HER SECRET HEIRS: TEN BROTHERS STAND GUARD

Chapter 10 The Man at the Gate Comes Back

Evelyn's POV

I was in Aunt Mirabel's kitchen helping Moses make breakfast when I heard the car pull up outside.

Moses heard it too. He turned down the heat on the stove and went to the window without making a sound. He looked out for a moment, then turned to me with a calm face that said "do not panic" before anything else did.

"Richard is here," he said.

My spoon fell on the floor.

Matthew appeared in the kitchen doorway. "Benjamin is already at the gate."

I walked to the front room and looked through the narrow window beside Aunt Mirabel's door. Richard's car was parked on the road outside. He was standing on the pavement in a dark coat, and beside him, in a wheelchair being pushed by his driver, was Elizabeth, his grandmother.

She was wrapped in a thick shawl, and even from this distance I could see how frail she looked. Smaller than I remembered. Her white hair was pinned up neatly, and she held something in her lap with both hands.

Benjamin was at the gate with his arms crossed. Franklin stood one step behind him and neither of them moved.

Richard said something. I could not hear the words through the glass, but I could read the shape of his shoulders. He was not here to fight. He was too still for that.

Elizabeth's voice was louder. She was old, but her voice had never been small. "Benjamin Valentine," she called out clearly, "I am not here to cause harm to your sister. I am here because I love her, and I am dying, and I would like to see her before I run out of time."

The words pressed against the inside of my chest like something physical.

Matthew appeared beside me. "You do not have to go out," he said.

"I know," I said.

I went anyway.

I opened the door and walked down the path toward the gate. Benjamin saw me coming and his expression shifted, just for a second, before he stepped aside without arguing.

Richard saw me at the same moment. He did not move toward me. He stayed exactly where he was, holding an umbrella over Elizabeth's wheelchair because it had started to rain without me noticing.

Elizabeth looked up when I reached the gate. Her eyes were the same as I remembered, sharp and warm at the same time, like a fire that knew how to behave itself.

"Evelyn," she said, and there was so much inside that one word that I had to hold the gate post to stay steady.

"Grandma Elizabeth," I replied.

Richard's jaw moved, but he did not speak.

Elizabeth reached into the pocket of her coat and drew out a folded envelope. The paper was thick and old, with creases where it had been opened and refolded many times. She held it up, and her hand trembled slightly with the effort.

"I have been carrying this for three years," she said. "I could not find the right moment to give it to you. I told myself to wait until you were ready, but I waited too long, and now you are standing on the other side of this gate, and I am running out of time."

I looked at the envelope. My name was not written on it. It was addressed to Elizabeth Graham, Harlow City.

"What is it?" I asked.

"A letter," Elizabeth said. "From your mother. Sarah Valentine wrote it to me before she died. She knew who you were, Evelyn. She knew you were somewhere in this city. She asked me to watch over you."

The rain fell softly around us. Richard had not lowered the umbrella. He just stood there in the rain himself, making sure it stayed over his grandmother.

Benjamin moved close behind me. I could feel his presence without turning around.

I reached through the gate and took the envelope from Elizabeth's shaking hand. The paper was soft from years of being handled, and the seal had been broken and closed again more than once.

I looked at Richard then, for the first time since I walked away from his house with my suitcase.

He did not look like the man who had handed me annulment papers with a pen set neatly beside them. He looked like someone who had not slept, and who had something lodged in the center of his chest that he did not know how to remove.

He opened his mouth.

I turned around and walked back to the house before he could say anything.

Behind me, I heard Benjamin's voice, low and final. "She will read the letter. When she is ready to speak to you, she will reach out but you have to give her time to process everything that just happened right now."

I did not hear Richard's response because I was already close to the door.

I sat down at Aunt Mirabel's kitchen table with the envelope in both hands. Moses set a cup of tea beside me without a word and went back to the stove. Aunt Mirabel came and sat across from me.

I looked at the handwriting on the front. Elizabeth Graham. The letters were slanted and neat like the writing of someone who chose each word carefully.

My mother had written this.

I pressed the envelope flat against the table and breathed.

Then I opened it.