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“Are you saying that I am having an affair of some sort?” he asked, to which she only responded with silence. “For heavens sake, that is…. I am not having an affair with anyone.”
Phillipa shook her head, finding hard to see things clearly now. “Your Grace, after all we had a marriage of convenience. So it is not outside the realm of possibility.. for you to… find attention elsewhere.”
It made her want to vomit as she even said the words, but they had to be made known.
He was taken aback by the words.
“I see,” he said in a curt tone. “If that were the case, would be fine with it?”
She opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out. Either she lost her voice, or she was losing her mind.
“Answer me,” he said a moment later, in a calmer voice.
Suddenly, her eyes began to well up. “I…am only giving back to you what you give to me,” she said finally, frustrated. “How do you think that it makes me feel when you disappear for long periods, and then not tell me anything? I feel like you must have found company elsewhere, or that I am too useless for you. That I cannot help you with that you are going through, so useless in fact that you would much rather do it all alone.”
He winced at her words, maybe he could hear the pain in her voice.
“I am only giving you freedom,” he tried to argue like a lawyer.
“I don’t want freedom,” she said quickly. “I only wish to have my husband back, that he is safe and that… he is honest with me.”
“I’ve been honest with you,” he said in a rough voice and then sank to the floor. Phillipa’s heart wrenched at the sight and she sat down with him. “The reason I’ve been away is.. I’ve been tracking down the man who.. the man who was responsible for all of this for my sister.”
Guilt wracked her. She had assumed the worst of it, and now when he was being honest, it had put her in a bad light.
She didn’t dare interrupt him.
“I’ve been trying my hardest to track him down, but it seems that the man is a ghost. There is no trace of him anywhere, and I’ve been using the best resources that money can buy.”
“Do you know anything about him?” she asked in a soft voice. “You must know something, you can start there and piece the puzzle together. There has to be something.”
He sighed under his breath, and rubbed his forehead. She could see that the whole situation had worn him down greatly.
He looked like a shell of his former self.
“I know some things,” he said. “He was a milliner, but has since left London. In fact, around the time that my sister went missing, so did he. So of course, naturally they must have gone off together. I know that it must not have been her idea, so it was probably his. But since the birth, he is nowhere to be seen. Is he dead? We don’t know that either. It feels like it is impossible to find out, but I am determined to.”
His voice broke as he said the words, but Phillipa understood that this was the only way that he was going to get closure out of the situation.
“Do you know what his name was?” she asked. “If you know his profession, then the name must not be too difficult.”
He nodded, and then looked down at his hands.
“Micheal Dornet.”
Upon hearing this, Phillipa froze and something nagged in her mind.
Where have I heard the name before?
It wasn’t a very common name, so it wasn’t as though she would have heard it in passing.
And, she realized and nearly went pale from the discovery.
“Oh!” she said standing up. “Gregory, you will not believe me… but… I think… well, I have heard of that name before.”
Gregory stood up as well, alarmed. “You must tell me where.”
“When I went to visit the orphanage, there was a strange man who was visiting the children. He wouldn’t say much, nor did he have anyone specific to visit. If anything, it was like he was looking for someone. You know something? The last time he visited, he asked for me. That makes sense, doesn’t it? He must know that I have some connection to you.”
