Justice Hall - Laurie R. King [6]
“I’m sorry?” I asked. Was this something from his accumulation of newspapers, a recent event we had missed while slogging through the depths of Dartmoor?
But Holmes waved a dismissive hand in the direction of the laboratory. “Ancient history, Russell. He’ll be in Debrett’s. Unless . . . ?” He turned an eye to the man in the chair.
“The entry is still there,” Ali—Alistair?—confirmed. “Incomplete, but there.”
Curious, I went down to Holmes’ laboratory and took his Debrett’s from its resting-place on a shelf between an assortment of labelled coal samples and a massive and outdated treatise on Bertillonism. I went back down the corridor, flipping over the pages until I came to the name Beauville. It began with a crest of typically unlikely looking creatures and a snarl of heraldic devices above a motto of equally unlikely Latin, Justitia fortitudo mea est.
The Duke of Beauville, the list began, with the name of the (then-present) Duke, Henry Thomas Michael. I skimmed over the long paragraph of fine print that followed, packed with descending titles, education, and honours: Earl of Calminster, Earl of Darlescote, baron of this and baron of the other, mayor of, secretary of, steward of, so on and so forth.
I turned the page to find the Family of Hughenfort entry, where the dates began in the eleventh century, although details of the early barons were both few and heavily mythologised. Words jumped out: knighted; liberal to his tenants and servants; high sheriff; chief justice; spirited debates in Parliament; battle of various places and service to king so and so and distinguished statesman. Baron gave way to earl and eventually, in the early eighteenth century, to duke.
Finally I saw the name Maurice, and I slowed to read the entry of his father’s generation:
Gerald Richard Adam, 5th Duke of Beauville, b. 14 May 1830, then the details of two marriages, with “issue” given as:
1. Henry Thomas Michael, Earl of Calminster, b. 1859, m 1888 to his cousin Sarah, dau. Rev William Malverson, has issue: Gabriel Adrian Thomas b. 1899.
2. William Maurice, b. 1876 (whereabouts unknown since 1900)
3. Lionel Gerald b. 1882
1. Phillida Anne b. 1893
I had to travel back up the lists to find Ali, but there he was, under a cousin of the fourth Duke’s: Alistair Gordon St John, b. 1881, Eton, Trinity. Badger Old Place, Arley Holt, Berks. And again that odd notice, whereabouts unknown, although in his case it was since 1902.
The two Hughenfort cousins had slipped beneath the ken of Debrett’s all-knowing eyes, into the king’s service in the Middle East. Quite an accomplishment for a pair of Hons. So why had they come back?
Further queries were interrupted by Mrs Hudson and another tray, and although the man I was trying to think of as Alistair was reluctant to break off his quest even to take on nourishment, Mrs Hudson stood over him until she was satisfied that he was not about to let the buttery eggs go untended. Holmes, seeing that our guest’s mouth was unavoidably occupied, stepped into the gap.
“Before your time, Russell. There was a mild sensation in the newspapers concerning a vanished baronet. Somehow a rumour got around that he had boarded a ship for New York and never arrived. 1896 or ’7, as I recall.”
“Seven,” mumbled Alistair around his toast.
“The family denied the rumours, claimed their second son was merely travelling in Russia, but when Debrett’s came out the following year it gave his address as ‘unknown,’ and Burke’s followed. But—correct me if I am wrong—the son came home a few years later. For his father’s funeral?” The bandage nodded. “When he disappeared again after that, no one could work up much interest.”
Ali washed the toast down with the last of his tea; he had eaten all the eggs and the tomato, but left the bacon and