Chapter 70 - Seventy
The day after, Augusta sat in her drawing room, a storm brewing behind her calm facade.
"How did it go with what I asked you to do?" she asked the moment Mr. Prescott was shown into the room.
Her informant bowed, his expression serious. "My sources have confirmed it, Baroness," he replied, taking a seat opposite her. "Baron Edgar and the Dowager Duchess did have a private meeting at a tea shop four days ago."
"And?" Augusta pressed, her fingers tapping impatiently on the arm of her chair.
"Here’s what my informant at the printing press printed out this morning," Prescott said. He handed Augusta a freshly printed, flimsy gossip pamphlet.
Augusta’s eyes scanned the page. Prescott took his time to explain what the public was now whispering about. "The story circulating is that the former Baron, in a grand romantic gesture, begged the Dowager Duchess to approve of the match. The pamphlet claims he gave her a substantial amount of gold coins as a plea for her to accept Lady Delia into her family."
Augusta read the ridiculous, romanticized version of the events and slammed the pamphlet down on the table. "What is that old fool up to now?" she sneered, her voice full of contempt.
"That is not all, Baroness," Prescott continued, reaching into his leather satchel. He pulled out a thick, leather-bound ledger and placed it on the table. "You asked me to look into the anonymous investor who was buying up all of Lady Delia’s pure dyes. You should take a look at this."
Augusta took the ledger and began to look through the pages, her sharp eyes scanning the neat columns of figures and shipping destinations. She read for a moment in silence. Then, a slow, low laugh started in her throat. The laughter grew, becoming louder and more unhinged, echoing eerily in the quiet, sunlit room.
Suddenly, her laughter stopped, and with a scream of pure rage, she flung the heavy ledger across the room. It hit the wall with a loud thud and fell to the floor, its pages splayed open.
"So, it was him," she hissed, her face covered with anger. "Baron Edgar Ellington."