Chapter 25

Mr. Ogden was still looking at the floor and looking more and more uneasy by the minute. 'I don't know where they are...' He said quietly. Williams stomach dropped. He was so sure. 'How could you not know where they are Sir, you are the one who wanted them hidden...?' William said exasperated. 'Yes..Yes.. I was, but I fear my choice in people to help me has proven somewhat as a flaw on my part. Mr. Shaw has gone missing too. From what I can tell he has taken my daughters, at a price...' He finished looking up at William his eyes glazing over. William immediately had to keep his anger in check. Now was not the time. 'When did you last hear from Shaw?' he said sternly, trying to hide the slight tremble of anger in his voice. 'Two days ago, when I paid him to take Ruby and Julia to a house I had rented, just to keep them out of the way for a while...But I fear...I've made a terrible mistake...' he said letting out a sigh.

William said nothing. The anger he felt towards this man was almost enough to push him over the edge. It was almost as hough he wasn't really bothered, as long as his precious daughters weren't near Toronto, or the public eye, or the people they loved. All for the sake of his integrity. William could feel his anger swelling, and had to leave, he had to go, before he risked loosing his job for the actions he wanted to take. 'I just hope Mr. Ogden, you are aware of the implications you have expelled upon your two daughters. Their lives are in your hands and you do not seem to care. When the ransom note comes- as I'm sure it will- I hope your willing to fix this 'mistake' you keep talking about.' and with that he left, slamming the inspectors door behind him. He needed air. And lots of it.

-~0~-

Julia's head was swimming. For the third time that day. Her voice was hoarse from screaming at the man behind the door. And the dull ache from where the back of his fist had made contact with her head still throbbed. She needed to get to ruby. And she didn't care how long she had to scream, cry, and kick at the door. She had been overjoyed to find out her sister was pregnant, if a little surprised. But the surprises just didn't stop. And they stopped being pleasant. The one about her father 'deciding' on 'their behalf' to 'remove them from society for the time being' made her blood boil. She knew her father had never approved of either of his daughters lifestyle choices, of jobs, or acquaintances, or anything for that matter, but that didn't give him the right to decide how and where they should go about it. So they had been bound and forced into a carriage over two weeks ago and driven for hours, to god knows where to this tiny basement, under, from what she remembered was a shack of a house, by some men that claimed they were 'friends' of her fathers. But from the way they spat 'You have your father to thank for this' they probably enjoyed his company just as much as she did. 'Ha!' she laughed aloud sarcastically. She wished she had told William where she was going when she had wrote him the letter, she was so stupid to believe that her father genuinely wanted to help Ruby! No wonder he had asked for her not to tell William where they were going. She had naïvely supposed it was because of the baby.

She was still kicking at the door, her feet hurting from the constant pounding and she knew she was glutton for punishment, but she didn't care, all she knew was that if they spent more time sorting her out and getting her to be quiet, the less of their attention was on Ruby. Ruby was only 6 and a half months pregnant but, even so, this much stress could easily produce a still birth, but that wasn't something she was about to tell her, she just kept telling her to remain as calm and still as possible. And to just do as the people told her, and not to let them manhandle her. All she could keep hoping was that William would find them soon. She had no idea how, but she just prayed that he would. She stopped kicking and leant back against the adjacent wall sinking to her knees. She wanted to cry all over again, get it all out. She kept the ring that William had given her tied to a ribbon inside her corset. She was so afraid that the men would take it. And she couldn't bare to loose something so precious. She leant her head back against the musty rock wall and closed her eyes, letting the tears begin to fall.

-~0~-

It had been almost a week since Mr. Ogden had been to the station to report his two daughters missing. Julia and Ruby hadn't been seen for nearly two weeks now, and the fear that was spreading through the station for the safety of their lives, was gripping William tight. He had a headache almost everyday and the stress was leaving dark circles under his eyes. The darkness that had so easily engulfed him all that time ago at loosing her was slowly creeping, slowly but surely back into his heart, he could feel it tugging it the corners when he saw her name on any police report, on any letter, anything that reminded him, would tear his heart to shreds in a matter of seconds.

William was starting to question whether this Mr. Shaw even wanted money from Mr. Ogden, or whether he just planned to- William couldn't even think it- the thought of death was just a thought he couldn't bare to even think. Once it was in his head, it would never leave.

He had poured. Poured, re-read, questioned, listened, enquired, telephoned, telegraphed, everything he could possibly think of to try and find the missing women. He felt like he was going mad. Never in his entire career had he felt so helpless. Felt so unable to comprehend. None of the information was adding up, it was confusing, mislaid, misreported. He had been sat behind his desk for the last two hours, flicking over the same report, the idea of taking it in had long left his head. He was just flicking the pages back and forth, not even seeing them. Then an exasperated 'SIR!' came ringing through his office, as George skidded in wielding a piece of paper in hand. 'The ransom, its finally arrived.' he said with a face of happiness that shouldn't really be seen when delivering the note of ransom, but after the weeks they had both had, any news, was good news. William quickly flicked over the note, and read it quickly, his trained eyes picking out character definition, finger prints, shadowing or imprints, but the note was clean. Pristine even. And read as follows:

MR. OGDEN

YOU HAVE THE MOST BEAUTIFUL DAUGHTERS.

QUITE A PAIR.

IF YOU WANT TO SEE THEIR PRETTY FACES AGAIN,

WE WANT £5000 PUT ON THE NEXT TRAIN TO HAMILTON.

SECOND CARRIAGE,UNDER THE 4TH SEAT ON THE LEFT.

YOU FAIL TO DO SO,AND THE WOMEN DIE.

TELL THE POLICE, AND THE WOMEN DIE.

William looked back to George, a plan already formulating in his head.

They would find them,

Even if it killed him.

A/N: Soooo...Quite a lot of chapters this week! :)

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