Page 80 of The Odd Riddle of the Lost Duchess
“I’m as much in the dark as you are, Leverton.” Noah mollified, while he unashamedly took Emmeline’s hand. “Let’s just listen to what they have to say.”
“Very well,” Leverton said, as he tore his eyes from the two and looked to the seated Duchess and then back to his sister.
* * *
Noah’s mother began speaking, “You see, I have been a victim, for twenty years, of your grandmother’s tyranny, and lately, I fear her insanity. The previous Duke, my beloved husband, was a very strong and wise soul, who truly loved me, but she never approved of the match and grew to hate me.”
“I started to recognize the depth of that hatred after my beloved died, and she replaced my mourning clothes–which, although hastily made, were appropriate for a modern, young widow–with dreadful, heavy, old-fashioned gowns that were a chore to even wear. I was so filled with grief, I let it go. I didn’t care what I wore. Indeed, I was in a daze for weeks.”
“As I started to emerge from my mind-numbing grief, I gradually realized all the meals I ordered were being replaced by your grandmother’s choices. Everything to do with the running of the manor, and indeed, the grounds, and the holdings reverted back to her rule, as it had been before her son’s marriage to me. If that had been done in a spirit of caring and concern, I would have welcomed her actions. But it wasn’t–power and money were the only things important to my mother-in-law. She became more and more narrow minded, tyrannical, and even cruel.”
“Of course, my overwhelming concern was for you, Noah, the brightest, kindest, the most well-behaved child there ever was. With every particle of my being, I protected you from her domination and sent you off to school as soon as you were of age to go. In fact, that is why you spent that summer with your uncle, whose estate was next to Leverton’s–to keep you away from your grandmother’s bullying.”
“With you away, my son, she focused more of her evil on me–it seemed to give her a sense of power to make me miserable. I had no surviving family to turn to, and I became afraid, very afraid. I finally comprehended that I could trust no one. Favorite servants–my own lady’s maid–disappeared, and were replaced withherhand-picked minions. “
“Things would be shifted in my rooms, and in cupboards, my mail moved from where I had last put it. Favorite items were ruined or simply vanished. At times, my door was locked after I had retired for the night, and just as stealthily opened in the morning. I remember clearly the first time I noticed a nasty aftertaste to my after-dinner sherry. That night, I slept for twelve hours straight, and woke with a terrible headache and dulled senses. When it happened again, I drew the conclusion that once a month, at the full moon, my beverage was being drugged. I would surreptitiously pour out the strange-tasting liquid, and feign sleep. Somehow, that made it easier to get through those days each month and gave me a sliver of control over my life. I never had the courage to find out what happened while your grandmother thought I was sequestered in a locked room and in a deep sleep.”
Totally shocked, Noah turned to George, seeing his own horror mirrored on the other Duke’s face. He started to speak but silenced himself as his mother went on.
“Once, I went to pay a call on a neighbor that my mother-in-law didn’t approve of. Halfway there, the carriage pulled off the road. I signaled the coachman and asked what was the matter. He replied that we needed to wait awhile. Mystified, I sat quietly waiting for over an hour. Finally, the carriage started moving, slowly turned until facing the way we had come and went back to Newberry Manor. Still not understanding, thinking there was a problem with the horses, all was made plain when I looked up and saw my mother-in-law gloating down at the carriage, laughing in triumph. Truly, I was a prisoner of the Dowager Duchess, and my own home became a gaol.”
“For the past twenty years, I have always been afraid. Afraid of the food I was eating. I was afraid of what might happen while I was sleeping. I was afraid whenever I spoke, that I would say something that angeredher. Over the years, I found life was decidedly better if I did as the Dowager Duchess wanted. And that is why the old witch didn’t realize that this one time, I acted on my own, to keep Emmeline, my son’s chosen bride, safe.”
Overwhelmed with this revelation of decades of abuse, the others all started asking questions, talking over one another. Noah’s mother adamantly refused to reveal the details of how she had managed Emmeline’s kidnapping, or who she had gotten to help her–as they had done her a great favor and she wouldn’t expose them to censure. Or worse, as the Dowager Duchess still had much power. Although Emmeline was safe, nothing had yet changed in Noah’s mother’s life.
Noah and George were still confused over the whole episode, and while overjoyed to see Emmeline alive and safe, they were yet under the pall of melancholia that months of grief had enshrouded them in. Together, they respectfully demanded a more in-depth explanation of the past months’ deeds.
“When I spoke with Emmeline at the ball and realized the depth of her feelings for Noah, I advised her to do whatever she could to help their relationship along, to work with George, so he would approve the match. I had thought my urgings would push Emmeline to succeed in overcoming her family’s prejudice. But when I returned to sit with the Dowager Duchess and heard her quiet ramblings, I learned she had planned Emmeline’s death, and I knew I had only that one chance to act. Again, I won’t tell you who I spoke with, but I will say that I was able to make arrangements that very night, for Emmeline and her coachman to be abducted and taken far away, and kept safe. Those plans weren’t enacted for a couple of weeks, not until Emmeline went on her visit to her dear friend. Each day, I prayed she would be safe, and that I could get her to safety before my mother-in-law’s hired killer struck. Emmeline was safe as long as she stayed home.”
