The Rake and The Rose (A Rake's Mistake) (27 page)

She had no idea how much time had passed, but the carriage stopped and Richard dragged her roughly out. She heard the click of cobblestone under her feet and for one moment was blinded by the sun. Then a gate swung open, the sound of the city bustled about her. Where were they?

Charlotte was dragged into the house and thrown into a sofa. "Papa, I brought you tea I-” A scream and a crash sounded of a clattered tray, broken teapot and cups. "Papa! What is this!" Lottie screamed with her hands to her face.

"Papa is just having business handled dear, now don't worry. Go do something."

"Worry! Papa, you cannot do this!" Lottie screeched and looked at Charlotte. "Charlotte I am so sorry!"  She rushed over, but was grabbed and shoved backwards.

"Lottie enough!" Richard roared and Lottie's expression went blank. "I swear to God I will send you back, if you cannot control your hysteria!"

All expression deadened in the young woman's face. "You wouldn't," she whispered to her father. And the man simply looked cold.

"I would, you know I would. There are those who think you belong there," he spat. Lottie closed her mouth and Charlotte saw red. She launched herself at Richard and before she even knew what had happened, she had been hit across the head.

Lottie screamed. Giselle screamed.

And she went into darkness.

C
hapter
20

Alexander reined his horse in as he saw Kade on his mare not too far from him at the Essex estate.
"Well, it's about time I saw you."

Kade smiled and Alexander was grinning from ear to ear. "I take it you had a good birthday."

"Best I've ever had." he puffed up in pride.

"Oh?" Kade's was startled and his pool like eyes widened and he tilted his head. "Why?"

"Charlotte is in confinement!" he crowed as he flung a leg off his horse.

Kade laughed as he dismounted, "You cad, you don't waste any time to you?" He clapped Alexander on the back and embraced him. "Congratulations dear friend. Wait till I tell Leroy!"

Alexander groaned in jest. "No, no he'll do something God awful, like writing her a sonnet!"

"So how did she tell you?" Kade raised a brow.

"I was shown into what she's been working on next to our room; a nursery. It's my old one. She's done quite a good job so far."

Kade just shook his head. "Fanciful. Cute way to tell ye." They both handed their horses to the stable boy and started heading up the steps to the house.

Essex’s butler stood quietly waiting for them.  "Gentlemen! His Grace Essex awaits you." They nodded. Once standing in the sitting room Kade glanced at him.

“Alexander, you will never believe what I found. Your father was very close with Devisher, the one His Grace Essex and his wife mentioned?”

Alexander chuckled at the eagerness on Kade’s face. "Yes, this is why we are here to speak to him."

"Well you won't believe what I found out about them!" Kade was eager as a child. 

“What about them?” He and Kade had recalled the Devisher family, but they had fallen out with them, when their daughter had died. In fact everyone had. The funeral was private, so no one joined.

Typhus
he also recalled. He was around four or five years older than their daughter Sara, whom he had met prior to her death.

“But their daughter died…I was supposed to marry her. Kade we already figured this out. Charlotte is the sole survivor." Alexander said getting confused.

"She supposedly died. Sara may be alive, and her name isn't really Sara. That's her middle name."

"What?" Now Alexander was confused "How does one
supposedly
die Kade?" he asked disgruntled now. 

His friend looked pleased with the knowledge he had, "Leroy said that a woman with the last name Klinroy apparently snatched a child and fled the country. A blond, blue-eyed girl stating she had been abandoned.

"What was the girl's full name?"

"No one knows. Her name was always just Sara on documents." Kade shrugged. "A lot of those files, without a police escort, just simply cannot be seen. And, unfortunately, I don't have access and neither does Leroy, even with his charm. Or myself with my legal connections."

Alexander chuckled lightly. "Well, this is good news, if Sara is indeed alive." They both agreed and Essex was there within a moment.

"Gentlemen." he nodded and they nodded back "Come, let's take a brandy and we can talk about Miss Charlotte. I understand you have questions. I was wondering when you'd come asking." They were ushered into the drawing room. Alexander gratefully took a glass of bourbon, as did Kade and they sat down across from Essex. "In fact I understand that there are
many
questions about Charlotte Devisher."

Alexander spoke up first. "Did you get what I sent you?"

"Yes." Essex pulled the stuffed rabbit from his nearby table drawer and the lockets that were bound together.

"I am amazed that Charlotte's cousin Lottie had this,” he said holding the Rabbit "It meant very much to the girl, and Sara." 

"So Charlotte is her twin."

"Yes. I knew it from the moment I laid eyes on her, but had heard that she had no memory. I don't think it's wise for anyone to tamper with that," the Earl said gravely.

"Indeed...but perhaps she will remember in time?"

Essex pondered this and nodded "In time yes. I also understand I owe some congratulations Cromwell." He shook the younger man's hand and grinned. "Make her happy."

"I will."

"Did you know that you were supposed to marry Charlotte, after her sister died?"

"Excuse me?"

"Yes, she was supposed to be among the women at your estate this spring. Well actually you were to have met her earlier but her mother was very protective." Essex looked amused, as Alexander's jaw had dropped inappropriately open. 

He clamped it shut and gulped. "H-How?"

"How does the sun rise or set? How do people find each other like my wife and I?" the man's gaze was warm "Fate has a funny way of fixing what has been done wrong." He sighed deeply and fiddled with the rabbit. "I remember the girls, Charlotte was always so sick."

