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CHAPTER 1
The offices of Hall & Hill
Temple, London – late April 1816
Major Gabriel Prideaux blinked at the solicitor behind his desk, not quite believing anything the man had just said, or perhaps simply not wanting to. But it did not seem that Mr. Hill, who had appeared rather uncomfortable during the entire interview, was joking in the least. The man seemed too skittish for something like that. Besides, what sort of fellow would joke about the situation at hand? One who would need to be locked up himself inside… “RosewoodLunaticAsylum, you say?” he repeated the man’s words, making certain he’d heard him correctly.
“For the last ten months.” Mr. Hill nodded quickly and for longer than was necessary. “His lordship selected the place himself. Cost and care being the deciding factors in his decision.”
Gabe thought he was going to be ill.A lunatic asylum. How the devil had this happened to his brother? “And you’ve just now sent for me? Why the devil wasn’t I informed about any of this before now?”
The solicitor shuffled through a number of papers on his desk, but Gabe doubted any of them held the answer to the question he’d just asked. Hill was quite aware of why he hadn’t summoned Gabe home from Canada, he was simply stalling in his response, which was more than frustrating.
“Mr. Hill, I would like an answer to my question. If Lord Northwold has admitted himself into this Rosewood Lunatic Asylum, as his brother and heir, I would like to know why you delayed in notifiying me.”
The man glanced up from his desk, a frown marring his gaunt face. “I shouldn’t have even sent for you now, Major. Lord Northwold left explicit instructions that you not be informed of his illness until after his death.” He heaved a staggering breath. “He said he didn’t want you to suffer right along with him.”
So Clayton had meant to suffer alone? That did sound like his brother. A martyr to the last. “But you defied him anyway?” Gabe snapped, not in that he disagreed with the man’s decision, but more in anger at the situation; and Hill was the only one present to bear the brunt of that anger.
“I’m concerned for his safety, Major. As his next of kin, only you can make the decision to move him to a different hospital.”
“His safety?” Gabe echoed. For God’s sake, was anyone safe inside a lunatic asylum? Just the thought of stepping foot inside Bedlam or any other such place sent a chill racing down his spine.
Mr. Hill nodded vigorously once again. “The madness has taken him, Major. He mutters to himself mostly, but he has been known to scream for his treasure and—”
“Treasure?” Neither Clayton nor the Northwold earldom was in the possession of a treasure. At least it hadn’t been before Gabe had joined the 9th all those years ago. His father had nearly bankrupted the title, spending all there was on gaming tables, whores and anything else he’d found slightly amusing. “My brother is in the possession of a treasure?” He couldn’t imagine how that could even possibly be true.
“I should say not.” The solicitor shook his head most determinedly. “I had thought his lordship meant to restore the earldom from its…” He winced instead of continuing.
“My father was hardly a good steward, Hill. You needn’t try to shield me from that fact.”
Mr. Hill swallowed. “Yes, well, when your brother assumed the title, he appeared to make a genuine effort to turn the ship around, so to speak. But then…”
Damn it all! Could the man not finish one blasted sentence? “Do speak freely, Mr. Hill.” After all, how was Gabe to understand any of it, if the man wouldn’t do so?
“Well, he seemed to have a change of heart in all of that. His illness went undiagnosed for quite a time and it may have already begun to affect his mind.” He blew out a breath. “Bills began pouring in. Bills he couldnot, forgive me for saying so, but bills he could not have had a prayer of ever paying. Expenditures in Canada, and New York, and—”
“My brother traveled to Canada?” Gabe’d had no idea. Why wouldn’t Clayton have said something to him? Stationed with his regiment on Canada’s eastern coast for sometime, Gabe would have taken leave to see his brother had he known they were on the same continent. Or had Clayton traveled to Canada before the 9th was reassigned there? While he and his brother had not been particularly close, what with a decade in age distancing them, if they’d both been in Canada at the same time…
“No, no.” The solicitor shook his head. “His lordship did not leave England. But that didn’t stop him from footing the bill of someone else’s travel, though who I do not know. He wouldn’t say when I asked him. But then bills for gowns and other female fripperies began pouring in as well. Lord Northwold went to stay in Cumberland for a while and did not return for some time.”
“Gowns and female fripperies?” Gabe supposed he shouldn’t have been surprised. Clayton had always had a taste actresses. He must have stumbled upon one who cost a pretty penny. Even still… “How much could he possibly have spent on such things?”
“More than you might imagine.” Mr. Hill grimaced. “I’m afraid to say his lordship is quite a bit like your father in that regard. And Lord Northwold did have a certain reputation.”
“Yes, both of them,” Gabe agreed. Indeed, Clayton was a philanderer, much like their father had been, but at least his brother had no wives. Well, none that Gabe was aware of anyway. Still, a pretty face and a nice form had done more to bring down the Northwold earldom than anyone or anything else. No, no, that was unfair to the fairer sex. His father and his brother were men who made their own choices in life. Their weakness for women was not the women’s fault. However, that weakness was most definitely to blame for Clayton’s syphilitic state and his current residence in a lunatic asylum. An asylum that Hill apparently thought was unstable, as though any asylumcouldbe considered anything else. “What are your concerns with Rosewood, Mr. Hill?”
“I think, sir, perhaps you should see the place for yourself.”
“I’m certain I should,” Gabe agreed. “But I would like to hear your concerns just as well.”
The solicitor heaved a sigh. “Like I said, Major, he has begun screaming about a treasure.”
“One he does not have.”
“Indeed, but the staff and other patients there are not aware of that fact. I’m afraid someone may hurt him in trying to gather information on something that does not exist. In this day and age, I daresay people have been harmed for less.”
That was most certainly true. Gabe agreed with the nod of his head. “Do give me their direction, Hill. I will see to my brother straight away.”
