A Duchess a Day (Awakened by a Kiss #1) - Charis Michaels Page 0,91
cast around for a scapegoat.”
“And they chose you,” realized Helena.
“It was so very convenient. They dispatched royal guards to Marseille to arrest me. My defense fell on deaf ears.”
“In France or in London?”
“Everywhere. I am hired muscle and my accusers were the sons of the King of England. A girl in my charge is missing, and I could not account for why or how. Arresting me appeased her family and stifled the story of the future king’s vanishing paramour. The entire incident was deescalated, and I was stashed away in Newgate with very little access to my lawyers. Hell, they barely allowed me to speak to my father. I poured my entire savings into my defense, but the palace’s accusations and cover-up trumped anything I tried. Things were simpler if Knightly Snow remained a missing girl, likely kidnapped by her bodyguard, now safely in jail. The king’s son mourned her ‘death’ and moved on to a more suitable courtship. Her family held a funeral. And I sat in jail awaiting a long-postponed trial,” he finished. “Until the day Girdleston turned up to hire me to ‘contain’ you.”
“My God, Declan,” she breathed, “it’s unbelievable. And entirely unjust.”
Declan shrugged. “It is yet another example of the upper class orchestrating what they want, when they want it, with no regard for damage to inconsequential people along the way. As far as I know, Knightly Snow is alive and well and frolicking about France. As far as I know, no one has even bothered to search for her since I’ve been locked up.”
“You think she . . . survived? But why did she run in the first place?”
“Yes, I think she survived,” he exclaimed. “I had almost tracked her down . . . I was half a day away . . . when the palace sent guards to arrest me.”
“But did you tell—”
“Helena, I have told anyone and everyone who will listen. I’ve explained what I believe happened and where I think Knightly Snow might be found. No one cares about anything but keeping this girl away from the future king. They don’t want to find her. The more lost she is, the better. My freedom means nothing.”
“But her poor family . . .” whispered Helena.
“Think of your own family, Helena. I’m sure they do not wish you dead, but they are focused on their own prosperity. Surely Knightly Snow’s family mourns her, but they’d allowed her to enjoy life at court with no chaperone and then waved her off to France without coming to London to say a proper farewell.”
“That poor girl,” said Helena, shaking her head.
“Oh no. Do not seek a victim in Knightly Snow. She is impetuous and demanding and self-involved. If she’d not run away, I’d not be in this predicament.”
“But why would she run?”
“God only knows. The South of France is a playground for European society. The closer we traveled to the seaside, the more revelry was on display. She begged me daily to pause our journey so she might cavort with holiday seekers—men she met in the dining rooms of inns or at scenic overlooks where carriages clustered to take in the view. We passed castles that she wished to explore, and she read notices about country assemblies she wished to attend. I refused because I’d not been hired to squire her around France on a whim. The aunt was expecting her and I intended to deliver her. I told her repeatedly that she could do what she liked after I’d gone. Best I could tell, based on locals I spoke with after she disappeared, she could not wait.”
“My God,” marveled Helena. “It’s no wonder my grandmother wanted me raised in the forest.”
“No forest could contain Knightly Snow,” grumbled Declan.
They walked a moment in silence and then she asked, “So, in the end, what was the charge against you?”
“Abduction and foul play.” He exhaled. “My lawyers were able to have the charge of murder removed because there was no body. I’ve been in Newgate since summer, awaiting trial. And then, as I’ve said, Girdleston turned up.”
“But what could he have to do with any of it?”
“Nothing. Or rather, I should say, who knows? It was Girdleston who told me Miss Snow’s family had dropped the charges because a cousin had made a sighting of her in France. Which is what I’ve anticipated all along.”
“And Girdleston knew?”
“I suppose? Honestly, I cannot say. He arranged for me to leave prison, but he never fails to remind me that if the