I know who 'Jack' is.

"I think I know who Mary's Jack is." Charlotte blurted out before she could change her mind. She had been thinking about the book of sonnets and the inscription on the cover leaf and more and more she began to come up with a theory.

The precise penmanship could be that of her brother. She could not be sure, but in all other ways the possibility that her step-brother was Mary's lover was a good one. Especially considering his sudden trip to India. The timing of her brother's sudden departure and the tension between Jack and her father made a lot of sense if Lord Marlton discovered his son had impregnated one of the scullery maids. Jack always had been a romantic at heart. Recalling the down-beaten expression on Jack's face as he left for Portsmouth made Charlotte even wonder if he had fallen in love with Mary? That, far more than the inconvenience of a pregnant scullery maid, would have brought out the anger in her father.

"Where is your step-brother now?" Mr. Fuller's simple question was cool and almost emotionless, but Charlotte had seen the passion in this man and was not fooled by his seeming casual interest. If he could, Black Brand would be visiting Jack at the earliest opportunity and knowing what she did about how Mr. Fuller felt about his sister she did not think the encounter would end well for Jack. Luckily it was not really an issue.

"Father sent Jack to Ceylon, almost a year ago." Charlotte spoke slowly, carefully forming the words as she handed the book back to Fuller, and then a new thought. "I wonder if Jack even knows Mary was with child, or if she's now dead?"

Randy sipped the wine in his hand and took another bite of the fresh roll. He had trouble even thinking about this new information. For six months he had done all he could to find the cad who had used Mary so poorly and caused the events that led to her ****, and now this beautiful woman was telling him that the father of Mary's unborn bastard might not even be the man ultimately responsible for her ****.

"I need to spea-" Randy stopped in mid sentence because of movement in the supposedly abandoned chapel.