Epilogue
One Year Since the Shooting Outside the Lyon’s Den
Duncan dropped his weight heavily upon a park bench and stared off at the sky as dawn was slowly breaking in the east. Though the park was deserted at the moment, soon the London streets would be full of people going about their days.
His eyes stared off at the tree line, but it was his late wife’s image he saw.
“I miss you, my love,” he murmured. “They are all married and settled, Elsbeth, and out of our house, but it assuredly was not an easy task. Beaufort will soon be a father, likely about the time that Parliament breaks this year, and Orson and Lady Emma are also soon to be parents. I wish you were here to view their happiness. Richard has plans for a telescope room for the child. He says he wants to spark an interest in the stars in his child, as you did with him, while Beaufort is hoping to have his child born in Ireland. Fortunately, Lady Annalise, Marksman’s sister, though I suppose you already know that, is accustomed to traveling by ship, so crossing the Irish Sea should not be a problem for Beaufort’s countess, while in her condition. ”
Duncan paused in his thoughts to look around him, but the park was still empty.
Perhaps it was earlier than he had thought.
He had been out on an assignment overnight, and he should have gone straight home to bed, but he customarily talked to his wife in the early morning hours, so he had chosen the park bench, fearing once he had returned home he would be too exhausted, and Duncan did not wish to forget the love of his life, even for one morning talk.
“Our Benjamin has found a woman who possesses the same vision of the world as does he, and they are raising Lady Victoria’s nephew. I wish you were here to hold young Ethan. He is as bright as the family God presented him. Our Benjamin amazes me daily.
“Then there is our own sweet Theodora and our Alexander.
I should have forbidden their marriage, for they both could have used another year or two to learn that marriage is not a competition, but you know I could never deny Theodora anything.
They will do well, but they still require a bit of an old-fashioned Scottish skelping, over my knee.
Perhaps you might speak to Dora in her dreams.
“Our Aaran has found his match in both temper and stubbornness. His Freya is a red-headed Scot. They will know a great love and likely…” he chuckled, “a spattering of confrontations. I hope finally to see him happy.”
Duncan paused before he continued. “I suppose you also know one of those we recently took into custody was Lady Eímear Boyde. I remember how you never liked her, though I never knew your reasons, but I was proud of how you tolerated her, especially after we proved the elder Aaran Graham had married Miss Bellton. It was natural for the woman, I suppose, to worry for young Lord Boyde’s future, though I suspect Lady Eímear’s anger had more to do with what she lost than her son’s status in the world.
Permitting Aaran to present his younger half brother the barony and the title of Pitcairn aided both our Aaran and his brother.
Having Aaran’s mother seen as having abandoned him after his father refused to live in wedlock with Miss Bellton aided everyone.
Assuredly, you and I spent many sleepless nights in our efforts to save our Aaran.
If you were here, you would be so proud of him. I surely am.”
“Talking to yourself, my lord?” a familiar voice asked.
Duncan rose to his feet and bowed. “Just to my Elsbeth,” he explained.
“I customarily have these conversations with Lady Duncan in the privacy of my quarters at Duncan Place, but I have been out all night training new recruits in how to watch the comings and goings on the River Thames and searching for contraband. I feared if I did not speak to Elsbeth now, I might collapse when I reached my quarters. She and I always started each day of our married life in that manner. Even when it was necessary to be apart, we would write to each other. Many would think me crazy, but I assume you understand. You have long honored Colonel Lyon with your widow’s weeds.
“When I was laid out on the table in your ladies’ parlor, I know Elsbeth was beside me.
While I was telling her I meant to join her, she was ordering me to fight, saying our sons and Theodora were not yet settled, and Elsbeth wished to view her grandchildren.
So, she sent me back, saying I must see our life together to a more appropriate end. ”
Mrs. Dove-Lyon nodded her understanding. “I have been hoping to encounter you. I heard that Lady Orson is also with child. That is two of your sons.”
Duncan gestured to the other end of the bench. “Let us sit.”
Mrs. Dove-Lyon’s head turned as she, too, scanned the park and, like him, found it empty. “If you are confident, my lord.”
“I am too old to be involved in scandal, and, in truth, I am more than a bit exhausted. I have taken on our dear Lord Graham’s younger brother. I swear Lord Boyde Pitcairn’s questions never end,” Duncan admitted.
