A Scandal By Any Other Name-Chapter 185 - Hundred And Eighty Five

Inside the carriage, the silence was loud.

It was a heavy, suffocating kind of silence that seemed to press against the very wooden walls of the moving vehicle.

Delaney was watching the landscape pass as the carriage moved on the road. The grand, expensive houses of Mayfair were slowly falling away behind them. The busy, crowded cobblestone streets of London gradually turned into the quieter, dirt paths of the countryside. The sky above was a pale, flat gray, completely devoid of the morning sun.

She sat completely still on the velvet seat. Her hands were folded perfectly in her lap, resting over the dark fabric of her traveling dress.

She stared out the small glass window, but she was not truly seeing the passing trees or the open green fields.

Her mind was working overtime.

"I need to enter Papa’s study," Delaney thought to herself.

Her eyes narrowed slightly at the passing scenery. The Kingsley estate, which currently housed her uncle, had once been a place of immense joy and warmth. When her father, Baron Arthur Kingsley, was alive, the house was filled with laughter. But the grand study on the ground floor had always been her father’s private sanctuary. It was where he kept his trading ledgers, his business letters, and his most important documents.

Since her parents’ death and her uncle became her guardian, Delaney never entered her father’s study.

The very day Cole Kingsley had moved into the manor and claimed the title, he had locked the door of the study. He had taken the brass key and put it into his own pocket. He forbade her from ever stepping foot inside that room. At the time, she had simply thought he was being cruel. Now, she knew the truth. He was hiding his terrible crimes.

"I am sure if I search well enough, I will find something," Delaney concluded in her mind.

Carcel had told her that finding proof of the silk scam was almost impossible. Lord Hawksley had burned the ledgers in London. But Cole Kingsley was a lazy, careless man. He was the kind of man who might keep an old letter, a bank receipt, or a piece of blackmail material locked away just in case he ever needed it. If there was a single piece of evidence left in the world that could prove her father’s innocence, it was inside that locked room.

But a massive problem stood in her way.

"How will I do that without raising suspicion?" she asked herself silently.

Her uncle and her cruel Aunt Eunice watched her every move. They treated her like a prisoner. If she was caught trying to break into the locked study, Cole would know exactly what she was looking for. He would realize she knew the truth about the murder, and he would not hesitate to silence her permanently before Rowan could come to save her. She needed a perfect distraction. She needed a reason for them to lower their guard.

She didn’t know when Cole asked her a question.

"How have you been faring these years?"

The sudden sound of his voice broke the loud silence of the carriage.

Delaney slowly turned away from the window and faced him.

Cole Kingsley sat on the opposite bench. He was trying to look like a concerned, loving uncle who was simply happy to see his lost niece.

Delaney looked at him, feeling a sudden wave of pure, cold disgust wash over her. This was the man who had handed fifty gold pounds to a coachman to cut the leather straps of her parents’ carriage.

"Why hasn’t he dropped the act?" Delaney thought to herself, keeping her own face perfectly blank. "What’s the point in acting like he cares? We both know how he made my childhood a living hell."

She did not let her anger show. She had to play the game exactly as he did. She folded her hands a little tighter in her lap.

She replied, her voice soft and completely flat. "I have been good, Uncle."

Cole shifted slightly on the velvet cushions. He leaned forward, resting his hands on his knees. He did not care about her health. He only cared about the powerful people she had been living with.

Cole asked softly, trying to sound completely casual. "What were you doing in the Hamilton house? When did you get employed?"

Delaney looked at his sharp, calculating eyes. She knew exactly what he was trying to figure out. He wanted to know if she had spoken to the Duke of Ford. He wanted to know if she had shared any secrets.

Delaney replied carefully, ensuring every single word sounded like the sad truth of a desperate orphan.

"Lady Margery hired me to keep her company," Delaney explained smoothly. "I started not too long ago. I was completely out of money, Uncle. I needed a place to sleep and food to eat. But the Hamilton family is very strict about their staff."

She lowered her eyes to the floor of the carriage, acting deeply ashamed.

"I hid my identity as Arthur Kingsley’s daughter so that I could be employed," Delaney lied flawlessly. "I told them I was a common girl with no family. If they knew I was a disgraced Baron’s daughter, they never would have allowed me through the front doors."

Cole stared at her for a long moment, searching her face for any sign of deception. He saw only a quiet, defeated young woman in a plain dark dress.

Cole nodded as he relaxed back into the seat.

He let out a long, quiet breath. The massive, terrifying knot of panic in his chest finally began to loosen. She was just a companion to an old lady. She was a servant who poured tea and read books aloud.

"She hasn’t stayed there for long, and didn’t even dare tell them about her parentage," Cole thought to himself, a genuine smile of relief finally breaking through his fake mask. "She is nobody. The Duke does not care about her."

But then, a new question popped into his greedy mind.

"Then why was Hawksley so troubled?" Cole wondered silently.

When Lord Hawksley’s urgent letter had arrived at the Kingsley estate early that morning, it had been written in a tone of absolute panic. Hawksley had practically demanded that Cole ride to London immediately to retrieve the girl before she ruined them both.

Cole looked at Delaney again, who was looking out the window again, quietly watching the passing trees.

He realized that Hawksley was simply being a coward. Lord Hawksley was terrified of shadows. The girl knew absolutely nothing about the Oakridge silk scam, and she knew nothing about the carriage accident. She was just a poor, ruined girl trying to survive. Hawksley had panicked over nothing, as usual.

Cole cleared his throat loudly. It was time to get to the true purpose of his visit. He needed to deliver the girl to Hawksley so he could finally collect the rest of the money he was owed.

"About your marriage to Lord Hawksley..." he threaded lightly.

He watched her carefully. He expected her to react.

Three years ago, when he had told her of the arrangement, she had wept for days. She had left the ball in the middle of the night just to escape the terrible fate of marrying the cruel, older man.

Delaney did not react. She turned her head slowly away from the window. She looked directly into her uncle’s eyes. Her face was a perfect mask of total, crushing defeat.

Delaney replied, her voice empty and resigned. "I will do it."