Page 38 of A Spinster for the Rakish Duke
“I want to be, but we did all of this to find you. I’m sure he will understand that I needed to make sure you got home safely,” Emma said, more to reassure herself than her brother.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
“You know we can’t arrest you, Your Grace.” The firm but weary voice of the chief constable told him. “If you had anything to do with these matters, it’s best to confess now and save us all a little hassle.” The voice was sympathetic but held an edge of annoyance it tried to soften, even if it didn’t necessarily succeed.
“I will not confess to a crime I didn’t commit,” Donovan said sharply. The interrogation had been going on in his sitting room for two hours now. “I keep telling you, we need to talk to the house staff to find out how that man got in here.”
“And I keep telling you, Your Grace, that we can talk to the staff once you and I are done with our business.”
Donovan let out a sigh of aggravation. “Listen, constable. If there is anyone here who is complicit, be it through bribery, blackmail, coercion, or any such reasons, of that young man ending up in my wine cellar, then each moment they aren’t in our presence isone more they have to escape and take any evidence they have with them. I’m not going anywhere, you’ll make sure of that, but they need to be kept here too.” His voice was insistent to the point that it verged on pleading.
The chief constable studied him with a hard eye for a moment before he walked to the sitting-room door, opened it, and gave a muffled command to the other constables outside. A few minutes after his return, the staff that supported the Manor of Lowe while the Duke was away stood in the room before Donovan.
“Which one of you knows how Benjamin Bradford ended up in the wine cellar?” Donovan asked calmly, but the calm demeanor only lasted a few moments of silence after he asked when no one volunteered to answer. Donovan’s voice chilled. “I am demanding an answer. How did that man end up in the wine cellar?”
The stable master stepped forward. “Excuse me, Your Grace. We are all hesitant to answer because our answer might be viewed as incriminating.”
“Incriminating to whom?” Donovan asked skeptically.
“Why, to yourself, Your Grace,” the stable master told him, the hesitation in his voice becoming stronger. “The Manor received letters instructing us not to enter the wine cellar but to place food and water outside at the same times every day. The letters were all signed by Your Grace.”
Donovan was dumbfounded. “But... I issued no such instructions.” Donovan insisted to the constable who was now eyeing him with incredulity.
“How would you explain them then, Your Grace?” the chief constable asked. “These are your own people saying they were instructed. Would all of you testify to the truth of what this man says?” the constable asked and pointed at the stable master.
The rest of the house nodded grimly in return, clearly unhappy with the circumstances.
“I don’t know. This can’t be true. No letters were sent to the manor,” Donovan insisted.
“Oh, they were sent,” came a voice from the door. “Just not by my dear brother.” There stood Alistair, clearly disheveled from either sleeping or drinking, most likely both.
“You're the Duke’s brother?” the constable asked. “You smell like a brewery.”
“That may be, constable,” Alistair stumbled into the room. “But a brewery that will prove the Duke of Lowe is innocent.”
“Alistair,” Donovan hissed, “what are you doing here? I forbade you from coming here.”
“I know. That’s why I rode here the next day to get drunk as hell and wait to confront you and Lady Cheek.”
Donovan raised his balled-up fist, and Alistair held up his hands. “Woah, hold on. It’s a good thing I did because then I found these letters,” Alistair held them up, “instructing the household to hold Mr. Bradford in the cellar. The thing is, constable, I’ve been living with my brother the whole time, and I can assure you he didn’t send any of these letters.”
“You are hardly a credible witness,” the constable remarked, wrinkling his nose at Alistair.
“Yeah, most constables tell me that. That's why I took the time to ride back to London and get this.” Alistair handed Donovan a thick bundle of papers tied together.
“What’s this?” Donovan asked.
“Testimonials from multiple witnesses. Delivery men mostly, but a few paper and ink providers as well as one very helpful sweets salesman. More than a dozen London citizens, who have sworn, in writing, that they saw the man hand those letters off, and that he bore no resemblance whatsoever to my brother the Duke. Several of these delivery men even go on to say how they were hired to bring the letter to other couriers, so they wouldn’t know where it was going after they brought it and such. I tracked them all down though.”
Donovan, amazed at his brother's discovery, began to flip through the papers. Proof of his innocence was right there. “How did you find all this? Where did it come from?”
“It wasn’t easy at first,” Alistair admitted, “but once I got one person to talk, and I knew that something sinister was afoot, I remembered that little wager you made with Ronnik. I hope you don’t mind, but I cashed in your favor. It was with his help that I was able to secure these interviews so quickly. Turns out they were coming from the Inn of Courts. Some solicitor you pissed off with all your badgering maybe? I never looked past that. I was on my way back to free Mr. Bradford actually, but it looks like I am just in time for a completely different party. Lucky me,” Alistair commented as the two other men marveled at his revelation.
Donovan went rigid at the mention of the Inn. “Constable, please tell me that Mr. Dole is still in Lowe.”
“The informant? Yes, he was quite insistent about having protection on his way back to London, but we couldn’t spare the men until tomorrow, so he is staying at a nearby inn until then,” the constable informed him. “You are saying that Mr. Dole is the true guilty party?”
“He’s not saying it; I’m saying it,” Alistair interrupted and shoved the stack of papers at the constable, “and I’m not saying it, the evidence is saying it,” he added belligerently.
