Chapter 32
“Right,” Julian said, pulling himself together with visible effort. “Charles—send word at once. Summon the Duke of Sinclair and the others, you know who I mean.” Charles went at a run. “Tell him to make haste!” Julian shouted after him down the stairs.
“Richmond, assemble every servant in this house. I want to question all of them, not only Mrs. Holt. Someone else must have seen something. The gardeners, the coachmen, everyone.”
“And the carriage, Your Grace?”
“Send men out after it at once. Get a full description from Mrs. Holt of what she saw.”
“Yes, Your Grace” Richmond hurried off.
“I want to help,” Clara said. “If you are questioning the servants, I want to be there.”
He turned to her. “You will. We shall do it in the drawing room. You and Marianne will sit with me and tell me at once if anything anyone says does not sit right. Richmond, fetch Mrs. Parker. I wish to speak to the both of you first.”
A few minutes later, the housekeeper and butler entered the drawing room. Both looked crushed, as though their own child was missing.
“Mrs. Parker,” Julian said, “tell me. How could anyone have got into the house?”
“Richmond?”
“Nobody came through the front door,” Richmond said. “I have been stationed at my post all day. Whenever I had to step away, the under-butler took over.”
“We will have to speak to the under-butler.”
“I already have, Your Grace,” Richmond said quickly.
“I do not care that you spoke to him. I will speak to him.” Clara heard the rough edge in his voice. She had never seen him this agitated, not once, not even on the worst nights at Dover.
“Of course, Your Grace. I shall have him sent here at once.”
“Good.” Julian turned. “Mrs. Parker, who was with David? We already know Mrs. Holt was outside with Molly. You or Nell? How could neither of you have noticed?”
Mrs. Parker swallowed. “We were both below stairs, Your Grace. Mary was watching him.”
“Mary? Who is Mary? Why was she not with him the whole shift?”
“One of the housemaids. There was an incident in the kitchen this morning, Your Grace. One of the scullery maids burned herself badly on the stove, and I was needed in the still room. Nell’s father is an apothecary, so she has experience in these kinds of things also.
So we were both below stairs, and Mary was given charge of David.
She is reliable, Your Grace. I would not have left him with her otherwise. ”
“Where is she now?”
“Nell has gone to fetch her, along with the others. We knew you would wish to see everyone.”
Richmond remained, watching him. “Your Grace, if I may—”
“You may not,” Julian said.
“Julian.” Clara rose and went to stand beside him. “Let him speak. Go on, Richmond.”
“I only meant to say, Your Grace, that there is a great deal of confusion below stairs. They do not understand why it was thought necessary to watch the child so closely, and now with all of this, they wonder even more what is happening in this house.”
“You tell them nothing,” Julian said. “Tell them only that I will be questioning them today and that they are to answer truthfully. That is all.”
Richmond bowed and went.
“I do think it would serve better if you did not speak to them quite so harshly,” Clara said.
“I know it.” He raised his hands. “I am vexed beyond anything I have felt in my life. How does this happen? How does a man simply walk into our home and take the child?” He sat down heavily, and she sat beside him. Marianne stood in the far corner, looking out of the window.
Clara took his hand. He wrapped his fingers around hers and held on, and for a moment, they simply sat there, drawing whatever strength they could from one another.
“We will find him,” Marianne said quietly. “Somehow, we will find him.”
“We have not been able to find my cousin,” Julian said with more bitterness than Clara had ever heard from him.
“Not yet. But we know who she was with now. Your man…”
“Received the message only this morning,” Julian said. “He would not even have had time to act on it. I did not think Devereau would strike so quickly. How foolish of me. How very foolish.”
“You could not have known,” Clara said. “None of us knew what this man was capable of. Everyone believed our story. Why should they not have?”
“Because he already knew,” Julian said. “He must have put it together. Whether or not he was following Arabella here, the moment he heard we had a child of the correct age, the correct circumstances, he would have known David was not truly ours despite our story. Remember—the people who believed our story do not know about Arabella or her child at all.”
Clara knew it was true, but she did not want him carrying the weight of it as though the whole catastrophe was his alone.
“You have done everything in your power, from the very first day, to keep him safe and to find her. We must believe it will turn out right.”
“You are so strong,” he said. “I admire you.”
