The Earl

For Respect to flourish, however, Equality must first exist. I ask you: How can a man with a single slice of bread look upon a rich man’s feast day after day, yet not come to resent him for that bounty? And how can a feasting lord look upon a pauper’s crust and not feel contempt, even judge that pauper deficient in some manner? Is not a well-fed man a happier man, and a better contributor to Society? Is not an equal sharing of resources a pathway toward equal respect?

Their hearts are equally as full of courage and good as ours, and they need us to champion their causes.

She was all need, all love, and all his

You are my hero, Emily Vale. You always were. I want you in my life, every day, every night, every moment. I understand that you cannot abide the institution of marriage. If you must stand by that, then I will accept it. I won’t like it, but I will accept it if you will be with me. If I were required to give up speaking in order to be with you, I would do so.” His heart was in his eyes, thoroughly open. “Give me another chance, I beg of you.”

“You cannot give up speaking.” Her voice shook. “I heard about your speech to the Lords today.”

“You gave me the words. You needn’t fight alone any longer. Let me fight with you.”

“The writing box, the two woods, they are from our trees, aren’t they?”

“A bit green still. The artist nearly refused to make it. But I promised him that if this one cracks he can make another once the woods have matured.” He smiled crookedly. “That seemed symbolically appropriate.”

Her chest felt too full to contain all the feelings. “You are not asking me to marry you now because you made extraordinarily decadent love to me and you feel honor bound?”

“No.” A wicked gleam lit the midnight blue. “Although certainly the prospect of making

The final quarter of you, however,” he said, “are correct. I am in fact smitten—smitten with a woman who has taught me that my duty to England—my duty to this kingdom that I love—is first and foremost to the least of my fellow citizens and then, only after that, to you gentlemen here. If this kingdom were ruled by the people who most fervently love every personin it, she would be standing here instead of many of us.”

“He was a great man.”

“A great man is not measured by the strength of his pedigree, but by the depth of his heart.

“You cared. You were the only person alive who cared about me like that, Emily—with affection and joy. You were just a little girl,” he said upon an exhalation of laughter, “yet you were my lifeline . . . to life. Afterward, after it changed, I worked hard to forget that, to pretend that was not true. I was terrified of going back. I was finally what I was expected to be, what I wanted to be, and I wanted to forget everything that had come before, all the weakness and dependence and shame. But every time I saw you, that was impossible. I would remember it all as though I were reliving it. On all those holidays when I did not speak to you, it was not because I did not wish to speak to you. It was because I could not.”

“I was careless and I should not have gone to the cliffs that day.”

“I am doing it for her,” she blurted out and felt as though every last piece of her heart were lying on the ground before him. “And for women like her.”

He frowned. “Her?”

“Because of what he did to her, sending her away.” Tears rose in her throat. She swallowed them back. “No man should be able to separate a mother from her child. No man. Not even a great lord.”

Understanding rolled into his eyes like thunder, and then, swiftly, disbelief.

“You cannot possibly remember my mother,” he said in an entirely altered tone. “You were too young.”

“Too young to know her.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Colin, you are the reason for this.” Her voice was shaking. “I became Lady Justice because of you.”

“You don’t happen to have a pair of spectacles too, do you?” she whispered.

“Can’t you see?”

Not well at this distance in this light. But somewhere out there two men were pointing pistols at Colin. If need be, she could fly.