In the Council's dungeon, which held the most notorious criminals inside each of its cell rooms, one of the cell rooms held the Marquee and Marchioness Hooke, who had been dragged by the council guards the previous afternoon.
Lady Aurora stood behind the rusted iron gate, trying not to touch it. When one of the guards walked past in front of the cell she was in, she quickly called the person, "You there! Go call Byron. We have important things to discuss with him. Where are you going? I am talking to you!" Her voice turned louder at the end of the sentence when she saw the guard disappear from her sight. Turning around, she addressed her husband, "Walter! Do something!"
Marquee Hooke was tired from having to stand all these hours since they had been here since yesterday and had finally sat down on the dusty ground with his back leaning against the wall. He turned his gaze to his wife.
"What is there to do? Somehow the plan we had backfired, and we ended up in the grave we thought we had dug for the Moriartys," Marquee Hooke said with a deep frown. "I still don't understand how that servant's name appeared in the Council's registry.
"Isn't it obvious that they tricked us and put us in the dungeon? We cannot let them take the upper hand, and we should do something," Lady Aurora's eyes widened in determination.
Neither of the Hooke couple knew what and how it happened with the Council's registry. But what they did know was that their daughter was married to a lowly servant.
"There's barely anything to do, Aurora…" Marquee Hooke held a defeated look and said, "Word must have already spread about the man we killed and we don't have any money to look for help. We are doomed."
Lady Aurora couldn't believe her husband was so quick to lose hope, while here she was, fighting to convince the Council of their innocence. She quietly glared at her husband, who looked defeated and couldn't believe the kind of man she had married. But then it was because of how he was that she had been able to get married to him and turn into a marchioness. If she didn't fight now, they would forever be pulled down by an anchor in the ocean.
The most shocking wasn't what Vincent had pulled against her family, but it was what her daughter had done. Her own daughter had betrayed the family, and she gritted her teeth. Her naive, foolish daughter had willingly married a servant!
When the sound of footsteps were heard in the corridor, Lady Aurora quickly brought her face closer to the gaps of the gate, trying to see who it was. The footsteps got louder, and soon the councilman named Byron, who had worked for them in the past, appeared in front of their cell.
"Finally, you are here. I hope you have brought us good news, councilman Byron," Lady Aurora gave a knowing look, and Marquee Hooke stood up from where he had been sitting until now.
Byron pursed his lips, and Marquee Hooke asked him, "What happened? Did you check if the blood belongs to Vincent or not?"
The councilman answered, "The blood pigments in the signature don't match Vincent's blood."
"I knew they changed the sheet! The Head Council is involved in this little charade, and we need to take this matter to the higher ups to get justice!" Lady Aurora spoke in excitement, while trying to form a plan.
Byron stopped her by saying, "The woman at the laboratory told me that sometimes in some rare cases the blood cells belonging to human blood lose their properties, and that could be the reason why there's no match. It is being finalised that the signature was done by the man named Eugene Weaver, and right now I cannot do anything about it," he shook his head. "I am sorry, but this is all I could help in this matter."
Lady Aurora's mouth hung open before she fixed her expression and said, "Don't tell me there's no way out of here?!"
"Whatever Vincent planned, it is too perfect to find any loopholes. Everyone believes it is you who orchestrated the death of Lady Camille Wright now. You might be pardoned, but there's no guarantee to it as some of the members of high society have made a petition to put you to a death row," Byron informed them, leaving the old couple in a state of shock. "I should get going now. It wouldn't go well if someone sees me talking to you. Maybe you shouldn't have gone against Vincent Moriarty. The man will put a death sentence on your head and I don't want to be the next possible victim of it. Pardon me, but I will be taking my leave now."
"Wait, there should be some other way to get us out of here!" Lady Aurora didn't know if she could live in this cell for another day.
"There will be a councilman who will be assigned to your case and see what can be done," Byron didn't stay by to chitchat, and he quickly scurried out of there.
"I told you that we are doomed," Marquee Hooke looked like he had given up on his life, but internally he was frustrated that their life had come to this. "We have no money to use, to pay the councilmen to speak in our favour."
Lady Aurora glowered. She turned around and snapped, "And whose damn fault is that?"
"Think about it, Aurora. We should have found another family for Rosetta to marry. I told you we should have chosen the Rivers, but you were too greedy and wanted to go for the Viscount's family. Not any Viscount, but the Moriarty family." Marquee Hooke shook his head, turning away from his wife, he said regretfully, "I had heard about the boy's terrible and cunning nature. But I didn't know I would be learning it first hand…"
"I was trying to improve our life, have it the way it was before. Yours, mine, and our daughter's," Lady Aurora glared at her husband. But deep down in her mind, she regretted going after the Moriartys. Maybe if she had found a lower wealthy family as her husband said, this wouldn't have happened.
Now not only did they have money, but they had lost all the respect they had gathered over the years—everything was down the drain. Few minutes later, after calming herself, she asked, "What are we going to do now? We cannot live like this, Walter. If we stay here, we are just criminals. And if we step out of the dungeon and get released, we won't be able to live the same life. We will be on the streets, begging!"
"We should have packed our things before and moved to another town," Marquee Hooke murmured. When they heard another pair of footsteps approaching near the cell, Lady Aurora quickly turned, hoping it was Byron, who changed his mind.
But it wasn't the councilman Byron, but two guards who appeared in front of the cell. One of the guards reached the front of their gate, unlocking it, and Marquee Hooke asked,
"Are we being let free?" A sense of relief started to fill the couple's minds.
"No. It is time for the punishment to commence for the criminal activities that have been insinuated and made by you," the guard replied, and the other guard stepped away from the other with a black whip in his hand.
"W—what do you mean punishment?!" Lady Aurora looked horror-stricken. She quickly stepped backwards and away from the gate. She said in an authoritative tone, "I am Marchioness Lady Aurora Hooke. Don't you dare take a step forward and even talk about punishments! I will report your ill doings at the higher court!" She threatened them.
But the guards were used to dealing with men and women of different status in the dungeon. They were experienced enough not to bother themselves with who the person was, and the guard with the whip pulled both ends and questioned,
"Who would like to go first?"
"Get out of here right now!" Lady Aurora removed her shoes and threw them at the guards, one after another, which they dodged.
The guards turned annoyed, and the guard holding the whip smacked it harshly against one of the walls. Soon, the whip bit into Lady Aurora's leg and even with many layers, she felt the burn on her skin that had her yelp.
Marquee Hooke quickly moved to the opposite side, his eyes widened, while Lady Aurora shouted in pain, feeling the whip on her back and her hands, leaving a burning sensation. She half shouted and half begged her husband, "Walter, do something!"
But when Marquee Hooke went to help his wife by going near the guard, he received the lash of the whip. He quickly scattered away, while he rubbed his arm.
Lady Aurora's shouts and screams echoed in the corridors of the dungeon, while the guards continued whipping her. Once the guards were done whipping both Lady Aurora and Marquee Hooke, neither could sit or stand, and they tried to lean against the walls with great difficulty.
Lady Aurora's cheeks had dried the tears that had earlier fallen on her cheeks after being continuously whipped until her body turned numb. How did her life turn out like this? Her entire body ached, and she couldn't move her limbs. She said,
"We… we need to prove Vincent Moriarty to be in the wrong—"
Marquee Hooke said, "Let us not fish for more trouble, Aurora… I cannot do this and I am too old for this thing. Ugh," he paused when he felt the shirt's fabric rub against the back of his skin that had peeled. He hissed and frowned before saying, "Let us surrender to whatever it is. We cannot keep on doing this and get into more trouble."
