10
In the morning Johanna went down to breakfast to find Jensen plating his food and Pauline sitting at the table with a plate piled high. Jo noticed Pauline was wearing her hair different and her dress was a pretty shade of blue that brought the color of her blue eyes out.
"Good Morning everyone."
"Good morning Johanna."
"Guess what I found last night after we retired. I found a secret room and a locked chest. I do not know if it has anything to do with our mystery, but it was exciting none the less."
Jensen sat down and started to eat he had been up all night trying to think of what Jason she had kissed. Pauline seemed excited and took her slate out to ask a question.
"Are you going to show us this room and chest?"
"Of course, I just thought we should eat first after all we have an appointment with The Times today to go through their archives."
Once they were all finished with eating the three of them went up to the room Johanna had been staying in. She showed them how to open the hidden panel. There was a lever behind the portrait on the wall. Once the door was open they took the passageway to the small room at the top. Both Jensen and Pauline were amazed neither of them had known the room existed. Jensen picked up one of the letters that was scattered around the room.
He did not recognize the handwriting it seemed to be very flowery, He looked at Pauline and showed her the writing.
"Did you write this?"
She shook her head no this was not her writing style at all. Hers was flowery but it was not hers. Jensen did not know of any other women in the family other than women who married into it and if he did not know of the secret room he doubted they would. He read the letter in his hands and Johanna sensed something was wrong and looked over at Jensen and saw he had paled.
"Is something wrong your grace?"
He did not speak he handed her the paper he had picked up and she read.
"I do not know how long it is that I have been in this tower. It could be days weeks or even years I have given up trying to track the time. I am afraid I believe I am with child. I cannot be certain since I do not know if a fifteen year old can have a baby but something feels like it is moving around in me, I get very sick during the day and I have not had my course for a while."
They picked up another of the papers to see what the writer had to say.
"Today I felt my baby kick, it was a strange feeling He is upset with me, but it is not my fault I am with child. If he did not do all those despicable things to me I would not be in this condition. He told me today he will allow me help in my delivery of the babe. I am so scared I asked him to not let me do this alone."
Johanna let the letter slip out of her hands.
"Oh my god someone was held prisoner in this room. Oh my god."
She was about ready to collapse but Jensen caught her and carried her back down to the main house. He needed to find out whose room this had been and who did they have locked in the tower. God he hoped it was so far in the past that it was not what he was thinking, but until he found out a little more everything was a theory and he did not want to upset Johanna until he knew for sure. She rested for about an hour before she was ready to go to the Times.
When they arrived at The Times they asked for Clive Wilks who led them into the tombs of the newspaper. It was cold in the tombs and Jensen could tell the women were feeling it more than he was but neither of them let on they were cold they just kept going through the papers for the year 1793 and 1794. They found out that the girls were all last seen at Strawberry Hill where the famous sculpture Anne Seymour Damer was residing with the Walpole's in 1793. Johanna was curious and expressed it out loud.
"Did they think Anne Seymore Damer was responsible or the Walpole's? I do not understand what the girls were doing there?"
"Pauline wrote on her slate.
"The gardens of the estate were beautiful and open for people to go and view even though it was a private residence."
"There has to be a reason they went every week. I know the gardens are still lovely but as a youth I did not find that I would visit them weekly. There had to be another reason why they would go there?"
Jensen who had been forgotten in the conversation spoke up.
"We can go ask the families or the Duchess of St. Helen's she might know."
"one has to wonder what the girls were thinking of going each week after their friends went missing."
Johanna sighed, this was frustrating, but she was sure it was worth it. Jensen commented on her thinking.
"You have to remember one of them drowned she did not go missing."
"That is true, but still there were five girls and all but two ends up missing. I just do not understand what they did with them. No bodies were ever found and other than the letters we found this morning and surmised they were from one of the girls there is nothing they just vanished."
Jensen laughed, at the gloom and doom in her speech.
"That only means we will have to look harder and solve all the mysteries placed before us."
