Page 112 of The Formation of Us

“Why? I don’t understand, Duke. You were sure to win the election.”

“Phelps will likely win now, and he’s worthy of the job.”

“But it wasyourjob.”

He sighed and lowered the book to his lap, his eyes cold. “I can’t wear a badge and commit a crime, Faith.”

“What crime? We’re getting our daughter back.” She hoped. Sheprayed.

“If Cora’s in Syracuse, how do you suppose we’ll get her away from Stone? I’ll have to kidnap her from her father who has a legal right to keep her, and that’s against the law.”

“You’re a sheriff. Thelaw. Make the judge understand that he’s tangling with a powerful man. My mother couldn’t fight him, but you can.”

“I’m not wearing a badge anymore. I’m a private citizen now.”

“But he’s a lying, blackmailing criminal!” she insisted quietly. “Can’t you take back your badge and arrest him?”

“For what, Faith?”

“For taking Cora and . . .” She sighed, and her eyes welled up. Stone was protected, and there was no way to prove he’d committed any crime. “Maybe you could have used your badge to scare him off.”

Duke scoffed. “A sheriff’s badge is little threat to a big city judge.”

“I don’t understand why you couldn’t get Cora back and still keep your job. She should be with us. The judge is corrupt and in the wrong here. Not us. You know that.”

“That doesn’t make it okay for an officer of the law to break the very rules he’s supposed to enforce.”

She saw the loss in his eyes, as if some part of him had died. “Why didn’t you tell me you were going to quit?” she asked softly.

“There was nothing to discuss.”

She knew it was because Duke was a black-and-white type of man. As soon as he’d realized he would have to break the law to get Cora back, he’d made his decision immediately and irrevocably. He hadn’t needed to mull it over or talk about it with her, he’d just borne the pain and done what he had to do. To know that her lies had brought him to this point and caused him to sacrifice so much, shredded her heart.

As the train pulled into the Syracuse station, she fought back her tears, praying they would find Cora, and that Duke would someday forgive her.

She was physically and emotionally exhausted by the time they reached the courthouse where, according to Duke, Steven Cuvier and several other lawyers kept their offices. She both worried and prayed they would run into Judge Stone, who supposedly sat the bench here, but they crossed the lobby without seeing anyone. Duke scanned a sign on the wall, then guided her across the marble floor to Mr. Cuvier’s office.

The lawyer was a tall, lanky dark-skinned man, who looked familiar enough to have Faith searching her memory for where she might have seen him. Not at the brothel. Surely Iris would have raved about a handsome man like the lawyer. Not at the market. Maybe nowhere. Maybe she had never crossed paths with the man.

The lawyer was waiting with Duke’s telegram in his hand. “Sheriff Grayson, what’s the emergency?” he asked, but before Duke could answer, the lawyer’s gaze fell on Faith. “My God He stared as if seeing a ghost. “You must be Celia’s sister Constance.”

Hearing her mother’s first name startled Faith as much as learning her mother had a sister. Her mother went by Rose at the brothel, but it made sense this man would know her full name if he was in fact her lawyer. “I’m her daughter Faith,” she said, sensing kindness in him. “Did you handle my mother’s legal work?”

“I did.” Sadness filled his eyes as he clasped Faith’s cold hands. “I didn’t realize you were her daughter. I’ve been looking for you since I heard the sad news about your mother. I can’t express how deeply her passing grieves me.”

She felt her own razor-sharp grief that was always near the surface, and it made her eyes tear.

“Come. Sit.” He pushed the door closed and turned the lock, then directed her to a chair. The leather furniture and mahogany walls of the plush office suited his dark, good looks. He leaned his narrow hips against his desk, and looked at Duke, who continued to stand. “I have business with your wife, but first, tell me how I can help you.”

As though Duke were presenting his case to a judge and jury, Faith listened to him state the crime of Cora’s abduction and his suspicion about the judge, then listed the facts and events of the case. “I need any information you may have on Faith’s mother and Judge Stone, and where I might be able to find Cora,” he said.

But the lawyer’s dark-skinned face had turned a sickly gray. “My God . . . Rose was telling the truth,” he said, gazing trance like into the middle distance. “The bastard duped me. Rose and I were nothing but pawns to him.”

Faith exchanged a look with Duke, who was scowling at the lawyer’s odd behavior.

“He was after the property” The lawyer’s half-insane laugh unnerved Faith. “The dirty bastard orchestrated this whole thing!”

“What does this have to do with us?” Faith asked.