Never Land the First Fish

Chapter Twenty-Eight, Part 2

The person who found the body more than two hours after Gills and Julia drove away described a scene of violence, with furniture knocked over and blood spattered across the room. He had run for the local squire, who hurried to the scene with his house guest.

The last witness of the day was that guest, who happened to be a doctor and who examined Athol's body. He had been beaten, the doctor confirmed, and had also been struck several times with a blunt object. The blows to the head killed him. The prosecutor was delighted with the result, and asked several times, in different ways, whether the blows could have been accidental.

"One might have been the result of striking his head in a fall," the doctor told the courtroom. "At least four of the five must have been deliberate."

The prosecutor cast a triumphant smirk at Gills. "Then are you saying Lord Athol Soddenfield was murdered?" he asked, and sat with a grin when the doctor agreed.

Sir Thomas stood, to ask questions about the doctor's qualifications to make such pronouncements. Julia's heart sank as the man explained his experience in examining the dead and giving evidence at inquests and trials.

Sir Thomas's voice dropped and he leant forward. "I think the court can agree we are fortunate to have someone of your expertise. In your professional opinion then, doctor, would the beating have been fatal without the blows to the head?"

"No, sir," replied the doctor.

"And were the bruises from the beating made at the same time as the blows to the head?"

The courtroom buzzed as people in some of the further seats asked their neighbours what had been said. The Chief Justice banged his gavel. The prosecutor objected that the question was irrelevant and that, in any case, what difference did it make? The Chief Justice demanded silence, and instructed the doctor to answer the question. "Was the beating administered at the same time as the blows?"

"No, Your Honour." The doctor descended into a long explanation about bruising in live tissue and blood pooling in a corpse, and about bleeding during life and after death. The Justice became impatient and demanded that he get to the point.

"Lord Athol had been dead for around an hour at the time I first saw him, Your Honour. The beating was administered, as you put it, for at least an hour and perhaps up to three hours before death."

The buzz broke out again, even louder, and once order was restored, the Chief Justice closed the session for the day.

***

Julia was holding up, Gills decided, when he saw her the following morning. He'd worried about her all night. They'd not been permitted to talk when they were escorted to the hotel accommodation that their influential relatives had organised for them, and she had looked pale and fragile when that nasty cow of a warder had marched her away to a different floor.

This morning, they met in the foyer to wait for their shared transport. She was still pale, but she returned his smile of greeting. Had she pondered on that last piece of evidence, as he had? If it was true, he had not killed Athol. Indeed, they could produce witnesses to show they were in another place when the brute died.

The prosecutor challenged that, of course, exercising his right to requestion his witness and hammering him with demands that he admit to uncertainty. The doctor would not be shaken.

After he was dismissed, the prosecutor brought in a succession of friends of Athol's who claimed to know that Julia was unfaithful to Athol, that she was known in Society for her affairs.

Beneath the shelter of the dock, Gills clenched his fists until they hurt, and fought to allow none of his anger show on his face. It became easier as Sir Thomas demolished their evidence, one by one, reminding them that they were on oath and could be imprisoned for lying, then coaxing them to admit that they were only repeating what they had been told.

"So let me summarise," he said to one of them. "Lord Athol Soddenfield, the husband of my client, frequently called his wife a whore. You have never, however, seen Lady Julia flirting or otherwise behaving in an unseemly fashion. Your contention that she was unfaithful depends entirely on the word of a man notorious for his own affairs."

Gills chanced a glance at Julia. Pale and composed, she listened without reacting. He wanted to wrap his arms around her and take her away from all of this, but he wasn't even allowed to touch her.

"But Athol said," the man insisted. "Told me I could have her for a week if I'd give him back his chits. Said she'd done it before. Owed me fifteen hundred guineas, and I told him no woman was worth that, and I'd rather have the money."

"In fact, he lied to you," Sir Thomas pointed out.

The prosecutor did his best to counter the impression, reminding each witness that they had no reason to disbelieve a man who was, after all, a gentleman, but Gills, watching the jury, thought they were currently more inclined to believe Sir Thomas.

Rutledge had his chance to shine when the prosecutor, with his next witness, turned to exposing Gills' lifestyle as an escort and more for wealthy women. As soon as the line of questioning became obvious, Rutledge bounced to his feet. "Objection, Your Honours. My esteemed friend appears to be set on dragging the reputations of some very important ladies into the gutter press. I am sure Your Honours will agree that Lord Joseph's past friendships can have no possible relevance to the current case."

The judges whispered among themselves and then asked the prosecutor for his response.

"Lord Joseph's scandalous past speaks to motive, Your Honours," the prosecutor insisted, "and also explains the relationship between him and Lady Athol. Lady Athol, as I intend to show, is a very wealthy woman, and therefore able to afford Lord Joseph."

More whispering.

Sir Thomas stood, and the Chief Justice acknowledge him. "Sir Thomas? You have something you wish to say?"

"My learned colleague has been misinformed regarding Lady Julia's supposed wealth, Your Honour," Sir Thomas explained. "At the time of Lord Athol's death, he and Lady Julia were living in penury. Lord Athol was no longer receiving a family allowance, and had been told that, apart from the house he and Lady Julia were given to live in, he should have no further expectations of support or future benefits from either his family or Lady Julia's. I am informed, Your Honours, that the families felt Lord Athol had received enough money over the years to have substantial savings. That being the case, my friend Mr Rutledge is entirely correct. Since Lady Julia was not wealthy, any relationship Lord Joseph might or might not have had in the past with ladies of means is entirely irrelevant."

The judges nodded, and so ruled, which left the prosecutor floundering. But he pulled himself together and called several witnesses in a row to speak about Gills and Julia's flight. A maid at the inn where they stayed. The constables who were sent to arrest them. A dock worker who saw them boarding Maddox's ship.

Before the court broke for lunch, he had finished, and made his closing statement: a diatribe against idle rakehell younger sons of aristocrats and spoiled wealthy women that, Gills hoped, would point more to Athol than to him and Julia, and would do the prosecutor no good at all.