Page 36 of Fortune’s Final Folly

“My uncle was charged with delivering a quarterly stipend to Vicar Elliott and his wife before they passed. After that, the money arrived on schedule but addressed to Miss Katherina Elliott, their daughter.” Joshua folded his hands on his desk, but Kate could feel his discomfort as he stumbled over the word daughter. “I continued in my uncle’s stead until a few weeks ago when a fire ravaged Kate’s building and money was needed for repairs.”

This was Kate’s mess to handle, not Joshua’s. But his presence gave Kate the courage to speak up.

“We learned then a bank had been issuing the funds from an account set up nearly twenty years ago with an initial bequest of ten thousand pounds for the purchase of the building across the street.” It seemed odd that it was necessary to explain any of this to the woman as it was her family who’d been responsible for it all.

“Around the time you were taken from me,” the countess whispered. Tears appeared in her eyes, and Kate had the overwhelming urge to pull the woman close and embrace her.

At the same time, Kate was confused. Taken from her? Perhaps it was only Kate who didn’t understand.

Joshua cleared his throat, seemingly unsurprised by the countess’s claim.

“My lord?” She willed Joshua to tell her everything he knew. Besides her doubts regarding the vicar and his wife, her parents, Kate hadn’t been ready to disparage their memory by voicing her concerns surrounding their past and her origins. “Please, tell me all you know.”

“Kate, the countess believes you are her daughter.” He glanced at the older woman sitting beside Kate. “Lady Katherina De Vere.”

“That cannot be right. I am Miss Katherina Elliott.” She’d always felt there was something not quite right about her mother and father. However, they’d loved her, they’d cared for her, and they’d made certain she was taken care of after their passing—as best they could anyway. She’d lived a pious life, but she’d never wanted for anything. She’d noticed their differences, of course, but admitting aloud to a stranger what she’d suspected her entire life was too much. A betrayal to the mother and father who’d raised her. “My father was a vicar, and my mother dedicated her life to educating those less fortunate. That is who I am. Miss Katherina Elliott of Cheapside.”

It was who she’d been raised to be. A lowly vicar’s daughter. A woman resigned to her place in life. Blessed and fortunate for what she possessed as others survived on far less.

Not the daughter of an earl and a countess.

And certainly, far from the granddaughter of a duke and duchess.

The Countess of Holderness looked on stoically, issuing no challenge, only listening until Kate was finished.

“My name is A’laya. I was wed to Pierce De Vere, only son of the Duke and Duchess of Shrewbury. At the time, he was Earl of Holderness, and I, the countess.” She spoke with a sure, steady voice, never once faltering. “Believing us in love, I agreed to move with him to his family’s home at Shrewbury Gardens, where I gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. When she was—when you were—two months old, the duchess, Pierce’s mother, ripped you from my arms, and you disappeared. Not long after, I was sent away, almost literally dumped alongside the road and left to die in the harsh elements.”

Kate turned to Joshua. If the woman were lying, he would know—or he would know someone who held the truth. However, he only nodded at her, confirming the countess’s claims.

“This is true?” Kate asked. “How can it be so?”

“I have searched for you since you were taken.” The countess—her mother?—stared hard at her. “Tell me you were treated kindly all these years.”

“My mother and father”—both Kate and the lady flinched at her word choice—“the vicar and his wife, loved me greatly. Unconditionally.”

“And you have lived here all your life?”

Kate pointed toward the front of the building, though at some point, Joshua had closed his office door, making it impossible to see through the room and out the front window. “I was raised above the schoolroom across the street. My father’s vicarage was only a block away. I learned in the schoolroom alongside the other children.”

“The duke and duchess…you never knew them?”

Kate shook her head. “It was only us, my mother and father and I. Except for Joshua and his uncle.”

“That is a blessed miracle.” A bit of the tension eased from the woman’s wrinkled, weathered face. She appeared years younger than she had only a moment before. “The duchess, Henrietta De Vere, was a vile, despicable woman. I prayed every day that you would remain far from her, even if that meant you were far from me, as well.”

The countess was speaking of people Kate didn’t know and had no connection to. However, her mother, A’laya, sat before her. “Where have you been all these years?”

“Searching for you, Katherina.” She placed her palm to Kate’s cheek and smiled. Kate could not help but nestle into her hand, breathing deeply of a new scent. That of her mother. “I never gave up hope that I would find you. I’ve lived with a traveling group—mystics and fortune tellers—and we’ve journeyed all across England and Scotland. In every village, in every town, I asked after you.”

“And my father, Pierce De Vere, he let this happen? He allowed me to be taken and given away. And the vicar…I cannot believe he would have been part of such a ruse.” She could not believe the man she’d known as her father for her entire life would have allowed such a travesty to occur. That he would participate in keeping a babe from its mother. Were they unaware of where Kate had come from? Maybe they didn’t know her past and had simply taken in a child who needed a home. They’d been good people, kind, revered by those in Cheapside and known for helping others. “No, it is worse than that, isn’t it? My true father paid someone to take me.”

The countess lowered her head as tears fell down her face, then dripped off her chin to land on her many-hued skirts. The moisture dampened the fabric and brightened the colors.

Tears were not enough to repair the destruction done by the woman’s revelations.

Kate was not who she believed herself to be. Her parents were likely not who they’d purported themselves to be. The schoolroom was her home, but it had been purchased with ill-gotten funds, and Kate knew she could never think the same of the place she’d considered her home. And now, a stranger claimed that everything she’d ever known was a falsehood. She’d been lied to all her life. What was Kate to do with all this knowledge?

She’d longed for answers for so long, even before she knew there were answers to find. What she’d never expected was to discover something that could destroy what little she had left in her life.