The Shadow of Tyburn Tree (72 page)

The grim significance of poor Jenny's evidence was already clear to Roger. To account for the reek of scent from Sir Humphrey's clothes and the bottle being found at the foot of the bed, Georgina had led everyone to believe that he had knocked it off the dressing-table with his whip, then fallen in the pool that the liquid had made on the floor. But the place where he had collapsed was a good twelve feet from her bedside-table; so, if it had been knocked from there he could not possibly have rolled in the spilled scent. The inference was damnably plain. She
must
have thrown it at him.

*     *     *     *     *

Roger was still endeavouring to comfort Jenny when Colonel Thursby came in. He seemed to have aged ten years since Roger had last seen him. After the briefest greeting, the housekeeper was summoned to take charge of Jenny, and the two men went upstairs.

‘I landed from Sweden only after mid-day, Sir,' Roger said, as soon as they were alone, ‘and learned of this ghastly business less than an hour ago. 'Tis beyond words terrible.'

The Colonel slumped into a chair. ‘It is indeed! This is the third day of the trial. The final speeches for the prosecution and the defence were made this afternoon, and no sane man could doubt that the balance of evidence is heavily against us. Tomorrow morning the judge will sum up. Somehow I must bring myself to listen to the cold logic he will employ; then await the verdict. But I already know what it will be. And there is nothing more that I can do.'

On learning that the situation was now so desperate, Roger's heart was gripped by a fresh horror. But it was clear that if anything could still be done to save Georgina it lay with him to do it; for the Colonel was at the end of his tether. Going over to a side-table, he poured out a wineglass full of brandy, brought it over to the distraught father, and said:

‘All is not yet lost, Sir. Thank God I got back when I did. Tomorrow morning we will ask the Court to hear fresh evidence. I will go into the box and declare that, hearing the noise of an altercation in Georgina's bedroom, I ran in, and, on seeing Sir Humphrey hit her with his whip, I struck him dead.'

Colonel Thursby took a gulp of brandy, coughed, and shook his head. ‘ 'Twould be useless, Roger. I've never doubted your willingness to shoulder the blame for what occurred; but to attempt to do so now would be only to sacrifice yourself without saving her.'

‘It has always been my belief that 'twas my blow upon his heart that killed him. I cannot stand by and let her—let her pay the awful penalty for my act.'

‘Nay. We must endeavour to put a check upon our natural feelings and, however hard, try to regard the matter dispassionately.' The Colonel closed his eyes wearily, then went on after a moment: ‘None of us know, and no one will ever know now, what actually caused his death. It may have been your blow; it may have been the scent-bottle that Georgina threw at him. Again, neither injury need necessarily have been sufficiently serious to prove fatal. It may be that exhaustion and rage had so wrought upon his brain that before he was struck by either fist or bottle he was already beyond escaping an apoplexy.'

‘I know it,' moaned Roger. ‘I know it! But the fact that either or neither of us may be guilty of his death cannot, from what you say, save one of us from being brought to book now. And, if so, I am determined that it shall be myself.'

‘Were it possible for you to take her place I would be hard put to it to dissuade you from doing so,' the Colonel sighed. ‘God knows, 'twould be a frightful choice of evils; only the fact that I love her better than aught else in the world would force me to countenance it. But you have yet to hear my point. No one but you, I and she are aware that you struck him, or even that you were with her when he died.'

‘Count Vorontzoff saw the weal that Sir Humphrey's lash left on my hand. He told Georgina so; and of his conviction that her husband died as the result of a brawl at which I was present.'

‘No matter. No one else appears to have noticed the mark, and it has long since disappeared. Vorontzoff has said nothing of it and there is not a shred of evidence against you. On the other hand, alas, it is now proven beyond doubt that Georgina threw the bottle. Had you afterwards run your sword through Humphrey Etheredge's body and left it there as a mark of your identity, 'twould still make no difference to the case that has been established against
her
. They could hang you with
her, but 'twould not save her from—from the gallows.'

Roger mopped his face. ‘I—I see your reasoning, Sir. Yet I cannot let her face this—this dread ordeal alone.'

