Mrs Wilberforce lifted one corner of her mouth, but her cold gaze remained utterly impenetrable.
‘Most were already one step from the gutter. I merely ensured they ended somewhere preferable to the workhouse.’
Charlotte clenched her fists in anger.
‘How ironic. You despised being dismissed and dehumanised, yet thought nothing of doing the same to others.’ Lord Stanley replied coolly.
Mrs Wilberforce remained unmoved.
‘Why should I care for anyone else when nobody ever cared for me? It is a dog-eat-dog world, brother. You take what you can. I wanted Alderley Park—and I would have had it, were it not for you and your governess.’
Charlotte looked at her with quiet pity.
‘The Captain does not love you, you know. He is merely using you.’
Mrs Wilberforce’s expression twisted sharply.
‘You know nothing about our relationship,’ she snapped. ‘We understand one another perfectly.’
Determined to end the awful conversation, Charlotte asked one final question.
‘What do you know about the codes?’
Mrs Wilberforce smiled scornfully.
‘Ah yes, the codes. Unfortunately for you, I was never entrusted with them. My Captain alone possesses that knowledge—and by now I imagine he is already halfway to France.’
Chapter 40
Much later in the day, Charlotte found herself submerged in a steaming bath, the water lapping at her shoulders as candlelight flickered against the tiled walls. She winced softly as heat touched bruised skin. Her wrists were raw where the ropes had chafed, her shoulders ached, and there was a faint burn along her ribs she did not yet wish to inspect too closely.
She leaned her head back against the copper rim and closed her eyes.
Darkness still lingered at the edges of her thoughts. Not fear exactly—that had long since burned itself out—but memory. The scrape of boots. The smell of damp stone and rotting earth. The suffocating certainty, for one dreadful moment, that no one was coming.
But he had come for her.
She remembered his words —I thought I’d lost you—and the memory brought with it a sudden rush of feeling.
That night, she ate like someone who had forgotten what fullness felt like. Afterwards, she slept deeply and without dreams.
The following morning, she learned that Mrs Wilberforce had been taken to a holding cell alongside the others. Lady Susan, though compromised by unfortunate associations and poor judgement in confidants, was ultimately found innocent and released.
A large-scale manhunt was launched by Lord Stanley to locate the Captain, but he was nowhere to be found.
Hours passed into days, and eventually it was discovered that—just as Mrs Wilberforce had warned—he had escaped English shores aboard a ship likely bound for France and his associates abroad. Charlotte remembered his mention of influential friends there.
Mr Payne’s hidden warehouses were uncovered. The Liverpool docks were raided. More dock workers were arrested after further girls awaiting transport were discovered hidden within.
The tunnels themselves were explored fully—miles upon miles of them—and were found to connect neighbouring estates belonging to Bainbridge, Fraser, Wolverton, Payne, and Oswald. More girls were rescued, and more guards apprehended, many of whom agreed to testify against the Odd Fellows Lord Stanley had arrested.
Every one of them had been complicit.
Even the bumbling Sir Oswald.
But the elusive black book remained a mystery. Without the cipher, its secrets stayed hidden. Even the experts in London struggled to decipher it.
Alderley Park became a whirlwind of activity as events unfolded, and Charlotte assisted wherever she could with the girls recovered from the raids and tunnel searches.
