Page 109 of Enslaved
“Plausible?” Prudence could apparently hold her tongue no longer.
“Plausible to Diana. All the answers lie hidden. If she is allowed to talk about it openly, I believe she will get it all out of her system and the truth will surface.”
“You have no guarantee of this, Dr. Wentworth. Is it possible she will always be delusionary?” Richard asked quietly.
“I wish I could tell you otherwise, but as you say, there are no guarantees. However, she functions normally in every other way and most of us have eccentricities. May I see my patient?”
“I’m sorry, Doctor, she hasn’t returned from Hardwick Hall yet,” Richard replied. “I just wanted to clear up a few things before she arrives.”
“Dr. Wentworth, I would appreciate it if none of this went any further,” Prudence said stiffly.
“Mrs. Davenport, I assure you I wouldn’t dream of discussing my patient with anyone. Only the fact that you are her legal guardians allows me to even discuss the matter with you.”
As Richard closed the front door, Prudence opened the door that led from the drawing room into the dining room. A barrel-chested man stepped across the threshold.
“Were you able to hear everything, Doctor?”
“Indeed I was, madam. It appears you have every reason to be alarmed.”
As Richard joined them, he was most gratified to receive a look of admiration from Prudence. The idea had come to him out of the blue, not when Diana began rambling about Romans, but when Richard realized she was going to refuse to marry Peter Hardwick. Why share her fortune when they could have it all?
He could pay the right doctor to have her certified insane and institutionalized. He would manage her legal affairs and her estate once she was declared incompetent.
“Why Richard, dear, you are brilliant,” Prudence declared when he explained his plan. “Our consciences will be perfectly clear because Diana is truly deranged. She needs to be put where she will be guarded twenty-four hours a day. For her own protection she must not be allowed to wander off again.”
“We cannot have a doctor from Bath or even the County of Somerset. The earl has far too much influence here.”
“Surely in all your dealings with the law you know of a doctor who could be persuaded?”
Suddenly Richard thought of the perfect man for their plan. No wonder the scheme had come to him so readily. Two years before he’d been involved in a similar situation. A prominent family had the heir who inherited declared incompetent, and Dr. Clayton Bognor of Wiltshire had signed the papers to have him committed. Chippenham, Wiltshire, was only twenty miles away and Davenport had no difficulty persuading the honorable doctor to return with him to Bath.
Richard looked up at the tall man gravely. “I’m sure when you see and hear the patient for yourself, Dr. Bognor, you will agree with my wife and I that our niece is unlikely to recover.”
As Prudence put on her fashionable bonnet and firmly anchored it with a jet hatpin, she cautioned, “We may meet with resistance when we try to remove her from Hardwick Hall, Doctor.”
“Have no fear, dear lady, I anticipate no difficulty. The law is completely on our side.”
At that moment the doorknocker rapped loudly and Prudence looked out the front window to see who the unwanted caller was. “It’s Diana,” she hissed at Richard.
“How very convenient,” he replied.
“Perhaps I should go back into the dining room for the time being. She’ll be much more forthcoming if she finds the two of you alone,” Clayton Bognor suggested.
Chapter 34
When Richard opened the door, Diana swept in with great authority.
“No servants? I’m amazed, especially since I’m paying for all this. Prudence, you usually can’t manage without half-a-dozen lackeys at your beck and call.”
Prudence flushed darkly. “You will speak to me with respect, young lady!”
“Respect has to be earned, Prudence. All you and Richard have earned is my suspicion, my anger, and my contempt!”
“You are not in your right mind, Diana,” Richard said. “You have turned into another person.”
“One not quite so gullible and naive. Peter Hardwick returned last night, and when I informed him that the wedding was off, he disclosed the secret financial agreement he had with you.”
“We have no secret agreement with Peter Hardwick. He is lying!”
