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Authors: Meta Mathews
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then.”
“Then how on earth does Uncle Ben think he could be a legitimate heir to the dukedom?”
“That particular paragraph of the act resulted in so many problems that Parliament did away with it in 1822 and made the change retroactive. This would have meant that Jackson’s and Amy’s children were legitimate after all. But by this time, Amy supposedly had left England bound for America and Jackson had disappeared. Ben thinks Amy was pregnant with the future duke when she arrived in America.”
“Do you suppose she really was?”
“I don’t know. When I was transcribing the Comstock woman’s diary, I’d just come to a very interesting point. She was saying that Amy had arrived to visit her and was worried that her marriage could be voided so that her baby would not be the duke’s legal heir. Unfortunately, I couldn’t read any further. The following pages had been torn out of the diary.”
Jack slapped a hand to his forehead. “Damn. I forgot to tell you.”
“Tell me what?”
He ran a hand into the back pocket of his jeans and pulled out a business-sized envelope. “When I stopped by Ben’s this evening, he gave me this to pass along to you. He said something about it containing pages from the diary.”
Chapter Seven
Struggling to keep her hand from trembling, Amelia reached for the envelope. “Where did he get these?”
“He said someone must have torn the pages out of the diary and then stuck them back in loose. He suspects Martha Comstock was responsible, but we’ll never know for sure. In any case, they apparently fell out of the diary and into the bag he’d carried onto the plane coming from England. He ran across these pages when he was filing some of the other papers he’d brought back with him.”
Ben had folded the brittle sheets in order to fit them into the envelope, which made Amelia long to call him up right now in the wee morning hours and inform him that he was an idiot, but she refrained. She didn’t want to get tied up on the phone with Ben when she could be reading the pages from the diary instead.
She carried them over to her desk, gently unfolded them, and turned her lamp on. She bent over to get a closer look.
Jack had followed her and now stood just slightly behind her right side. She felt his body heat and leaned sideways just a bit, so their shoulders were touching. She needed that right now, the feel of someone real and solid and sane. She needed to feel Jack beside her.
He wrapped an arm around her shoulders as though to steady her. “Are those the pages you were missing?” he asked.
“I think so. Pull up a chair and I’ll see if I can read the writing. This is more faded than most of the pages have been.” She reluctantly moved away from his comforting embrace to open a desk drawer and retrieve a magnifying glass. Then she sat down.
A second later, she nodded. “Yes, this takes up where the other entries left off. If I read slowly, can you type the words into the file I have open on the computer?”
“Sure thing.” He moved an extra chair up to the desk. “Okay. I’m ready. Can you make out the next entry?”
Amelia squinted as she moved the magnifying glass back and forth. “Yes, I think I can read this now. Here we go.
“Durbane’s cousin Charles called on us today. He said he will drop the court case against the marriage if Amy will agree to leave the country. He offered to buy both of us passage on a ship bound for America, along with giving each of us several thousand pounds if we will quietly slip away.” Amelia took a deep breath. “It’s apparently just as Ben has always suspected. Amy came to America. I don’t think he had any reason to think that her cousin Martha accompanied her.”
“So apparently the duchess believed the courts would declare her marriage void,” Jack said.
“Obviously she feared that was a possibility, and with good reason. But perhaps there’s more in the diary about her thoughts.” Amelia
“Then how on earth does Uncle Ben think he could be a legitimate heir to the dukedom?”
“That particular paragraph of the act resulted in so many problems that Parliament did away with it in 1822 and made the change retroactive. This would have meant that Jackson’s and Amy’s children were legitimate after all. But by this time, Amy supposedly had left England bound for America and Jackson had disappeared. Ben thinks Amy was pregnant with the future duke when she arrived in America.”
“Do you suppose she really was?”
“I don’t know. When I was transcribing the Comstock woman’s diary, I’d just come to a very interesting point. She was saying that Amy had arrived to visit her and was worried that her marriage could be voided so that her baby would not be the duke’s legal heir. Unfortunately, I couldn’t read any further. The following pages had been torn out of the diary.”
Jack slapped a hand to his forehead. “Damn. I forgot to tell you.”
“Tell me what?”
He ran a hand into the back pocket of his jeans and pulled out a business-sized envelope. “When I stopped by Ben’s this evening, he gave me this to pass along to you. He said something about it containing pages from the diary.”
Chapter Seven
Struggling to keep her hand from trembling, Amelia reached for the envelope. “Where did he get these?”
“He said someone must have torn the pages out of the diary and then stuck them back in loose. He suspects Martha Comstock was responsible, but we’ll never know for sure. In any case, they apparently fell out of the diary and into the bag he’d carried onto the plane coming from England. He ran across these pages when he was filing some of the other papers he’d brought back with him.”
Ben had folded the brittle sheets in order to fit them into the envelope, which made Amelia long to call him up right now in the wee morning hours and inform him that he was an idiot, but she refrained. She didn’t want to get tied up on the phone with Ben when she could be reading the pages from the diary instead.
She carried them over to her desk, gently unfolded them, and turned her lamp on. She bent over to get a closer look.
Jack had followed her and now stood just slightly behind her right side. She felt his body heat and leaned sideways just a bit, so their shoulders were touching. She needed that right now, the feel of someone real and solid and sane. She needed to feel Jack beside her.
He wrapped an arm around her shoulders as though to steady her. “Are those the pages you were missing?” he asked.
“I think so. Pull up a chair and I’ll see if I can read the writing. This is more faded than most of the pages have been.” She reluctantly moved away from his comforting embrace to open a desk drawer and retrieve a magnifying glass. Then she sat down.
A second later, she nodded. “Yes, this takes up where the other entries left off. If I read slowly, can you type the words into the file I have open on the computer?”
“Sure thing.” He moved an extra chair up to the desk. “Okay. I’m ready. Can you make out the next entry?”
Amelia squinted as she moved the magnifying glass back and forth. “Yes, I think I can read this now. Here we go.
“Durbane’s cousin Charles called on us today. He said he will drop the court case against the marriage if Amy will agree to leave the country. He offered to buy both of us passage on a ship bound for America, along with giving each of us several thousand pounds if we will quietly slip away.” Amelia took a deep breath. “It’s apparently just as Ben has always suspected. Amy came to America. I don’t think he had any reason to think that her cousin Martha accompanied her.”
“So apparently the duchess believed the courts would declare her marriage void,” Jack said.
“Obviously she feared that was a possibility, and with good reason. But perhaps there’s more in the diary about her thoughts.” Amelia
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