God's Country

Part Fifty-Four

'Oh love the Lord, all ye his saints: for the Lord preserveth the faithful and plentifully rewardeth the proud doer.'

Psalms 31:23

"Look, I don't know much more about it than you do, but you do have to decide." Ralph Bellamy told his client, beginning to lose his patience. He was running late. He was always running late. He had too many legal aid clients and not enough time to keep up with the endless paperwork, and he could not hang around waiting for anyone. "All I know is that it's a pilot scheme designed to keep young people out of prison...to give them a chance to do something for the community in return for a shorter sentence."

"So...I heard it's like the army? Can't I join the army?" Natalie asked, still not sure. She hated being on remand, and she knew it would only get worse. Once she was sentenced she would be moved into a main prison, a bad one, at least to start with, and she was not at all sure she could cope. She was too young and too pretty. Her probation officer had said ten maybe fifteen years this time. Fifteen years inside. No parole. She had said she would not get parole. The old government were dead against parole for repeat offenders or potentially violent criminals. She did not expect any new one to be any better.

"No...not on this scheme. You join a closed order of nuns and work in the health sector in return for a shorter sentence. Look Miss Hughes, you are guilty aren't you?"

"Yeah...I mean, I was there...but I didn't touch the knife."

"But you can't prove it...and neither can I...so even if you plead guilty, in the current climate you'll do a ten stretch, and that's with a bit of parole, minimum, if you behave. This piece of paper says if you sign up to the scheme you'll do seven or eight...but you will still be in a secure environment and you won't be able to leave until you've done your time."

"I'm not religious, like?"

"Well you'll have to be, I guess, while you're there, but it's the work that gets you the time off. You put something back, learn some life skills...it sounds like a good deal to me."

Natalie was not sure. But she did not want to do ten years or more hard time. In the end she signed the paper to save two years of her life. In that sense it was a no brainer. Bellamy was delighted, mainly because she was not his problem anymore and he could move on to the next one. He checked the forms as he put them back in his briefcase, making sure that he had done everything that he needed to do.

'If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land.'

Isaiah 1:19

Emma Stone felt Miss Clarke put pressure on her arm and recognised the blind command to sit down, responding without hesitation, forced to trust her guardian that there would be a chair to receive her. In her full blinding mantle she could see nothing and hear little. Miss Clarke was teaching her to respond to the slightest of tugs or a gentle squeeze. It required total concentration and complete trust, and served to emphasise her full dependence. Maidens had to trust their guardians and Miss Clarke was working hard on Emma, encouraging her obedience. She had kept her blind most of the time. It dramatically increased the level of reliance and it forced the girl to concentrate. Miss Clarke did not want to paddle her all the time. Not that it bothered her, but she realised that her employer might not approve. So she was following some of the advice she had learned at College. Emma did not even know where she was, other than that she was obviously still somewhere in Meadvale. She could not even feel what she was sitting on thanks to her diaper and many layers of clothing.

Emma had left the College. Her parent's decision to employ Miss Clarke made it pointless and saving on the fees helped to pay the guardian's wages. Having Emma educated at home by a proper, if young and inexperienced, guardian was yet another move up the social scale in Meadvale. Mr Stone had been personally congratulated by several of the directors at work on his decision, who all seemed to know his name and take an interest in his life. Mrs Stone was getting several invitations to tea a week from people she was delighted to be seen with and Emma was certainly considered a friend of the Harrington girls and Elizabeth Buckingham and Alice Craig. Emma knew that her mother found that sort of thing important, certainly more important than her happiness, although to be fair her mother also had to obey Miss Clarke. Her parents seemed to really think that the country was changing and that they were somehow at the forefront of things. She had heard about the forthcoming election and people really seemed to think that Mr Buckingham might be the next Prime Minister. Not that they were the only ones in Meadvale. Pastor Winstanley's sermons always seemed to suggest that his modern renaissance was underway but Emma could not believe that anyone outside of Meadvale would follow their example. It did not seem possible.