?"

Smiling, Charlotte said, "You have just come from the only home I had ever known before Sanditon. I came here with Tom and Mary Parker directly from our farm and this world was unlike any I had ever seen, except what I had read about in books. Sidney was a mystery even to his own brothers, and his charisma was undeniable. You speak of bullying, and he was a terrible bully to me for most of the summer season I was here when he was alive."

Alexander still held his arm around her tightly, and though he wanted to speak, he stayed silent, because he wanted more to hear the full story.

"I once apologized to him because I felt I had injured him and I told him I did not want him to think badly of me. His answer was that he did not think of me at all." Charlotte looked away and took a deep breath, and Alexander could see that the sting of that barb was still there.

"I should not make you speak of this. I apologize if it causes you pain."

"No," Charlotte said quickly. "I need to put this into some perspective. As you have just remarked about Lucy, our perception of love can change with experience. I believe I was a young, unsophisticated girl who was mesmerized by someone mysterious. And Sidney was suffering from a broken heart, so I suppose I naively imagined myself to be the one who could heal it."

"And did you?" Alexander asked softly, pulling her more closely to him.

"Do you remember the fire that tore through Sanditon town last year?" Charlotte asked.

"Yes," Alexander said, "We could see it from this very window."

"Tom had no insurance on the lost buildings and he was buried in debt. There was no hope for procuring the funds and Sidney left for London to find new investors."

Charlotte paused and then continued. "He found one. Mrs. Eliza Campion, the woman who had broken his heart and was now an exceedingly wealthy widow. She offered to cover the debts in exchange for his promise as her husband."

Alexander frowned. "And he complied?"

"Yes, and then he came back to Sanditon and told me that he had hoped to give me an offer of marriage, but of course that would now be impossible. He died from yellow fever in Antigua at the end of last year."

Unable to keep from doing it, Alexander pulled Charlotte into an embrace. "I am so very sorry. And of course my betrayal was yet another blow. It is no wonder that you determined not to marry and to be responsible for your own happiness. You were badly treated by both of us."

Charlotte looked up at him and put her hand on his cheek. "No, you must know that I do not place you in the same category with him. Although I still do not know exactly what it was that made you think I would be better off without you, you acted out of fear and out of love for me." Charlotte's eyes grew hard, like steel. "I have come to believe that Sidney had never stopped loving Mrs. Campion, and that marriage to her was what he had hoped for all along."

Alexander put his hands on Charlotte's shoulders and looked deeply into her eyes. "It is time we talked of this. That day, when Leonora went missing, I went back to thank Lennox for his part in not confusing Leonora further, and for saying that I was her father. I hoped that by offering an olive branch to him we could put this business completely behind us. And in truth, I was so filled with love for you that I felt quite invulnerable. That was my grave error." Alexander swallowed hard, and continued. "I have never been able to fully convince myself that I played no part in Lucy choosing Lennox to share her bed." Alexander sighed. "I did not love her, Charlotte. And I only realized that fact fully after we were married." He looked at her and frowned. "I want to speak frankly here, but I do not want to offend or cause you discomfort."

Charlotte smiled at him with love in her eyes. "I am innocent, Alexander, but I am not uneducated. And I have read more romantic stories than you can imagine. I know the way of the world and how men and women relate to each other. I can assure you there is nothing you can say that would cause me discomfort."

Alexander nodded and then gazed out of the window at the stars. "My father was not a good man. Eva has told me that he managed to keep his desires in check when my mother still lived, but after she died he was profligate and unrestrained in his relations with women, even when we were children and even here at the house. I swore to myself as I grew older that I would never be like him, that my respect for women would always include love of the deepest kind. So as I came to the understanding, too late, that Lucy and I did not share that kind of love, it became more and more difficult for me to pretend. I had duties as a husband, and I fulfilled them, but when my father died and I had the responsibility of rectifying the disrepair of the estate, I was… relieved… to come here while Lucy stayed in London."

He looked at her to gauge her reaction and Charlotte could see the shame in his eyes. She smiled her understanding and nodded for him to continue.

"That day, Lennox told me that he could see you were in love with me. I did not tell him that I had fallen deeply in love with you as well, but he asked me how I could be sure that I would not disappoint you in the same way I had disappointed Lucy." Alexander released a heavy sigh. "God knows what she told him, but she would be correct in saying I was not an overly … ardent lover with her. Somehow he knew that I felt I had shared the blame for her infidelity for all of these years, and he went directly to the jugular." He looked at Charlotte with tears in his eyes. "And I bled. I rode Hannibal out to the sand and I bled." Alexander's voice caught in his throat, and Charlotte put her arms around him.

She spoke softly, but with no hurt in her voice, "And you worried that the same thing might happen with me as had happened with Lucy? That you might not… want me?"

