High Society novel · Chapter 12 of 24

Chapter 12: The Register

The solicitor left at nine with nothing but a cup of tea and Hugh's calm bow.

The summons said Sunday, noon, at Denholm House, before a magistrate and any witness the Earl cared to bring.

Hugh read it twice, folded it, and put it in the fire.

"That is still a legal paper," said the Dowager.

"It is also ash," said Hugh.

He did not sleep, and neither did I.

At first light we took a plain carriage with no crest on the door and drove north to Bloomsbury.

The Foundling Hospital stood behind a gate and a long yard, red brick, with rows of narrow windows.

Hugh gave his name to the porter, and the porter looked at the carriage, and then he ran.

The matron who met us was a broad woman with a bunch of keys.

Her face had seen every kind of person arrive at that door.

She took us to a small office where a clerk had set out a heavy book on a table.

"The register of admissions, your Grace," she said.

"You asked for the year seventeen eighty-five."

"I did," said Hugh.

"A girl of about one year old."

"Brought by a lady in black, who gave no name."

She turned the pages with a licked thumb.

I stood at his shoulder and watched the dates go by, each in brown ink, each with a name and a number.

She stopped.

"Here," she said.

"Received March the ninth, seventeen eighty-five."

"Female child, aged one year, in good health."

"Named at the font Charlotte."

"Entered with a gift of fifty pounds."

Hugh put one finger on the line and did not move it.

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