“I am shaking like a leaf inside. I want to curl up in a corner and cry, truly. That is what I want to do. But we cannot. We must stay strong. We must—”
“Excuse me,” Richmond said, returning to the doorway.
Julian raised his head at once. “Have you found her?”
“Not yet, Your Grace. But we have visitors. Your friends are here and their wives.”
He nodded, and Clara followed him into the hallway where the Langleys had gathered. At once she was surrounded by Helena, Evelyn, and Marianne, the three she felt closest to. Charlotte and Frances stood back a little, watching with sympathy plain on their faces.
Julian was instantly surrounded by his five friends, voices breaking out all at once—words of comfort, threats of exactly what they intended to do to the scoundrel who had taken the baby, all of it tangled together until none of it was distinguishable.
“Let us go into the drawing room,” Clara called, fearing that such a display in front of the servants, however well-intentioned, would only stoke more talk. They moved together into the room, and every seat was filled within moments.
“Tell us exactly what happened,” Nathaniel said. “Your man came and said David had been taken, and that Devereau…”
Julian looked around the room. “Does everyone here know the whole story?”
Nathaniel nodded. “Between Gideon, Helena, Evelyn, and me, everyone has been told what we are dealing with regarding Devereau and the child. Do not fret. We will find him.”
“And perhaps along with him, we will find his mother,” Charlotte added.
“Right.” Gideon clapped his hands together. “Stanhope has already been informed and is watching for Devereau. We need a record of all the family’s holdings, and we’ll search each one.”
“And every business,” Lucian added. “I think we ought to split up. Marianne and I could go together, Helena with—”
“Some of us should visit the gentlemen’s clubs,” Rhys suggested. “We cannot take the ladies there.”
Evelyn nodded. “True enough. How best do we find a full list of Devereau’s holdings and his family’s?”
“Steven Devers,” Julian said at once. “A friend of mine. I will write to him directly. He does not live far.”
“Then perhaps Evelyn and James can pair off and try the clubs,” Marianne said. “Try to find out where he likes to stay aside from the properties his family owns. Francis and I can take Julian’s letter to Mr. Devers and speak to him in person.”
“Good thinking.” Lucian smiled at his wife.
They continued in this vein for another twenty minutes until everyone had a task and had agreed to return in six hours.
“One more thing,” Helena said. “We ought to go to the scandal sheets. Put a story in the papers.”
“Do we want that kind of attention?” Clara asked. “We have spent weeks trying to make them stop talking about us.”
“I know,” Julian said, “but she is right. If we put it about that our son David has been taken by this man Devereau, others may well come forward with information.”
“There is, of course, a danger,” Nathaniel said, tilting his head, “that the true story comes out in the process. Are you prepared for that, Julian?”
Julian was quiet for a moment. “There is little reason left to maintain the charade in any case. All of it was meant to keep Devereau from learning that David is his son, and we have already failed at that.”
“Then everything we have done was for nothing,” Clara said quietly.
“Not for nothing.” He looked at her, and something in his expression softened despite everything. “Something good came of all of it. You.”
A murmur went through the room as their friends tried to make sense of what had just passed between them.
“Are you saying the two of you…” Helena started.
“Yes,” Julian said. “I know there are a great many answers owed to all of you, but now is not the time. Now is the time to go and do what has been assigned.”
Their friends agreed, however reluctantly, and dispersed in every direction like a flock of carrier pigeons released at once.
Julian, somewhat calmer now, resumed his questioning of the household staff with Mrs. Holt sitting beside Clara to listen in. They gathered further details about the carriage. Not only had Mrs. Holt seen it, but several of the gardeners had too, along with two of the neighboring farmhands.
None of it led anywhere conclusive.
They had just finished with the last of the outdoor staff when Julian looked up sharply.
“Mrs. Parker. Why are you lurking by the door?”
Clara looked over and saw the housekeeper hovering in the corner, wringing her hands. Behind her stood someone else.
“We have found Mary,” she said.
“Then bring her in,” Julian said.
Mrs. Parker clasped her hands in front of her and shifted her weight from one foot to the other, a manner of behaving Clara had never once seen from her. The woman looked thoroughly unsettled.
The girl who entered could not have been more than fifteen.
Clara realized she had never once seen her before, nor had any idea what her position in the household was.