“You are truly a candidate for sainthood, my lord,” Mrs. Dove-Lyon said with a chuckle.
“Some of the young aristocrats who frequent the Lyon’s Den on a regular basis are both witless and annoying, or perhaps it is annoying and witless.
I am impressed that you are capable of training any of them to serve anything beyond their own wishes and whims.”
“On many days, it appears hopeless, but then again I often told Elsbeth the same thing about each of the boys we took in,” Duncan confided.
“What is the disposition of those you arrested in Kent?” she asked. “It has been several days since the newsprints have added anything new to their tales of the chaos.”
“Lady Rayland will be transported. To where, I am not yet confident. Her Ladyship played more of the role of decoy than taking a part in the murders. For example, she was the one who knocked Lady Thompson’s bag from her hands and stole the sewing needles to make it look like Victoria was the culprit.
Her actions were meant to frighten and confuse us.
Thankfully, both Thompson and Graham began tying all the loose strings together after that incident. ”
“Therefore, under English law, because Her Ladyship did not actually kill anyone, she is being deported, rather than hanged,” Mrs. Dove-Lyon summarized.
“I pity her husband, but he has to have known something was peculiar when his wife invited her long-time lover to stay with them on Rayland’s estate. ”
“Lord Rayland has hidden himself away in Kent, and he has released his vicar, for Mr. Turner and his wife are related to Lord Cunningham. Graham and Orson have found the Turners a position in Lincolnshire and have asked the Church of England to change it from a curacy to a vicarage. Graham will assist in the financing of building onto the church so Mr. Turner can assume the eventual position there. It was something Orson had looked into perhaps a year back, but Graham has personally spoken to the Archbishop of Canterbury on the matter. The curacy is on one of Orson’s minor estates, and it is close to where Lincolnshire meets Norfolk.
The Turners’ children and grandchildren live on the Suffolk and Norfolk border nearer the coast.”
“And Mr. MacAlasdair?” Mrs. Dove-Lyon asked. “For my money, whatever he receives shan’t be enough.”
Duncan sighed heavily. “Years prior, I had thought him my mate, but I was proved in error. MacAlasdair was the one who actually shot me, as well as the one who attempted to kill my daughter, and he was an accessory in the death of Lady Emma’s sister.
It turns out, MacAlasdair had wanted to marry my sweet Elsbeth.
I was not initially aware of his plans. It was only after Graham began to question why Rayland would tolerate his wife’s affair under his own roof that we began to see a pattern.
It was impossible for one person to be in so many places at the same time. ”
Mrs. Dove-Lyon said, “I am sorry to say I held back some additional information about Mr. MacAlasdair, but before I share it, speak to me of Miss Bellton’s role in this madness. I do apologize, my lord, for not realizing the woman who hired me to be a matchmaker was Lord Graham’s mother.”
“That was the true surprise for my son. We did not wish to believe it, but it all was proved as we assumed,” Duncan said with a sad shake of his head.
“Miss Bellton actually attempted to kill her own son, and our Aaran had to fight her off in order to save Lady Freya and himself.
I am not confident Graham will ever reconcile with the idea, likely not until he and Lady Freya have their own children.
“As to Miss Bellton fooling you, I was equally na?ve. She pretended to be my nurse after the shooting at your establishment. She is also the one who left a similar coat behind on the Lyon’s Den’s grounds for us to find and then tried to convince us that we should throw it out.
She killed Miss Cassandra Whitchurch, sent the girl to seek out a position that did not exist, as well as young Mr. Betts on Putney Green, did away with the fake count, Lord Almano, and assisted in doing away with Lady Orson’s sister, Moreau’s coachman, Mr. Stark, and the woman from Lady Thompson’s boarding house.
Likely more, but those are the ones we know with assurance.
Both Miss Bellton and MacAlasdair were hanged earlier this week.
I stood witness, along with Orson, but the rest of his brothers would not permit Graham to attend.
He lost his mother when he was a small child; there was no reason for him to rewrite history.
Miss Bellton no longer recognized reality and does not deserve Aaran Graham’s grief. ”
“Surely a convoluted tale,” Mrs. Dove-Lyon remarked. “Not one easily believed.”