us back to Derbyshire, and then to return Sir William today to Derby, so that he can take the stagecoach south and get back to Windsor.”
“Why does he want to go to Windsor, Mr. Douglas? I thought that his main consulting rooms were in Bath?”
“It is true that he practices from there, but I have been told that he is the chief physician-in-residence to His Majesty the King,” said Mr. Douglas, this time with pride in his voice.
Julia was speechless at this information, for she had no idea of that connection. What would Mama say? Julia suspected that her mother’s opinion of Harry Douglas was going to increase several hundredfold when she heard all this.
“I have a commission from K—I mean from Mr. Hatton—to pass on some information only to you in private, Miss Maitland. Is your aunt, Mrs. Harrison, still staying here with you? If so, would it be possible for both of you to visit Norton Place tomorrow?”
Before Julia could reply, she heard her aunt and her sisters calling for her in the hall, and she took Mr. Douglas from the dining room to be introduced to Aunt Lucy. She was clearly very intrigued to meet him, although unable with both Sophie and Harriet within earshot to acknowledge her previous acquaintance with his younger son as she might have wished.
Upon hearing of the invitation from Mr. Douglas, she immediately agreed to go with Julia to Norton Place on the following day, and the only problem was resisting the protestations from Sophie and Harriet at the news that they were not to be included in the party. Mr. Douglas took their dissent in good part, and promised that they might visit him on another occasion.
Sir William did not emerge with Mama and the physician from the dressing room for some time but, when they did, it was easy to see from her expression that the news was much better than before.
On becoming aware of the eager audience waiting for them at the bottom of the stairs, Sir William said, in an avuncular style, “Well, ladies, Mrs. Maitland will tell you the details, but I am confi dent that Mr. Maitland’s doctor can carry out my instructions, and that the results should be beneficial. Now, Mr. Douglas, we had best be on our way if I am to catch the stage south from Derby today.”
Mama was indeed very gracious to Mr. Douglas as they left, as Julia had foreseen, and said as soon as the front door had closed, “My dear Lucy, it is such better news as far as Lewis is concerned. And Sir William has told me that he has strict instructions to render his bill for payment only to Mr. Douglas, who took all the trouble to arrange that consultation, and no charge at all is to fall upon us. That is so generous of him!”
Her eldest daughter then intervened. “Did you know, Mama, that Sir William is a personal physician to the king himself?”
There was a stunned silence, as Julia had anticipated, and then a hubbub of sound as everyone asked questions at once, and some minutes passed before order was restored. When Aunt Lucy told Mama of the invitation for Julia to visit Norton Place with her aunt the next day, Mama was all smiles and gracious agreement.
They travelled together in Aunt Lucy’s chaise—much more comfortable than the last time I took this journey, thought Julia—and on the way her aunt inquired what Julia thought the purpose of the visit might be.
“Did Mr. Douglas give any indication to you?”
“No, he didn’t. There may be some news about the smugglers, although Mr. Hatton could have sent a letter to you about that.”
“Will I like Norton Place, Julia?”
“Yes, I think so. I had expected it to be rather—how can I say—brash? But that was because I was prejudging the house through Mama’s eyes, for she was determined to look down on Mr. Douglas as someone who ‘bought his own furniture’—a self-made man.”
Her aunt chuckled. “I doubt whether you will be having that problem with your mother in the future, after what happened yesterday!”
Julia laughed and agreed. With a pleasant and sympathetic companion beside her, the journey passed very quickly and the chaise was soon coming to a halt in front of Norton Place. Julia had forgotten to ask Mr. Douglas whether Jack would be at home, but there was no sign of him in the house as Mr. Douglas led the way to the drawing room.
Much to Julia’s amusement, for the first half hour she was quite sidelined, as their host and her aunt soon proved to have many views in common, and conducted a wide-ranging conversation over various topics. It was only when the butler came in to ask if tea should be served that Harry Douglas turned to Julia and apologised for his lack of attention.
“Now, Miss Maitland, first of all I have a note to give to you from Kit. He asks that you should read it through first, and he told me that there were some parts that you could then pass on to us.”
There was a real twinkle in his eye as he said this, and Julia suddenly wondered how much Kit had told his father about their relationship.
However, the letter was already in her hand, and she skimmed it quickly. The first half was very intriguing, and the last page so intimately heart-warming that her aunt and Mr. Douglas must be able to see her blushing.
“What is the news?” said Aunt Lucy, coming to her rescue.
“Well, Kit—Mr. Hatton—has spoken to Mr. Whitaker, his farm manager, about whether he had had any suspicions about the estate land or buildings being used for smuggling. Mr. Whitaker told him that he had come to think that might be the case, and that he had wondered if Mr. Jones, the husband of the housekeeper, knew more about it.”
“Did you meet Mr. Whitaker or Mr. Jones?” Aunt Lucy asked Mr. Douglas.
“Yes, both of them, and they did not seem to me to be dishonest men. But perhaps I’m wrong?”
Julia continued, “Mr. Hatton goes on to say that when he asked Mr. Jones about ‘free traders’ operating on the estate, he confessed that when he came back many years ago from being a soldier in France, he had become involved in smuggling with Isaac Gulliver. But he said that he had finished with that when he was given charge of the farm at Morancourt by Mr. Henry Hatton.”
“So he knows nothing of what is happening now?”
“No, he does. Indeed, he had already heard from Mr. Gulliver that we had been to visit the earthwork at Eggardon!”
Mr. Douglas looked puzzled, so Julia explained about her visit with Mr. Hatton to the hill fort, and the man whom they had met there claiming to be a priest.
“Apparently, Mr. Hatton says that Isaac Gulliver is a very unusual smuggler. His men are kept constantly at work smuggling wine and other goods, mostly through the village of Burton Bradstock. Some wear Dorset smocks, as used by farm workers, and with their hair powdered like wigs, as a kind of livery to identify them. They are forbidden to offer any physical harm to the revenue men. It is his dislike of violence that led to his opposing another gang, which started operating in the area around Bridport about eighteen months ago.”
Julia then remembered that Aunt Lucy knew nothing about Frank Jepson, and so explained briefly, without mentioning any connection with the Brandons, what was known about him.
Then she went on, “Aunt Lucy, there was something that I did not tell you when we were at Morancourt. A young man called Jem, who proved to be the brother of Martha, your personal maid, was brought into the kitchen there with an injury to his leg. Mrs. Jones, the housekeeper, did not know who he was, and he refused to acknowledge his sister. Martha asked me not to mention him or his injury to you.”
“Why not? Did she suspect that he was up to no good?”
“Probably.”
“Was that the same brother that she had told us about on the journey down to Dorset, who had been a miner near Radstock?”
“Yes, it was. Kit has since traced him after another conversation with Mr. Jones. Jem had been lodging in the village, and working with several other men for Frank Jepson with good pay, smuggling goods into Dorset on the coast near Bridport. When he injured his leg carrying a heavy load, Jepson threatened to break his arm, or worse, if he told anyone how the injury had happened.”
“That Frank Jepson sounds to be a nasty piece of work,” said Mr. Douglas.
“Yes, and he stopped paying Jem as soon as he hurt himself, because he was of no more use to the
