by Abigail Agar
Fredrick heartily agreed, “I think fewer prisons would be all the better as they do nothing but besiege those who need it the least.”
“I understand your venom and frustration,” Barrister Dulock said as he rose as well. “I pray that she is found well, and we can right this horrible wrong, Your Grace.”
Gregory breathed in deeply to calm his frayed nerves. He had come here to get Jules, not to leave her here. Yet that was exactly what he was expected to do, what he had to do. “Please, hurry, Dulock,” Gregory said tightly. “I will go to the House of Lords with this if I must.”
The walk outside was a long one, and when they finally emerged, Thompson and the brothers looked at them expectantly. The men’s faces fell as they noticed the Duchess was not with the Duke and his brother. “The young miss?” Talbert asked warily.
“They cannot find her,” Fredrick said as he knew his brother did not wish to speak any more of it.
Talbert balked, “How do you lose a Duchess?”
“Apparently, it happens all the time,” Gregory sneered. “They will find her, or they will all pay the price for it.”
Olly nudged his brother and jerked his head for the boy to shut up and get on his horse. The ride to the manor house was quiet as no one wanted to draw Gregory’s ire again. They all exchanged glances of worry as they rode behind the enraged nobleman.
***
“This is an outrage! It is a pure slight against our family!” Lady St Claire howled after Gregory had told her of all that had happened. “My son gets accosted, and now your wife has been falsely accused of such horrible things. Someone is out to destroy us, Gregory.”
Gregory nodded. “Do you think Uncle had anything to do with it?”
“The man is obsessed, but to do such things. You really think he would have had your brother killed?” Lady St Claire shook her head as if she did not want to think about it.
Gregory tapped the dining room table that they sat around. “He very much intended me to go to war and die so that he could take my place. It is not that much of a leap, Mother,” Gregory said in irritation. “Besides we all know that he killed Father. Refusing to say it aloud does not change that.”
Lady St Claire bowed her head. “I don’t know what to do, Gregory.”
“There is precious little we can do, except to stick to our story about the Duchess’ origins,” Gregory said in dissatisfaction. “I have to go see the constable about the highwaymen that attacked Fredrick.”
Lady St Claire asked, “Have they been apprehended? I would like very much to look at them.”
“I got word sent to me this morning that they are being held outside the city until I can come and confirm they are the men who had Fredrick,” Gregory said. He gave his mother a nod and continued, “Mother, I really do not think that you wish to speak with the men who abducted Fredrick. Fred himself is not going for fear that he might try to attack them.”
Lady St Claire sat back in her chair and sighed, “Perhaps you are right. I might forget my raising and hurt one of them.”
Gregory smiled. “I can think of worse things to have to happen than one of those scoundrels getting hurt, Mother, but it would be best to preserve your reputation,” Gregory agreed.
Fredrick happened into the room, the clink-clank of his new cane on the floor announcing his arrival loud and clear. “Morning, Mother, Gregory,” Fredrick said solemnly. He looked at Gregory. “You are heading out to the country then?”
“I am indeed,” Gregory said. “I would be appreciative if you would stay close by the manor in case Barrister Dulock makes any headway. I want one of us to be at the ready to go retrieve the Duchess.”
Fredrick dipped his head in acceptance of this. “I swear I will be waiting at the ready for any word on her Lady’s whereabouts.”
Gregory stood up and walked over to his brother. He put his hand on Fredrick’s shoulder. “No one blames you for what happened. I would, however, like a few words with Mr Larkin,” Gregory said.
Fredrick nodded. “No one blames me except for perhaps myself,” he said quietly. “Go swiftly and get those rogues sent to jail. Perhaps they will tell you who set them on me in the first place.”
***
Jules sat against a damp brick wall. She had no idea where she was and was only vaguely aware of the passing of day and night. Wherever she was, there were other women, but the women seemed to shun her due to her clothes. Jules just kept her head down and tried to avoid attracting attention to herself.
As much as she wanted to scream out to be released, was that really fair to the other women here? Had she not done as much or worse than most of them? Jules resigned herself to this being her punishment. Surely if Gregory intended to come for her then he would have by now. No doubt whatever story David had concocted had already reached Gregory causing him to shed the very notion of her from his heart.
“Are you really a Duchess?” a woman named Ruby asked as they sat resting from a morning of working.
Jules shrugged, “I used to be. I guess I am probably not anymore. I didn’t start out as one. I started out as a mason.”