Alexander pulled away sharply and spoke passionately. "No, never. I spend my days and nights trying to restrain myself from thinking about how much I want you. I never for a minute felt this for Lucy, never for a second had the connection to her, emotionally, physically, that I feel every moment for you. This passion has been one of the remarkable surprises of every kiss you and I share, of how I feel when I even hear your voice or know that I am soon going to see you. I felt it across Lady Denham's garden. You take my breath away, Charlotte."

Charlotte ran her fingers through the curl that fell down over his forehead. "It is the same for me."

Alexander continued. "When I rode Hannibal out onto the beach, I spent long hours thinking about how complicated human relations are, and the fact that you and I had only known each other for three months. I had a vision that if you were no longer the governess of the house, that you and I could find our way together as a man and a woman, uncompromised by my being your employer. You were the one who said I paid your wages but I did not own you, and I thought if I removed that relationship…"

Alexander sighed. "I made a terrible mess of it. My thoughts steadfastly refused to organize themselves into coherent sentences. It was too important, too devastatingly important…"

Charlotte smiled at him, tears in her own eyes. "And your arrow missed the target. Not because it mattered too little, but because it mattered too much."

"Yes!" he said, putting his arms around her and holding her tightly. "Yes. And then I tried to fix it and I could not. The house misses you," he said with rancor in his voice, "No! I missed you, completely, irrevocably, from the moment you closed the door on my office, I knew there would be a chasm that could never be filled – there was already a gaping hole in my heart and no matter what I did, what I said, it would never mend until I held you in my arms again. And then… there you were on the cliffs, as I had dreamed of you so many times, and I opened my arms and you stepped into them and the hole closed…" Alexander was now so overcome that he could no longer speak, and he held Charlotte close to his heart, as if she might fly away if he let go.

"I'm here, my love. And I will always be here," she said, softly.

And if Charlotte had any questions still remaining about the ardency of his love for her or the passion he felt holding her in his arms, Alexander's kiss answered them – long and tender, and from a place so deep inside him that they both lost sense of where they were for a time. The telescope sat unused, Cassiopeia unseen in the heavens, and Eva Wheatley unnoticed, until her voice was heard softly asking up the stairwell as to whether the coach driver should be let go for the night.

Alexander drew Charlotte's head to his chest as he called back softly that they would be right down. He knew he would have to let her go for this night, but that on one night very soon, he would have Charlotte held in his arms all night long, and that he would finally discover the true passion born of love.

When Xander came in from sending Charlotte off in the carriage with one last kiss and a promise to meet tomorrow, he found Eva in the kitchen with two small snifters of brandy in front of her.

This was such an uncommon sight that he was tempted to laugh, but her countenance did not indicate that as an appropriate response. "Close the door behind you, please, Xander. I would say that we should talk in the drawing room, but we both know that the walls have ears in there. I can assure you that my kitchen is safe with all the doors closed."

Alexander frowned. "What is this about, Eva? What has happened?" He looked at the brandy and said, "You know I seldom drink. Nor do you."

"You may want one tonight, Xander," she said tenderly. "Please sit down."

Doing as he was told, Alexander said, "I must admit you are frightening me a bit, Eva, and I must ask, will what you have to tell me affect my relationship with Charlotte or with the girls? That is foremost in my mind and heart right now, and my greatest fear."

Eva shook her head, to his great relief. "No, this is nothing you have done. And Charlotte and the girls should not be affected, though others will be."

Alexander settled into his chair and leaned back. "Very well. I am listening."

Eva apprised him of the visitors she had received earlier in the day, and of their request.

Frowning, Alexander said, "How can I possibly be involved in Georgiana's parentage? I have never even been to Antigua."

Eva looked down at her hands on the table. "Your first question will be why I have not told you this sooner, and it is a valid one. But I have never wanted to cause you boys more pain than your father had already inflicted on you. I even thought it might never be necessary for you to know, but that possibility disappeared this afternoon. You are grown men now and understand the world better than you did as children."

Alexander's impatience was rising. "Eva. Enough preamble. What is it?"

Eva raised an eyebrow. "I will not be hurried, Xander. This is too important. Curb your tongue and listen."

Sighing and feeling again just exactly like a ten-year-old child, Alexander went silent.

"Your father did not start out as a bad man, though I'll grant you he was one by the time he died. He loved your mother too dearly, if he had a great fault, to the point that when she died giving Samuel life, the man Jonathan was went with her to the grave.

"Abigail despised that he kept slaves, but she had no power over the estate, and instead made it her mission to be certain they, we, were comfortable and cared for, and received medical treatment, clothing, and household items when they were needed. Many of us could have been free, as slavery was illegal here by that time, but we had been slaves on the plantations in the colonies, and it was all we knew. And then, Abigail took such care of us, that we knew a life away from Heyrick Park would be that much harder."

