Not that the young duke could actually ask Charlene to dance with him. The rest of society would be up in arms if he did.
He wasn’t stupid. He knew that there were plenty of young women out there who would love nothing more than to have Eric court them. Many of them were wealthy, of good families, and the perfect political match for him.
And given his position, someone like Annabelle was much more suited to the challenges of being his wife, rather than a doctor’s daughter like Charlene.
He could do much better than Charlene. He had a difficult time reminding himself why that mattered, sometimes.
In his heart, he couldn’t help thinking of the way that she had looked in that navy blue dress of hers. He couldn’t stop picturing those bewitching eyes of hers. He couldn’t help imagining the way that she would look pressed down in his bed as his wife.
Those were simply fantasies, though.
Annabelle brushed his shoulder one last time as she headed towards the door. “I’ll see you soon,” she promised Eric as she showed herself out.
The young duke nodded to himself, knowing that she spoke the truth. He was much more likely, in his position, to see her again than he was to see Charlene again.
She was Miss Matilda’s chaperone, and the young woman seemed hell-bent on going to every ball this season. At the end of the day, though, Charlene was beholden to her client and couldn’t slip away whenever she chose to.
They had exhausted their one chance, Eric was sure. No matter how much information he gathered about Dr. Ellington and his innocence, the young duke might have ruined his only chance with the doctor’s daughter.
He felt a sour taste in his mouth at the thought. But what more could he do?
Chapter 9
Miss Charlene Ellington
Charlene couldn’t help but feel more and more desperate about her father’s situation, the more time passed. She knew that there were already testimonies floating around about other ways that the doctor had wronged people.
Even if those testimonies proved untrue, the general consensus seemed to be that when it came to Lord Henrich, Dr. Ellington was fully at fault for the man’s death.
Charlene still couldn’t believe it. She knew her father. He would never have prescribed the wrong medicine to a patient, and he certainly wouldn’t have signed off on the incorrect medicine that the apothecary’s assistant had given him.
He knew that you didn’t treat gout with a medicine for stomach parasites. He would have foreseen the man’s spleen rupture, long before it caused the man’s death.
He wouldn’t have done it, Charlene was sure. Someone must have framed him. But she didn’t have the foggiest idea of how to clear her father’s name. Not by herself.
Unfortunately, no one seemed interested in helping her to clear the man’s name. She felt sick to her stomach, thinking of what might happen to the man that she had always admired more than any other.
Part of the trouble was that Charlene couldn’t go see her father on her own. If she could only talk to the man, she was sure that her father would have some way of knowing who it was who had framed him. He must have his suspicions.
Not only that, but just seeing him would calm Charlene down some so that she could think things through logically. As it was, every time she started thinking about her father, she found herself getting more and more upset as she contemplated his possible fate.
Execution. How cruel to sentence a man to death, Charlene thought. But it was possible that the judge would believe that Dr. Ellington deserved it, because it was entirely possible that he would believe that the doctor had taken another life in his turn.
There was a knock on the door. Charlene sighed and went to answer it, sure that it was her Aunt Helene with more bad news. Whatever else could it be, after all?
Her aunt had remained coolly practical about the whole thing, reminding Charlene that in the event that her father was convicted, they would find a way through as a family.
Of course, Charlene knew that her aunt was crafty. She had managed to evade everyone who wanted to know why she wasn’t married, to find her place in society on her own without tying herself down to someone.
Charlene couldn’t help but feel worried, though.
Surprisingly, though, it wasn’t Helene at the door. Instead, it was a man she didn’t recognize. “Miss Ellington?” he asked.
“Yes?” Charlene asked.
“My lord, the Duke of Havenport, has sent for you. He said to ask when you would be available. He would prefer if you could make it this afternoon,” the man said, sounding nervous, as though he was unsure what Charlene’s response might be.
Or what his lord’s response would be if Charlene told him that she wasn’t available today.
Interesting. Charlene felt her heart beat a little faster. She had told Eric to forget what she had said before, but perhaps he had gone ahead and attempted to help her case anyway. Perhaps he had some information for her.
Or perhaps he was looking for something else? Charlene’s body felt hot all over as she considered that possibility. Not that she would cave to his desires, not after seeing him with Lady Annabelle.
If he wanted Charlene, it was only as a mistress, not as a bride. Charlene liked to think that she wouldn’t give herself up that easily.
At the moment, though, it was Eric’s servant who was waiting for Charlene’s response. And Charlene knew that she had no choice but to go with him.
If she declined, or even if she pushed off their meeting until the following day, she knew that curiosity would eat her up inside. No, it was better that she find out what it was that Eric wanted from her, or what he had found out.
