“Indeed!” the duke was surprised. Skip was not given to melodrama. He saw the note on silver salver on the wall table and took it up, slapped it across his hand and after thanking his man, retired with the epistle to his library.
It read:
Margate,
To get to the point, you may recall that you are the guardian for the Sherborne twins, poor souls!
As it happens they are also very dear friends of mine, very dear.
At any rate, better get yourself up here at once, for they managed to embroil themselves in murder and demmit Brock, it don’t look good!
Yours,
Skip
The duke knuckled his eyes before re-reading the letter. Murder? For Skip, this was a most astounding missive. He must have read it wrong, or Skip, must have left something off. Murder?
However, this doubt was soon laid to rest as he reviewed the letter for the third time. The wording was most precise and the duke realizing his plans for the immediate future had been abducted by twins he would soon be rid of when they reached their majority swore roundly and quite at length.
The truth was, they had never been any trouble and he had often felt a twinge of guilt for not having paid at least one visit to them. They were no more than six years his junior and he had not enjoyed the notion that he might have to travel to Yorkshire and play ‘big brother guardian’. He wondered at his father, leaving this job to him instead of one of his more reliable cronies.
He had not bothered making the trip when he realized that their staid aunt Agatha had taken up residence with them. After all, the boy had gone off to school and the girl was grieving. What could he offer?
Blister it! He was not meant to be a guardian. His father had been appointed that office, but when his father passed, just ten months ago, he left him the title, the Margate wealth and the Sherborne twins. Now look what came of his neglect! But murder? Absurd.
Right then rogue and perhaps libertine, he might be, but only to a point. He could not allow his wards to be thrown to the wolves. If Skip vouched for them and apparently he had, there must be more than what appeared to meet the general ‘look’ of things.
As Skip was concerned for the two and seemed to know them well, the duke decided that was all that was needed. He must first assume the young lord innocent of such a heinous crime. Why then was he being accused?
It was most certainly his duty to hurry off and see to them. In addition to that, he once again felt that twinge of guilt for having neglected being a guardian to them from a distance. His father would have been disappointed.
This made him frown.
Hell and damnation, this was a bloody nuisance, but he would not allow the situation to proceed without him.
He would leave first thing in the morning and make his way to the Sherborne Estate, and see to those twins, murder be damned!
* * *
In the last week, things had gone awry at Sherborne and as Mandy had feared, Ned had not been allowed to return home.
He had been questioned thoroughly by the Harrowgate magistrate, who had decided to hold him in a single cell at Harrowgate Court Hall. Magistrate Connors, as it happened, had been a good friend to the Sherborne’s grandfather and told Ned that because he might be accused of some partiality in the case, he needed to call in an impartial judge and hold a hearing. However, what Connors did not immediately perceive was that because he stepped away, people assumed Ned must be guilty.
By the next morning, news of this had spread throughout the countryside. Opinions were divided. The locals refused to believe that the young Edward Sherborne could have murdered his cousin. They were vocal and united in their opinion and ready to go to fisticuffs for Ned’s good name.
However, his uncle, the squire, had allowed just enough of his friends to think that he did not support his nephew in this dreadful instance and that made those who had doubts wonder and whisper.
Mandy, on a visit to her brother, heard as she was crossing the avenue on foot, one of her uncle’s friends telling another, “Blackguard is what he is. Bedded his cousin and though that made her a tart for I’m a notion she did not say him nay, but she didn’t deserve murder. What would make him do such a thing?”
A local passing by stopped and wagged a finger, “Stubble it! Lord Sherborne is a fine young man. I’ll not be believing sech things of him and you shouldn’t either. What kind of cove are ye spreading such malicious rumors?”
Mandy smiled at the local, glared at her uncle’s friend and then hurried the remaining distance across the dusty street, where an older darkly dressed woman, Mandy did not recognize called out, “You’re the twin…walking about without even a maid in attendance. The two of you just running wild…look what comes of it!”
Mandy stopped and turned to her, “Fie, you don’t know us. You don’t know anything about us, but I know already a great deal about you. Pretending to be all righteous while you go around spreading filthy gossip. Shame on you!”
“Well!” gasped the older woman.
“Indeed, I quite agree. Well! Perhaps you may think twice about spreading ugly rumors. Remember, my brother is Lord Sherborne and when he is proven innocent, he and I will remember moments like these.”