Alexander raised a brow as did Kade, and it was Kade who spoke up. "Is this why Charlotte was never seen?"

"No and yes." Essex thought for a moment. "Where to start..." He tapped his chin with his finger as if in deep thought. "When Lady Devisher had the girls, the doctor said that Sara was very, very strong and her sister unfortunately a bit weak. -"

"That sometimes happens with twins." Kade said thoughtfully and Essex nodded.

"Indeed, it does. It was very sad, due to the fact that Charlotte was often too sick to be let outside."

"She got sick when she went outside?" Alexander looked concerned.

"The air made her lungs harder to use, especially in the cold. But the doctors had seen that before, so they assumed that she would grow out of it." Essex shrugged. "Her mother was very weak and wanted to keep them safe, especially Charlotte. Sara was a vivacious little thing, as you probably remember, Alexander. One day, I do believe, she had coerced Charlotte to play with you two. She got into a bit of trouble."

"Now that you mention it, I remember that vaguely...playing with a red head." Alex rubbed his jaw thinking hard. "She didn't look sick."

"Well, it might have been a good day. They both got ill later that year. Typhus...poor little kids were deathly sick. For heavens sake, tons of people were ill with Typhus. It was not an epidemic, but it struck the children the worst; high fevers, delirium, watching was awful enough.” Essex exhaled sharply

“So the children were all together with everyone in the hospital?” Kade asked with a brow raised.

He shook his head, “No, the doctors separated the children from the adults and shaved their heads because they were lousy. Even if they weren't they did it because it was everywhere..." Essex shuddered violently as if shaking off the memory. "I had gone with their parents, to see the girls. We saw them through glass in a roomful of people. The girls were in a separate room, but the walls were paper-thin. You could hear coughing, the death and the dying. What was even stranger was that Charlotte seemed to be less affected than Sara."

"We have reason to believe that Sara did not die." Kade brought up. 

"What! How?"

"Apparently a nurse took a blond, blue eyed girl from the hospital around that time and fled the country. We do not know where they went. There is no grave for Sara..." 

Essex gasped, "But James and Emma were told she died! That they were to...let her die because she was not getting better. That the hospital had to be rid of the body or risk spreading the illness!" 

"As I said, we have reason to believe...not proof." Kade said this softly, as if not wanting to cause more of a stir than needed. 

"What was her full name?" Alexander asked softly.

"I am unsure of this. All we ever knew her, as was Sara. I do know that it was her middle name though." Essex was stunned as he looked at the lockets in his hand. "Poor little ones."

Alexander stared at Kade and his friend sighed, "Well, so what do we do? We know its Charlotte."

"Indeed. Well we should ask Dr. Lambert."

"Yes he is very knowledgeable with things pertaining to trauma and such. He apparently is going to have a position at the new St. Bethel Hospital."

"So, you said something about her uncle?" Kade's lip twitched and Alexander knew he was on a trail. He always got that look in his eye when he wanted information- and he knew how to get it. But Essex was more than willing to share. 

"Yes, Charlotte's home in Caversham was broken into. Apparently there was a knife on the floor, but Charlotte had gone out the window. That had to have happened because she was gone, after they got the door open and they put the fire out- she was nowhere. There was concern it was her degraded Uncle…he has long been in debt."

“Who might he be?”

“Richard…Richard Devisher. No one was there in the room, as I had stated but he had all but threatened her prior when she had come into age for her estate.”

"She might have struck her head going out the window." Kade mused stroking his chin thoughtfully. "It must have been quite a scare to wake up not knowing who or where you are." All the men agreed quietly.

Suddenly, Essex's butler came in rather with a look of confusion. "Sir, I do believe that there is a woman here who is in need of assistance Lord Cromwell."

"Not now Cedric." Essex snapped. 

"It is about a Miss Charlotte?"

Suddenly a woman lurched past the butler. "Shove off and let me through!" It was Francesca.

"Francesca what in God's name is going on?" Alexander stood and he caught her as she stumbled in, "I took the carriage. It‘s Charlotte. Something isn't right. She went to Combe Down to get some things for the baby’s room. Apparently someone saw Giselle give her a ride.  She's missing. I was supposed to meet her at the teashop. No one can find either of them," she gasped. "There was a man with Giselle too. Someone by the name of Richard."

All the men looked wide-eyed, Alexander felt an anger sweep over him. "Where were they last? Combe Down you said? Come on."

He helped Francesca into a chair and glared at Kade. "You, I don't care what tree you have to shake. I want Scotland Yard, Magistrates, the blood military for all I care, but FIND her!" He rushed out the door and jumped into the waiting carriage.

Kade was already out the door and in the stables getting his horse ready.  Essex sat with Francesca who was crying with worry. Her head in her hands, Francesca took the cup of tea she was offered with shaking hands and a heavy heart.

Combe Down...

Alexander wandered quickly from store to store, asking if anyone had seen Charlotte. She had been to the tailor, and then to the furniture store, the one with the little cradle she had seen and had been so excited about a month ago.
The baby,
his heart clenched.

It wasn't just Charlotte, as if that wasn't bad enough, it was their child. She was pregnant for God's sake. He cursed and rushed about even more quickly, asking anyone. But then, he spotted it. His estate's carriage was down the road in front of a dress shop. The driver was still dealing with the wheel.

"Sir, there you are! Giselle took Charlotte home. Is everything alright sir?"

"No, it appears Giselle has helped in having Charlotte kidnapped." Alexander snarled.

The driver's face fell "Good gad...Sir-"