“A mason?” Ruby asked as she wrinkled up her nose.
Jules smiled and nodded. “My father was a mason, and he didn’t have any sons,” she said with pride. She felt better telling someone who she was. So often since she had been here, people just heard her title and thought they knew her life.
“I had a friend growing up that learned to be a baker from her father,” Ruby said. They exchanged a smile and then fell into silence. At least it was not the heavy, uncomfortable silence as it had been before, Jules thought.
Jules cleared her throat. “So, what are you in here for?”
“Being poor,” Ruby said with a shrug. “It doesn’t take much to end up in a workhouse like this.”
Jules nodded. She had kept working as a mason and a man to keep her family out of houses like this, and yet here she was. “No, it doesn’t,” Jules agreed quietly.
“What did you do?” Ruby asked curiously.
Jules sighed and said, “I had an opinion, and I told people about it.”
***
“Right this way, Your Grace,” the constable said. “With your tip, we were able to catch them while they were trying to remove the carriage. I had almost given up trying to catch these ruffians. They like to change locations frequently, so chances are if they had managed to pick up quick enough, we probably wouldn’t have seen them again.”
Gregory followed the constable to a room in the back of the small jail that the community maintained so that criminals could be detained long enough to be transferred elsewhere. The cell in the back could only fit at the most five people at a time Gregory guessed when he saw the size of it.
Two men were seated on cots in the cell. They rose as Gregory and the constable approached. One of them said, “Look, what’s the meaning of this?”
Gregory recognized the voice. “We have not been properly introduced,” he said to the two men. “My brother was the man you abducted from the inn along with a carriage that belonged to my family.”
The two men exchanged worried looks. The spokesman said, “I don’t know what you speak of. We were just travelling through and saw a carriage. We thought it was stuck and abandoned.”
“I might believe that had I not been the one that helped my brother escape. It was dark, so I will give you the benefit of the doubt that you might have genuinely not recognized me,” Gregory said as he pulled off his riding gloves.
“Now what I want is very simple. Answer me, and I promise that I will do what I can to make your sentence a lenient one.”
The spokesman looked at his friend then said, “What is it that you want?”
“I want the name of the person or persons who hired you to kidnap my brother along with their instructions to you,” Gregory said as he eyed the men. “I think it is a fairly generous offer considering what you did carries a possible trip to the gallows.”
The o
ther man nudged the spokesman’s elbow as if urging him to comply. Finally, the spokesman said, “Alright. We’ll tell you what we know.”
***
Fredrick walked briskly through the halls and made it to the entrance, just as the doorman let in Barrister Dulock. “Barrister,” Fredrick said with a smile. “I hope your arrival means good news.”
“It could potentially,” Barrister Dulock said. “Is His Grace in?”
Fredrick shook his head. “He is away dealing with the men who accosted me. He left me in his stead to meet with you if you should happen to come by. Would you like to go to the study or one of the sitting rooms?”
Barrister Dulock nodded. “Thank you. I would most welcome a brandy. It has been a grueling day.”
“Right this way,” Fredrick said as he turned and walked towards his father’s study, the clink of his cane a soothing reminder that he was overcoming things a bit at a time, or that was how Gregory always talked about it.
In the study, Fredrick poured a tumbler of brandy for the barrister and held it out to the man who took it with a grateful smile. “Thank you so much,” Barrister Dulock said as he lifted the tumbler to his lips.
Fredrick leaned on the corner of his father’s desk and asked, “So, what is this potentially good news?”
“Ah,” Barrister Dulock said as he shifted the tumbler to his opposite hand and pulled a piece of paper out of his coat’s pocket. “This man is the guard that was on duty when the Duchess would have arrived. Only he says she never came to the prison, which is probably why we hit such a wall in trying to find her.”
Fredrick took the paper and found it to be a guard roster with a name circled on it. “What does that mean?”
“It means that she has not been formally indicted. It could just be a glitch in the system, or it could be a sheep’s dress,” Barrister Dulock said.
Fredrick frowned. “I am not familiar with that term,” Fredrick said in confusion.
“Forgive me,” Barrister Dulock said with a smile. “I spent a good deal of time working with Irishmen and picked up some of their habits. It is a method of hiding someone when you would prefer them not to be found. She would most likely be in a place that would not be unusual to find a prisoner, but not as restrictive as the prisons.”