At the end of their search when the paper was shutting down for the day Jensen decided to treat the ladies to a dinner at Rules. To Johanna's delight Eden and Nikki were at the restaurant along with his twin sister Natalie and her husband Justin. Jo knew it was their favorite place, and whenever they ate at the restaurant they would sanitize one of the private rooms for Eden since she was allergic to oranges and Nikki never forgot the time he had almost lost her when they were children.
They were invited to sit with the family and Jensen was going to decline when the Earl and the Duchess walked in. He had no choice but to accept. It would look like he was afraid of the deadly duo and he could not have that. To his surprise it was very pleasant they seemed to be a close family a very influential family as it were. There were Two dukes, not counting himself. One very scary Earl and Three Duchesses. The laughter around the table showed they are were happy and comfortable in each other's company. Then Wayne spoke up and seemed to make Johanna upset.
"Are you behaving for the Duke young lady?"
"I always behave."
Eden and Natalie coughed and choked. It was Natalie who spoke.
"I remember the time when Eden and I were supposed to be watching you and you played a trick that took years off my life. She threw a large rock into the water and started calling for help."
"Oh please you two deserved it after all you were supposed to be playing with me and all the two of you talked about was something to do with the maid and the butler and that someday you were going to take someone out to the pond and the waterfall and try whatever they were doing. By the way did you ever get to experience whatever it was?"
"Both girls faces turned red and so did their husbands. Jo had to wonder what it was they wanted to try if it was so embarrassing. It was Nikki who chastised the girls.
"How could you have told an eight-year-old about the maid and the butler? That was very irresponsible of both of you."
Justin second that, and that left the rest of them wondering what it was they had been talking about.
"See even Nikki agrees that you were irresponsible, so I taught you a valuable lesson."
Jo stuck a fork full of food in her mouth thinking that was the end of the subject. The conversation seemed to be getting tense when Eden screeched at Jo.
"You let us believe you were dead for over an hour. That is not a fitting punishment for ignoring a child we were having an adult conversation and forgot you were there that is not a crime."
"It would have been if I drowned."
Wayne stopped the conversation before it got out of hand, which this one usually did since neither side saw they were both wrong in the situation.
"Enough, we have hashed this conversation out over the last nine years she did not drown, and you two should have been paying attention to her since you said you would keep an eye on her. The end of story."
All the girls became quiet after all Wayne was Eden's father and Natalie looked at him as her stepfather because the Earl and the Duchess had been together for ten years. She did not want to get married and all the kids even Edward excepted it. They were happy and all of them became a family.
After dinner, the three of them made their way back to Jensen's to clean the small room at the top of the stairs to see if they could identify the author. They brought everything down to Jensen's study and went over each letter they were heartbreaking. The girl wrote about how she went into labor and was terrified and all alone. All they could assume was she died giving birth since there was nothing telling of the birth of the baby. They all sat in silence when Jo remembered something she wanted to ask Pauline.
"Whose room was that?"
Pauline took out her slate and wrote.
"No one's after my grandmother stopped coming to London."
"So, anyone could have used that room to hide someone?"
She scribbled down her answer.
"Unfortunately, so. Yet it had to be a family member, or they would not have such complete access to the room."
"What family member do you think would do something like this?"
Pauline was shaking her head and tears formed in her eyes. She wrote on her slate.
"I do not want to talk about it."
Then she got up and left the room.
"Well that went as well as could be expected."
Jensen joked.
"I suppose she could have gone back in shock and we would not have gotten anything out of her. At least we found out that was your great grandmothers' room, and everyone had access to it after 1793."
"You would think someone would have heard that poor girl cries or something."
"One would suppose but the construction of these old houses is very strong and mostly soundproof."
"Jensen what do you think our next move should be?"
"I think we go talk with the Duchess of St. Helens after we go to court tomorrow to support your brother."
"Speaking of which I guess I should be getting home so I can be up early to attend with him."
"Then I will meet you there and we can sit together while your brother is testifying."
Johanna was glad when they were alone in the carriage he pulled her to him and kissed her. She had been longing to kiss him all day and was relieved all her thoughts were not for nothing and came to fruition. Johanna could not think of a carriage ride home she had enjoyed more.