Sleeping Engagement

XXVI. Fiona

At first he sounded reluctant. "Promise me you will not repeat this to anyone. Not for me, but for Fiona and her safety."

Margaret nodded, all the while telling herself she was bound to go to hell.

Cole started sharing his story. "The same time I discovered Leah's unsent letters, I stumbled upon five slavery cases that have been rejected by a member of the Men of Courts. There were attempts to bury any evidence and claims. I was confused by Leah's letters at first, but the more I dug into my father's effects, I realized her fears were real. When I saw other evidence of communication between my father and his friends, it eventually became clear.

"Leah's letters were intercepted by my father for a reason. He knew I would have come for her and if that happened, his secrets would be exposed."

"But why keep Leah's letters? Why keep the evidence of transactions with his so-called friends?"

"Proof, of course. They are evidence against his friends as much as they were against him. If things go wrong. Based on what I discovered, my father was already in too deep. There was no way out of it even if he wanted to. He might have resorted to collecting their transactions to protect himself."

"And you discovered everything?"

"Not all. I'm still looking, but I don't think there's more in this estate. When Leah died, my father was never the same. He lived the rest of his life afraid. And maybe also in guilt."

Margaret watched as he took a deep breath and shook his head. "You know who his friends were. You know who might have killed your sister."

He slowly nodded. "Not all, but I know one man who would have done anything to protect his own name—Osmond Trilby."

Margaret's eyes widened.

"Among others. As I told you, they use codes for names and transactions," he added with a scoff. "They know what they're doing."

"The previous Prime Minister is a part of this?"

He nodded, looking blankly in the air. "But there's something strange about the case. The disappearance of the women and children don't seem to be random. In one way or another, they have a connection to the men in my father's circle."

Margaret frowned. "Whatever do you mean?"

"Some are their own servants, or related to their servants. Some, I believe, are even their own flesh and blood."

Margaret blinked in disbelief. "They sell their own flesh and blood?"

"I'm not certain, but that is what the evidence tells me." He sighed. "There is still much to do, Meg. At the moment, my study is stacked with papers and I don't even know where to begin. Someone had gotten wind of what I had been doing and found a way to get everything from me. They transferred me to Wickhurst, everything I've been working on in my previous post now gone. The only things I can work on with are my father's documents. I had to start from scratch to further my investigation. As soon as I arrived in Wickhurst, I received a threat. Subtle but clear."

"What did you do then? After you received the threat?"

"While in Wickhurst, they threw me as many cases as they could that did not have anything to do with what I was working on. One of them, of course, was the case of your sister-in-law, Agatha Blair. They meant to distract me with unnecessary cases."

Margaret smiled. "But you never stopped."

He returned her smile. "I started to secretly investigate the cases of servants in Wickhurst as well and realized that the same slavery complaints were dismissed. And like the previous ones, I could not find any witnesses or complainants. I had no other choice but to seek out one of the two men I knew was connected to the case. The first one, of course, was my father, but he was already dead. The second one was someone who had too much to lose if I exposed him, and that was Osmond Trilby.

"I traveled to Willowfair to see him and the moment I did, I told him a bluff. I said I had enough evidence to expose his illegal activities. I told him I have a list of his friends, and that I also have acquired the cooperation of some of them. I asked the same from him. All he had to do is tell me everything I needed to know about the trade, the location of the slaves, and who was really behind everything."

"He refused, didn't he?"

Cole nodded. "With a threat that he shall strip me of my name if I pursue the matter. He was, after all, the Prime Minister. And I left with a promise to bring him down."

It took Margaret a moment to digest what he just said. "You left?"

"I had nothing to discuss with the man. I returned to my rented apartment after that visit and started making plans before he could do something. The first and obvious plan, of course, was to escape. As I was leaving, a knock came to my door."

Margaret's heart started to race. She did not know why but she guessed what happened next.

"Osmond Trilby's son, Edmund Trilby, the young man you saw me talking with in the Theobald party, came to my door and with him was Fiona. At first, I did not understand why they were there, but both of them looked as though they have been through the toughest nights of their lives. Edmund told me that Fiona is the daughter of one of their servants and needed my help. He claimed that men were trying to take Fiona away because she witnessed something.

"Edmund was insistent that I was the only person he could trust. Understandably, I was hesitant to take a child in, most especially from a Trilby. I was not even sure if I could trust Edmund. But he told me he knew why I visited his father and that he would try to help me with the case. And he told me what I needed to hear."

"Which was?"

"Fiona told him that she heard Osmond Trilby talking with men about taking people away. We assume they were planning to transfer the slaves."

"She heard them talking."

"Planning, I guess," he corrected. "I suppose that after my visit, Osmond Trilby must have gathered his friends."

"So you took her."

"I did," he answered with a nod. "She was—is—a witness. We drove out of Willowfair that very same night. She had been with me ever since. But just recently, Fiona started to remember more and now I'm inclined to believe that she witnessed something even more horrible."

Margaret let out a shaky breath, a part of her finding his story unbelievable. But it all made sense. It explained why he was in Trilby's estate hours before the man died, his connection with Edmund Trilby, and why he had a little girl hidden in Ashmore. "What else could she have witnessed that night, Cole?"

Cole looked into her eyes. "I believe she witnessed Osmond Trilby's murder." Somehow, a part of her knew it was coming, but hearing it from him still sent shivers up her spine. "Recently, Fiona remembers something from that night," Cole continued, his face tight. "Blood. She remembers so much blood."