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“And you?” he turned to Marilee.
“I’m not sure. I imagine about a fortnight,” she offered with a shrug. “Maybe a bit longer. I’ve rather lost track of the time.”
“You have to leave with me, now!” he said with urgency as he clasped their hands and began to pull them toward the door. The females resisted until he gave up the effort and began to pace the room. “The men at the doors… they are not footmen, are they?” he muttered.
“Guards,” Marilee confirmed.
“The rest of the servants?”
“The same as us; we believe,” Peggy confirmed.
“I suspected as much when Lucy was beaten. I had hoped I was wrong. We must put a stop to this,” he declared with all the fervor of his idealistic nature. “I’ll inform the guard tonight.”
“No!” the females cried as one.
“No?” he stared at them in shock. Marilee could only suspect that he thought them addled, for why else would they resist this very tempting offer of freedom?
“Would anyone really believe you?” Marilee pressed. She stared at him with her hands on her hips and willed him to see the truth of the matter. “What could be done with nothing more than your word and ours against that of the Blackwells?”
“And what of the others?” Peggy added. “Should we just leave them to their doom?”
“Such a claim without evidence would ruin you,” Marilee continued. “No respectable family would ever call for your services again, you’d be run from London and perhaps even England as a whole. We,” she gestured between Peggy and herself, “would be punished far worse than you have yet seen. We must have proof. You knew that when you ingratiated yourself into Lady Lydia’s good graces. You know, we must have proof, or all is for naught.”
“I’m sorry,” Peggy laid a pitying hand on his arm. “Your intentions are gallant, but no lowly solicitor can take on a member of the aristocracy without undeniable proof, and even then, rarely do they see success over ruination. If you out this house, how many will stand beside Lord Blackwell and Lady Lydia and call for your head?”
His shoulders slumped. “You cannot stay here. I cannot just leave knowing that this is the lot of everyone within.”
“You have to,” Marilee placed her hand on his other arm. It was as if she could see the coldness of the world rushing over him and crushing his hope. She hated it, but he had to see the logic in their words.
“I knew there was something off,” he admitted. “I knew there were tokens, I had supposed from ships, ill-gotten or not, but people.” He shook his head. “This is a whole different ball of wax.” His eyes implored her. “You must go.”
“We must stay,” Marilee said. “Only for a time. We can manage a few more weeks until we have the proof that you need. Then, if you play your cards well enough, you can save dozens of women and not just two. My L… my cousin, was taken to another house.”
At her revelation, Peggy drew in a sharp gasp. Marilee only nodded and attempted to reveal with her eyes how sorry she was that she had not shared the information sooner. Still, at the moment it seemed necessary to help Mr. Crowley understand. “I have to find out where she is before we break the Blackwells. They told us if either of us try to escape they would kill the other. I cannot take the chance that they will kill her. After the beating I took, I believe them.”
“And I too, have a friend to locate. Several, in fact,” Peggy added. “We must have more information or we doom them all.”
He released a shaky breath. “This is far worse than I imagined.”
“It is far worse than any of us imagined,” Peggy offered in a soothing but supportive voice, “but we shall persevere.”
* * *
Mr. Crowley at last understood.Highwaymen were not just stealing goods. They were not just attacking the rich for their gold and possessions.
Human trafficking would certainly bring in more money than baubles. Suddenly, the extra money made sense. All of the unbalanced books made perfect, horrible sense now. His mouth went dry. There were no ships, and that was why there were no records. How could he have been so stupid? How had he entangled himself with these people? And how could he extricate himself now?
“You must go, and we must stay,” Marilee said softly, her hand on his arm.
A spate of nausea crawled up his throat at the thought of Kate in such danger, and he with no way to save her, not yet.
“If you ladies can do so,” he said softly clasping Marilee’s hands, “then, I guess, I must.”
* * *
Mr. Crowley spentmost of the next day researching the scant locations which were noted on the books. None of them gave him any indication of how the Blackwells were obtaining their servants. All he could think is that they were taking them from the streets, and yet neither Kate nor Peggy seemed like they had been street rats. No, both had a certain amount of refinement. That meant someone was probably looking for them. He searched several promising locations to try to find out if anyone was missing a young woman named Peggy or Kate. He was hindered by not knowing their surnames and resolved that he would find out their full names at the earliest possible date. He had been so gob smacked by the horror of it that he had not asked for particulars. That was most unlike him.
He wanted to go back to the house immediately to be sure that Kate was alright, but knew that his undue attention would cause questions in Lady Lydia’s mind. It was the hardest thing he had ever done, but he tried to put her from his mind and concentrate on his ministrations among the poor. It occurred to him that he should try to find some genuine paying customers so he was not so dependent upon Lady Lydia and her ilk, but the sheer number of poor seemed to always out mass his time and effort.
