Page 14 of An Unwilling Earl
“Did Lady Morris abuse her?” Jacob found a hard kernel of anger at the thought of Charlotte being beaten.
“Maybe. Probably. Charlotte never said. But there were other things. She called Charlotte’s mother a whore and told Charlotte that she was a whore, too. She made Charlotte pray for hours on end, on her knees, on a rough floor. Sin to Lady Morris is worse than, well, there is nothing worse than sin in her eyes, andeverythingis sinful.”
Jacob absorbed this new information.
“She’s not a nice woman, my lord.”
“No. It doesn’t sound like it.”
“I’m not surprised Charlotte ran away.”
He looked at her sharply. “Do you think she ran away?”
“Well of course. What else… You don’t think…” Her eyes widened. “Do you think Lady Morris did something to her?”
He thought of the dead women but refrained from mentioning them. It was a delicate subject, not appropriate for mixed company. But more than that he didn’t want to worry Lady Sarah unnecessarily.
“I don’t know. I don’t know what happened to Charlotte.”
Sarah’s eyes narrowed. “You said Lady Morris asked you to locate Charlotte. I’m assuming she’s paying you?”
“Yes. No. What I mean is that yes, she offered to pay me to find Charlotte, but I turned the offer down.”
Sarah grinned. “I’m sure she hated that. So, if you’re not being paid, why are you here asking about Charlotte?”
Jacob looked down into his empty teacup he was still holding and carefully put the cup and saucer on the table next to Sarah’s. “I don’t know. I’m intrigued by the whole thing. I’m curious about what might have happened to Charlotte. Where did she go? Where is she now?”
Sarah contemplated him for some time, as if she were weighing a decision. “Charlotte and I became friends when we were younger. Her father rented some acreage from my father. Just a little land to farm so he could feed himself and his daughter. Nothing much. He loved Charlotte to distraction. My mother had been friends with Charlotte’s mother when they were younger, and my mother checked on Mr. Morris and Charlotte occasionally. My mother tried her best to be a mother figure to Charlotte, but then Mr. Morris died, and Charlotte was forced to live with her terrible aunt. Lady Morris refused to let Charlotte visit us or us to visit Charlotte. We communicated through smuggled letters.”
“What could Lady Morris possibly have against your friendship? You obviously come from a well-off family.”
“Who knows? She never needed a reason for anything. Maybe she surmised that someone in my family committed some sort of sin.”
“When did you last hear from Charlotte?”
Sarah seemed to think about it. “Maybe a month ago. It’s not unusual for us to go weeks or a month without communicating. It was difficult to get letters smuggled in. There was a maid in the Morris household that Charlotte could trust. Her name was Penny. But she disappeared around the last time I heard from Charlotte.”
“Disappeared?”
“As you can imagine, Lady Morris can be a difficult woman to work for.”
“I’m beginning to get that impression. After Penny left, your line of communication was cut off?”
“Unfortunately, yes.”
They fell into silence, each lost in their own thoughts. Sarah poured more tea, but Jacob was beginning to realize that it wasn’t tea that was going to warm his insides. After hearing about Charlotte’s less-than-ideal life, he was chilled for other reasons.
“Do you think Miss Morris ran away?” Jacob asked.
“If she was smart she would have.”
“But she had nowhere to go, and I would think she had no money. Do you know where she could have gone?”
“No,” Lady Sara said with reluctance. “She has no one. But Charlotte is smart. She would have figured that all out. I’m just a bit miffed that she didn’t contact me.”
Lady Crawford coughed delicately, and Jacob realized by the very dim light coming through the windows that he’d overstayed his welcome.
“My apologies. It’s time for me to go. Lady Sarah. Lady Crawford.” He stood and bowed to Sarah, then to her mother. “Thank you for entertaining me this gloomy afternoon.”