‘ 'Tis her wish, my boy; and you would but add to her burden did you do otherwise. Each time I have been, to see her, knowing so well what your attitude would be, she has thanked God that you were still abroad and so could not be called upon to give evidence. At her most earnest request I have done everything possible to prevent your being associated with the case. Your name has scarce been mentioned in it, and then only on a par with those of Charles Fox, Lord Edward Fitz-Deveral, and others who were of the house-party. If you are determined upon it 'tis still within your power to commit suicide. For that is what a confession from you would now amount to. But 'tis idle to imagine that such an act would benefit Georgina. In fact it would deprive her of her one consolation; the thought that you have been spared from sharing her fate.'

‘Then, since I cannot save her, I must submit to her wish in this,' Roger muttered. ‘Yet I cannot sit here idle and let events take their course. There must be
something
we can do. I pray you tell me how this frightful thing came about?'

The older man sipped his brandy. ‘We had no inkling of what was afoot until we returned from abroad. Had Jenny or my man Thomas remained at home 'tis certain that they would have written to give us warning that an inquiry was being made; but both of them accompanied us on our travels. Stillwaters was left in the care of the steward, Tobias Wenlock, an old servant of the Etheredge family. I kept him informed of addresses which would find us, in case of fire or any other calamity; but he remained silent on this matter; being, as I have since learnt, under pressure from Sir Isaiah.'

‘I guessed this to be his work,' murmured Roger.

The Colonel nodded. It seems that directly he learned of Humphrey's death he returned hot-foot from Jamaica, and went down to Stillwaters to ascertain particulars of his nephew's sudden demise. The coroner's report can have told him nothing, but, as transpired in court on Monday, the doctor gave him details of the bruise over the heart, the cut on the temple and the scent-splashed clothing. On this Sir Isaiah applied for an order to exhume the body and, as next of kin, obtained it. The bruise, of course, was no longer discernible; and later it was accounted for by the very explanation I had given myself, or near enough to it; for it transpired that Humphrey had been kicked in the chest the day before he died, just before mounting that brute of a horse that he took to Goodwood. But at the new post-mortem it was found that the
bone beneath the cut on Humphrey's temple had been fractured.

The servants at Stillwaters were then questioned and Georgina's room examined. The housemaid who cleaned the room gave evidence on Monday that, on the first occasion she did so after Humphrey's death, she found no trace of hair or blood on the bed-posts or nearby furniture, which would suggest that his head had come into violent contact with anything as he fell. And, in fact, while a man might stun himself and suffer an abrasion of the skin by his head striking a piece of wood a glancing blow, 'tis difficult to believe that on falling limp he would actually crack his skull in such a manner.

‘After the housemaid, John Gower, one of the footmen who carried Humphrey's body from the room, gave evidence. On Picking up the feet of the corpse he had noticed the scent-bottle lying just beneath the valance at the foot of the bed. It was this emerging at the man's first questioning by Sir Isaiah that must have made him believe that he was getting near the truth, and had enough evidence to bring a case. Every witness had confirmed the almost overpowering reek of scent in the room, so that must have come to Sir Isaiah's notice early in his inquiry.

‘When he had dredged every source at Stillwaters he called on all the members of the house-party; and I fear that George Selwyn said much more than he need have done. 'Twas certainly not from any malice against Georgina, but from his absorbing interest in all forms of death; In the box on Monday he gave his evidence with reluctance, but he substantiated many points; particularly the fact that it was Humphrey's head and shoulders which were drenched with scent, so he could hardly have become so soused through falling in a puddle of it; and he corroborated the statement of Vorontzoff as to the exact position in which the bottle was found.'

‘What attitude has the Russian taken in all this?' Roger ask-asked, with an edge upon his tone.

