Chapter 23
Twenty-Three
Violet did not know what she expected to find.
Likely, it would be a confirmation of what Rhys already expected, and that nothing could be done about it. But for reasons that Violet could not fully explain, she simply refused to believe it.
She spent that first night going over the records that Mr. Marrow had shown her, and they confirmed much of what she already knew.
When Eleanor had fled her home with her then husband, they had travelled north together and taken up residence in a small farmhouse that her husband’s family owned.
However, it was owned through his mother’s side of the family, so his name was not attached, which was why Rhys had struggled to find it when he first started looking.
From there, she learned that Rhys had arrived at the farmhouse two weeks after Eleanor had died in childbirth.
Their evidence for this was the wife of one of the farmhands. She had helped deliver the child, and she had been the one to tell Rhys that the husband had left the country—later confirmed when they tracked down the captain of the vessel he had ordered to sail on.
The farmer’s wife had told Rhys that the child was sent to a local orphanage, which Rhys promptly visited.
However, when he arrived, he was informed that the children had been split up and sent to other orphanages across the country.
This was done because the orphanage was closing—likely, this was the reason that Rhys had worked so hard to keep Lucy’s orphanage open in the first place.
Rhys spent the next few months visiting each of the orphanages.
Frustratingly, the child was not named, and more than once they arrived at a specific orphanage only to learn that its doors had long since been closed and the children there had been sent elsewhere.
The records became spotty after that, and the search was made next to impossible because of the lack of names and records. There were dozens of orphanages that Rhys checked, hundreds of children, and nothing found.
That was when Violet noticed something…
It was the following morning, as she broke her fast, when it happened. Violet’s eyes stung from all the reading. Her fingers were dry and cracked. Words bled together so they became illegible. But there was one detail that she seized upon when she found it.
“Mr. Marrow!” she cried excitedly.
He appeared beside her. “Yes, Your Grace.”
“There is a discrepancy here… I think. This line through St. Clair’s Orphanage in London. What does that mean?”
Mr. Marrow looked at it. “I believe that one was closed down by the time we arrived, Your Grace. If my memory serves me correctly, that was near the end of our search, a point where we were starting to hit wall after wall.”
“Closed down?” Violet frowned as she flipped through the ledger that she had beside her. It was a list of all the known orphanages in the country, compiled by Rhys years ago. “Are you certain? Look here…” She opened the page to a list she had marked and pointed to St. Clair’s. “It is listed here.”
“Yes, Your Grace. But when we arrived —”
“But look at this!” She underlined the address. “Do you see?”
He frowned as he read the address and then he gasped. “The addresses do not match.”
“They are similar,” she agreed as the thrill built inside of her.
“They have the same street name, but one is in East London, the other in the West. Are you certain the closed St. Clair’s was the right one?
” She traced backwards from the first St. Clair’s orphanage.
“You were sent there from St. Anthony’s, but only after first visiting Mother Marie’s.
Was it possible that you confused which one to visit? ”
Mr. Marrow’s brow furrowed. “It is, Your Grace. As I said, at that time, we were spent. And His Grace had long since accepted the likelihood that he was not going to find his nephew.”
She beamed. “Do you know what this means?”
“What, Your Grace?”
“It means that you must call a carriage for me, Mr. Marrow. I have a trip to make.”
Violet knew that it was a shot in the dark. Of all the orphanages that Rhys had visited, just the one might have been missed. But hope was all that Violet had left, and if there was even a chance that she was right, she had to take it.
“Here we are…” The head carer of St. Clair’s Orphanage stumbled into the office. Her name was Miss Mildred, and she was kindly, agreeable, and eager to help when Violet explained the situation. “Our records from three years ago.” She dropped the heavy tome on the table.
Violet pulled it towards herself immediately. “Thank you so much. I cannot tell you how relieved I am that you are so willing to help.”
“Not at all,” Miss Mildred said with a sigh as she fell onto her seat across from Violet. “If there is any chance that we might unite one of our own with their family…” She exhaled with a smile. “Is that not the entire point?”
“I could not agree more.”
Violet flipped through the pages until she found what she was looking for. Transfer records from around the time that Rhys’ nephew might have been sent there from St. Anthony’s.
She ran her finger down the list of names… “There were only three children? All under the age of six months?”
“If that is what the records show.”
Violet traced the names. “Two of them… Michael and Wilber…”
“Are still here,” Miss Mildred said. “But to save you on your excitement, I am familiar with both of their stories. They are twins, you see, and their parents died in a fire shortly after they were born. What of the third?”
Violet found the record, and she grimaced. “A girl.”
“Is that a problem?”
“I am looking for a boy…” She leaned back and let her shoulders slump. “I suppose it was a long shot. But I truly thought…” Her stomach twisted with the feelings of failure. “I honestly believed I might have found him.”
“Out of curiosity, what was the girl’s name that was sent here?”
Violet leaned forward and checked. “Unnamed… and according to this, she was sent away shortly after.”
“That is not such a surprise,” Miss Mildred said. “Truly, I am surprised that we have these records in the first place. You would not believe how confused they often are. Names recorded incorrectly. Boys mistaken for girls! What a world.”
Violet perked up. “Boys mistaken for girls?”
“Oh yes,” she nodded. “It is common enough. Babies often appear genderless, and few bother to check!” She laughed. “And because so many do not bear names…” She shook her head. “You can imagine the confusion.”
Violet’s mind started to race, and she found herself checking the records again. Was it possible… could this be a mistake?
She followed the baby’s record… she traced it to find where the baby had been sent. And when she saw the answer, she gasped.
“What is it?” she asked. “What did you find?”
“I know this orphanage.” She looked up at Miss Mildred and her eyes sparkled with triumph. “I used to work there.”
That was when Violet’s mind really started to work overtime. She knew every child at that orphanage intimately. She knew their names. She knew their backstories. She knew how long they had been there.
She wracked her memory to try and recollect all the possible candidates who might have fitted Rhys’ missing nephew, and the more that she considered, the clearer the answer became…
No, that is not possible…
Her mind reached back even further. All this time, she had been searching for a boy. But that was based only on what the farmer’s wife had said, and there was a good chance that she had been mistaken. Or that Rhys had misheard? Or maybe she had never told him the gender and Rhys just assumed?
What if it was a girl that they were looking for? All this time, a niece, not a nephew. And if that was the case…
Violet’s eyes widened, and she almost laughed with glee.
“What?” Miss Mildred asked. “What is it?”
“I think I know who… it is crazy! But I think I know where the missing child is.” She shook her head in disbelief, but the more that she thought about it, the more sense it made.
“Where?” Miss Mildred asked.
“Right where she belongs,” Violet said. “With her uncle.”