And she knew.
Even though she called out his name and ran to him, she knew—Jack was gone. Her Jack was dead.
She didn’t know how long she sobbed over his lifeless form, but when she stopped, she knew what she was going to do. She put the diary under his body, and said, “Keep this for me, m’darlin. I’m going to get justice for ye, I am.”
She stood, her sorrow, her own.
She would grieve for him and the plans they had made all her life. She put her hand to her eyes, but her determination kept her strong. It was all she had left.
She would need help, but she didn’t know where the Sherborne twins were hiding, and as she only knew of one man, one man that could help her get the justice for both her Jack and Lord Sherborne, it was to him, she decided to go.
Chapter Nineteen
/> MANDY WAS IN the morning room with her legs tucked under her pretty green muslin gown. She had taken extra care with her gold ringlets, hoping to enchant the duke into allowing her to ride out and look for Ned.
Enchanted he said he was as he had bent over her hand, but apparently not enough to allow her to ride out for any reason at all.
She nibbled at shortcake biscuits and drank her tea and was as bored as ever she had been when alone at the Abbey.
Mr. Fowler had arrived at the Manor and had taken both the viscount and the duke off with him only moments ago. She had no idea when they would be back or where they were going and it was infuriating in the extreme. She had a mind to don her riding clothes and go off for a jaunt. Why not?
The sound of a heavy thudding at the front door down the hall brought her head out of her meanderings and she stood up curiously to listen. She waited and her ears pricked up like a kitten’s.
Sticwell’s tone, though not precisely his words, could be heard, and it seemed as though he was dismissing someone? She stepped into the hall to see who it was he was sending away and saw him wave his white gloved hand dismissively as he said, “Look here, young woman, the viscount is not in and even if he were, you don’t really think I would admit you…looking like that…” his hand indicated her dirty and torn gown, “into his presence?”
“Please,” Elly begged. “It is of vital importance, it is. If ye don’t allow me in, I will sit on yer steps and wait I will, but I won’t leave…please, I have walked miles to get here.”
“My God!” Mandy thundered as she went forward, arms outstretched, excited disbelief covering her face. “Stand aside, Sticwell.” She took Elly into an embrace, and then held her away to say, “Elly…you poor girl.” Mandy turned to the butler and said, “Please have a tray of refreshments brought into the parlor for Miss Bonner.”
“Very good, miss,” Sticwell returned stiffly.
Without another word, Mandy led the poor woman to the parlor where she saw her seated. She went to the decanter and poured a glass of sherry into a glass and handed it to her, “Drink this, do, you’ll be the better for it.”
Elly did in fact, drink it down and then burst into tears.
Mandy was beside her on the sofa and hugging her, patting her back, saying, “There there…what has happened Elly?”
“He killed m’man. He killed Jack,” Elly wailed.
“Oh, Elly, I am so sorry…who did this?”
“The same man who killed Miss Celia,” Elly sniffed. “Oh…but I would have come forward sooner if we weren’t so afraid…now, if I had…he would be put away and Jack would still be alive.”
“Elly, perhaps you should start at the beginning. We know that Jack Hawkins was somehow involved in a robbery of gold…and that you two…well…that you and he…”
“Yes, miss, we were going to leave for America…start over, do it right and have a family. I was going to get the diary to ye before we set sail…so that he couldn’t hurt us, ye see.”
“I see, and I understand,” Mandy said softly. “Go on.”
“We were hiding from him in an old cave in the quarry…”
Sticwell arrived with the tray and they went silent as he placed it on the table before them and withdrew. As Mandy poured the woman a cup and handed it to her, she said, “Here Elly…you have had a terrible shock and will need all your wits and health to get through it.”
“Don’t want to get through it. Wish I was dead with m’Jack.” She began sobbing and Mandy allowed her to grieve as she thought how she would feel if the man she loved had been killed. Her heart ached for Elly.
At length Elly sniffed and tried to regain her composure as she said, “Jack said we didn’t get our fair share…and that was fine, but he thought we should have few more coins…so he went back to the waterfall…”
“The waterfall?”