A Scandal By Any Other Name

Hawksley shook his head, his voice dripping with fake regret.

"He used my humble, clean family name," Hawksley explained perfectly, "and my completely spotless reputation to cover his own dirty, illegal tracks. He used the forged signature to secure massive loans from the London banks for his illegal smuggling ships."

Hawksley paused dramatically. He looked down at his hands as if he were deeply, profoundly ashamed of his own weakness.

"When I finally discovered his terrible, hidden crimes," Hawksley explained, his voice shaking just a tiny, perfect bit for maximum emotional effect, "I went directly to him. I demanded he stop his illegal actions immediately. I threatened to expose him to the magistrates."

Hawksley looked back up at the High Chancellor, his gray eyes wide, innocent, and pleading.

"But Farrington... he simply laughed in my face," Hawksley said, his voice cracking slightly. "He told me that because my name was already written on the papers, the Crown would hang me alongside him if the truth ever came out to the public."

Hawksley pressed his hand flat against his chest, right over his heart.

"He has been using those documents to brutally suppress me for twenty entire years, Your Lordship," Hawksley continued. "He blackmailed me constantly. He demanded heavy payments of gold from my private accounts to keep my forged name out of the hands of the royal magistrates. I paid him out of pure, foolish, desperate fear for my family’s honor and my life. I was a helpless victim of his cruel, endless extortion."

In the front row, Rowan’s jaw clenched so tightly his teeth physically ached. He gripped the edge of the wooden bench in front of him so hard the wood groaned. Hawksley was ruling out the ledger entirely. He was painting himself as a victim rather than a partner in crime.

The High Chancellor frowned deeply, his thick white eyebrows drawing together. The defense was incredibly bold, and incredibly smart. Without another piece of solid, physical evidence to prove Hawksley willingly signed the original papers, it was a very difficult lie to completely break in a court of law.

"If Lord Farrington was the sole, complete mastermind of this massive empire," the High Chancellor questioned sharply, probing for a weakness in the story, "then why was Baron Arthur Kingsley publicly blamed for the Oakridge silk scam twenty years ago? And why did Cole Kingsley confess in this very room that he was assisted with gold to plan his own brother’s murder?"

Hawksley did not hesitate for a single second. He was completely ready to throw a dead, entirely innocent man to the wolves to save his own skin.

"Because Baron Arthur Kingsley was not an innocent man, Your Lordship," Hawksley lied flawlessly, his voice completely steady and confident.

Rowan’s breath hitched violently in his chest. His eyes blazed with sudden, uncontrollable anger.

Hawksley continued, standing firmly on his false ground with absolute, sickening confidence.

"Arthur Kingsley was the true, silent partner to Lord Farrington in the massive silk scam," Hawksley declared, poisoning the dead man’s name. "I was Arthur’s partner but he and Farrington always worked closely together, leaving me out. When the Crown began to investigate the silks purchased twenty years ago, Arthur grew incredibly frightened. He wanted to confess everything to save himself. Farrington simply could not allow that to happen."

Hawksley gestured broadly with his hand, laying out the completely fake history.

"Farrington ordered the assassination, not me," Hawksley stated smoothly, completely washing his hands of the blood. "I had absolutely nothing to do with Cole Kingsley sabotaging that carriage. I was miles away, safely in London. Farrington paid Cole to kill his own brother to silence him forever and protect himself."

Hawksley looked directly at the High Chancellor, his face completely earnest, respectful, and helpful.

"I beg you, Your Lordship," Hawksley pleaded politely, bowing his head slightly. "Check the old evidence that was used to judge the Oakridge case twenty years ago. Look deeply at the old court records. The royal magistrates found Arthur Kingsley completely guilty because he truly was guilty. I am simply a foolish man who was caught in Farrington’s wicked, inescapable web of lies and forgery."

Rowan could not sit completely still for a single second longer.

He could not sit there on the bench and listen to this smiling, arrogant snake completely destroy the honor of Delaney’s kind father.

Arthur Kingsley was a good, completely honest man who had died violently trying to expose them. Delaney had suffered her entire, miserable life because of this exact, terrible lie.

