Page 82 of The Curious Life of the Unfortunate Duchess
“Leo, you must unhand him,” she begged. “He will do us no good if he does not speak.”
“He will speak,” Leonard hissed. “Will you not?”
“Yes!” Jasper squealed. “I will tell you what I know, Your Grace but you must believe me—”
“What is the meaning of this?” David cried, his horse stopping in the yard next to the trio. His father quickly followed suit, the two examining the scene with worry.
“Duke, what are you doing to that boy?” Percival demanded.
“He knows more about the night of the gala,” Catherine explained nervously. “Leo, please, put him down.”
It was only then that Leonard realized he held the boy in the air. Inhaling deeply, he dropped Jasper unceremoniously into a pile on the dirt but he did not step back.
“Out with it!” he insisted. “Or you will know fear, I promise you.”
“I was paid to stop the carriage,” Jasper whimpered. “The man, he…”
Jasper took a shuddering breath.
“They were only meant to rob the ladies. I did not know they were going to take her, Your Grace.”
“Oh Jasper,” Catherine moaned. “How could you permit this to happen? Elizabeth was so kind to you, to everyone! This is your home! We treat you well and you would set us up to be robbed?”
“Who was this man?” Leonard growled, not giving Jasper a change to apologize or explain himself. What was done, was done and there was nothing that could be changed about the past. All that mattered now was finding Elizabeth.
“Do you know him?” Leonard yelled. “Speak, Jasper!”
“I never met him before that night, Your Grace. He approached me after the ladies went inside. He gave me one pound and I was to stop outside the clearing on the road where he and his friend would be waiting.”
“You greedy, sneaky fool,” Percival howled. “How could you?”
“Go on,” Leonard insisted. “Tell me all of it.”
“They robbed the ladies, Your Grace, and when I thought it was over, the man who paid me…he hit me over the head and…and he laughed at me for being naïve. I begged them not to take Miss Elizabeth—”
“He did, Leo,” Catherine confirmed but that did nothing to sate Leonard’s rage. If not for Jasper, Elizabeth would never have been taken. It was plotted by a man on his own staff, a man he had paid, and clothed, and fed.
“Tell me about this man,” the Duke spat. “I want every detail you can recall and do not tell me you have told me everything.”
“I have told you everything I can recall about his face—both of them but they wore scarves. I saw so little. But, Your Grace, I did not tell you something I should have.”
“Well? Out with it!” everyone snapped in unison.
“His name.”
The group gaped at him.
“You know his name?” Percival choked. “He told you his name?”
Jasper shook his head.
“I heard the other man call him by his name—Cooper.”
“Is that his surname?”
“Is he the one who paid you?”
“Is he the one who hit you?”
