“Indeed. The incident in the counting room seemed to be a performance for my benefit.” Frank’s nod was a mirror of Vincent’s as he ordered information into new piles. “May I inquire what you have done with my daughter?”
“Your—Louisa is your daughter?” Jane had been certain that she was Lord Verbury’s. Perhaps she had not needed to be so suspicious of the maid. “We tied her up. In the orange grove.” The shade would surely keep her from feeling the same effects of the heat that Jane had.
“Thank you.” He leaned out the window of the carriage. “Jove! Stop the carriage in the orange grove, please.”
When Frank settled back in his seat, Vincent leaned forward. “What does my father know?”
“I said nothing about Mrs. Hamilton’s expectant condition or your plans for departure. So he still believes she is barren.”
Jane swallowed. “But you sent for a doctor.”
“Ah … so that is why you wished for Dr. Jones.” Frank tilted his head to the side. “She has examined you, correct? Or have I missed my guess in why you requested a doctor for Amey?”
“I—no.” Jane’s head was spinning from more than the effects of overheating. “I mean, yes. She has examined me.”
“Given that Jane is with child … what of the coldmonger? Or, coldmongers, rather. Is there danger that they will tell?”
Frank shook his head. “I am very particular about who I have serve in the house, for good reason. Dover is my cousin’s son. And February has no reason to love Verbury or Pridmore. He lost the use of his legs in an explosion at the distillery and was then trained as a coldmonger.”
With a sigh, Vincent let his head drop. Jane felt the same relief. If Verbury did not know, then there was still hope that they might be able to leave. “Would you have the carriage take us to St. John’s?”
“I deeply regret that I cannot. The circumstances that we faced at the beginning are unchanged. While my family is at risk, I am bound to obey Lord Verbury, or at least appear to. Taking you to St. John’s would be remarked upon and reported to him. I trust that in the present circumstances, you understand my feelings on this matter.”
“So gather your family and go with us. Once we are in England, Richard will manumit them.”
“Forgive me, but I have heard similar promises of manumission from other Hamiltons.”
Vincent lifted his head. “I am not my father.”
“No. You are the man who offered to help my family and then ran away. Were you going to send for them when you reached the dock?”
A flush of anger lit Vincent’s cheeks. Without his cravat, the tension in his jaw was all too obvious. Jane put a hand on his arm. “But even if Richard did not manumit them, once you were in England, your family would not be slaves any longer.”
Vincent looked as though he had tasted something bitter and shook his head. “The Somerset ruling.… It is widely misunderstood, and would not necessarily be upheld. The presiding judge confined himself only to the narrow question of whether a slave could be removed from England against his will. My professor made it very clear to us that abolitionists stretch the ruling when they claim the judge ruled that slavery was illegal in Britain. He did not. Slaves have been returned to their owners since then.”
Frank snorted. “I had forgotten that you studied law.”
“You may thank my father for that.” Vincent tilted his head, brows contracting. “You knew—you must have known that I was the wrong son when we arrived.”
“Yes.” The careful stillness that Frank had cultivated reminded Jane of Vincent in so many ways, but beyond a sensation that Frank was taking their measure, she could not guess what he was thinking.
“And yet you took me straight to him, without warning him. Why?”
Frank flashed a sudden and rare smile. “I have found that moments of surprise are greatly instructive.”
“And what did you learn?”
“That you were not involved in Lord Garland and Lord Verbury’s plans.”
Jane rubbed her forehead, which still ached abominably. “I may simply be stupid because of the heat, but I cannot understand why we do not all take ship and go.”
Frank’s smile vanished. “My mother is here, my sister, my wife, and I have five children besides Louisa. And then what of my children’s families? Do I leave my eldest daughter’s husband behind? Or his parents? And of course there are grandchildren. Jove would also suffer if he drove us to the docks. Where would you acquire papers to transport so many Negroes to England without question? And if only I left, in the months it would take us to sail to England and back, Lord Verbury could have Mr. Pridmore sell my entire family.” He sat forward in his seat, elbows resting on his knees. “Here, I am in a position to do some good. With a different overseer, it would be possible to have the plantation be profitable and humane.”