“You’re not weakling, Nick. The man was wrong, and you have nothing to be ashamed of.”

“Papa saw,” he whispered into her neck. “Papa came in and saw me. He saw me crying and he saw that I’d wet myself.”

Gillian’s mind chased around in circles. Noble was there? He saw what happened? How could this be? Why hadn’t he killed this horrible monster who tormented Nick and Elizabeth?

“What did Papa do?”

“He fell down when the man hit him on the head with one of his pistols.” Nick detached himself long enough to stare at Gillian with eyes filled with so much pain she wanted to weep. No child’s eyes should look like that. “I tried to help Papa, but the man picked me up and threw me on top of her, and I was so scared I couldn’t move. I couldn’t move! I tried to help Papa, but I couldn’t move!”

“Shhhh,” she calmed him, holding him close again and stroking his back. “It’s all right, my love, you aren’t to blame for what that man did. No one blames you. Your father knows you tried to help him. He doesn’t blame you.”

Nick went suddenly stiff in her arms. “I couldn’t move, and then the man shot her and there was blood everywhere and…I think I wet myself again.”

“Oh, God,” Gillian moaned, unable to keep the tears hidden now. She rocked the frail body of her son in her arms and wept for him, wept for the hell he had lived through, and wept for Elizabeth, who didn’t deserve to die.

“The man was going to shoot Papa,” Nick whispered so softly Gillian almost didn’t hear it. “He was going to shoot him. Papa wasn’t moving, he couldn’t move, and she was dead and I didn’t know what to do so I threw the candlestick at him, and he didn’t shoot Papa because he shot the wall instead.”

Gillian had a horribly vivid image of what happened that night. “Did the man leave then?”

Nick nodded, and his body sagged against hers. “He left, but she was dead, and I thought Papa might be dead until he started groaning. The man told me not to tell anyone or he’d come back and kill Papa. He told me it would be my fault if Papa died. I don’t want Papa to die.”

Gillian held him, rocking him and murmuring soft, comforting words in his ear until he fell asleep against her. She held him even after he slept, weeping silent tears for all that her brave little son had been through.

“I promise you, Nick,” she whispered to him. “I promise you that your Papa will punish that man. He won’t hurt you again.”

***

Noble signed his name to the document, blotted it, and handed the thick sheet of paper to his secretary. “You’ll be sure to destroy my prior will?”

“Of course, my lord. May I say, my lord, that I and all the staff hope that you will not need this document in the near future?”