‘He was proved no friend to us,' replied the Colonel. ‘Of that I am convinced. On Tuesday morning, having waived his status as Ambassador, he gave evidence. He stood by his original story, that the note he sent to Humphrey at Goodwood was inspired by Georgina's desire to make her husband an April Fool, and not knowing Georgina as well as you and I, everyone appears to believe him. In all other matters his conduct has been most correct. He has confirmed various pieces of evidence where he could hardly do anything else, but has refrained from mentioning you or otherwise blackening the picture, as he could have done had he chosen to infer all that he either knows or suspects. Yet, from various facts which
have emerged in the evidence of others, I am convinced that, privately, he must have given Sir Isaiah a number of pointers towards Georgina's guilt that her accuser would otherwise have missed.'

‘I threatened to kill him,' Roger announced, ‘if he let his tongue run away with him. So it seems that despite my absence abroad he is still anxious to give me no open proof that he has taken this opportunity to be revenged upon Georgina.'

‘If the worst befalls, 'twill not be on account of anything that he has said, but owing to the cross examination of poor Jenny. 'Twas her evidence, that in her knowledge the scent-bottle had never been kept anywhere but beside Georgina's bed, which makes it beyond doubt that she must have thrown it.'

‘Could it not have been pleaded that she did so in self-defence?'

‘We considered such a course,' said the Colonel, ‘And I put a hypothetical case to Counsel, but he advised against it. Had Georgina done so in defending herself against anyone but her husband she would have been accounted justified. But this was no case of a woman defending her honour; and in English law a wife is still her husband's chattel. Whether a wife be good or bad he is within his rights to give her a beating at any time he may feel so inclined. Had Humphrey threatened to kill her, that would have been different; but there is not the faintest suggestion that, at any time, he had meditated an attempt upon her life. The legal view is that no husband would be safe were a wife permitted to retaliate for a beating by snatching up some possibly lethal weapon; and that for a wife to kill her husband so, is one of the most heinous forms of murder.'

*     *     *     *     *

For another hour they talked round and round the ghastly
impasse
from which it seemed there was no way to rescue the woman for whom they both felt so deeply. Then Roger said: ‘I see only one line as yet untried. From all you tell me no suggestion has so far been put forward that Sir Humphrey Etheredge had gone insane some time before he died. If it could be shown that Georgina believed him mad, and feared that he meant to kill her, she would have been justified in taking any steps she could to save herself.'

‘That means she would have to confess to having thrown the bottle and having consistently perjured herself these past three days.'

‘I know it. But if we succeed in making our case we can
save her from the ultimate penalty. The charge would still be nothing less than manslaughter and perjury, but she would get off with transportation for life.'

‘Bless you, my boy!' the Colonel started up, clutching at this straw. ‘I would go with her, wherever she was sent. Anything would be better than what she faces now—anything!'

‘But we need time for this,' Roger hurried on. ‘We'll have to rake up all the excesses of Sir Humphrey's past and brief Counsel on entirely new lines. In fact, it virtually means asking for the case to be retried.'

Colonel Thursby sank back with a groan. ‘Nay. I fear that after all 'tis useless. The judge would never grant an adjournment at this stage, unless we could produce at least some evidence in support of our new line of defence. Could we but bring a doctor into court tomorrow morning to swear that he had noticed signs of insanity in Humphrey, we should be given time to collect proof that he was really mad. But we cannot. Neither, were we granted the time, could we collect the proof. If drinking like a fish and reckless riding are to be accounted signs of lunacy, then half the squires in England would be chained to the walls of Bedlam.'

‘In Sir Humphrey's case 'twas not excessive drinking and hard riding alone,' Roger persisted. ‘Towards the end his mind was definitely affected. He had a mania that Georgina was making a fool of him, and when he burst into her room he acted like a madman. I'll swear to that.'

‘You cannot, without revealing your presence there.'

‘I'll do so then. I would venture anything on a chance that Georgina's sentence may be transportation rather than a hanging.'

The Colonel wrung his hands. ‘Oh, Roger, my boy, I know you would; and all my instincts urge me to let you make the attempt. But 'tis now that I must strive to keep a level head for both of us. Do you not see that even if the judge granted an adjournment, at the end of it we'd still have no solid evidence that we could bring to establish Humphrey's madness. Then, when the case reopened, your part in this affair would be uncovered by the prosecution. You would find yourself in the dock beside Georgina. As two lovers accused of doing her husband to death between you, what chance would either of you stand?'