To Save a Love - Alexa Aston Page 0,63
a man named Haggard to the case. Dez had explained to the runner in detail everything he knew about Gollingham Asylum and Lady Jergens and why he believed there was a strong possibility of liberating the woman from being a patient.
Haggard agreed and Dez pressed further, asking that the runner go to Gollingham and see if he could obtain a list of all the patients at the facility. He explained that if there were even one woman that he might be able to help, he wanted to do so and had given the man one hundred pounds to use as bribes, as well as traveling expenses. Haggard had left immediately for Hampshire and was gone four days. When he returned, the agent had a handwritten list of twenty-three women. Beside each name was listed the man who had committed her to the institute. Dez didn’t ask how Haggard had gotten the information and the runner hadn’t volunteered how he came to possess it.
What he did ask was that the agent find out what he could about the men and women on the list. If they could find another circumstance similar to Lady Jergens’, then he would take action. For now, he concentrated on her case.
He made his way to the drawing room because he was expecting guests. Dez had written to Lord Morton, whom Haggard discovered was Lady Jergens’ father, and asked the earl to call upon Dez, bringing along his solicitor and physician. He stressed that it was a private, urgent matter, one which he couldn’t explain except in person, and begged the earl to adhere to his request for a meeting in person. Morton had responded in the affirmative, probably curious as to why a former officer and new peer would seek him out.
Entering the drawing room, he found Haggard already present and greeted him. The agent was of average height and weight, with brown hair and brown eyes, not memorable in any way. It was probably what made him such a good investigator, along with his keen intelligence.
“Thank you for coming today,” Dez told the runner.
“I am happy to be here. I hope Lord Morton will come and be as eager as we are to get Lady Jergens out of that awful place.”
Haggard had shared that he had been inside the asylum once, late at night, and even someone hardened by all that he had seen had been shaken by his observations. He had told Dez that he would stay on the case as long as needed and hoped they could get as many women out of the asylum as possible.
His butler entered. “Lord Morton. Dr. Caymon. And Mr. Black.”
“Thank you, Johnson,” Dez said, stepping toward his guests. “Lord Morton, thank you for coming.”
Skepticism filled the earl’s face. “This is Dr. Caymon, my personal physician, and Mr. Black, my solicitor.” He frowned. “I have no idea what you are up to, Torrington. The only reason I came is because you aren’t your brother. He was a rake of the worst sort and a drunken ass.” He sniffed. “Of course, I have no idea who or what you are. No one in London does, other than you were in the military.”
“Yes, Lord Morton. I served a dozen years in His Majesty’s Army, attaining the rank of major.”
“Hmm. I am a former naval officer myself. Very well. Let’s get this done.”
Dez indicated seats and the five men took each took one.
“I would like to introduce you to Mr. Haggard, of the Bow Street Runners.”
Distaste crossed the earl’s face. “Get to the point, man.”
He took a calming breath. “The point, my lord, is your daughter. Lady Jergens.”
Morton drew in a quick breath. “You have news of her?” he asked anxiously. “Jergens is even worse than your brother. I learned too late that he is a dissolute gambler and skirt chaser. He has cut off all contact between Alice and me. I see her at no social events. My letters to her are returned unopened.”
“That is because Jergens committed his wife to a madhouse.”
Horror crossed the earl’s face. “No!” he gasped as both the physician and solicitor shifted uncomfortably.
Then Morton shook his head, tears brimming in his eyes. “Then my Alice is lost to me. I know the law. A husband exercises full rights over his wife.”
“If he is a true husband,” Dez said.
Immediately, he explained how he had met Lady Jergens in the asylum while helping his neighbor retrieve his own relative and what she had been able to reveal