She hoped that it was something that would help her father. Or that he would at least let her plead her case once more.
“I can meet him today,” Charlene said. She paused for a moment, wondering if she should locate her aunt and ask Helene to come along with her. She shouldn’t arrive alone at the duke’s house.
If anyone were to notice such a visit, it could have an adverse effect on Charlene’s reputation, as well as that of the duke. Yet Helene had intended to do some shopping that day and have tea with one of her girlfriends, and Charlene didn’t want to interrupt that. Nor did she want to keep Eric waiting.
What if he changed his mind and decided that he didn’t want anything to do with her after all?
“Let me just grab my hat,” Charlene said to the man. Then, she followed him alone to the waiting carriage, letting him help her inside.
She could practically hear the beating of her heart inside her chest. The carriage, before it set off, was too quiet with just her inside of it. The ride to Eric’s manor gave her too much time to think.
She stared up at the imposing building as the carriage drew up in front of it. Before she could start to regret this, before she could ask the driver to turn around and return her to her family’s home, Eric was coming down the steps at the front of the manor and climbing into the carriage with her.
“I’m sorry to do things this way,” he murmured as the driver set off. “I know it’s the height of impropriety to whisk you off like this. But I thought you might, perhaps, wish to visit your father at Newgate.”
Charlene stared at Eric for a moment, barely believing that those were the words that she had heard come out of the man’s mouth. He was taking her to see her father?
“Why?” she blurted out, before she could consider how loaded a question that was.
Eric shrugged, looking seriously into her eyes. “I’m sorry that I told you, at the ball, that I wouldn’t help you,” he said.
He paused. “I’ve done some inquiries. It sounds like all of the information is against him. Yet I believe your father is innocent. The only way we’re going to prove it, though, is if we can figure out what really transpired. I believe your father is the only person who can help us to clear his name.”
Charlene felt tears prick her eyes, and she looked hastily out the win
dow, before Eric could see the telling dampness.
All this time, she had been wracking her brain trying to figure out some way to prove her father’s innocence, and Eric had been two steps ahead of her, trying to help her the whole while. It was touching to realize that maybe he really did care about her.
Or perhaps it was simply that once upon a time, Charlene and her father had saved his life, and now he felt obligated to help.
Charlene realized, in that moment, that she didn’t care what his motives were, as long as he was helping her out.
Of course, she would have loved for him to be helping her because he cared about her, because he was worried for her father, because he wanted to see justice done and an innocent man let free.
But as long as her father was freed, what did it matter what Eric’s motives were? If he helped her while meanwhile he was courting Lady Annabelle, then that was just the way that things were meant to be.
Would he be able to help her, though? She was glad that he at least seemed to believe that her father was innocent, but from the sounds of it, things were truly dire.
It sounded like from everything that Eric had uncovered thus far, there was no judge in the world who would hesitate to convict the doctor.
It was an alarming prospect. All this time, Charlene had been operating under the idea that justice would prevail and that her father would certainly be found innocent. To hear that Eric felt he needed to talk to Dr. Ellington to even attempt to find a way to clear him?
That was frightening. What if the doctor had no idea who had framed him?
What if he hadn’t actually been framed, and he had actually either misdiagnosed Lord Henrich or else actually prescribed him the incorrect medication? What could they do to help him, in either of those cases?
Charlene couldn’t worry any longer, though, as they pulled up in front of Newgate. It was a jail of sorts, albeit much more comfortable than any ordinary prison.
Her father, she learned from Eric, had been allowed here because his manners and conduct had proven that he had received a good education. He had been allowed to rent one of the twelve rooms, paying extra for a single bed and better food.
It was the best situation that Charlene could have hoped for, given the circumstances, but she still noticed immediately upon seeing her father that he was looking thinner than she remembered, his face a lot more gaunt, the shadows darker beneath his eyes.
That didn’t stop him from giving her a tight hug when he saw her, though. Charlene clung bonelessly to the man, numb with the realization that this was truly happening.
She understood then that no matter how worried she’d been since Helene had told her about the accusations against her father, there had been part of her that clung to the belief that this wasn’t truly happening.
That her father was actually safe back in Bath, as she had left him. That either Helene had misheard the gossip, or that someone was merely trying to frighten the two women with misinformation.
But no, here was her father – her wonderful, kind, and caring father – trapped in a prison with the accusation of murder hanging over him, and the possibility of a brutal execution. And there might be no way of proving the man’s innocence.
Dr. Ellington eventually pulled away, patting her lightly on the shoulder. “I’m all right,” he assured his daughter.
