Marblestone Mansion 01 - Scandalous Duchess

he is not as…formal as Mr. Hannish.”
    Hannish urged them to sit down and sat in the chair next to his desk. “I hoped, but I did not think you would arrive in time.”
    “ The ship stalled at sea for a day, but we managed. Brother, I…” Cameron tried.
    “ Stalled? Did it no have sails?” Hannish asked.
    “ Brother, I…”
    McKenna rolled her eyes. “Let him speak, Hannish, he apparently has something important to tell you.”
    “ Very well, I am listening.”
    Cameron reached into his inside jacket, pulled out a letter and unfolded it. He put on his glasses and then cleared his throat. “I received this letter from Lady Bayington on the twenty-seventh of June, at which time I employed one D. L. Jackson, a Barrister, who in turn asked Scotland Yard to discern the truth of the matter. I read the letter to you now:
    Your Grace,
    Lord Bayington and I agree, as we are most fond of both you and your brother, and can maintain our silence no longer. There is something you should know about the woman Hannish married. Olivia and I were born in the Shetland Islands, more specifically Scalloway and played together as children. It was apparent early on, that Olivia intended to get what she could from the world in the way of riches and celebrity, and I, in my foolishness followed in her footsteps.”
    Her first husband…”
    “ What?” Hannish gasped.
    Cameron looked over the rim of his glasses at his brother. “Aye, her first husband.”
    “ She never said a word.”
    “ Brother, if you will let me continue, you will soon see why.”
    “ Please,” said Hannish.
    “ Her first husband married her before she reached the age of fifteen and I married as well. Unfortunately, Olivia…perhaps this is a good time to explain that Olivia is not her real name. She was born Gormelia Carr. Realizing marriage to a simple man was not the life she envisioned, she convinced me to run away with her.
    We fled to London, where we got a glimpse of the finer side of life, and Olivia at once began to plot precisely how to get to the top of society. She took on the new name of Alexandra, an exotic name naturally and before long, her beauty attracted the attention of an English gentleman. She married him in the spring of 1885.”
    Cameron paused to turn the page.
    “ Two husbands?” Hannish muttered.
    “ There is more, do you wish to hear it?” Cameron asked.
    “ Please.”
    “ Even her new husband could not meet her insatiable appetite for wealth and glory, and she left him before the year was out. Olivia then married a Lord, whom I shall leave unnamed to preserve his reputation. He kept her for less than a month and quickly petitioned for a divorce, from the woman whose name was now Alice. It was well before that divorce was granted, that she, now Olivia, married Hannish MacGreagor and became the duchess she’d always wanted to be.
    Marriage to Hannish, however, was to be her greatest mistake.
    Seeing her wedding picture to a duke in a London newspaper, her first husband discovered his own path to riches, and has been blackmailing her for the past two years.
    Hannish leaned forward in his chair and put his head in his hands for a moment. “So that is why she needed so much money.”
    Cameron folded the letter back up and handed it to his brother. “It is all there, every ugly detail. Her first husband is a man by the name of George…something. I have forgotten his last name.”
    “ Graham?” Hannish asked.
    “ Aye, Graham.”
    Hannish rolled his eyes. “I should have shot him when I had the chance.”
    “ Is he not the stonemason?” Cameron asked.
    “ The same, he came here with Olivia.” Hannish took a moment to consider something. “They were in on it together. First, I gave her money for work he did not do, and then I paid him. How clever of them, but do continue, brother.”
    “ Very well. Her second husband claims she stole a fortune from him before she ran off, and has pressed both bigamy and theft charges against her. She was traced to Paris where she was discovered in the company of a Colorado gold mine owner by the name of Charles Whitfield. Do you know him?”
    McKenna moaned, “Oh no, poor Abigail.”
    “ Aye,” said Hannish, “We know him. His parents are in the ballroom. McKenna, I see no reason to tell them, unless Charles has had the misfortune of marrying her.”
    “ I agree,” said McKenna. “Abigail would be beside herself if she knew. She said Charles has gone to London to try to