“Let us wait for Mr Finch to make his report. Mayhap the girls should go to their chambers?” George asked.
“I am not going anywhere!” Elizabeth stated clearly through her tears.“Papa threw himself in front of us to save us and I, for one, will not move until I know that Papa will be well!” George lifted his hands palms out as he acknowledged that just as Richard would not be moved from his father’s side, Reggie’s daughters would not move either.
“The bad people need to leave us be!” Georgie said in her innocence.
“If only that were true, my sweet daughter,” Anne replied softly.
Mr Finch and Richard entered the sitting room as everyone stilled expectantly.“I wish I had good news,” Finch started as Elaine let out a huge sob.“The bullet did not exit his body and unfortunately it hit his spine in his lower back and is buried somewhere behind it I believe, but it is not in a place that I am able to operate.” The women wailed and all three men had tears running down their cheeks.“I have stitched the entrance wound closed and that has stemmed the bleeding, but I suspect that there is internal bleeding as well.” Finch delivered his assessment with cold professionalism; it would help no one if he sugar-coated the truth.
“Are you saying that my Reggie will die?” Elaine asked as she gathered herself. She needed to be strong for her family now; later there would be time to grieve.
“I am afraid so, your Ladyship,” Finch responded as he inclined his head.
“How long?” Elaine wanted to know.
“I cannot give you a definitive answer I am afraid. It could be hours, or it could be days; I have no way of telling as there is no way to tell what damage there is internally,” Finch informed them.
“Is he in pain?” George asked the question they all wanted an answer to.
“In my opinion, no. I believe as the spine was severed that he is not in pain, or if he is, it is minimal,” Finch explained.
“I will be with my husband,” Elaine stated as she stood tall with a determined look in her eye. She marched into her husband’s chambers and took up station in a chair near his head and took one of his hands in her own. Soon Lizzy and Anne had joined their mother at their father’s bedside.
“The house needs to keep running,” Anne stated as she stood to go seek out Mrs Smythe.“Georgie dear, please go be with your brother in the nursery and make sure that he is well,” she requested, giving her daughter an occupation.
Once she had left, the three men left in the sitting room looked at one another wordlessly and walked with purpose toward the stairs on their way to the cellar. Richard nodded to the guards at the door; one of them unlocked the door and stood back. The two prisoners cowered as they saw the thunderous looks on the men’s visages.
“If you want to survive to see another sunrise you will answer my questions completely and honestly. Do you understand?” Both prisoners nodded nervously.“If I even suspect that you have prevaricated, I will leave you to my men to do with you what they will!” Richard turned to the guard that had entered the dank room with them.“Jackson, remove the gags please.” The man did so and took up station in the corner of the room glowering at the two captives.
“Hodges is the dead one, correct?” George Darcy opened the questioning.
“Y-yes sir,” Miss Younge answered.
“You told my brother that he never told you where Lady Elizabeth was taken from or the name of the family?” he continued.
“That is correct, sir. He only mentioned one name, that of his paramour, but only her familiar name, Fanny. He did mention that he had heard that she died some months after her Ladyship was taken and discarded,” Karen Young explained, knowing that her life depended on her answers.
“Did he describe anything else about her birth family?” William asked.
“Just one thing I remember that his lover told him; the older sister was unbelievably beautiful and looked like herself when she was younger. Blonde with blue eyes I believe,” the woman recalled.
“What was your plan for my sister?” Richard askedacerbically.
“Sam, that is Hodges, wanted me to take her for a walk, just the two of us. He planned to take her and then demand a ransom of fifteen thousand pounds of each family for her safe return,” she admitted.
“How were you to take her away and where to?” William wanted to know.
“My brother has a sloop,The Stealthy Runner; she is waiting for us near the eastern point of Whitton Island on the River Humber,” the defeated woman admitted.
“The cap’n will kill ya’for tellin’ya’know‘e will,” the man who had been silent up to now spat. He was reward with a swift punch to the gut from Richard that sent him howling in pain to the floor.
“Are you an imbecile? You will be doing a dance at the end of the hangman’s noose before your captain is aware that you were taken, never mind that we know about him! Jackson, gag that piece of human excrement!” Richard ordered.
“Is that where you came from to get to Snowhaven?” George asked. She shook her head.
“No, we met up with Hodges in the town of Packwood in Warwickshire. Myself and Smithers here were at the Wild Bull Inn and that is where we planned. He did not tell us where he came from or why he wanted to meet there.” Karen Younge could only hope that she was doing enough to save her neck from the hangman’s noose.
“So, you forged the character that I saw in my father’s study!” Richard stated more than asked. Miss Younge nodded.“You picked very badly, almost every one of your so-called references are good friends or at least acquaintances of the family. Is there anything that you have omitted?” Richard demanded his face inches from the fearful woman’s. She could not speak so gripped with fear was she, so her response was a shake of her head.
