A Duke's Fascination (Unedited Version)

Chapter 5

Marcus Jones was sitting at his desk on bow street with a ton of paperwork in front of him. He was exhausted, and the words in front of him were starting to blur. It was time to call it a day, he decided.

He had spent the last two days combing the city looking for the Dukes mystery girl, with no results. So far the investigation was going nowhere. He went to every shop in the west end, and questioned every fish wife, and pie man on Fleet street, but to no avail. No one remembered the young lady in question. "Why would they," he thought aloud, garnering stares from the other runner's.

After all they had other things to worry about. Like making enough money to feed their children, or pay for the roof over their heads. They didn't have time to interfere in someone else's life, besides in this part of London one tended to keep his or her mouth shut.

Another inconvenience was the cobblestone streets. They were congested with street vendors, hackney carts, and sedan chairs, not to mention people out shopping. Nobody paid much attention to a slip of a girl walking by.

Carraige accidents for that matter, were also a daily occurance on Bond street. This was Londons busiest part of town, finding someone here was like looking for a needle in a haystack.

Exasperated, he concluded he would have to look further abreast, on the outskirts of the city. Marcus did have one clue to follow up on, however. The Duke had mentioned that he was fired upon near the small town of Salisbury. It was a long shot, but long shots sometimes paid off in his line of work. Tomorrow he would travel to Salisbury to see if he could find some answers. If nothing came about there, than he would have to search further. And if that bared no fruit then quite frankly, he didn't know where to go from there.
Although Marcus wasn't one to give up easily, some mysteries, he learned, were just not meant to be solved.

Today however, was over. It was time to pack up and head home to his very indisposed wife.

It was already mid evening and not only was Marcus tired, he was famished. He cleaned up his desk, locked it, pulled on his jacket and cap, and headed out the door. If he was lucky, his Jane would have dinner waiting on the table. She was a patient woman his wife. Although they had married young, they had a strong marriage. It was a marriage made of love, which made it stronger than the conventional arranged marriages of the ton. She understood that his job was demanding and consisted of odd hours. She didn't like it much, but she married him anyways. For that he loved her all the more.

They had been trying to have a baby for a couple of years and she had just suprised him last week with the news. He was going to be a father. Marcus was overjoyed. He had always wanted to have children someday. However, he and Jane were beginning to think it wasn't meant to be. But now she was pregnant and they were planning for their future child. This was another reason he needed to find the Dukes mystery girl. The money would come in handy for fixing up the nursery, and the Dukes recommendations would further his career as a detective. His wife and child would never want for anything, he mused, especially love.

They were his life's blood, outside of being a detective he had wanted nothing more. Family was everything to him as he never truly had one growing up. His mother loved him and made sure that he was educated. She had wanted a better life for him. The man he knew to be his father had inpregnated her then tossed her aside. The ruin had forced her into prostitution to care for the two of them, as her employers, his sires' parents, had cast her out. He never met the man, he didn't want too. When his mother passed away he was left all alone, at least until he met Jane. Thankfully, at two and twenty, his education had paid off. It enabled him to make something of himself, to rise to detective at Bow street. An education that allowed him the opportunity to mix with the upper classes. He would be forever grateful to his mother for that.

Thinking about mother his thoughts turned to his sweet Jane. She was going to make an incredible mother to his child. The thought encouraged him to hasten his steps to get home. She would be waiting to greet him at the door with a welcoming kiss as always. "Hmmm," he thought, maybe dinner could hold off for an hour or so. He was suddenly hungry for something other than food, he thought, with a huge grin on his face.

He began to whistle all the way home just thinking about it. Even as his stomach growled he still smiled to himself. He was a lucky man, a lucky man indeed.