Page 55 of The Artisan and the Duke
Jules cleared her throat. “So, what are you in here for?”
“Being poor,” Ruby said with a shrug. “It doesn’t take much to end up in a workhouse like this.”
Jules nodded. She had kept working as a mason and a man to keep her family out of houses like this, and yet here she was. “No, it doesn’t,” Jules agreed quietly.
“What did you do?” Ruby asked curiously.
Jules sighed and said, “I had an opinion, and I told people about it.”
***
“Right this way, Your Grace,” the constable said. “With your tip, we were able to catch them while they were trying to remove the carriage. I had almost given up trying to catch these ruffians. They like to change locations frequently, so chances are if they had managed to pick up quick enough, we probably wouldn’t have seen them again.”
Gregory followed the constable to a room in the back of the small jail that the community maintained so that criminals could be detained long enough to be transferred elsewhere. The cell in the back could only fit at the most five people at a time Gregory guessed when he saw the size of it.
Two men were seated on cots in the cell. They rose as Gregory and the constable approached. One of them said, “Look, what’s the meaning of this?”
Gregory recognized the voice. “We have not been properly introduced,” he said to the two men. “My brother was the man you abducted from the inn along with a carriage that belonged to my family.”
The two men exchanged worried looks. The spokesman said, “I don’t know what you speak of. We were just travelling through and saw a carriage. We thought it was stuck and abandoned.”
“I might believe that had I not been the one that helped my brother escape. It was dark, so I will give you the benefit of the doubt that you might have genuinely not recognized me,” Gregory said as he pulled off his riding gloves.
“Now what I want is very simple. Answer me, and I promise that I will do what I can to make your sentence a lenient one.”
The spokesman looked at his friend then said, “What is it that you want?”
“I want the name of the person or persons who hired you to kidnap my brother along with their instructions to you,” Gregory said as he eyed the men. “I think it is a fairly generous offer considering what you did carries a possible trip to the gallows.”
The other man nudged the spokesman’s elbow as if urging him to comply. Finally, the spokesman said, “Alright. We’ll tell you what we know.”
***
Fredrick walked briskly through the halls and made it to the entrance, just as the doorman let in Barrister Dulock. “Barrister,” Fredrick said with a smile. “I hope your arrival means good news.”
“It could potentially,” Barrister Dulock said. “Is His Grace in?”
Fredrick shook his head. “He is away dealing with the men who accosted me. He left me in his stead to meet with you if you should happen to come by. Would you like to go to the study or one of the sitting rooms?”
Barrister Dulock nodded. “Thank you. I would most welcome a brandy. It has been a grueling day.”
“Right this way,” Fredrick said as he turned and walked towards his father’s study, the clink of his cane a soothing reminder that he was overcoming things a bit at a time, or that was how Gregory always talked about it.
In the study, Fredrick poured a tumbler of brandy for the barrister and held it out to the man who took it with a grateful smile. “Thank you so much,” Barrister Dulock said as he lifted the tumbler to his lips.
Fredrick leaned on the corner of his father’s desk and asked, “So, what is this potentially good news?”
“Ah,” Barrister Dulock said as he shifted the tumbler to his opposite hand and pulled a piece of paper out of his coat’s pocket. “This man is the guard that was on duty when the Duchess would have arrived. Only he says she never came to the prison, which is probably why we hit such a wall in trying to find her.”
Fredrick took the paper and found it to be a guard roster with a name circled on it. “What does that mean?”
“It means that she has not been formally indicted. It could just be a glitch in the system, or it could be a sheep’s dress,” Barrister Dulock said.
Fredrick frowned. “I am not familiar with that term,” Fredrick said in confusion.
“Forgive me,” Barrister Dulock said with a smile. “I spent a good deal of time working with Irishmen and picked up some of their habits. It is a method of hiding someone when you would prefer them not to be found. She would most likely be in a place that would not be unusual to find a prisoner, but not as restrictive as the prisons.”
Fredrick snorted. “Would that be a poor house?”
