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Chapter 12


Sir William entered his wife’s bedchamber with a flourish, and smiled when he saw her sitting up, with their young daughter safely nestled in the crook of her arm.

“My Darling – how can you ever forgive me? William fell to his knees, kissing his wife’s fingers, taking in her fragility.

She raised her other hand, and careful not to wake their sleeping daughter she ran her fingers through his hair and said,

“My love, you weren’t to know, we were both deceived by that scoundrel of a half-brother of yours!”

William rose up and sat on the bed, kissing his wife soundly.

“Hanging is too good for that - that – ooh, you WAIT until I get my hands on him – and that whore of his!”

“Papa…there are things you need to see, Mr Wolfram keeps them hidden in a box – papers, documents –things of importance, I have seen forged signatures on these papers, with dates that you couldn’t have possibly signed them on, as you wee away at the campaign in France”

William stood and went to his son, hugged him and knelt

“My son – I am SO proud of you – you have been the man of the house in my absence, and at such a tender age! Go surely must have sent us Miss Rosenberg to teach you such wisdom!”

Willow smiled and said,

“Sire, ‘tis not my doing, the child is of an exceptional brain and heart, and although he is mere but a child, he has the thoughts of one of many years, and it is an honour to have him as my charge!”

“Then come my son, show me these papers of which you speak, and I shall put together a trial to see that ner’-do-well is thrown into a dungeon and they can throw away the key!”

They both quietly entered the study, to see Jeremiah Wolfram fast asleep and snoring noisily in his chair by the fire.

“I took the precaution of adding extra Brandywine to the port, he won’t wake!” Young William said to his father.

Carefully creeping under the desk, William drew out the box containing all the papers that he’d told his father about, and Sir William picked it up and they left the room.

After spending a good hour reading them, Sir William was beside himself, there was nothing left – money gone, IOU’s to various gambling cronies, and then he came upon the paper that practically ‘given’ away half of the house, £7000………



*****************


Sir William tried to think clearly – before he’d gone on this campaign for Queen Elizabeth, he’s had nearly £20,000…now it seemed all he had were the clothes he stood up in…

“Papa…papa, you must have a little supper” William touched his father’s arm.

William turned his sad gaze onto his son.

“My son…I have failed you – I should never have trusted my half-brother to have you best interests at heart – and it seems now we have nothing left!”

Young William smiled and said,

“Don’t worry so papa, you must see Lord Agnew, Her Majesty’s most trusted servant, and explain to him what has happened, and tell him that Sir Jasper is in plot to bankrupt you and is plotting against the queen – he will HAVE to take notice of you then!”

William sat up and gave his son a quizzical look

“My – my goodness William! – But how do I, I mean, I have no evidence”

“I hear him talk with his co-conspirators – there’s a man called Catesby, he’s a Catholic from Yorkshire – they speak in codes, but I hear them talking about the ‘old ways’ – they need to be watched else our good name could be dragged under by association and then we’d all hang for treason, get word to Lord Agnew, he has the queens ear on everything, she trusts him implicitly!”

Sir William’s eyes nearly popped he opened them so wide

“Gracious my child!

“I urge you father, let no more time delay, and contact Lord Agnew before…”

Young William’s words trailed off as the sound of horse’s hooves could be heard in the courtyard.

“Go to your mother William, and lock yourself and Miss Rosenberg in the bedchamber, and do not come out until I fetch you”

“Yes papa” William quickly scampered away to do his father’s bidding.


From over the banisters, Sir William saw his half-brother come staggering into the great hall, a bottle of port in one hand, and his arm around an almost equally drunk Drusilla. From out of his pockets, money fell, and the drunken couple were laughing.

“S-see…tried – he TR-I-I-I (hic) tried to say…that the (hic) DECK WAS M-MARKED, BUT – whoops………” Drusilla nearly fell over, and they began giggling.

“What a DISGUSTING sight you are!” Sir William’s voice rang out loud and clear in the hallway.

Giggling stopped, and Sir Jasper looked up and saw his half-brother coming down the stairs towards him, looking furious. Drusilla shrank back, she was petrified.

“Will (hic) – Will-yam! What are….wha are you doin’ (hic) ‘ere?” Jasper slurred, his speech barely coherent.

“Shall I take that sir?” One of the footmen, used to Sir Jasper coming home in this state gently tried to prize the bottle out of his hand

“No, no, leave me ‘lone!” Jasper resisted the servant’s attempts ro relieve him of the bottle

“That will be all Andrews, I’ll see to the sot!” Turning in surprise at his lord and masters voice the footman said,

“SIR WILLIAM! I didn’t know you were at home sire, I’m so dreadfully sor-“

“That will be all, Andrews, you may go!” William said, and the footman thanked him, bowed and left

“And you – go to your room! NOW, WHILE YOU STILL HAVE ONE!” William positively barked at Drusilla, who took off up the stairs like a scalded cat.

“Will –yam, Will-yam…(hic)…wha’s with all the shoutin’ come let me embra-(hic) embrace you!”

“The ONLY thing I’d touch you with, is the sharp end on my sword, and by the lord is my witness sir, if it wasn’t for the disgusting state you are in I’d challenge you to a sword fight right here and now and have your hide for what you’ve done to my family!”

Angel was staggering about, trying to get some sort of coherent thought together

“Whassamarra? – House is here…wifey’s all snug…brats are well brats…”

Angel tried to reason and shrug, he ended up spilling port on the floor

“Oh now (hic) l-look…spill-led- spill-lil-led it!”

Sir William was now at the bottom of the stairs, his fists clenched

“You have slowly and systematically gambled away every penny of MY money, you have seen fit to try and poison my wife, and you have raised your hand to my child, and for that alone I should have your very hide!”

“Your, your, your! – Wha ‘bout me, huh? Where was mine!”

“YOU gambled all your money away – then you have the temerity to start on mine, while falsifying documents, and signatures – you’ll go to the debtors prison and think yourself lucky!”

“Huh! Tha’ stupid lawyer- Wolf (hic) Wolfram couldn’t keep his (hic) mouth shut! Well, I’ll kill ‘im, then I’ll kill you!”

At this Sir Jasper saw red, there was NO WAY he was going to a debtors prison! He smashed the port bottle against the wall and lunged at his half-brother, who had no weapon to defend himself.

They struggled, Sir Jasper slightly gained the upper hand because of his sheer bulk, but William managed to kick his legs fro under him and in his highly inebriated state Jasper fell, cutting his face on the broken bottle, and passing out cold.

Sir William noticed he had a slight cut to his arm, but it didn’t matter, he instructed the footmen to lock Sir Jasper in his room. And under NO circumstances was he to be let out without his permission.



The following morning, Sir William instructed Willow to pack all of Drusilla’s things and to set her in a carriage back to her uncle Ethan’s.

Meanwhile, up all night, William had written various letters to whom it concerned, that any gambling debts incurred by Sir Jasper wouldn’t be honoured by him, his half-brother Sir William, as he too had been a victim of crimes perpetrated by Jasper.

He then wrote to the Lord Agnew and sent it with Sam to London.

Sir William then proceeded to write to the other partner of the Lawyer Jeremiah Wolfram, a Mr Myles Hart, to tell him of his partner’s dubious dealings with Sir Jasper.

After all this was done, Sir William dosed and waited for Sir Jasper to rouse himself from his slumbers………





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