DISAPPEARING ACT

How does one go about making another disappear? More importantly, how does one accomplish this without ending up in the gaol or a hangman's noose? these are the questions that keep me awake at night. My name is Duchess Sophie, or the Duchess of Dumfries. The person who I want to disappear. My husband of course, Oswald Eugene Huxley, the Duke of Dumfries. We have been married for almost three months now, and that is fore score too many by my count. Before the wedding, Oswald was boring, distant, and detached. I didn't know if we would be sharing the same house much less a bed, much was left unsaid.

After the wedding, Oswald has become condescending, threatening, and abusive. I could have probably handled the verbal abuse. I have thick skin and can easily ignore him when he is red faced screaming with rage over a task not being completed. The problem is he doesn't always tell me the task but still takes out his anger on me. Mind reading is not one of my skills; nor is anticipating the needs of a mentally unstable man with anger issues. At first, he hid it from me, then he hid it from the guards and staff, but now he doesn't seem to care who knows. His screaming rants with flying spittle are met by my calm blank stare, which only seems to make him angrier.

The physical abuse varies from a quick slap to the face, to being held down while he punches my back and ribs. Those bruises don't show, and he allows his demons free to go after me as hard as they want. It's been weeks since I begged him to stop or asked him what I did wrong. Recently I have stopped crying out or making noise of any kind. This makes him angrier, but then, so does everything I do.

The people in his circle obey him. Most of them try to avoid him. A few seem to be afraid of him. Nobody appears to like him. All of this has me wondering; would anyone miss him?

The maids and the cooks would go about their business like any other day. The guards would march the grounds or stand their posts like every day. The stableman, the valet, the doorman, would all wait in perpetuity for new orders. How long until it all crumbled? When the money ran out? What if the money didn't run out? Would the staff be happier if the abusive screaming overlord never returned? Would the smile?

I think the only problem would be some guards. A few of them are sworn to Oswald. Hard men who don't hide smiles when violence erupts. Six of them by my reckoning.

There are two keys to success: the manner of death and body disposal. Ideally, Oswald would be killed by a third party, as long as that assassin didn't reveal his employer. Or he could be killed by a stranger, or a group of traveling strangers. The more layers the better. It would be best if the body was never found. No markers for people to follow. Burning was always an option; it was great for hiding clues.

I lay in the dark arguing with my conscience. Is it a mortal sin to kill to save your own life? How close to death do I need to be? Is it a sin to have a plan? I can only think of one thing worse than spending a lifetime with an abusive husband. Spending all eternity in hell being abused by that same husband.

An excerpt from

GERARD'S FORTUNE.

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