“He is my uncle, my lord.”
The earl’s brow cleared. “I know him well.Not sure why you need a lawyer in this business, Edgerton, but I am sure you know best. How are your enquiries proceeding? Have you tracked down the culprit yet?” he said, beaming at them, for all the world as if they were investigating the theft of a loaf of bread, and not a brutal murder.
“Not yet, my lord,” Michael said. “We proceed slowly at present while we await interviews with the Lady Alice Nicholson and Mr Eustace Atherton.”
“So I understand. I am sure they will oblige you soon. Eustace has been informed, and as for poor Alice — well, one cannot rush these matters. Take as much time as you need, Captain, for you and your charming wife are a welcome addition to our little gathering. You take us out of ourselves at this distressing time. But you have found something of which you wish to inform me?”
He smiled at them benignly, and Michael quaked inside. No one could doubt his courage, he hoped, but he had a thousand times sooner face an oncoming army with a sword in his hand than tell a belted earl that his entire life was based on a lie. But it could not be shirked, and he had agreed with Pettigrew that he would start the tale.
“It is another matter entirely, my lord. Amongst the late Mr Nicholson’s papers, we found this letter from the Bishop of Winchester.”
He handed it over, and watched as the earl read it, saw him notice the date and frown, watched him turn the letter over and read the direction.
“I do not understand,” he said slowly. “This letter is dated two yearsafterNicholson was ordained.”
“Quite so,” Michael said. “The discrepancy was odd enough to attract my attention, so I wrote to Mr Willerton-Forbes and asked him to make enquiries.”
“I went to Winchester,” Willerton-Forbes said, “and there I discovered that Mr Nicholson had indeed presented himself for ordination two years before the letter was sent, and had in fact been accepted. However, it appears there was… an incident.”
“An incident? What sort of incident?” the earl barked.
“An incident with a scullery maid,” Willerton-Forbes said with distaste. “In the dean’s house. The bishop felt, not unreasonably, that such behaviour was incompatible with the standing of an ordained clergyman. That, in point of fact, an ordinand who spends the night before his ordination in activities expressly forbidden by the church might not be in a suitably pious frame of mind for the service of ordination.”
“Good Lord!” the earl said, with some feeling. “Then… he was not ordained at all?”
“Not at Winchester, certainly,” Willerton-Forbes said. “The records there have a list of those ordained, and Nicholson’s name is on it, but with the word‘Deferred’written beside it. In fact, his name was sent off to the newspapers as one of those ordained, so no doubt his family believe him to be so, but he was not, not then. And not two weeks later, he was here, officiating at your marriage, Lord Rennington.”
The earl had not had more than the usual half-hearted education expected of gentlemen of his age, but even he understood the consequences.
“But if he was not an ordained clergyman… our marriage is not valid!”
“That is so,” Willerton-Forbes said. “The countess is not your wife, and your children—”
“Are illegitimate,” the earl said, with such finality that a heavy silence descended on the room. He walked about the room, the letter still in his hand, while Michael and Willerton-Forbes waited. “But is it certain?” he said finally.
“I cannot be entirely certain, no,” Willerton-Forbes said. “There is always room for mistakes and misunderstandings, shall we say, and the records at Winchester — the word‘Deferred’— that could easily be a mistake. The notice was in the newspapers after all, the bishop of that time is long dead, the clerks and clerics at Winchester now know nothing of the matter. But I found one very elderly, but perfectly lucid, clerk who was there at the time and remembers the occasion well. He is quite certain that Nicholson wasnotordained at that time.”
“Hmpf. And what is to be done about it? Can it be set right?”
“For Lady Rennington, the difficulty may be remedied. You may remarry at any time, my lord. But for the children… in England, illegitimacy is a stain which can never be removed.”
“In England? Then could we remove it elsewhere?”
“My lord, you could move to Scotland, marry Lady Rennington there and the children would be legitimate… in Scotland. Since your title and estates are in England, that will not avail you.”
“Then Birtwell loses everything? And there is nothing to be done about it? Dear God!” He rubbed a hand tiredly across his face. “But Nicholson!” he cried, waving the letter angrily. “Why would he do such a thing? Why pretend to be ordained?”
“Shame, I should imagine, my lord,” Michael said. “To go off to be ordained, everyone expecting it and then be turned away at the last moment because of a thoughtless piece of folly… hewould very likely be too ashamed to speak up. He arrived here, he was believed to be ordained, and at once he was asked to officiate at a wedding. He would not have wished to admit to lying.”
“I remember now, he was reluctant to do it,” the earl said. “He had to be talked into it. I suppose he thought we would never find out, and he was almost right. If he had not been murdered and his papers examined, we would not have known, even now. Foolish man, to leave such a mess behind him! But he was always that way — never taking the difficult decisions. He was always going to do things, but somehow, if it interfered with his comfort, it never got done. The only person he cared about above himself was Alice — he was the most attentive husband a woman could ever want. They were always together. Poor Alice!”
For a few moments, he was silent, sunk in reverie, and Michael and Willerton-Forbes waited patiently for him to come to himself again. When he did, he pulled chairs forward for them. “Edgerton, bring that tray over to the desk will you? Yes, that one with the decanter and glasses, and pour us all a large measure. I feel the need to fortify myself, for what on earth am I to do? WhatcanI do?”
“If I may suggest, my lord…” Willerton-Forbes said tentatively. The earl waved him to continue. “As I see it, you have three options. The first option is to do nothing at all. We do notknowfor certain that Mr Nicholson was not ordained, and no one has challenged the status of your marriage, so you could simply continue as if nothing has happened.”
“But when Birtwell comes to inherit…canhe inherit?”
“That is the question. If he knows nothing of this matter, then once you have laid down the burdens of this earth, your eldest son will apply to the Privileges Committee for the right to assume your title. At that point—”
