The magistrate said, “Only that this person, Hannah Rogers, has impersonated her, and defrauded you.” While the magistrate detailed the charges against her, Sir John’s nostrils flared and his jaw clenched.
“Stuff and nonsense,” he said. “She told you just enough to poison your minds to the real story. And how quickly you have sipped at her honeyed hemlock. And swallowed it whole, no doubt.”
“Can you deny that Hannah Rogers impersonated your wife?”
Sir John threw up his hand. “It’s about time someone impersonated my wife! Marianna never felt the need to act the part. She was too busy meeting with her lover on an almost daily—or should I say nightly—basis.”
The magistrate sent Marianna an uncertain look. “Lady Mayfield is not on trial here.”
“Then perhaps she should be.”
Sir John limped a few steps forward. Dr. Parrish rose and offered him his chair, which Sir John sank into gratefully.
He began, “When the good doctor here came upon the wrecked carriage and found only myself and one woman inside, what other conclusion was he to draw? By the time Miss Rogers returned to her senses after suffering a head wound, everyone at Clifton believed her to be Lady Mayfield. And there is only one reason she did not correct them—because she had no other way to return to Bath and collect her infant son. Doctor Parrish gave her ten pounds from my purse, which, yes, she accepted, to finance the journey and to pay the extorter holding her child. That woman, by the way, has since been imprisoned for illegal and harmful practices. But that is another story....”
While Sir John spoke, Hannah noticed James Lowden slip into the back of the room. He looked unkempt and windblown as well. Apparently, both men had traveled at least part of the way on horseback, although not together.
The magistrate addressed Sir John. “Yes, yes. We have heard much of this already. But is it not true Miss Rogers was trying to coerce you into naming her illegitimate son as your heir?”
“Absolutely not. I had already planned to change my will before the accident, to disinherit Marianna Mayfield, my unfaithful wife. Which my solicitor, who is here now, I see, can confirm. But no, since the trip to Bath, Miss Rogers has notasked for, nor accepted, any money for herself, although I offered her a large sum.”
Marianna’s eyes flashed. “She fraudulently passed off her baseborn child as your son!”
Sir John coolly met her gaze. “No, she did not. For I am the boy’s father.”
Gasps rose around the room. Lady Mayfield gaped at Sir John as though he were a stranger to her. Mrs. Parrish pressed a hand to her mouth, and Dr. Parrish slowly nodded in understanding.
Sir John continued, “If anyone should be on trial today, it should be me, or perhaps Marianna, but not Miss Rogers. For I took advantage of her while she was in my employ when we lived in Bristol. She made no demands on me then. Requested no support for herself or her infant. In fact, she did not even tell me she was with child. Before her condition became evident, she simply left, planning to raise the baby on her own. Only when she believed my wife was dead and I a widower did she acknowledge that I was the boy’s father, though it was quite obvious to look at him that the lad is a Mayfield.”
Again, Dr. Parrish nodded sagely. And Hannah noticed that everyone attended Sir John’s account as they had hung on Marianna’s words before.
“When I told Miss Rogers I wished to support my son financially,” Sir John went on, “she was reluctant to accept. And she refused to allow me to include her in my new will.”
He flicked a hard glance at his wife. “And no matter what Marianna may have told you, I was in my right mind and knew very well Hannah Rogers was not in reality my wife. In fact, Miss Rogers confessed all to me as soon as I regained my senses—even before I regained the power of speech. She would have confessed all to Dr. Parrish as well, but I forestalled her.”
“Why on earth would you do so?” Lord Shirwell asked, brows low, papers forgotten.
Sir John shrugged. “At first, I only wanted to test her. To see how far she was willing to take the charade. I wrongly suspected she and Marianna had plotted the switch to allow Marianna to flee with her lover. I wasn’t fully convinced Marianna had drowned, you see. But even though others assumed we were married, Miss Rogers and I were not ... intimate. Not since the conception of our child, though some gossips”—he eyed Mrs. Parrish—“may have spread that lie.”
He glanced at Hannah’s burning face, then looked back at the magistrate. “I convinced her to keep up the pretense, since Marianna was believed dead, and had no close family left to mourn her. Because if Hannah was thought to be my wife, then her son could legally inherit my entailed property, as well as my other holdings. Every day I was sure Miss Rogers would cry off and leave. And I know she was tempted to more than once. But she stayed—not for personal gain, but only for her son’s sake. And for mine, since I asked it of her.”
Sir John again gestured to his wife. “What has Marianna told you? That she had been swept out to sea, lost her memory, and only recently remembered who she was, and came scurrying back?”
Dr. Parrish alone nodded his head.
“Rubbish, the lot of it,” Sir John continued. “She saw her opportunity to leave me after the accident and she took it, sneaking away, pretending to drown, leaving her companion bleeding and disoriented. Her husband broken and near death. And I would have died, too, had Dr. Parrish not found us so quickly. Meanwhile Marianna hid for a time, then sought out her lover, as she had done before. It was the reason I decided to move here to Devonshire in the first place—a desperate, futile attempt to separate my wife from her lover. How dismally that plan failed.”
He shook his head. “Marianna has been in London, attending balls, while Miss Rogers helped nurse me back to health, hour by tedious hour.”
For a moment, Sir John’s eyes met hers, and Hannah’s heart beat hard.
He dragged his gaze from her face and continued, “And now here Marianna is—traipsing back from the dead.” He looked at his wife. “What happened? Did your money run out? Did your lover tire of you and abandon you? So the gossips claim.”
Marianna lifted her chin but did not deny it.
“So only now does she resurface, with a mouthful of deceit. And tricks you all with her beauty and artful lies.” Sir John’s gaze swept over the assembled company before returning to the magistrate. “Would you like to hear from my solicitor? He has been gathering evidence to prove Marianna has been living in secret with her lover, not as one lost trying to learn her identity, but as one fearing to be discovered.”
Was that true?Hannah wondered. She looked at James but his flinty expression gave nothing away.