“Oh Father,” Charlene said, shaking her head, a few stray tears making their way down her porcelain cheeks. “You’re in prison.” As though he might have forgotten that fact…
Dr. Ellington smiled tightly at her. “But I’m yet alive,” he reminded her in an undertone. He raised his voice and spread his arms to indicate his room. “Besides, this is hardly a terrible place to be.”
Charlene shook her head. Her father had always been optimistic. She wondered if he truly was unworried now or if he just couldn’t contemplate his future otherwise. Or perhaps he was simply trying to put on a brave face for her, so as not to worry her. She couldn’t help but to worry, though.
The doctor noticed Eric standing just past Charlene’s shoulder, and he cocked his head to the side, frowning as he tried to place the man’s face. He had only truly seen the man once before, back when Eric was a decade younger, but suddenly, the man’s eyes widened with recognition. He bowed hastily. “Duke,” he said.
Eric grimaced. “You don’t have to call me that,” he told the doctor. He glanced uncomfortably at Charlene. “I’ll give the two of you a minute alone, shall I?”
There was a certain amount of meaning behind the words. Charlene was sure that Eric was trusting her to figure out what information he needed from the doctor. The way to proving the man’s innocence.
Charlene was surprised that Eric would trust her to do the questioning here, but perhaps the duke thought that Charlene stood a better chance of figuring out the information that they needed from her father.
After all, in spite of the fact that Dr. Ellington had once saved Eric’s life, the young duke was still a stranger to the man. The doctor would be much more inclined to trust his daughter with the information that could be crucial to clearing his name.
As Eric turned to leave, though, the doctor caught his hand. “I’m innocent,” he said in a low, urgent voice. “Whatever they are saying about me, about Lord Henrich’s death, I didn’t do it. You must believe me.”
“I do,” Eric said, his tone soothing. “I do believe you.” He paused, glancing at Charlene again. “Any chance you know what happened? Because I have to tell you, the information that they’ve gathered against you is…pretty damning.”
Charlene felt lightheaded at his frank acceptance of the fact that her father’s case was impossible. She knew that Eric didn’t mean for things to sound so hopeless.
No doubt, he was trying to make sure that the doctor simply understood how precarious his position was. But to Charlene the words made it sound like failure was the only option.
“I don’t have any idea,” Dr. Ellington said, shaking his head. “Lord Henrich came to me and was diagnosed with gout. I prescribed him the correct medicine, I’m sure of it. And I would have noticed if the apothecary’s assistant had made some mistake in the medicine. Stomach medication is not at all the same.”
He turned to face his daughter, catching both of her hands. “Charlene, you know me. You know that I would never have made a mistake like that.”
“Of course not, Father,” Charlene said, choking on her tears. “Eric knows that too. But we need evidence.” She tried to be brave, squaring her shoulders. “I’m sure that there’s something that we’re missing.”
There was a knock on the door. “All right, time’s up,” the warden said.
“We’re not finished here,” Eric snapped, giving the man an annoyed look.
The warden return his gaze coolly. “Prisoners at Newgate are only allowed a certain amount of visitation time,” he informed the young duke. “If you have a problem with that, you can take it up with the peerage.”
Eric drew himself up to his full height, towering over the warden. “I am a member of the peerage,” he informed the warden in a sneering tone of voice the like of which Charlene had never heard before.
Ordinarily, Eric seemed so down-to-earth that she could almost forget that he was raised the son of the duke. That he was titled. But now, she heard him use every ounce of that privilege to override the warden.
The warden grumbled under his breath and shot Charlene a dirty look, like he thought that she was behind Eric’s snooty attitude. Then, he slunk off.
“Thank you,” Charlene breathed, looking shyly over at Eric.
Eric waved her thanks aside. He turned back to Dr. Ellington. “If you’re sure that you have no idea what went wrong with Lord Henrich, then why don’t I leave the two of you alone for a moment?” he suggested.
He looked at Charlene. “This might be the only time that I can get for the two of you,” he said ruefully. “The warden probably won’t let me within a dozen paces of this place a
gain.”
Charlene couldn’t help but giggle quietly. “Thank you,” she said gratefully to the young duke. Again, he waved her thanks away, stepping out of the room and leaving the two of them alone.
Dr. Ellington immediately took his daughter’s hands, holding them tightly in his own. “Charlene, I promise you, everything is going to be all right,” he insisted. “This is simply a misunderstanding. I’m not entirely sure what went wrong, but you know that they would never sentence an innocent man to death.”
“Eric doesn’t seem sure,” Charlene reminded him. “I don’t know what sort of information he has collected, but he seems to think that they’ll find you guilty.”
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