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By the time the courier pulled up at the entrance to the manor house at Falconwood, the equipages were waiting under the portico in anticipation for their occupants.

The man handed his missive to Mr. Jeffries who walked with all speed to the drawing room where her Grace and the family were impatiently awaiting word from Pemberley.

He handed the note to his expectant and anxious mistress.

Elizabeth let out an unladylike squeal of joy. The note simply read: Come home, my love. The mistress rung for the housekeeper and butler to inform them that the family would depart for Pemberley immediately and that she would contact them soon regarding the ongoing redecoration of the house.

“Let us away,” Elizabeth said, and none of the family needed to be prompted twice.

“How I am looking forward to seeing my Richard,” Jane said as she walked slowly to the entrance where footmen were waiting to assist them into the carriages.

“Same for me, Janie,” Marie said, “I have missed Andrew so much, I cannot wait to be with him again.”

“I am sure that all of our family members are well, and things went as planned,” Lady Anne opined. “From the brevity of Williams note, I think that is a safe assumption to make.”

“As much as I long to see my husband again,” Lady Sarah said, “the fact that my daughter is safe from these blackguards makes me vastly pleased.” Both Ladies Anne and Sarah walked arm in arm to the second carriage.

It was not many minutes later that all had found their seats and Tom struck the roof of the lead coach with his walking stick to set the journey into motion.

With a lurch when the drivers urged their teams to pull, the party was on its way back to Pemberley.

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

When the men returned to the Pemberley’s manor house, they were surprised to see a number of carriages in the courtyard all with the Ashbury crest. From the number present they could not fathom why the Ashby family was at the estate.

Douglas informed the master that the Earl, Countess, and their family were awaiting them in the blue drawing room.

When the men walked into the room, they were enthusiastically greeted by Anne Ashby, who none of her relatives had seen looking better.

Once greetings were exchanged with the rest of the Ashbys and everyone was seated, William asked Mrs. Reynolds to have teas brought up and after the refreshment was served it was time for explanations.

“It is good to see you Anne and Ian, as well as the rest of the family, and indeed you are all welcome to our home,” William told his guests, “but how is it that you are all in the North now?”

“We are sorry for imposing, your Grace,” Lord Maxwell Ashby, the Earl of Ashbury stated in apology. “But after we received Amy’s letter, we had no choice but to impose on your hospitality.”

“As we are all family here, please call me either Derbyshire or Darcy, and what letter from Amy?” William asked.

Before her father-in-law could respond, Anne asked, “In her letter, she mentioned that she and some of the ladies were not at Pemberley. Why are some of the family at Falconwood while you and the men are here, Wills?”

Realising that the Ashbys did not know about the situation they had just dealt with, William and the men who had been with him at the estate filled the guests in with the details from the last four months.

The six Ashbys sat in shocked silence for a few minutes before any of them found their voices.

“Richard, you did what you had to, but you are well?” Anne inquired after the initial shock wore off.

“Yes Anne, I am well, as are we all,” he responded reassuringly. “Now what did Amy say that brought your all here?”

Lady Gillian, after hearing the tale that the men told them, understood why no one at Falconwood had informed the men of Amy’s loss, they did not want to distract them from the task at hand, so she shared what had befallen her daughter.

Once she told them what had happened, the men too understood why they had not been informed.

Lord Thomas felt for his son and daughter-in-law very deeply.

“William sent a courier to Falconwood as soon as the prisoner was secured,” Andrew reported to his cousins.

“If I know anything about the impatience of the family there, they were ready to leave within minutes of his arrival, so I would estimate that they will be here within the next two to three hours at most.”

William rang for Mrs. Reynolds and instructed her to show the guests to suites, and to make sure that they too would be notified as soon as the carriages from Falconwood were spotted on the estate.

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

Tony was pacing back and forth when a footman delivered the message that he and Mr. Elliot were required at the great house. The two walked the short distance to the manor house where they were shown into the master’s study to find him sitting at his desk with Lord Richard on one of the settees.

