Page 39 of Good Duke Gone Hard

“Jonathan, please.”

“Jonathan then, I’m not surprised to see you hear so soon. I had imagined you would end the dolorous wait with expediency.”

“Post haste indeed.”

“Your timing is impeccable. Jake Edgely, the bow street runner investigating this for us had planned to meet for lunch to review his final comments.” Mr. Swanson checked his timepiece and tapped it twice. “He should be here shortly.”

“That is–” the assistant’s knock interrupted his reply.

“Mr. Edgely, sir.”

“Send him in,” Mr Swanson declared.

“Sure glad I had planned to come back to see you today, Mr. Swanson.” Jack Edgely looked over to Jonathan and slowly let out a whistle.

“Well, I’ll be. Nice to finally see the face I’ve been investigating.” Jake ostensibly recognized Jonathan from the miniature Gregory provided them.

“I guess you’re here to hear all about it now, aren’t you?”

Jonathan stood perfectly still. He thought he would have been shaking the information out of the man, but now in this brief moment before past met present, he wanted to wait, dwell, and absorb everything he possibly could.

Why had he left Margaret so quickly? Why hadn’t he given an explanation? He hadn’t decided about whether he wanted her to know yet or not. How would he manage the truth? It was enough to think about, nevermind managing her anticipation and reaction to everything. He had planned to disclose everything to her in time. Once he knew. And once he knew what to do about it. But this morning, and right now, he had no clue what he was going to hear or how he would react to it.

“Glad we’re sitting for this one,” Jake broke into his silence. “Where should I start?” It wasn’t a question, just a musing. And then Jake proceeded to divulge the truth.

“It started with Gregory asking us to find out what happened. A few years ago when you first went missing that is.” He paused to scratch his head, “Couldn’t find out nothing. For years.”

Jonathan’s eyes must have widened because Jake filled in, “He didn’t tell you we looked that long? Well we did. Longer than he’ll admit to you. Anyways, then you returned and Gregory threw more money at it.” He clucked his tongue. “This time we had a starting place, Glaston.” He rubbed a hand down his thigh. “Thank God for Glaston.” He murmured.

“I couldn’t agree more.”

“Of course the doctor knew nothing, but he was a good fellow. He gave a description of the sailor that brought you to him and the boat you had been on. I guess he had you detained in the hospital for a while so you couldn’t do your own investigating.”

Jonathan nodded. It had taken some physical restraints and then a hell of a lot of persuading to convince Jonathan that he didn’t have the resources, and health, to rely on to conduct his own investigations. The doctor kept saying he might wake up one day and remember everything. One day turned into two. Two turned into ten, and then instead of days, months went by. And Jonathan had been content with the doctor. He had regained his full strength over several months and wherever there were gaps in the skills expected of Jonathan, Dr. Walker had been quick and more than happy to educate or train him.

“No matter. I can’t say how much you would have uncovered on your own, especially without the funds I had access to.”

Mr. Swanson glared at Jake. “Ah well! Someone should tell the man what a loyal friend he has.

Jonathan was speechless. He knew Gregory was his best friend, but he had had no indication of the time and money spent by him.

“Anyways, back to the story. I followed the trail as far as I could, and then looped back around it several more times. The sailor and captain who dropped you at Glaston didn’t know how you lost your memory or who you were. It seems as though you slipped onto the boat under an assumed identity. I spoke to each person who boarded the ship and finally tripped on some gossip. Thank God for husband-hunting mothers. She remembered a dashing but brooding man whom she had hopes of introducing to her daughter. Turns out that man had also used an assumed identity. John Smith. I got an accurate description of the man and just a few weeks ago found him dead. I saw the body, so I’ll spare you the details.”

Jonathan winced but then nodded for Jake to continue.

“We didn’t reach out to you right away because there was more to the story. I pounded on the doors of the war office again. Of course they were tightlipped and revealed nothing.” Jake shook his head and clucked his tongue again. “So I had to get crafty. I found the weakest link and began hounding him for information. Finally he delivered. Not much, but I got a working hypothesis on it all now.”

Stunned, Jonathan uttered, “That’s it? A working hypothesis?”

Jake glared at him, “That’s it. It’s a working hypothesis because we won’t get anyone from the war office formally issuing an apology for sending in an untrained spy to do an impossible task against possibly one of the most lethal agents out there.” Jake wasn’t finished though, “It’s a working hypothesis,” he drawled the last two words, “because we can’t have a dead man confirm the events.”

“There must be a way to confirm it.”

“There ain’t.”

“There must be.”

“The only way this’ll ever be confirmed is if some guilty conscious pens you a personal note on their deathbed. Too few people know anything at all, and for those that do, there’s too much at stake for them.”

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