Randy shows her a book

Mr. Fuller moved with purpose across the cave to the shelf where the portrait of Mary stood, his naked body gleamed in the yellow light of the oil lamp and although Charlotte knew it was most improper she could not take her eyes off of him. She admired his ass and broad back as he took down the red leather volume of Shakespeare; only when he turned to face her did she drop her gaze too shamed to be caught staring at his swinging member. Charlotte busied herself by sitting up on the bed and wrapping one of the worn quilts around her naked form like a thick robe.

“Have you ever seen a volume like this at Marlton Manor?” Mr. Fuller asked with such intensity that even though Charlotte was caught completely by surprise she swallowed her confusion and studied the object in his hand. "Especially the handwriting on the cover page?"

Charlotte looked at the small red volume with interest, remembering the inscription to Mary that had finally allowed to deduce Fuller's identity. He must think that Jack was her brother. Mr. Fuller, Randy - she allowed herself to use his Christian name experimentally - was watching her carefully; she could feel the intensity of his gaze without even looking at him. Somehow she was not afraid, Fuller was a known outlaw who had dragged her into the woods, seduced and deflowered her, and was intending to use her as leverage against her father but she no longer feared him. She took a deep breath trying to suppress the memory of her response to his rough mastery not realizing how her rising chest made her breasts peak through the gap in the quilt.

“Let me see.” Miss Marlton asked and flipped open the small red volume to study the note on the cover page more closely. Randy **** himself to ignore the sight of her breasts that were just visible when the blanket slipped lower as she took the book.

“Do you recognize the handwriting?” He asked again, trying to sound casual but eager to get confirmation of who Mary's 'Jack' was. Surely Charlotte could recognize her own step brother's handwriting, wouldn't she? Or was this yet another wild goose chase?

“It might be Jack, it must be him.” Charlotte amended her opinion after a closer look at the inscription. “Jack always loops his el's like that.”

“Where is he now?” Randy asked, wondering if Charlotte would give him what he needed, knowing just how much he wanted to avenge what her step brother had done to his family. She did not answer him right away looking carefully at the book in her hands, and Randy would give a purse of silver to know what she was thinking. Finally she spoke.

“Jack's in Ceylon. Father sent him there last November.” Charlotte rested her hand on the well worn book trying to remember if she had ever seen Jack carrying the book.

Charlotte could not be sure about the penmanship, but in all other ways Randy's claim made sense. The timing of her brother's sudden departure, and the tension between Jack and her father, would be easily explained if Lord Marlton had 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 wonder even if her step brother 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.

"I think you're right." Charlotte handed the book back to Fuller. "I wonder if Jack even knows Mary was with child, or if she's dead?"

Randy choked back his angry retort about gentlemen playing with the hearts of serving girls and then cowardly running off rather than facing the consequences of their behaviors. Until this moment he hadn't even considered the possibility that Mary's seducer had been anything other than a villainous cad, but it was at least possible that Charlotte's step brother was not completely at fault for his sister's ****.

"Do you have your brother's address?" Randy was unsure if he intended to sail to Ceylon and string up the boy by his cock, or write to him and inform him of the fall-out caused by his actions, but he did want to find out where this Jack of hers was.

"No, but Father does." Charlotte answered him nervously. "He keeps all his correspondence locked in his office desk with his business papers." After a moment of hesitation she added cautiously, "If your plan is to exchange me for information about Jack, I doubt Father would agree, of the two of us his preference was always for his first born."