"I was brought into the household as cook, so I was here when your mother lost her life." Eva swallowed hard and continued. "Samuel was a breech birth, turned feet down, and when the doctor saved him but lost Abigail, I became his nurse. The Master would not even admit that your brother had been born, and he retreated to the East Wing and his study there, not showing himself for weeks on end. His friends tried everything, but he would not be moved off of the bottle and out of his misery, until finally all stopped coming to the house and we shut down the life of Heyrick Park."

"His grief turned him cruel, especially to you boys. He felt it was your fault that he lost Mrs. Colbourne, and though I tried gently to sway him, I was afraid that his anger would cause him to move me from the house and I would not then be able to care for you boys at all, so I stayed silent. I kept you from beatings as much as I could, though when your father hired a governess who agreed that the belt was the only way to tame a child, there was little I could do." A tear slipped from Eva's eye, and Alexander moved closer, taking her hand in his.

"We know how you protected us, Eva. We both know."

She collected herself and took a deep breath. "There was a beautiful girl, Sarah Kingsley, who Jonathan brought here from an auction in the Caribbean, on the island of St. John, along with others, when you were nearly ten, do you remember?"

Alexander narrowed his eyes slightly and frowned, thinking. "I do remember a Sarah. She was very kind to me, but then she was gone. I do not recall when…"

"She had lost her parents and a brother, and we made ourselves her family." Her face hardened again. "As you know all too well, your father began to drink to excess after your mother died, something he had never done before, and he looked for comfort in the beds of the slaves on the estate, whether they wanted it or not…" Mrs. Wheatley's voice went hard and she looked off beyond the kitchen windows. "The Master could not resist Sarah – especially when he had been drinking, and he would force himself on her…" Eva turned and looked at Alexander, and she could see that his eyes were filled with pain. She took his hand firmly in hers and said, "The sins of the father are not visited on the sons, Xander. You did not do this."

A realization was beginning to form in Alexander's head – one he could not yet name, but connections were forming as Eva continued.

Eva could see that Xander was beginning to understand, so she hurried through the rest. "There was a young accountant who kept the books, as Jonathan was unable, and his duties meant he also managed the costs and upkeep of the stables, the grounds and the slave quarters. He got to know Sarah there, and over time, they fell in love. Sarah did not want to tell him about the Master's treatment of her for fear of what he would do, so she stayed silent, until… she found she was with child."

Alexander put his head in his hands on the kitchen table. He was shaking it back and forth, wanting to erase what he knew was coming next.

Eva continued. "To his credit, the accountant kept his head when she told him, and while the Master was drunk, convinced him to sign over a plantation on Antigua that had long not been turning a profit. He and Sarah left the next day for the islands."

Alexander was nearly holding his breath as he asked the question, but in his heart he already knew the answer. "And the accountant's name was…?"

"Laurence Lambe," Eva said, nodding.

"Georgiana's father," Alexander whispered. "Which makes Georgiana…"

"Your half-sister," Eva said softly.

"There is one other thing," Eva said. "It relates to Mr. Sidney Parker. While in Antigua, he and Mr. Lambe became friends through business, but they soon discovered their mutual connection to Sanditon. That is why Mr. Parker brought Miss Lambe here. Mr. Lambe hoped not only to introduce her to what was her mother's last home before moving back to the islands, but also for her to become acquainted with her half-brother so that she would have family."

"And why did Sidney never do that?" Alexander asked.

"He came here while you were in London on business, and asked to speak with me. It seems Lawrence had told Mr. Parker about me and that I could be trusted with secrets. He asked for my confidence and I kept it. He told me that he would return and speak with you when the time was right. The next I heard of him was that he had contracted yellow fever and had died."

"I sought out Miss Lambe in town when she first arrived to see how she fared and we have become friends. She told me of Charles Lockhart and his attempt to claim her fortune. Because Lockhart is legally related to Lawrence Lambe as his nephew, should he find out that Lawrence was not Georgiana's father by blood, all of her money will be forfeit to Lockhart. As far as I know he does not know, but it is highly likely that Edward Denham is planning to blackmail Georgiana with that threat."

"How on God's earth did Denham come into possession of this information?" Alexander said angrily.

Eva took a deep breath. "Take a sip of your brandy, Xander. I will join you." She lifted her glass and waited for him to do the same. Then both took a long sip.

"Tell me," he said, his voice barely controlled.

"Your father would play cards in a gentleman's club in London, and he was known to drink to excess as the night wore on. The more he drank, the more his tongue loosened. One of the men he played cards with regularly was a Captain in the Army. Francis Lennox."

For a moment, Alexander did not move. He was literally paralyzed with anger. Then he raised the glass in his hand and brought it down on the kitchen table with such force that it shattered, sending bits of broken glass into the washbasin and one large piece into his hand. Eva quickly stopped the bleeding and wrapped it, but it would be a scar that he would carry with him for the rest of his life.