Chapter 15

CHAPTER 15

“Excuse me, might you know where I’d be able to find a-,” Griffin started, but had to look down at the piece of paper he held. “A Percy Grant?”

“He’s already been employed, Your Grace,” the man at the front desk answered. “I believe him to have switched over to a farm of the Fletchers.”

“As in, Robert Fletcher?” Griffin asked, his ears perking up at the mention of his friends.

“Ye, I believe it to be him,” the man responded, starting to get annoyed at Griffin holding up the line behind him.

“Thank you, Sir,” Griffin said, already starting to turn in his tracks to make his way to the farm of his dear friend.

There were few leads left to follow, so Griffin had no option but to start to turn to the forgotten ones. He remembered Marina briefly mentioning a Percy to be a former worker of Josiah Bosley, so Griffin would to his best to extract any information from him.

He was quick to set his carriage toward the farm, the coachman already well aware of the location. The ride was going to be a bumpy one, but Griffin hoped that might prohibit him for lingering on his thoughts for too long.

He entered the courtship with Marina merely knowing she was a beautiful lady who had the intelligence to support him in his investigation. But after spending so much time with her he was quick to discover that she was so much more than that.

She felt somewhat like a dream one awakes from where the longing still lingers. It confused Griffin immensely-and he wasn’t exactly fond of the feeling. He had always been a man rooted in his opinions and aware of his feelings, but Marina played tricks on his mind. She lingered onto him like a thorn to a wool sweater, and he didn’t know how to approach it. Confess his fondness toward her and face the possibility that he might be turned down, or he could keep quiet and try to remove the thoughts from his busy head.

After he had fallen into the kiss with Marina, she appeared so confused afterward. He wanted to yell his interest and admiration toward her, but her apprehensive nature stopped him in his tracks. He would never force his attention upon a lady, but he deeply wished that this singular lady could reciprocate the interest.. How would he ever know if he might be capable of a loving relationship if one doesn’t show interest back?

After all, Griffin had planned to spend his life in solitude, finding it an easier route throughout life. But every conversation he had with Marina made him long for another. He longed for long strolls in the garden and tea together in the evenings. Simple things with her would be better than what any money could buy, at least, that’s what he felt in the moment. The possibility that it might be a fleeting feeling tugged at his thoughts.

Griffin shook his head as he sat in the carriage, a strange attempt to rid himself of the thoughts he had. He couldn’t ponder the subject any longer than he already had- his focus had to be what this entire investigation had been for since the beginning. To lock Josiah behind bars for his crimes.

“Your Grace!” Robert exclaimed, running out of the farmhouse. Robert looked a bit perplexed at Griffin’s unannounced arrival, but greeted him with open arms nonetheless.

“I didn’t expect you to be out at the farm today, my lord,” Griffin commented, but Robert was quick to shake the question.

“I think the more important question is what brings you to the farm, Your Grace?” Robert laughed, putting his hat on his head. “Your appearances grow more and more seldom by the day.”

“As you might guess, I have some important business on my hands keeping me quite busy,” Griffin laughed sadly, knowing his dedication to the investigation hadn’t brought him much evidence. “In fact, I’m here to gather some possible information regarding my investigation.”

“Here?” Robert asked confused. “Why, Your Grace. I’m sorry to say that I know far less of the Josiah bloke than you do.”

“I know better than asking you for information,” Griffin teased. “I heard word that there’s a Percy Grant employed on this property?”

“As a matter of fact, yes. I employed him a good while ago. He’d been delivering quite good work so I’d be gravely disappointed if you name any suspicions of him.”

“Ah, no, my lord. I have no complaints on the man, I barely know him. All I know is that he used to be employed by Josiah Bosley, so I was wondering if he might be available for some questions,” Griffin asked, tucking the note with Percy’s full name back into his pocket.

“Of course! Of course! I believe him to be out on the fields at the moment, but I’ll escort you to there,” Robert said, patting a hand on Griffin’s back as he started to lead him down a pebbled road.

“I must ask, how is your lady friend?” Robert curiously asked, raising his eyebrows in a manner to suggest there’s something between Griffin in Marina.

“She’s an amazing woman and I’m thankful to have her on my team. But she remains as such, a friend who happens to be a lady,” Griffin bluntly replied, not wanting to make any effort of explaining his already complex emotions on the matter.

“That’s sounds interesting,” Robert snickered, clearly finding joy in the possibility of blooming interest between the two. However, he knew of better than to ponder on the subject if Griffin was blatantly trying to shut it down.

“So, this Percy came to you after Josiah became Earl?” Griffin asked in effort to change the subject at hand.

“Poor fella, came here in desperation. I was unaware that Josiah was his prior employer, but he told me that his earlier employer left him high and dry after he obtained a dead relative’s estate and his workers. Now that I think of it… I should’ve guessed it to be Josiah,” Robert spoke, talking more to himself than to Griffin. He snapped out of his daze of realization and turned back to Griffin.

“Anyway, the man came running here, unsure how to feed his family. I already had more than enough workers on the farm, but agreed to give him a job. I felt bad for the young man. I was unable to give him a high paying job, but he was surprised at the income I proposed,” Robert continued, rubbing the slight beard he had growing on his chin.

“My lord,I’ve never known you to be someone paying your workers bare minimum. You’ve always been generous in your payments,” Griffin retorted, a bit disappointed that his friend, with quite a bag of finances, would sell a poor man short.