She must have been one of the junior maids who lit the fires before dawn and moved through the house like a ghost—felt rather than seen.
Clara felt an immediate pang of sympathy for her. The girl looked terrified.
“Mary, is it?” Julian said.
“She has been with us these last two months, Your Grace,” Mrs. Parker said. “As a junior housemaid.”
“Mary has something to tell you, Your Grace. My Lady.” Mrs. Parker’s tone was grave. She nudged the girl’s shoulder. “Go on, then. Tell them.”
“I am so sorry,” Mary said. “I didn’t know there was any danger. I didn’t know there was anything wrong, I didn’t…”
“What did you do?” Julian demanded in a tone that Clara knew at once would do nothing but make the poor girl shrink further into herself which it promptly did.
“Mary,” Clara said gently, getting up and crossing to stand at her side. “Tell us what happened. Take your time.”
The girl looked at her with something close to gratitude.
“There was an accident in the kitchen this morning, and Mrs. Parker was needed there, so I went upstairs when Nell asked me to. She asked me to sit with the little lord for a while, and I did. I stayed near half an hour, but then I had to…” she faltered,“… I had to relieve myself, My Lady.”
“You had to what,” Julian said, his voice rough.
Tears sprang to the girl’s eyes. “I only went quickly. I was gone perhaps ten minutes. When I came back the cradle was empty, and I thought perhaps Mrs. Parker had taken him, or Mrs. Holt had come back for him. I went downstairs and asked Nell and Mrs.…”
“She came to me at once,” Mrs. Parker said. “I told her Mrs. Holt had likely returned and taken him out to find her.”
“I went outside and looked everywhere she likes to walk with the children,” Mary said, “but I could not see anything. And then I saw Mrs. Holt come rushing up, and then Charles and Mr. Richmond all rushing about, and I—”
She pressed her hands over her face and looked down. Mrs. Parker put a hand on her shoulder. The girl flinched away from it.
“I’m so sorry,” she said again. “I didn’t mean anything by it. I never meant any harm to that precious little angel.”
Julian’s chest rose and fell. Clara could see exactly how much restraint it was taking him not to shout at this trembling fifteen-year-old, and she placed a hand at the small of his back. To her relief, he exhaled.
“Very well,” he said. “You may go.”
“Am I—will I lose my place?”
He took a breath, and this time, Clara spoke before he could.
“No,” she said firmly. “This was an honest mistake. You did not know there was any danger here because no one told you there was. Your position is quite safe. But in future, do not hide yourself away out of fear. It only makes things worse for everyone, including you.”
The girl curtsied deeply. “Thank you, My Lady.”
Julian turned and walked to the window where Mrs. Holt still stood looking out.
“Incompetence,” he muttered under his breath.
“She did not know any better,” Mrs. Parker said. “The little one has never been watched so closely before, and nobody told the staff there was any danger at all. That falls to us, Your Grace, not to her.”
“Thank you, Mrs. Parker. You may go,” Julian said, without turning around. Clara placed a hand on the housekeeper’s arm and nodded for her to leave.
Once she had gone, Clara tipped her chin towards Mrs. Holt, who took the hint and left them as well. When it was just the two of them, Clara stepped closer.
“You do not need to say it. I was unnecessarily harsh with that girl.”
“It is understandable. But she is only a girl, and truly, none of them knew there was any danger at all.”
“I know it.” He rubbed a hand over his face. “Perhaps we approached this wrong from the start. Perhaps we ought to have told the servants something, anything, to keep them more vigilant. I do not know. I do not trust my own judgment anymore.”
Clara turned him gently towards her and cupped his face. “Your judgment has been sound throughout all of this. Do not let anyone tell you otherwise. Not even that voice in your own head.” She paused. “What is truly wrong?”
“Clara.” His voice cracked slightly on her name. “I do not know what to do. For the first time in my life, I am entirely without a plan.”
She wanted to comfort him properly, but the honest truth was she felt precisely the same. From this moment, there was nothing more either of them could do but wait.
“We will hope,” she said. “We will pray. And then we will believe, with everything we have, that what we hoped and prayed for will come to pass.”
He wrapped his arms around her and held her close, and in that embrace, against everything, Clara found a small flicker of hope still alive.