Page 23 of Fortune’s Final Folly

Pierce De Vere, Earl of Holderness

Shrewbury Gardens

Oxfordshire, England

As she set the paper aside, a smaller slip of parchment fell from the file. Across the top was written Bank of England with a date listed as February 1803. It was a recorded deposit for forty-two thousand pounds in a trust account for Vicar Ralph Elliott and his wife Mrs. Mercy Elliott. The funds were to be given out quarterly for a twenty-one-year period, with an initial withdrawal of ten thousand pounds. Kate’s hand trembled. She received four hundred pounds every three months.

Twenty-one years from February 1803 would be February 1824—two years away. Part of her was relieved to know how long she had to keep receiving the funds, while the rest of her wished to return to the time when she gladly accepted the envelope and never dreamt of the day they would stop coming.

“What does the final paper say?” Joshua’s warm breath caressed the nape of her neck and, for a brief moment, Kate focused on his closeness.

Setting the deposit record aside, she looked at the final paper. It was more of a document.

“It is a deed. To a property.”

There was no need to find the property location on the document. The deed was dated March 1803, and the sale price was ten thousand pounds.

It was for the schoolroom and her residence above…the only home Kate had ever known.

“It appears we have little option but to seek out the Duke and Duchess of Shrewbury in Oxfordshire.” Joshua’s matter-of-fact declaration was not in line with Kate’s thinking in the slightest. “You and I must remain in London to begin the work on your building. I can send Henry, my assistant, to Oxfordshire with your request.”

“Do you not wonder why the duke and duchess would bequeath such a generous amount to my parents?” she stuttered, gathering all the papers. “It is a lot of money, my lord.”

“Joshua,” he corrected. “And all the paperwork seems to be in order. Does it matter what the money is for?”

“It is more than mere money. It is a fortune, Joshua.” And it would run out shortly after her twenty-first birthday. She couldn’t shake the suspect timing of it all. She had been born, her parents had moved to London, purchased an entire building, and her father worked nearby. She’d always believed that her father’s meager salary from the vicarage provided enough for their living expenses. One thing she refused to believe—or spend one more moment pondering—was the notion that her parents were involved with something outside the law and that’s where the money had come from. Her father had preached numerous times about the evils of ill-gotten goods. Never would he have accepted payment in reparation for an illicit deed. Would he?

As she shoved everything back into the folder, the backside of one of the pages caught her notice. There was a design scrawled in black ink on the half sheet. It wasn’t drawn haphazardly but with care and precision. Something within Kate warmed as she traced the pattern—she’d never seen it before, but she felt it meant something.

The bottom of the page was missing, torn away, leaving the paper half the size of the rest.

She finally turned the document over and set it back in the file and closed the folder.

“I’m sorry, Kate.” Joshua settled his hand on her shoulder, and the intimate connection from earlier returned. He hadn’t only set about to help her, he was also a part of it all. The defeat in his tone spoke to the fact. “At least we can proceed with contacting the duke. And the deed proves the building belongs to you and no one else.”

What had she hoped to find? The money had been arriving for so many years already, it was careless to believe the answers were so readily available to her and Joshua. Kate rested a hand flat on the table atop the file and closed her eyes. Why did it seem that every time she gained some spark of hope it was stripped from her?

“Mayhap I am not meant to discover anything of my past.”

Joshua’s hand moved down her arm until his hand rested on hers, covering the file even more. “We shall not allow a small setback to dissuade our quest, shall we?”

She turned slightly and glanced up to where he stood behind her. He grinned, and she noted a twinkle in his eyes. The situation was serious and could have dire consequences for Kate, but she nor Joshua was prepared to walk away from it.

Joshua stepped back as she stood and turned to fully face him, the shelves of file boxes at his back. She wanted the truth, yet she also knew that she didn’t want to disappoint Joshua if she gave up or if correspondence with the duke proved fruitless.

“Kate.” Her name was little more than a sigh escaping his lips as he gazed down at her. “I know it does not seem like much information, but we now know several names and places to continue our search. What more have we to do until your building is repaired?”

She could list a dozen responsibilities between them, the children and his clients at the top of the list.

“It cannot hurt to send Henry with my request,” she acquiesced.

He took her gloved hand and squeezed it reassuringly. “I will draft a letter with all due haste and have Henry on his way presently.”

Kate stood in stunned silence as Joshua raised her hand and placed a kiss on her wrist, a mere inch above her glove. The heated press of his lips to her bare flesh had her stomach fluttering and her breathing quickening. The gesture was so unexpected a squeak escaped her throat, and she nearly pulled her hand from his hold. But, at the same time, her heart wanted to beg for more.

“Joshua?” She didn’t step away as he pulled back and dropped their hands, keeping a hold of her finger. His gaze never left hers. What struck her the most was the way the golden flecks sparkled in his eyes. “I—I—I—”

What she wouldn’t give to be fortunate enough to stare into his eyes forevermore.