The Duke's Masked Wife

"Greetings Baroness. We offer our sincere apologies for not attending your late husband's funeral. There has been an overflow of work to do in the court," said Mark Wilkerson. Behind him stood two men, Zachery and Declan who worked under him. "May we come in to have a word? It is important."

"Yes, follow me this way," Katrina said, leading the men to the waiting room. She expected to hear from them right after Desmond had died but now was still a good time. There were cases of the court offering money or other gifts to families for their loss. "Would you care for something to drink? My butler can get it for you."

"No thank you," Mark replied. He didn't care for refreshments when he was present for serious business. Judging by the woman's quickness to let them in, she had no idea what they were there for. "Your late husband's daughter, Alessandra Barrett, now known as Alessandra Collins the Duchess, has gotten married. Do you acknowledge that?"

Katrina frowned, confused as to why this visit was about Alessandra unless the girl had finally died but why would the court men be here instead of the town guards? "The marriage wasn't exactly accepted by my late husband but yes, I can acknowledge she is now married. Is there something wrong? Is the marriage not legitimate?"

"It is legitimate. The priest who did their wedding sent the notice. You are aware that now your stepdaughter has gotten married, she is entitled to her inheritance put together by both her parents. We've received a notice that her inheritance was not given to her and it might have been spent. You should know there is a law against messing with the inheritance placed for a child," said Mark.

Zachary pushed a paper toward Katrina. "The court received the document containing the list of items meant to go to Alessandra once she was of age and wanted to leave her father's care or the moment she got married."

Katrina was reluctant to pick up the paper but as she did not want to seem suspicious, she picked up the paper and read through it. "This is the first time I am seeing this list. It would have been sent to the court long before I married the Baron. Is there an issue?"

"Not only is the Duchess past the age that she could have received this inheritance she is also married but has not received any of it. We are aware that she was hidden away in your home because of her face which would have contributed to her not getting her inheritance when she was eighteen. Was your husband against the marriage to the Duke because he no longer had the inheritance to give to his daughter?" Declan asked, giving his theory.

"Desmond did not discuss her inheritance with me or give me too many details about the Duke proposing to Alessandra. I don't know anything about it. Whether he spent it or not. Why is this brought to me now? My mother-in-law personally told Alessandra she would send her inheritance," said Katrina.

Since the day they left the Duke's home, Katrina was relieved that  Greta would be the one giving Alessandra the inheritance. Had Greta changed her mind later on?

"To our knowledge, nothing has been sent. Seeing that your mother-in-law is the one giving the Duchess her inheritance that means the money was in fact spent," Mark said. He found it stupid of the Baroness to take so long to find a way to give her stepdaughter the inheritance when Alessandra's new father-in-law was the one to push for this law.

"I do not know about her inheritance. My mother-in-law out of the blue offered to pay for it. Desmond dealt with all the finances and as you can see I am trying to pull money out of thin air to keep this house together. You should speak with my mother-in-law. Desmond told her more things about our finances than I," said Katrina, shifting the attention onto someone else.

The court would no doubt find out the money was spent but given that Desmond was now dead and it wouldn't be so hard to believe he left her out of the finances, they could not put this on her. There was no evidence that she was the one to spend Alessandra's inheritance and she wasn't. It was Desmond's idea since he believed Alessandra would always be in his care.

"If there was a conversation about inheritance, did you check to see if your daughter Kate Barrett still has her inheritance? She will soon be turning eighteen and reaching that age a young lady desires to get married before they are seen as a spinster. Your stepdaughter you might care for but your own daughter, you would want there to be money for her right?" Mark asked, inspecting every inch of Katrina for her reaction.

He had come across many like her during his years in the court. Mark was surprised when the King himself brought up this issue to him but was glad he did. The late Baron tried to play the court and there was no doubt this woman knew about it. It was unfortunate the Baron was now dead as they would have taken him in for questioning and then would have been able to bring in the Baroness.

In Mark's opinion, Edgar made a big mistake killing Desmond so quickly but not all hope was lost. There was always a way to catch greedy people. They could never be satisfied with what they have. Now, Katrina Barrett was on his list. Before paying her a visit they had searched their documents for information on her but only found her marriage to Desmond. He sent notices to other town magistrates to send him information about her and was now awaiting it.

Anyone with little to no information about who they were should always be watched by the court.

"I don't know about the money Desmond has set aside for Kate but I have not spent what I listed for my daughter. I can produce it the moment Kate is ready for it," Katrina truthfully replied. She still had her large stash of money from her life before Desmond that she was now digging into to get this household back to its former glory.

"I see. So it was as I thought it to be. The first daughter is not allowed out in public so her father figured he could take her money. One way or the other, the Duchess is entitled to her money. Is your mother-in-law in? We want to have a word about the money she will give her granddaughter. We cannot punish the dead and as of right now, we can only work out a way for the Duchess to receive her money," Mark said as this was his number one priority.

"Greta is not here at the moment," Katrina lied. She wanted to have a word with the woman first to see where her head was at.

"Declan."

"If your mother-in-law pays your husband's side of the inheritance, we will write that off but her mother's items must still be given to her. If they have been given away or sold you will have to pay for them. According to the law, we will have to alert her mother of issues with her daughter's inheritance," Declan stated.

Katrina couldn't hold back her surprise. After years of not hearing from that woman, she thought Desmond's first wife might have been dead. "She is alive?"

Zachary found the question to be suspicious and asked, "Should she be dead?"

"No no. We have not heard from her in years so we assumed," Katrina replied. The last thing she needed was for that woman to return.

"Dead or alive, living in this town or not, we will find a way to contact her. It is in your best interest to search for what was left for the Duchess from her mother, Melanie. That is all for now. We will return tomorrow at noon. You should be here along with your mother-in-law if you want this to be over soon. Good day," Zachary bid goodbye.

The three men had other matters to deal with so they could not stay too long.

"Declan," Mark called to the man walking behind him. "Keep a good eye on this case and alert me if information about this woman comes in."

"Yes sir."