Chapter 57 #2
Darcy had not realized his cousin had sent so many men to Bath.
By the time Darcy’s carriage stopped on Saturday morning and he and the colonel stepped out, Mrs. Younge’s house was already surrounded.
They had been watching the house from a distance until they saw the colonel, and then they closed in.
They stood out of sight of the door until after Darcy and Richard entered the house.
“What do you want with me, Mr. Darcy? You have already cast me out of your homes. I owe you nothing.”
“You do, however, owe the Crown something, Mrs. Younge.” His cousin was menacing in his uniform, and the woman’s bravado faltered.
“I do not understand your meaning.”
“Hand over the diamonds, and the Crown may allow leniency for your other crimes.”
She forced a laugh. “Diamonds, you say? George has taken my best jewelry. He is off on another of his schemes, you see. I do not know where he is.”
“We did not ask you about Wickham, Mrs. Jeune. We asked you about the diamonds you stole from Solomon Roberts nineteen years ago this month.”
She fainted, and the men searched her home. When one of the colonel’s men had located her safe in a small back room and another man disengaged the locks, Richard told the others to stand guard while he and Darcy opened the door to view the contents alone.
They found letters, a marriage certificate, and other documents, as well as a bag of diamonds.
Richard pulled one out to hold between his thumb and forefinger in the light of the sun streaming in the second-floor window.
The diamond glimmered and cast rainbow colors on the walls around them.
It was bigger than those Darcy had found in Ramsgate.
Richard dropped the gem back into the bag, pulled tight the drawstring, and handed the bag to Darcy.
Army uniforms were inconveniently without pockets.
“Keep these safe, will you? Until we can deliver them to the Exchequer, protect them as though they were yours.”
When Richard returned to the documents in the safe, Darcy opened the pouch and twirled his forefinger around in what must be hundreds of diamonds. He quickly closed the bag, which was about the size of an egg but the weight of an apple, and hid it deep in his coat pocket.
“She has an awful lot of money in the four percents.” Richard handed him a piece of paper, and he read the pertinent details.
“Minny Bowden opened this account in June of 1795 with more than twenty-five thousand pounds. Four percent per annum is more than a thousand pounds. She has had a steady income for years.”
Richard handed him another document. This was a deed to the house they stood in, purchased in 1794.
“It seems she has converted most of the diamonds into cash and spent the money, but the Crown can seize her investments and the house, I assume?”
“You assume correctly, Darcy. Except that I see no records of the diamonds themselves. Aside from the stash of stones in your pocket, I do not see any proof to tie her to Lord Rowe’s diamonds.”
“So, we need a confession?”
“That would be ideal.”
“Do you have a plan?”
“Take her back to London and frighten her.”
“What if we start by appealing to her romantic side?”
Richard looked at him doubtfully. “I know you miss your lady, but do not get carried away.”
Darcy laughed and left the room.
“Guillemine Baudains Jeune, I understand you met your Amice when you were only fourteen,” Darcy began. “It must have been difficult to have been separated from him when he went to England years before you.”
“Hmph.”
“Did you have a chance to see him one last time before he was arrested?”
“No! I never saw my beloved or my aunt and uncle. Lady Rowe talked a sweet talk, but the whole time, she and her husband were using me and Mr. Roberts to send back the orders to kill my family.”
“That must have been a terrible trial, Mrs. Jeune. How did you learn Lord Rowe was to blame?”
“His wife told me about their child, thinking to calm my fright while we were waiting for Mr. Roberts to take me to England. But in the next room, Lord Rowe and Mr. Roberts were talking. He must have been giving him the orders to kill my family.”
“But you did not hear him say anything?”
“No. But I had already taken my revenge. I had seen the diamonds and knew they would travel with Mr. Roberts and me, so I told my uncle’s people, the ones who brought me from France—they remained near me, you see, until then, to keep me safe.
I told them to kill the family as soon as I left Antwerp.
They also gave me a gun for my protection on my journey to England.
I planned to take the treasure, and nobody would know. ”
Darcy looked at Richard, unprepared for Mrs. Jeune to confess such a thing.
“Kill which family?” Richard asked slowly.
“Lord and Lady Rowe and their child. After my uncle’s men killed them, they came to London to collect payment, bringing proof. Over in that box you will find Lord Rowe’s pocket watch. I did have a miniature portrait and a baby blanket, as well, but they have been mislaid.”
They had known nothing of who had killed Lord Rowe or why.
The girl could not have known yet that her family was under suspicion for treason.
That reason had to have been added in hindsight.
This woman had planned the murder of a family for nothing more than the diamonds.
Lord and Lady Rowe would have identified her as the girl they had rescued.
“What about the diamonds? Did you take them from Mr. Roberts?” Richard brought the focus back to something they still had some control over, unlike the murder of an innocent family.
Darcy walked to the box she had indicated, though, and rummaged through sundries until he found a pocket watch with words engraved on the back: To Oliver, with all my love. Sbr. He slipped the watch into his pocket.
“I know you have found the last of my diamonds. I had no one when I came to this country because Lord Rowe had all my family killed. I needed the diamonds to survive.”
“You will stay in this house under guard until Monday morning, at which time, you will be transported to London to face trial for crimes against the Crown.”
Richard ushered Darcy out of the house and to an inn before he could ask Mrs. Jeune why she had sent Wickham after Elizabeth. Almost certainly, it was as they thought: She had been trying to hurt Darcy. Mrs. Jeune’s decisions did not all seem rational.