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“You willful brat! I can’t wait till I’m permanently rid of you. I don’t know how I ever stood a moment with you. All these months of wooing have been sickening.”

“Then why do it?” Grace spat.

“For years, I’ve paced in that shed-sized house onsomeone else’sproperty. My family once had a manor and land. When myfather died, it should have been mine! But no, I was a boy with nothing to offer the mayor. So he threw me from my home.

“I knew if I could remove the mayor’s greatest threat, then… then he’d finally see what I’m capable of. Marrying you was the price of gaining what I deserved. You need someone to keep a leash on you. Or dispose of you.” He laughed.

For a moment, a sliver of a moment, Grace had felt pity for the man. To lose parents and a home all at once. Grace felt such a loss with acuteness. But James was not a man to be pitied. He’d had a choice, and he’d chosen to become vicious and repugnant.

“You’re vile,” Grace spat.

“Careful, girl. You’re talking to the next sheriff. Or maybe mayor.” His eyes went wild. “Fidara needs a leader who ends problems with speed. Nautin is a useless, mad relic.”

Grace lashed out at James. “I’ll never let that happen.”

He began to laugh, a deep, blood-curdling laugh. “How will you stop me? You’ll be dead. Now move!”

He pulled her violently from the floor, yanking her after him.

Chapter 27

Grace struggled the whole way out of her house and up the cobbled path.

The mayor was yelling at Sheriff Clairmont, pointing at Garrick. Garrick’s father stared murderously at his son, but she saw he also directed his fury at the mayor, and then at James when he came close enough.

“Mr. Patton. Call the citizens,” the mayor said. “There will be a hanging, immediately.”

“In the middle of the night?” a patrolman questioned, then studied his feet in stiff fear as the mayor glared at him.

“Now!”

James called a patrolman down and passed Grace and the knife to him, then he marched off toward the town caller’s home.

The patrolman dragged Grace up to the platform to stand beside Garrick. She looked at him to find him staring sadly at her.

The town caller darted through the town as fast as he could go.

The nobles exited their homes within minutes, coats pulled tight around themselves, staring at the five figures on the hangman’s platform. Whispers started, mostly concerning Garrick, whose verdure cloak made it clear he had been the Rogue.

Grace kept glancing between Garrick and her family, and noticed the four of them exchanging glances as well. Best she could tell with minimal range of motion—thanks to the knife-wielding patrolman behind her,—only she and Garrick were being controlled with a weapon.

That surprised her. Her parents were well practiced in hand-to-hand combat, with and without weapons. True, they hadn’t felt it wise to use those skills in a long time. And, if the mayor threatened Russell… or, Grace acknowledged, if they’d believed she was in danger, they may not have fought back.

The dinner, she realized now, had been a trap, and she, in her stubbornness, had escaped it. But her parents also couldn’t have been sure that she had evaded the patrolmen sent out to find her. If they had acted quickly, she may not yet have been in danger. But she didn’t blame them. She’d done no different, knowing Garrick’s life was on the line.

If only there were a way to rid the patrolmen of the weapons, her family would show the mayor, and the citizens of Fidara, what a team of Protectors could do.

The craftsmen and farmer families started to show up. The crescent moon had risen high above by the time they wandered in. Grace scanned the citizens. What could she expect of them?

Nothing. She couldn’t expect anything. This town had been beaten down for so long.

But no. Grace looked at Garrick. The stirrings of rebellion had started—because of this sweet man, who even now inspired a surge of love in her terror-stricken heart.

That was when she caught sight of Lizzy.

Her friend’s complete composure surprised Grace. She’d have expected Lizzy to show some sorrow at the sight of a friend condemned to hang, and for that matter, an unmasked Garrick should have caused excitement, if not shock.

As soon as Grace made eye contact, Lizzy winked. With a sudden shift in demeanor, Lizzy let out a cry. “No! Grace! My friend. My best friend. No!” She sprinted to the hangman’s platform and clasped Grace’s foot. “No! It can’t be true! Tell me it’s not true!”