“Not at all! The complete opposite- he was so shocked by his ‘large payment’ that he nearly fell to his knees. He couldn’t believe I’d be paying him that amount. He said his former employer paid him less than half of what I do, as well as that he had to do four times the amount of work than here,” Robert explained. Griffin could see Robert question himself as to how he was unable to connect the dots to Josiah, as this situation is a work only one man was capable of.

“Well, it’s a good thing he escaped the claws of Josiah, you might have to open another position for Marina to escape,” Griffin mumbled underneath his breath, thinking of what helpless situation Marina had to find herself within the home.

“There he is!” Robert happily exclaimed. “Percy, come here, would you?!”

Percy looked over in confusion, unsure why his boss would be calling him at this time. Nonetheless he ran over, quickly reaching the two men.

“How may I be of help, Sir?” Percy asked in a jog, stopping a few feet before the two men.

“The Duke of Darrington, this is Percy, and vice versa,” Robert introduced the men, too lazy to switch the greeting around. Griffin shook the young man’s hand, but he could see he remained perplexed as to why he had been summoned.

“Might I ask you a few questions, if that won’t be of any bother?” Griffin asked. Percy looked over to Robert, gesturing if it was okay for him to temporarily leave his job.

“My goodness, boy! I don’t bite I promise,” Robert laughed, giving Percy a loud pat on the back. Griffin couldn’t help but think that Percy had grown so used to Josiah’s ways that any slither of kindness was regarded as foreign.

“Let’s have the conversation inside, shall we?” Robert asked, leading the two back to the farmhouse. The walk back was quiet and a bit awkward, only Robert seemingly blissfully ignorant to the uncomfortable atmosphere.

Inside, Robert arranged for tea to be served. Percy looked awfully out of place, his stature clearly showing his uncertain nature. Yet, Robert forced both men down and decided to join in on the conversation.

“Might I be in trouble, Your Grace?” Percy carefully asked Griffin.

“No, no, no. Not at all, Percy. I merely have some questions I was hoping you might answer to resolve a personal matter,” Griffin assured him. The tension left Percy’s shoulder, causing him to sit more comfortably in his chair.

Tea was brought over and Percy was a bit confused by being served tea alongside his boss, but Robert enjoyed it nonetheless. Percy just wasn’t used to his ways; ways Josiah would never have thought about.

“Alright, I won’t ponder about any longer,” Griffin started. “I’m here to inquire about your prior employer, Josiah Bosley.”

Percy’s eyes widened, a hint of anger shining from behind.

“If you can detail me a bit more about him, your relations with him and generally anything that you know about the man,” Griffin asked. “And you don’t have to worry about sounding polite, I don’t like him much either.”

Percy’s eyebrows lifted as he gave a slight scoff at the name of Josiah. It was clear to Griffin that Josiah most certainly wasn’t loved among the average people.

“He was a difficult man to work with,” Percy uttered. “Always shouting at us, giving strange orders.”

“What strange orders might you be speaking of?” Griffin asked, his attention fully grasped. He even pulled out a piece of parchment from his coat if he needed to make any notes on Percy’s words.

“The one day I unpack his carriage, the next I’m cleaning his porch and once he even asked me to make tea for his business,” Percy commented, waving his hand about as his annoyance toward Josiah came through.

“Tea? He had a tea business?” Griffin asked, confused at why Josiah would go on such an endeavour.

“I’m unsure, but that’s what he told me. Although I was only involved with two of the batches. He gave me a bucket of tea leaves and asked me to package them,” Percy noted.

“And he never continued in the tea industry, you say?” Griffin asked, confused by the peculiar detail Percy was relaying to him. Josiah looked like he would go on a hundred endeavours in search of money, but he would never have guessed one of them to be a tea business.

“Not that I know of, Your Grace. It wasn’t long after that he fired me due to finding new workers at the fancy house in middle London,” Percy answered. Griffin held the piece of parchment out in front of him, but thus far none had been important enough to note.

“Any other details you are willing to share during your time as his employee? Even the instances that seem small might be able to be of help to me,” Griffin asked, desperately wanting any slither of valuable information to pass Percy’s lips.

“He was just a very angry man, if that’s how I could describe him. If you dared look like you took a second to breathe, he would extract money from the pay he promised. I don’t think I had a single month, week or day where I was paid the agreed amount due his extractions from it,” Percy noted, his anger starting to become more apparent with every word he spoke.

“He doesn’t sound like the kindest man to work with,” Griffin commented underneath his breath, but Percy caught hold of his words.

“Not at all, Your Grace. He didn’t have any regard for the people who worked for them, he barely had any regard for his own family,” Percy scoffed, now heated at the thought of his prior workplace.

“You mean, his wife and daughter?” Griffin asked confused. He knew Josiah to snap at Marina, Marina’s mother and the workers any chance he got, but didn’t think his actions extended to his own family.

“Especially his daughter, from what I’ve heard. Wanted two sons, got a daughter instead as a second child. Wasn’t happy ‘bout that, so instead he forces her to be what he wants her to be. Like- find a rich ol’ man so that he wouldn’t have to deal with her anymore,” Percy said.

Griffin was confused by the statement for a moment. After courting Nancy, he thought her to be the apple of her father’s eye. But according to Percy, he wasn’t as fond of her as Griffin thought. The only thing that might cause Josiah to love Nancy, was if she was better than Marina. Someone he hated more than his daughter.

Griffin sighed at the thought, horribly disgusted by the treatment he provided others. Stretching from his workers all the way over to his family.

“All I can say, Your Grace, is that he wasn’t a pleasant man. Wouldn’t be very surprised if he killed someone.”