Never Land the First Fish

Chapter Twenty-One, Part 1

They stayed in Dublin an extra day, because Maddox insisted on tracking down the person who had purchased Emily's violin and paying over the top to get it back, which didn't help the mood of the two contingents of men who awaited them at the Bristol docks: one, the local magistrate and his agents, who wanted nothing more than to take Gills and Julia into custody—and Maddox for good measure—and second, His Grace of Wellbridge's men, sent with a judge's order to release Maddox entirely and release Gills and Julia to the custody of the duke's representative.

Of course, the custodian was Piero d'Alvieri. But Coventon was in his company and embraced his brother as soon as they laid eyes on each other. Gills had never been happier to see his brother than he was now. Coventon would explain everything and would give Gills access to his funds. And he would almost certainly step in to "make arrangements," like he always did. He had probably already begun.

Before he could query Coventon, however, d'Alvieri barked, "You are to present yourself to the duke without delay."

Maddox laughed. "The Duke of Wellbridge has no currency with me, and he knows it. I'm for Longford Court, and I am taking Emily with me. You can do as you like with the stowaways." Stocke had already strolled away towards a man who had been leaning against a carriage further along the docks. He straightened as the couple approached, and met Stocke with a bear hug that turned into a wrestling match. Stocke's brother Longford had come to meet the boat, too.

"Thanks for the support, Mad."

"If your mess requires obeisance to His Grace of Wellbridge, you can get out of it yourself. I will be sorry if you hang, Gills, but not much." Maddox punched him in the shoulder. He leaned in and in an undertone, he said, "You won't hang. And I'll give whatever testimony is needed."

Gills and Maddox shook hands and said their goodbyes as Emily embraced Julia. Eventually, after the farewells, Maddox and Emily left to join Stocke and Longford, and Piero began barking orders again.

It didn't take but three words before Julia snapped, "It is growing dark; I am hungry and tired and my clothes are a mess from travel, and I will not move another inch until my physical needs have been addressed. I suggest we take a hotel for the night and continue on to Toadstone Hall in the morning."

"Without delay," Piero repeated, with a darkening tone in his voice.

"What does one more night matter, after all this time?" Gills asked, reasonably. "I agree with Julia. I'm hungry and tired, too, and I don't wish to appear before his Grace looking like a ragamuffin. A hotel for the night is just the thing."

Coventon agreed to the plan, and one by one, everyone fell in line but Piero, who left, seething, to report back to Wellbridge.

***

Toad Wellbridge sat behind his desk at Toadstone Hall, in full ducal mien, writing and handing papers to his secretary, not deigning to look up at the offenders before him. The secretary wouldn't look at them either, as if to confirm the duke's low opinion of them. Finally, another man slipped in the door silently, and Wellbridge sent the secretary out to post his letters. Wellbridge introduced the investigator, Wakefield, and sat back in his chair.

"Lady Athol, Lord Joseph."

Gills chose jocularity as defense, hopeful he could cajole Wellbridge out of his bad temper. "Good god, Wellbridge. Are you so formal when you duel with Sally?"

Wellbridge snorted. "I'm not amused by the delay, Gills. You've made things that much more difficult here by staying away. I will have the story from your lips, Gills, now. And not the story you have concocted between you. The truth, as you know it."

Gills and Julia looked at each other, then away.

"The truth," Wellbridge repeated.

Gills told the truth; he had no reason not to. Athol had, in fact, been trying to kill his wife, and had been alive when Gills left him. It was all but certain Athol died of his injuries, and everyone in the room knew it, but there was little Gills could say to that.

When Gills finished, Julia said, "He's told you everything there is to know. I have nothing to add, but that I would surely have died if Gills had not happened upon the scene."

Wellbridge nodded, apparently satisfied. In any case, he didn't continue to berate Gills; instead, he sent out the investigator, who had what he needed, and turned to Julia.

"Lady Athol--"

"Lady Julia, if you please."

"Certainly. Lady Julia, I wish to extend an apology from myself and from my household, for the treatment you experienced both by our action and our inaction. Something should have been done long ago to free you from that man, and it is criminal you were left to fend for--" His voice rising, his wife, Sally, came in a side door and strode to his side, resting her hand on his shoulder.

"Wellbridge..."

"No, Sally, I will have my say. I have told my mother, in no uncertain terms, what I think of her decisions regarding Julia and Athol, and I would have Julia know my mind in this." Turning back to Julia, he continued, but in a more measured tone, "You should never have been left to fend for yourself against such a man as that. Your father should never have allowed your marriage, and my father should have put a stop to it if yours didn't."

Julia's breath left her in a great rush, and Gills put a hand to her elbow.

Wellbridge didn't stop surprising Julia there. "Of course, you will be given access to your trust immediately, without restriction or condition, and we have already engaged the best legal minds in London, and the best investigators. At our cost, not yours."

"Thank you, Your Grace," Gills said.

"Now then," Wellbridge continued, "I must place you at Brickdale Towers, and you will be under guard, and this is not negotiable. You will be held by force if necessary."

Gills spoke up, "My brother explained. There will be no need for force. We will go quietly."

Surprisingly, Julia replied with both dignity and humility. "Your Graces, you have been nothing but magnanimous, when I have dealt with you poorly for many years. Thank you for your generosity, and for finding a way to keep us from Newgate."

"And the noose," Gills added with a macabre grin, squeezing Julia's elbow in support. That couldn't have been easy for her to say to Toad and Sal.

"We haven't kept you from the noose yet," Wellbridge warned. "And you, Lady Julia, will find not many places to spend your new wealth in the countryside, confined to a manor house."

Sally narrowed her eyes when Gills said, "We need not spend money. We will find plenty of ways to entertain ourselves. We've become quite good at it, after all these months aboard ship and in hotels."

Toad's eyebrows shot up. "Need I ask your intentions, Lord Joseph?"

Julia sniffed and Sally traded glances with her, stifling a giggle. Julia's lips turned up; perhaps the first kind gesture between them in their entire lives.

"I intend to marry her, Your Grace," Gills announced. "For I am madly in love with her. What she intends has yet to be seen."

Julia's lips most certainly did not turn up at that, but the Wellbridges' did.

"Lord Joseph Gildeforte, you have no business telling anyone--"

"As you can see," Gills spoke over her at volume, "she hasn't yet decided if she likes me or not."