Still very calm, and smiling slightly, the Duchess continued. “You see, I had one other piece of intelligence that night. Your grandmother, although not believing it, had been told by her physician that her liver was diseased–that it was the cause of her yellowing skin–and that she had a short time left on this earth. Perhaps that sickness traveled to her mind, or to her heart, I don’t know. But I have often thought, these past months, that her insane action in ordering Emmeline’s death was the product of a diseased body.”
“My overwhelming concern was to keep Emmeline safe, for Noah. I didn’t think much beyond that. When I saw how deeply Noah was wounded by her supposed death, I was encouraged that I was doing the right thing. Truly, the two truths–Emmeline’s disappearance and supposed death, and her enforced captivity in that safe place–were blurred together in my mind. What was starkly clear was that the Dowager Duchess paid an assassin to eliminate Emmeline, and with her disappearance, your grandmother thought she succeeded. Had she ever found out that the girl was still alive, she would simply do it all over again–and next time, we might not be successful in keeping her safe.” The Duchess smiled and sat back, sure she had made everything clear in all their minds.
George was still baffled on some points, however. Turning to his sister, he asked, “What did you think was going on? Were you forced to cooperate with your abductors? Did they hurt you?” His anguished voice matched the torment in his eyes.
Emmeline looked down, then at George, then at the Duchess, everywhere but at her brother. Finally, she said, “Well, the coachman, Mr. Allen, knew some of it. He pulled the coach off the road and told me it was in need of repair. Very soon, another carriage came, and he bade me switch over to it, so we might be on our way and home before dusk. He was acting strangely, though, and I will admit,” here she blushed deeply and again looked down at her hands, “that I thought Noah had perhaps arranged a rendezvous, perhaps with the intent of going to Scotland…”
George turned a fierce gaze on Noah, who leaned back and said, “I had thought about it and that would have been the best action I could have taken! But I didn’t, Leverton, truly. Once, I even thought of petitioning the Regent to collude this matter but that was done away with also. I had nothing to do with any of this!”
Emmeline rushed into the conversation, “He didn’t, George. In the new carriage was a letter for me. Oh, and a woman servant named Abigail–she has been a very dear companion these past months. But the letter, it was from the Duchess, although not signed, and laid out the Dowager Duchess’ plans to have me assassinated. Once I read that, I was so frightened, not just for my own life, but for what Noah would do when he found out the Dowager Duchess had schemed against him, that I went along with every arrangement made for me.”
Emmeline looked over the Duchess and the two shared a long, deep gaze of understanding. Both knew the reality of being the gentler sex, of being a victim of situations and people stronger than themselves. This, George and Noah, would never understand.
George, ever practical, was the first to utter what was in the back of all their minds. “So, what now? I will personally see that Emmeline is kept safe if I have to build a force of three hundred to guard Leverton. But what of the Dowager Duchess? She is a cask of volatile gunpowder waiting to explode. And many can be hurt should that happen.”
The Duke of Newberry, with his beloved by his side, finally felt whole. “I will take care of her, as I should have done these past months when I realized how far her mind has gone from reality. She always refused to retire to the Dowager’s Lodge on the estate, but I will have her removed to there as soon as it can be readied. Leverton, it might be wise if you sent some of your men to make up a guard force that is loyal only to you. I’ll send for new servants from London who haven’t been poisoned by my grandmother’s vileness.”
Turning to his mother, he inquired, “Mother, which physician has been treating her? I must speak with him and learn more about her illness.”
George's lips were thinned, “Speaking of body, what was it about the burnt carcass that we thought was Emmeline’s?”
“A peasant girl who was Emmeline’s age and body shape had died,” the Duchess of Newberry replied, “The person helping me thought to have her body found in the woods, to keep the Dowager Duchess from every suspecting Emmeline’s escape. As with so many other things in life, I went along with it, but insisted her parents were compensated, without their knowing the whole story.” The Duchess looked confused, and the men, in their minds, filled in the blanks in her story–obviously, the body had been stolen with the girl’s family none the wiser.
The men were awestruck that the unassuming Duchess had come up with a plan so detailed. Independently, they both were determined to find out who her accomplice in the bold plan was, and reward him greatly for his endeavors.
“I took the thousand pounds from your account, Noah, because I knew you wouldn’t look there until the last moment.” His mother said, “It was to sustain Emmeline at the place she was taken to. Take heart, son, you’ve provided for her even while you didn’t know it.”
Emmeline inserted, “And George, Mr. Allen our coachman, is fine. He was very brave and loyal, and fiercely guarded me the whole time we were gone. Once he brought me back here, I sent him to visit his family; as they, too, think their loved one has departed this world.”
