Although the investigation revealed that Baroness Kaming had been an "abandoned baby" found in the woods by an elderly lumber merchant and his wife, Gray Gloves had not uncovered how the Baroness had ended up in those woods.
The lumber merchant did not want everyone to know that he had lost his fertility, so he had always claimed that the present Baroness Kaming was his biological daughter. If Gray Gloves had not found the old servant who had once driven the merchant's carriage, they might not even have uncovered the matter of "finding a crying baby girl in the woods."
"The records say that after the lumber merchant and his wife both fell ill and died, their will left two-thirds of their property to the merchant's brother's two sons, while the remaining third was given to Baroness Kaming as a dowry. That was why the Kaming Family now had the qualifications to meddle in the local lumber business as 'out-of-town builders.'"
He read through the documents as Miss Winslet handed him another file.
"As for Mrs. Bennett, her situation was easy to investigate. Her family had once been quite prosperous, with their own farm and lumber mill.
"My young ladies found Mrs. Bennett's former neighbors in a village on the outskirts of Vesta City. An elderly woman who was still fairly lucid said that Mrs. Bennett's mother had indeed given birth to another child before her, but that child disappeared at the age of one in 1809."
Shade looked up.
"Was the child's disappearance close to when the lumber merchant and his wife found the baby?"
"Very close. Or rather, they happened on the morning and afternoon of the very same day in the summer of 1809.
"That is all the investigation has uncovered so far, but we can already