Fredrick snorted. “Would that be a poor house?”
“Perhaps or a workhouse,” Barrister Dulock said, and the man pursed out his lips. “I don’t know if I would call it wonderful news, but if she is in one of those places, and I can find no record of her arrest, then it is likely she was never actually charged with anything. She’s simply been for lack of a better word, kidnapped.”
There was a long pause before Fredrick said, “I am glad that she has not been charged, but there are quite a few workhouses. It may take some time to find her, especially if someone does not want us to.”
“This is true, and thus the bad news in the good news,” Barrister Dulock said solemnly. “I do hope that you do not regret giving me your brandy now that you have heard my news.”
Fredrick shook his head and assured the man, “Of course not. Your hard work is worth a tumbler or two of brandy. Would you wish to stay for the evening meal?”
“I cannot,” Barrister Dulock said regrettably. “I am needed elsewhere, but I will continue to do all I can to find the Duchess. She has a charitable heart, and this world could do with a few more like that.”
***
Gregory and the constable sat down with the men, and they went over their stories. The men who had hired them had smartly never spoken their names in front of the two, but from their descriptions, Gregory would have wagered that one of the men had been Mr Larkin, the other could have been any number of people.
“We’ve told you all that we can,” the spokesman said. “We can’t tell you something that we don’t know.”
Gregory frowned in dissatisfaction. “I agreed to help if you could give us names,” Gregory reminded the men.
“We don’t have that to give, but we told you all we know of them,” the spokesman said.
The man’s friend spoke up, “We’d recognize them if we saw them. We would gladly testify before any court about the events.”
The constable looked at Gregory who sighed and nodded. It was not what he wanted, but the men were trying their best. He tried not to feel too disappointed.
“I tell you what, if I do ever see that old blowhard again, it’ll be too soon for my liking,” the spokesman said. “He promised to give us twice as much money as he paid,” the man spat. “He said he would give us twice as much again once he had his inheritance.”
Gregory stilled. “This man, did he favour me at all?”
“Mayhap, but he’s much older than you, Your Grace,” the spokesman said.
The constable asked, “Is there something to that?”
“I think they might have just told me who the one man is,” Gregory said. “Send them on to the jail, and I’ll have a barrister around to see them.”
The spokesman thanked Gregory profusely, “You are too kind, Your Grace. Thank you for having mercy for us.”
“Just be glad that I have less mercy for the men who hired you,” Gregory said as he rose and gave the constable a nod of thanks for his help.
***
Back at the manor, Lady St Claire was beside herself. “I got an invitation to go to her summer’s end gala, but I know very well she just wants to be able to question me,” Lady St Claire fumed to Fredrick.
Fredrick nodded and agreed, “Lady Hastings always was a bit of a gossip nanny.”
“The woman would sell her own children for a juicy bit of a sordid tale that she could introduce to society’s ears,” Lady St Claire said with distaste.
The booming footsteps heralded Gregory’s arrival. The man’s face made Lady St Claire gasp and ask, “What is wrong?”
“I believe the men that kidnapped Fredrick just confirmed that Uncle Lawrence was one of the men who hired them,” Gregory said. His face was livid. “Now, I cannot find out where he is. I tried Glenwood Estate where he often stays with one of his ladies, but they have not seen him in weeks.”
Lady St Claire put her hand over her heart. “Oh my dear,” she said. “What if he has Julia?”
“Then I will personally disembowel him,” Gregory said without any sign of humour.
Fredrick said, “You might want to hear what Barrister Dulock said then.”
The two of them retired to the study as Lady St Clare retired for the night. Once in the study, Gregory pushed, “So, tell me what he said.”
Fredrick explained, “He said that as far as he could tell, the Duchess had not been charged with anything as of yet. He also discovered via the guards that they have no record of her ever arriving at the prison. He thinks it is likely a glitch or that someone is hiding her within the system so that she’s harder to find.”
“Hiding her how?” Gregory asked. He was growing angry at the senseless nature of it.
Fredrick sighed and said, “He isn’t sure. He thinks that it would be a good idea if we check the poor and workhouses.”
“I pray she is not in them,” Gregory said quietly. “Prison would almost be better, but it is good that she hasn’t been charged, isn’t it?”
Fredrick raised his hands helplessly and said, “My uneducated guess would be that it would be so, but at least if she had been charged, there would be a trail to follow.”