Chapter 21

The cool, quiet ambience of the club only riled William up further. He squeezed his fists together as he scanned the crowd, seeking out his best friend.

He needed to see Frederick, to talk this through, before he lost his mind completely.

Everything that had happened with Violet and Paul tore through his mind and he needed some advice before he did something crazy.

"Ah, there you are!"

Relief flooded William as he took a seat beside Frederick, grateful to see that his friend had already ordered him a strong drink. He certainly needed that.

"Thank you, Frederick," he declared before swigging back the amber colored liquid. "That is much needed. You have no idea."

"What is happening with you, William? I am very confused."

William rolled his eyes. "Yes, I can only imagine. I am also extremely confused myself. I cannot believe what I have found myself in the middle of." He shook his head sadly to himself. "I have always known that gambling is bad, I just thought that I had a handle on it. I did not know that winning Eagleton Manor would lead me here."

"So, the marriage is not going well then?" Frederick asked with his eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

"The marriage is… a difficult one," William admitted. "Me and Violet are still trying to work out where we are, which is not the easiest thing to do when we have all of this drama surrounding us."

Frederick waited as William took a giant swig of his drink, but it was obvious that he was growing impatient, wanting to know the full story.

"Her brother, Paul, Lord Eagleton, has created a terrible scenario for us. It turns out that he was paid a lot of money by the merchant, Mr. Charles Cook, for Violet"s hand in marriage."

"Oh my goodness." The realization of how dire this was crossed Frederick"s face. "But she will not marry him."

"Exactly," William sighed. "But now we do not know where Paul is to be able to recoup any of that money. It does not seem like Charles can locate him either."

"I think I have seen him."

William"s blood ran cold as he caught his friend"s eyes. Was Frederick giving him the first clue he so desperately needed? He could hardly dare to hope.

"Yes, I am sure of it." Frederick tapped his fingers on his chin. "Last night, in fact. At the gambling hall."

"You are joking." That struck William like lightning. "He owes Charles money, yet he is spending time in a gambling hall wasting more money?"

"Well, he looked rough, I will not lie to you," Frederick confessed. "He did not look like a man who was flush with the cash. In fact, he was being spoken to the man who owns the establishment and it seemed like a rather aggressive conversation." He tutted to himself. "If I had known that you were looking for him, I would have spent more time watching him and seeing what was going on. I do apologize for that."

"You could not have known," William murmured. "But that is interesting to know. Paul is still in the city, which is something. I feared he might have escaped."

"Well, you would assume so," Frederick agreed. "Lying low right now would be so much better than being seen in gambling halls, but if that Lord is an addict, then I suppose he cannot resist the pull of the game."

William drummed his fingers on the table as he let the thoughts race through his head.

"So, you said he was talking to the owner of the gambling hall? That is interesting. I wonder what is happening with him. Did it seem like he was in trouble?"

Frederick did not look entirely convinced as he answered. "I am not sure. Perhaps, but I could not be certain."

William leaned back and glugged back the rest of his drink. It was unlikely that Paul would be foolish enough to spend even more time at the gambling hall, especially if he was in trouble there, but it gave him a clue to finally work with.

This was information that he could take back to Violet while they planned their next move.

Of course, he was going to have to apologize first and foremost. He had allowed his frustration to get the better of him and he had been unpleasant with Violet.

She did not deserve this.

Especially when all of this affected her as well.

Sadness and guilt started to flow through him as he pictured her face. She looked sad and confused as he walked off. Hurt by their argument.

Hopefully William could make Violet understand that it was the situation frustrating him rather than her. She had not done anything wrong; she had never done anything wrong.

She was caught up in a situation which was out of her hands.

"So, what is your plan?" Frederick asked William curiously. "Because this might blow up and become something terrible, you know? You have to be prepared for what might come."

William scoffed. "There is no telling what will happen when it comes to Paul, but I am prepared. Especially because it seems like he is involved with some dangerous people."

"Well, I am here for you," Frederick insisted. "No matter what happens, I will help you. I do not want you to go through all of this alone."

William smiled gratefully at his friend. It was nice to know that he did not have to go through all of this by himself.

"I appreciate that, Frederick. And if you have any ideas of what I should do with Paul, then please let me know. Because I am not sure how I will handle him the moment I get my hands on him."

Frederick"s eyes sparkled. "Now that is something I can help you with. When you finally get your hands on him, we need to make sure that you do exactly the right thing…"

* * *

"Come inside," William offered as the carriage pulled up outside of his home. "We can have another drink and talk some more."

"I do hope you are not just inviting me inside because you are too worried to talk to your wife about everything," Frederick teased.

"Of course not! I think it would be good for Violet to hear how you saw Paul from your mouth. She might be more receptive to it."

Perhaps he was putting off the apology just a little bit, but William was not going to avoid it completely. He wanted to get things back on track with Violet. She was right, they were a team, and they needed to tackle this problem as a team. It was the only way.

But for now, he wanted Frederick with him, so they could work out the right move for William moving forward. Tackling the gang run by the owner of the gambling hall was not going to be pleasant.

"What is that?" Frederick suddenly asked as he followed close behind William. "It looks like someone has been hurt here."

At first, William was not convinced by the small stain on the rock outside the front door to his manor, but the closer he got to it, the more he realized that his friend was right.

This truly could be a splatter of blood.

"Violet!" he yelled, panicked as he raced indoors. "Violet, are you here?"

There was no response, but he tried to rationalize that by convincing himself that she simply had not heard him, but when she did not respond to his louder shouts with him moving through the home, William truly started to get worried.

"William, I think this is something you need to see."

The iciness in Frederick"s voice worried William further. He could not help but follow his voice all the way into the parlor.

"It is a note. It looks like Violet is not here…"

William snatched the note from his friend, his heart now absolutely thundering against his rib cage. The words seemed to blur together as he read them, it actually took him a while to make any sense of what he was seeing.

"They have her," he finally gasped out in horror to Frederick. "To get back at Paul, to try and get some money out of him, they have taken Violet."

"Will it work?" Frederick pursed his lips together thoughtfully. "It is unlikely, am I right? That Paul will even have that kind of money. I do not think we would be here if he did…"

"I need to get her," William insisted, more to himself than Frederick. "I need to rescue Violet. There is no way that I can leave her at the hands of those monsters. Paul will not do a thing. It is up to me."

He stared at his friend with horror in his eyes.

Everything had just gotten so much worse.

"I will help you," Frederick insisted, much to William"s relief. At least he was not alone in this. "Whatever it takes, we will rescue your wife."