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As Johanna grew, she was regaled with stories of the way that the first circles pretended to be all high and mighty but were as debauched as any, and that it was common for them to use and abuse those below them.

Matilda’s vitriol was especially aimed at society ladies who were made out to be devils incarnate to her young and impressionable daughter.

By the time that Johanna was twelve, she was working as a maid in the house.

Her mother had contracted the French pox from some of her customers for which she blamed society ladies, and soon she was too sick to perform her trade.

Before she died, she extracted a promise from the lady of the house that her daughter would not be put into service as a prostitute.

She died not long after and the almost thirteen-year-old Johanna blamed the hated society ladies for her mother’s demise.

Johanna was smart, and that did not go unnoticed by the Madam.

By the time Johanna was eighteen, she was assisting the lady of the house in the day-to-day running of it, and that is when she came to the notice of the owner, Juan Antonio álvarez, who was called the Spaniard.

She soon went to work directly for him and was married to him within a year.

They had been married for almost two years and still she had not become with child.

She was visiting one of their more upscale gambling halls when she caught the eye of a young viscount.

She loved her husband in her own way, but the young Lord caught her eye and so she had chosen to have an affair with him.

She never bothered to inform him that she was married, she told him her name was Johanna Green.

After two months she was with child, and because she had never stopped in her wifely duties, he never suspected that his son, Tony, was in fact not his.

Her theory that he was unable to get a woman pregnant was proven correct as she had never become with child again.

Her husband had gone to his death never knowing that his son was not his progeny.

The Viscount was now an Earl, and after her husband was hung, she had thought about approaching him, but the stories her mother told her were firmly entrenched in her psyche, so she did not believe that he would be any different than the baron that had seduced then discarded her mother like a piece of unwanted rubbish.

She rationalised that the reason that her son was such a disappointment and had abandoned her was because he was not a true álvarez and was weak like all toffs.

The man who had sired Tony was none other than Lord Harry Smythe, the Earl of Granville.

She snapped herself out of her musings. She knew that her mother’s and her own experiences had formed the deep and abiding hatred that she felt for members of the first circles, with the bulk of her feelings aimed at the ladies of that circle.

That is what drove her desire to make the woman that had been a victim in all of this, the villain.

Johanna had desired a walk, but one of the three men left at the encampment had pointed out that being discovered now would spoil all they had worked so long for.

She accepted the folly of her decision, took the man’s advice and returned to the cottage.

She never knew that the man did not want her to walk into one of the men that had their encampment surrounded.

~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~

Tony álvarez woke early that morning in his room at Pemberley’s parsonage. He had slept well and after washing and dressing, he joined Mr. Elliot in the dining parlour. “Good morning Tony,” Elliot welcomed the young man who helped himself to some ham and eggs.

“Morning, Patrick,” Tony replied cheerfully. “It is a nice warm summer day today, is it not?”

“It is, and a very significant one,” Elliot pointed out. “Are you resigned to what is about to happen?”

“I am,” Tony confirmed. “There is nothing that I could have done to change the course of events that will unfold. And as much as I want to confront my mother, there is yet an element of trepidation. I believe she will be quite shocked to see me. I would even wager that she believes that I am somewhere in the areas around Ballycastle, were I that kind of man.”

“Your trepidation is understandable, young man,” Elliot nodded. “No matter what she has done or plans to do, she is still your mother.”

“I just want this to be over so I can attain some level of closure and move on with my life,” Tony said introspectively. The rest of the repast was eaten without conversation as the two waited for word from the Duke of Derbyshire.

~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~

Jones, Barlow, and three of the other four men were standing away from the stand of trees so that the men at Pemberley knew they were there alone.

One man was a few hundred yards behind them next to the path that led to the stand of trees just in case Younge or Mrs. álvarez changed their minds and decided to come see the ‘kidnapping’ for themselves.

It was doubtful, given Younge’s aversion to riding a horse.

And besides the three men in the camp keeping an eye on them, there were well over twenty soldiers and ex-soldiers hidden in the forest surrounding the cottage so there was no possibility that the men near the great house would be taken by surprise by the two criminals.

Burnett walked out of the house to his ‘captors’, accompanied by the men in residence.

“Ready,” the Captain informed Jones and Barlow, holding out his hands to be tied and nodding at the sack that would go over his head.

Richard, William, and Andrew handed two loaded pistols to each of the six men to secret on themselves in case they needed to improvise before the two conspirators were arrested.

Burnett himself had two pistols secured away under his dress, just in case.

“A’rite,” Jones loosely bound the man’s wrists in a way that Burnett would be free in seconds if he so desired. “We b’in ‘ere ling enuf’ so won’t look like t’were too easy.”

“We thanked Mr. Jones for the great service that you have all done and are doing for our family,” Lord Thomas stated with feeling , “but I would like to thank each of you.” He held out his hand to Jones then shook each man’s hand in the group taking Barlow’s last. “If you and your men would like positions at our shipping line or anywhere else that we own, all you have to do is say the word.”

“I thank ye’, your Grace,” Barlow nodded once that the offer was understood.

Forester placed a sack over Burnett’s head then lifted him to seat with his legs to one side in front of his saddle and sat behind the ‘bound captive’.

The five family members stood and watched as the six riders disappeared into the forest. “Time for us to mount up and join the officer in command of the soldiers that have the cottage surrounded,” Richard stated.

The other men nodded and purposefully walked toward the stables where their mounts waited.

About a half hour later, after passing through the two rings of men in position around the encampment, the six riders rode back into the clearing around the cottage. Clay Younge and Mrs. álvarez were awaiting them with much avarice.

The men dismounted and led the ‘frightened victim’ closer. “At last,” Mrs. álvarez spat out, “a lady of society will finally pay for what she has done.”

“Yeah,” Younge agreed, “now we will make yer ‘usband pay if ‘e wants you back alive!”

Said husband had heard enough, it was time to end this charade.

“What is it that my wife ever did to you?” Came a question from behind Younge and Mrs. álvarez.

The two looked at each other in utter disbelief.

They could not comprehend from where all of the additional men had materialised, among them soldiers in regimentals and all heavily armed.

“My ‘dear’, please reveal yourself to these criminal masterminds,” Lord William’s sarcasm was dripping acerbically in his words.

“It will be my pleasure, your Grace,” Burnett replied. Younge and Johanna looked on in horror as the “lady,” free of all restraints, removed the sack, the wig was removed, and the two were shocked that she was in fact a he .

“Kill ‘em all!” Younge commanded his men while looking for a space to escape through. Noting that not one of ‘his’ men made a move to follow his order, he began to realise that he was in a no-win situation.

“I would thank you not to try to give commands to any of my employees,” the Duke of Hertfordshire warned. “If they move to kill anyone it will not be any of us, of that I can assure you.”

“You still have not answered my question,” the Duke of Derbyshire stated. “Other than being the victim of George Wickham’s fantasies of revenge, what has my wife ever done to either of you?”

“She killed Wickham and had my husband hung,” Johanna blustered.

“We thought you had more sense than that, Mrs. álvarez,” the Earl of Brookfield drawled.

“My sister was a victim, and it was her footman that shot the cur after he had had tried to murder his mistress and shot my cousin instead. Your husband was hung for a long list of crimes that I am sure you are aware of, so please explain to us how the Duchess of Derbyshire is in any way responsible for the decisions of others?”

Both Younge and Johanna fell silent, trying to work out how their carefully laid plans had come to nought. Neither missed the malevolent looks being levelled at them by the three that had joined the crew in Bundoran, and a look of understanding flashed across Younge’s face.