Never Land the First Fish

Chapter Twenty-Nine: Part 3

Maddox was up next. Rutledge starting by asking him about his decision to set sale early. Emily was startled by his answer. "I had been drinking with my brothers, mostly to avoid girls who thought marriage to a lord was worth some brazen misbehaviour. When I went to bed, I was not so drunk as to get into it with the young lady who was taking the chance that I might not notice her sleeping in it. I figured I would be safer sleeping on my own ship. And then I figured that, if the crew could be rounded up, I might as well sleep at sea as in the harbour, and avoid any further embarrassments."

He scowled at Gills. "And then I woke up and found a couple of embarrassments had come with me, but by then we were South of Ireland and riding into a gale, so I had to take them along."

A few more questions, and the prosecutor had just started asking the name of the importunate young lady when there was a stir at the door. One of the ushers was arguing with a man in the livery of the Earl of Chirbury. Emily had just realised the significance of the man's black armband when Maddox noticed it, and stopped in middle of a languid refusal to blacken a maiden's name to shout the intruder's name. "John! Is it my father?" The man nodded. Emily was close enough to see tears running down his face.

The Duchess of Haverford stood, and the Duke rose beside her and put an arm around her. The clerk called for order. The prosecutor shouted for Maddox to answer the question, and the Chief Justice banged his gavel.

"Is there a problem, Lord Maddox?" he asked.

"Your Honour." Maddox's throat worked, and his voice was hoarse. He swallowed and tried again. "Your Honour, you are aware, I know, that my father, the Earl of Chirbury, has been very ill and that his family and friends have been told to make their farewells. I believe John Wishart is here to tell me that..." he swallowed again, "that he is no longer with us."

"That's roight, me lord," John called out. "Yer Honour, I mean. Lord Maddox 'as been sent for to come 'ome."

"Lord Maddox," the prosecutor pointed out, waspishly, "is a witness in a very important trial."

"And has given his testimony," Sir Thomas added. "Your Honour, I have not heard any questions yet from my learned and esteemed colleague that might change the direction of this case."

Again the judges conferred. "If you have any pertinent and relevant questions for this witness, you may have five minutes more to ask them," the Chief Justice told the prosecutor. "I will then put this court into recess, and we will resume tomorrow morning at ten o'clock with the next defense witness."

The prosecutor slunk back to his seat. "No further questions, Your Honours."

The Chief Justice leaned over the bench, putting up a hand to stop Maddox as he began to stride across the courtroom to the door, where the Wellbridges and Emily now waited with the Chirbury servant. "Lord Maddox, may the court express its deep condolences to you and your family on the loss of the earl. He was a great man."

"He was, Your Honour," Maddox replied. "Thank you." He looked back over his shoulder and nodded at Gills, then at Julia. Julia gave a half wave and Gills nodded back.

Then Maddox finished his journey across the room, tucked Emily into his side, and led the Wellbridges out of the courtroom. "Did you bring a coach, John?" he asked. "Miss Kilbrierry will be returning with me, and I imagine you'll want to come, too, will you not, Sally? Wellbridge, would you stay till the trial is over and keep an eye on your cousin? Having a lordly duke in the audience is helping to sway the jury, I think. I promise to look after your wife."

"We will both stay," Sally told Wellbridge. "I think they will finish tomorrow. The new evidence... Maddox, you and Emily are need there. David and I will follow as soon as we can. David, we will need to let my parents know, and Aunt Bella. They will want to come too."

"New evidence?" Maddox asked, and Sally sucked in a breath and widened her eyes.

"Oh. I was not meant to tell you. But you have been dismissed from the witness stand, so I don't suppose it matters."

But just then, the Chirbury coach pulled up beside them, and Maddox opened the door for Emily, saying, "Never mind, Sally. No time now. We'll hear later." He gave the coachman the address of the townhouse the Wellbridges were renting. "We'll collect our things and be on our way."

***

With Emily gone and her own evidence given, Julia felt unaccountably flat. Her warder's behaviour cheered her a little. The woman even smiled when she brought Julia's dinner, and when Julia said she thought she might have an early night, the warder wished her a pleasant sleep, then burst out, "Sounds like what your husband had it coming to him, my lady, and I reckon someone as does what he did to a tiny thing like you should of been given a dose of his own medicine a long time ago."

Julia didn't quite know how to respond. "Thank you," seemed safe enough, but prompted another outburst.

"Not that I think you did it, and I reckon the jury is going to say so too, but if you did, I wouldn't blame you, and there's a fact."

"Thank you," Julia said again, and then thought of another thing she could say, though it hadn't been true up until this point. "You are very kind."

"You get hard, doing this job, see," the warder explained. "And them papers, they said all sorts of things, and I thought you was a spoilt rich brat. I'll treat that bitch same as any other convict, I said to myself. Only you're not guilty are you? So, I was wrong. I just wanted to say." She shuffled her feet. "Good night, then. Best get some sleep. You'll be a free woman tomorrow or the next day, most like."

Julia put herself to bed in something of a daze. That was entirely unexpected. But if such a tough critic as the warder had been convinced, perhaps it was a good sign. She drifted off to sleep on the thought, but woke several hours later remembering that the warder had not expressed any such confidence in Gills' innocence.

Julia thought he had made a good showing, but what did the jury think? She lay staring up at the dark ceiling, worrying about what might happen in the morning.