Katherine

"Lady Ellingcort," he spoke softly. He had aged and not well. "Your father told me where I might find you."

"Did he?" I asked angrily.

"I came to tell you, for what it's worth, that I am sorry. Not just for my part in what happened... but for my anger afterward and Gerid and I both taking so much of what was rightfully yours when we sold everything for you. We kept far too much for ourselves, paying ourselves much more than we should have. Grossly so. We thought we had some right to it after how you sacked everyone and us, expecting us to just find new employment. We didn't have any right to it, not after what we allowed and what you went through. I..."

"I don't want to hear it. I don't care. All I want is you gone and to never see your face again! You or anyone else!"

Ben came to stand beside me menacingly and Donovan looked at him. I saw recognition on his face as he took a step back. He swallowed hard, then gave a small nod. "I understand, Lady Ellingcort, of course." He glanced at Ben again. "I understand everything. I... Gerid drank himself to death within the year, sick over your accusations and knowing you were right. Seeing him do it made me sober up, but nothing was ever the same for me again. No amount of money spent would ever fix it, I knew there was nothing for it but finding you and telling you how truly sorry I am. Begging your forgiveness. I know my life can never be good or normal again until you have forgiven me."

"I told you once, I will never forgive you. I will not. I begged you to let me run away, to allow me to get away from him and you laughed at me."

"The night he died, I saved you!" he pleaded. "They wanted to take you and use you like Gabriel never would have allowed before and I stopped them."

"You had no real choice! I was the head of the household and I was paying your wages at that point! You didn't do it to save me, you did it to save yourself!"

"I did do it to save you, Katherine!" he pled. "I swear it on my honor. It never occurred to me that you were the one who would have to sign my payslip, it was only that moment, making sure they did not get their hands on you. Knowing what they would have done without someone to stop them. I protected you that night, not to save myself, but to save you!"

"Tell yourself what you must. My heart is stone for anyone who was there during that time. I do not wish you ill, but I will not forgive you either."

"Then I throw myself on your mercy. If you will not forgive me, spill my blood here and now and end me. I cannot go on knowing that I cannot be forgiven."

"Get off our land," I demanded, turning and walking away from him.

"Lady Ellingcort! There are a dozen people searching for you! Bankers, administrators, land owners! I have not told them where you are or how to find you. I only knew because I read your letter to your father before I posted it. I have told no one."

"You think I have a care for them knowing? Let them come, I will have nothing to say to them."

"There is the matter of his family as well, demanding to know what was done with everything."

"Obviously, I never touched it," I told him patiently, waving my hand at our modest farmstead. "Tell them what you will, I don't have a care."

"All I ask is that you see that I am still protecting you! Forgive me for my past, I have changed!"

"Leave here or I will allow my husband to see you off," I called over my shoulder as I went into the house and let Liz hug me close.

Ben stepped up, hefting the wood axe as if he would love to use it.

Donovan left, his shoulders slumped.

I curled up to cry in Ben's arms after he hurried inside to me. Seeing his face, reliving those days... I had wanted it all behind me.

Months later, a man showed up. A banker. I had an open account that had seen no use in a decade and they needed to know that I was still alive so they wouldn't relegate the account to next of kin. He happened to know there were four more such open accounts in the city and they were trying to track me down as well. He looked supremely confused as his eyes took in our farm.

"I am told he had relatives, split the money evenly between them," I sighed. "Tell the others the same thing."

"Lady Ellingcort... it is quite a sum. It could bring you up out of this..."

"I don't want out of this. 'This' is my happiness. What I don't want is his tainted blood money. Send it all to his family."

The man nodded, still in disbelief, then left.

He was not the last to come, but they were all told the same thing.

Eventually, Gabriel's nephew showed up. Ben chased him off before he stepped out of his carriage.

My peaceful, happy life was being overrun by my past and no matter what I did, it wouldn't stop coming back to haunt me.

I did the only thing I could think of.

The next time someone came to see 'Lady Ellingcort', Ben directed them to a headstone with my name on it. Four more times he did it and finally, they stopped coming. Lady Ellingcort was dead.

Only I was left, Katherine Dunleavey, Ben Dunleavey's wife.