Rowan stood up violently from his seat. The bench scraped loudly and harshly against the stone floor.

"He lies!" Rowan shouted at the top of his lungs.

His voice echoed fiercely and aggressively through the grand chamber. His face was red with anger. He pointed a long, highly accusing finger directly at Lord Hawksley’s calm face.

"You are a liar and a cold-blooded murderer!" Rowan roared, entirely forgetting the strict rules of the House. "Arthur Kingsley was an innocent, honorable man trying to expose you both! You paid for his bloody death to hide your own treason!"

Hawksley did not look angry. He simply turned his head slowly and looked at the Duke of Ford with a soft, deeply pitying smile, as if Rowan were nothing more than a confused, overly emotional child throwing a silly public tantrum.

The High Chancellor’s face turned completely, furiously red with anger at the sudden, highly disrespectful outburst in his courtroom.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The High Chancellor hit his gavel repeatedly and aggressively against the block, ordering immediate, absolute silence.

"Silence, Your Grace!" the High Chancellor roared at Rowan, his voice booming with absolute authority. "You are completely out of order! You will sit down immediately, or I will have the Crown Guards remove you from this hall by physical force!"

Carcel reached up quickly. He grabbed tightly onto Rowan’s coat sleeve and pulled incredibly hard, forcing the angry Duke to sit back down on the bench. Rowan breathed heavily, his chest heaving up and down, his eyes fixed with burning hatred on the smiling Lord Hawksley.

"This is a formal court of law, not a public tavern!" the High Chancellor scolded the entire room sharply.

He turned his cold gaze back to Lord Hawksley, but his expression was deeply, profoundly troubled.

Everything was working exactly, perfectly according to plan for Hawksley. The wicked Lord had an answer for every single question. He bypassed the legal traps flawlessly.

The High Chancellor looked down at his extensive notes. He realized the terrible, deeply frustrating truth of the law. Cole Kingsley was a confessed murderer who was about to hang; his word against a powerful, sitting Lord was legally completely useless.

Farrington’s ledger contained Hawksley’s name, but Hawksley had cleverly planted the strong seed of reasonable doubt by loudly claiming it was a forgery used for blackmail.

They simply could not sentence him to death because of a complete lack of sufficient physical evidence. And even regarding the tragic, violent death of Arthur Kingsley, there was no living, breathing witness to testify that Hawksley was the actual man who funded the sabotage through Cole.

Without the original shipping manifest and Hawksley’s ledger, the Crown simply did not have the legal power to hang him.

Lord Hawksley saw the deep, troubling hesitation in the High Chancellor’s aged eyes. He saw the older judge slowly lower his quill pen in complete, bitter frustration.

Hawksley looked away from the high judge. He looked out over the crowded rows of seated lords.

He smiled.

It was a very small private smug. The tight, uncomfortable tension in his shoulders completely relaxed. He let out a slow, quiet breath of victory.

The High Chancellor cleared his throat loudly, preparing to speak the bitter, highly disappointing words that would formally dismiss the treason charges due to a lack of sufficient evidence.

But the High Chancellor never got the chance to speak.

Suddenly, the double doors at the very back of the grand chamber were pushed open with massive, incredibly violent force. The wood hit the stone walls with a loud, explosive crash that made dozens of noblemen jump completely out of their seats in shock.

The cold breeze rushed into the warm, stuffy hall.

"Your Lordship!" a voice roared into the massive room.

It was a clear, ringing voice that echoed wildly and powerfully against the high ceiling, completely shattering the quiet, tense silence of the high court.

Every single head in the grand chamber snapped around instantly. Rowan turned around in his seat so fast his neck audibly popped.

Standing exactly in the wide open doorway, breathing incredibly heavily, was a figure that made the entire House of Lords gasp out loud in shock.

"I have it all completely here!" the voice shouted.

Hawksley’s smug smile faltered immediately. The warm blood drained completely from his face in a single second, leaving him looking exactly like a pale ghost. He stared at the doors, his eyes wide with sudden, absolute terror.