The Shadow of Great Britain

Chapter 1688: Chapter 56: The King’s Responsibility (Part 2)

He timely took on the role of the truth restorer: ”The Marquis of Anglesey was indeed brave on the day of Waterloo, except when he was hit by the French Army’s cannonball.”

His words instantly piqued everyone’s curiosity.

”Do you perhaps know some special story?”

”It’s not so much a special story, at most a little episode,” Minister Rowan replied methodically: ”I remember when the Marquis of Anglesey was hit, he yelled at the Duke of Wellington beside him: ’My God! Your Excellency, my leg is gone!’ The Duke of Wellington glanced at him, then replied with his usual calm tone: ’My God, yes, indeed, it’s gone.’

For a moment, the atmosphere in Rose Hall seemed to be lightly knocked by something.

Victoria first widened her eyes in surprise, seemingly not expecting the conversation on the battlefield to be so straightforward and calm.

Next, she couldn’t help but laugh quietly, but soon felt it was impolite to mock a hero of Waterloo, so she had to cover her mouth, with her shoulders slightly trembling.

Lady Leisen attempted to keep a straight face with her usual strict expression, but the corner of this Hanoverian governess’s eye couldn’t help but twitch.

As for the Duchess of Kent, she too struggled to hold back, after all, the Duke of Wellington’s witty response on the battlefield was quite different from the imagined heroic figure.

In the end, she had to pretend to be half shocked and half helplessly teased: ”You men always manage to talk about life and death as if it’s afternoon tea.”

The atmosphere on-site became much more congenial with this unexpected battlefield joke.

In this slightly humorous pause, the Duchess of Kent gently patted Victoria’s hand and then turned to Minister Rowan: ”I suppose you and Inspector Gordon have many such interesting stories inside your minds, and since the officers have worked hard for so long, why not relax today and stay for lunch? Kensington Palace has a few highly acclaimed dishes, why don’t we all enjoy them together as a token of our slight appreciation.”

Colly and Hutter exchanged a glance, an irrepressible look of elation on their faces, for they had never had a meal inside a palace in their life.

Just as they were speculating how much tastier Kensington Palace’s dishes would be compared to street fast food, Rowan had already politely declined.

”Your Highness, thank you for your kindness, my colleagues at Scotland Yard and I are most grateful. But about lunch, please allow us to discuss it later. Right now, there’s a more important matter that must be reported to you.”

”Oh?” The Duchess of Kent looked slightly surprised.

”Although this theft case has been solved...” Rowan noticed Arthur, behind the Duchess of Kent, nod slightly, and thus did not hesitate: ”But the problem it reveals has not been resolved. Kensington Palace, although a royal territory and the Crown Prince’s residence, has many idle individuals around, and its security force is relatively weak. The occurrence of this theft case, though possessing a certain level of contingency, also contains a certain level of inevitability. This has caused us great concern. If Scotland Yard hadn’t managed to solve the case, the consequences would likely have been unimaginable.”

The Duchess of Kent nodded in agreement upon hearing this.

Actually, after the incident, she had privately discussed with Conroy, and they couldn’t understand how the thieves had managed to stealthily remove items from Kensington.

Initially, they thought it most likely someone inside the palace had committed the theft.

For this reason, Conroy secretly checked the residences of the palace staff and indeed discovered several servants with sticky fingers.

However, these individuals mostly stole clothes, shoes, and other daily necessities or food.

As for the whereabouts of the writing box, it remained unclear.

Until the day before yesterday when the suspect was captured at Golden Cross Station, the Duchess learned the ”truth” from Scotland Yard’s investigation report.

The report indicated that the crime syndicate may have targeted Kensington Palace from early on.

Though Scotland Yard retrieved the writing box from thugs on Picket Street, the writing box in ’Little Bobby’s hands was also stolen from elsewhere; the real thieves targeting Kensington Palace might have been someone else.

They were a group specializing in mimicking nobility accents, forging documents, and even impersonating servant’s attires to infiltrate high-society venues.

About a year ago, several cases of impersonating gardeners to steal jewelry had occurred in Devonshire, and recently, this new crime technique has also emerged in London.

Based on previous cases, Scotland Yard reasonably inferred that the criminals might have used some means weeks earlier to forge company introduction letters, posing as a temporarily hired porter to join the foreign affairs moving team near Kensington Palace. As that day was a routine cleaning and furniture arrangement day at Kensington Palace, there was a frequent influx of outsiders, and the guards were negligent and didn’t verify each identity.

Until the afternoon, taking advantage of the brief confusion during servant shift changes and courtyard gate guard shifts, the criminal quietly slipped into the storage room near the west-side corridor, where there were several seldom-used old items, including several storage boxes with unsecured packaging. It is hypothesized that he discovered Princess Victoria’s writing box among this batch of items and hid it in the tool bag he carried.

The Duchess of Kent, following Scotland Yard’s investigation report, tracked down the batch of furniture and storage boxes mentioned, finding three box lid locks were indeed loose and not properly fastened. The attendant confessed that on the cleaning day, she was called to help arrange a room, and upon returning, she indeed neglected to take inventory.