“Is it over?” Tony asked without preamble.

“It is, young man,” William informed him. “In the end there was only one prisoner.” Seeing the questioning look, he quickly continued. “Your mother lives.” He and Richard explained what had transpired, and how Younge had met his demise.

Tony had no sympathy for the man and was grateful that at least his mother had not been that senseless as to attempt something that would have ended her life. “Where is she now?” Tony asked.

“In the root cellar under strict guard,” Richard said. “She is available as soon as you feel ready to confront her, Tony,” he added understanding the conflicting feelings that he assumed that the young man must be feeling. He was wrong, Tony was fully reconciled to the confrontation to come.

“Now is as good a time as any to get this over with,” Tony said dispassionately.

His Grace nodded his assent and stood to join the other three as they made their way to the cellars.

When they arrived at the portion holding her, the Duke nodded to the two guards on duty and instructed them to unlock the door.

As the four men entered the root cellar, it took their eyes a moment to become accustomed to the dim interior that was not as well illuminated as the rest of the complex.

Johanna álvarez sat with her back to them, secured to her chair with one more guard sitting at a table in the corner near the door.

The interior guard was told to wait with the other two outside and for the door to be closed.

William and Richard took torches from the wall and lit them, bathing the entire cellar with light.

The four walked around where the captive was secured and stood in front of her.

It took Johanna a few seconds to focus on the men in front of her. Two she recognised from her capture; one she had never seen before and the last… “ TONY! YOU TRAITOROUS SNAKE, HOW COULD YOU BETRAY YOUR OWN MOTHER IN THIS WAY !” she screeched as her son stood stoically with the other men.

“Hello, Mother,” he replied in a measured tone.

“It is so good to see you again; however, I wish it were under better circumstances,” Tony said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

Johanna was somewhat thrown that her son was not intimidated by her in the least, so she decided to inflict as much hurt as she could to get some reaction, any that meant she was still his world.

“You do not get to call me Mother again, you devil’s spawn you,” she said then spat in the direction of her son. “This is obviously all your fault that we were thwarted by these toffs, and I was denied my due.”

“If I am ‘devil’s spawn,’ then what does that make you and my late father, being that you are my parents?” Tony asked, projecting as much calm as he could even though his emotions were roiling inside of him.

“My husband was NOT your FATHER!” Johanna said with malice, hoping to see her son in pain. “You are nought but a bastard , the result of a few nights of pleasure with a toff!”

“So,” Elliot spoke up, “you are boasting about committing adultery while you were married to your husband. Given what we now know of you, I am not overly surprised.”

“I do not know who you are or give a damn what you think or say,” Johanna retorted, her fury building as she got more and more frustrated that she was unable to discompose her son.

“If my husband could see what you have become, nothing but a turncoat, after he brought you up to know better, he would kill you himself!”

“From what I know of my late stepfather, Mother ,” Tony said much more stoically than he expected to be able to, “had he known of your betrayal, you would have been found with your throat slit in the Thames!” Johanna blanched at the show of spine, and knowing that her son spoke the truth silenced her vitriol for a moment.

“As for me, Mother , I am exactly as that man taught me to be. Do you not know that he taught me to think for myself, to evaluate situations and then make up my own mind? When I rejected yours and the Younges’ madness, that is precisely what I had done. ”

“I should have left you at Granville House for that Earl to raise…” Johanna stopped abruptly as she had not intended to reveal who Tony’s real father was.

She saw the look of recognition that flashed across the countenances of the three men with her son and realised that she had just thrown away the one last bargaining chip that she may have possessed in her spite and anger.

“Are you trying to claim that Lord Harry Smythe, the Earl of Granville, is Tony’s father?

” Richard asked as he took an intimidating step closer to the woman with his hand on the hilt of his sabre.

Having seen the lightning speed that the Earl had wielded his sabre to dispatch Younge, she decided not to test the man.