Never Land the First Fish

Chapter Twenty-Nine, Part 4

Sir Thomas began the morning by recalling the nosy neighbour from the first day; the one who had heard Julia shouting for help and seen Gills arrive

After a reminder that the man was still bound by the oath he had taken two days ago, Sir Thomas asked his first question. "After Lady Julia left in the gig, did she or the man she left with, Lord Joseph Gildeforte, return?"

What was he driving at? Gills had already told him that he and Julia went to the inn and stayed there until the men came looking for Julia the next day.

"No, Mister. Sir, I mean."

Sir Thomas looked down at the papers on the table before him, picked them up and scanned them more carefully, then put them down again. "Did anyone else visit the property occupied by the Soddenfields that afternoon?"

The witness shook his head. "Not any strangers."

Gills sat forward. Someone who wasn't a stranger, then?

Sir Thomas caught back his coat and hooked his fingers into his waistcoat. "Did you see anyone you expected to see? Someone who had visited the property before?"

"Just the squire," the witness said, dismissively. "He came by."

The squire? Surely not the squire who was the local magistrate? It was the local magistrate who had set the hunt going for Julia, and then, in absentia, committed both Gills and Julia to the Assizes to be tried for murder.

The prosecutor objected, pointing out to the Justices that everyone already knew the squire had been called to the Soddenfield cottage after the body was discovered.

Sir Thomas bowed to the prosecutor. "My thanks to my learned and esteemed colleague, Your Honours. However, if I might continue my line of questioning, I think Your Honours will find it illuminating."

The Chief Justice waved his hand in permission, and Sir Thomas turned back to the witness.

"Was the squire's visit after the body was discovered?" he asked.

The witness nodded. "He came then, too. That was the second time. The first time, that was well after her ladyship left, but before all the rumpus over the body."

Questioned about exact times, the witness disclaimed any precise knowledge, and Sir Thomas moved on to asking how the squire travelled and who was with him. Having found out he came by horse over the fields, accompanied by three grooms, Sir Thomas then asked, "What happened when he arrived at the cottage?"

The witness opened his eyes wide, as if the answer must be obvious. "He knocked on the door, didn't he? Till someone opened it. And then he and his men went inside."

"Who opened the door?"

The courtroom hushed. Gills was not the only person to stop breathing as he waited for the answer."

"It was Lord Athol, I reckon," the witness said. "Well, it must have been. Lady Athol and the gentleman were long gone, so Lord Athol was the only one there."

The courtroom erupted, newspaper men yelling at one another and the barrister, the prosecutor shouting that he had an objection, spectators shouting to make their opinions heard against the noise.

Gills met Julia's eyes and saw his own hope reflected. He was not a murderer. He'd been saying for months that Athol deserved to die for what he'd done to Julia, had not admitted even to himself that dealing that death with his fists had left him scarred. But if Athol was alive a couple of hours later—and not just alive, but able to answer a knock on the door... Gills could feel the burden lifting from his soul.

The clerk and the javelin men were slowly restoring order. Sir Thomas asked for permission to approach the bench, and the Chief Justice beckoned to both him and the prosecutor.

Again, the room silenced as everyone tried to overhear the conversation that ensured, but most of the spectators were too far away to make out most of what was said.

The dock was close enough, though. Gills heard Sir Thomas as for the cases against both his client and Rutledge's to be dismissed. Predictably, the prosecutor objected. Sir Thomas held up the sheaf of papers he'd been examining earlier.

"Your Honours, I have with me a report from the enquiry agency Wakefield and Wakefield; a report that was delivered to me this morning, before breakfast. On the basis of that report, I am prepared to recall every witness that has already been examined, and to call further witnesses, as referenced in this report, to prove that Sir Athol was alive and mobile nearly two hours after our clients left the property."

At the Chief Justice's request, he handed over the papers, and continued, "Your Honours, Wakefield has put together a strong case against another person, and it is my expectation that this information will be put before a magistrate within the hour. However, that is not pertinent to the case before us, Your Honours."

The Chief Justice was leafing through the report, passing one page at a time to the colleague on his left, who passed it on to the third justice when he finished reading it himself. His eyebrows lifted as he read, and part way down the second page he fixed his gaze on someone who sat among the spectators.

The man had been shrinking in his seat, but the Chief Justice's accusing glare had him rising and stumbling over the people sitting between him and the door.

"Why, there is the squire!" commented the witness, his voice falling loud in the hushed courtroom.

"Apprehend that man," ordered the Chief Justice, setting off another hubbub from the spectators.

Julia was biting her upper lip, tears starting in her eyes, but when she caught Gills watching, she gifted him with a broad smile, and he grinned back, mouthing, "It is over."

It wasn't. Not quite.

The prosecutor insisted, and the justices agreed, that several more of the neighbours should be recalled. They all agreed that the squire had visited nearly two hours after Gills and Julia left. Furthermore, two of them had glimpsed Athol—one at the kitchen window and another when he opened the door to let the squire in.

It was enough. The accusations of murder and conspiracy to murder could not stand against the evidence that the supposed victim was up and walking around two hours later.

"Lady Julia Marloghe and Lord Joseph Gildeforte, the charges against you have been found to have no substance and have been dismissed. You are free to go."

And just like that, it finally was over.