To Be Seduced (17 page)

Lord Thomas appealed to the Lord Chief Justice. Sir Robert, along with the other judges of the King’s Bench, sat across a narrow aisle from the King, under an awning of their own.

“Beg pardon, my lord, but Lady Harcourt just rode posthaste from the north of Yorkshire to speak on his behalf. ’Twould be cruel to reward such devotion by dismissing her unheard.”

“With all due respect, I should prefer also that Lady Harcourt not be subjected to the harsh questions of a trial, your lordship.” Richard did not look at her as he made his request.

“After the trouble I took getting here? You arrogant—’twould serve you right if I left this instant.” Her eyebrows snapped together as she glowered at him. Sir Robert rebuked her for speaking out of turn. She apologized as prettily as she could, hoping to enlist his sympathies.

Her attempt failed. The Chief Justice regarded her balefully before opening his mouth to speak. Another interruption occurred from an unexpected direction.

“A wife demonstrating such steadfastness to her husband? How diverting!” Heads turned as the King delivered the aside to one of his gentlemen. “A chair must be found for the lady.” Sir Robert fumed at the command, but could not bring himself to object.

“Calling a female to testify is most irregular.” Reluctantly, he indicated that Bethany should come forward. A guard bowed and handed her up the wooden steps, to stand in the aisle between the two galleries. Another brought a stool for her to sit on.

“I thank Your Majesty.” Her voice echoed and drifted to the dark wooden beams high above. Settling herself, she arranged her skirts. Pointedly, she avoided looking at Richard. When asked about it, she replied coldly.

“I dislike having my veracity questioned. If I cannot see Lord Harcourt, he and I can hardly be accused of collusion.” Red suffused Captain Loring’s sullen face, but he made no reply.

As the defendant in a treason case, Richard was not entitled to counsel. A sergeant-at-law, one of a handful of barristers permitted to practice in this court, came forward to question her. The judges, led by Sir Robert, listened from their seats. Below them, several clerks scribbled notes at a narrow table. The dry scratch of their quills against parchment made a soft counterpoint to the words spoken in the court.

Praying for a cool head, she selected her words with care to assure that the chamber heard her clearly. Sir Robert Foster spoke first.

“Please tell the court what information you could possibly have that may influence this case.” His sarcastic manner startled her. She lifted her chin.

“I can vouch for Lord Harcourt’s whereabouts on the days for which he is charged with aiding members of the January uprising.” She clasped her hands in front of her to keep from wringing them. “I spent several full days in early January in his company.”

Loring made a great show of scribbling his own notes as she made her statement, but she forced her voice to remain serene. The sergeant-at-law, a middle-aged man wearing the gown and hood that indicated his office, asked her for details about the dates and their activities.

“On January seventh, Lord Harcourt and I journeyed by coach from my home near Stanworth, in Bedfordshire, to an inn called the Bell and Moon. On the morning of the eighth, we continued to London, again by coach. We went directly to Lord Harcourt’s lodgings for the evening.” Confident that no one in the chamber knew of his brief absence to purchase their meal, she chose not to enlighten them.

“Lord Harcourt spoke only of traveling to Bedfordshire in company with his coachman, my lady. If you accompanied him, doubtless you can tell the court exactly where this inn is located?”

Bethany realized that her husband had hidden her presence to protect her from London’s gossip-mongerers. She could cheerfully have brained him for such misplaced gallantry.

“Doubtless my husband omitted my presence out of a touching, but remarkably foolish, desire to defend my reputation.” Laughter, not all of it smothered, rose from the assembled nobles. “We were eloping,” she explained for the benefit of the judges and jury.

“As for the location of the inn, I haven’t the least clue. I was overcome with the most wretched headache and cared only that the sheets were clean. If the court wishes to ascertain the location of the place or my presence there, you need only ask Captain Loring.” She nodded to him with mock civility. “I conversed with him in the taproom on the morning of the eighth for several moments.”

He turned a face of such hatred on her that she leaned back involuntarily. From the shocked expression on the sergeant’s face, he had not known of the captain’s presence at the inn. The jurors commented among themselves. From his place below the King’s seat, Lord Thomas grinned his approval.

Even the King roused, dropping his languid manner to examine the captain with eyes gone shrewd and hard. He whispered to an aide, this time inaudibly. He listened to the remainder of her testimony resting his chin on his steepled fingertips.

“The whereabouts of the Crown’s witness is not being tried, your ladyship.” The Lord Chief Justice wasted no time taking control of the proceedings, but Bethany retorted quickly.

“If you wish to get an accurate account, it should be. Any housewife can tell you that a jealous lackey will babble anything to obtain the downfall of a rival.” She sniffed disdainfully. A titter ran through the entire chamber at her indignation.

“Can you swear that you were in the accused’s presence every moment?” Sir Robert peered hard at her while his voice insinuated that she had just now made up her story. She heard a sharp hiss from Richard’s direction, but did not turn her head.

She pinned the judge with her haughtiest stare as her mind raced to assemble an answer.

“Of course not! There are some activities one does prefer to engage in without the presence of others.” A few chuckles came from the crowd, but he ignored them.

“So you do admit that it is possible for the accused to have slipped away and given money or other aid to his fellow rebels!”

“As Lord Harcourt has no ‘fellow rebels,’ my lord, I am unable to admit anything of the sort.” She locked eyes with Sir Robert. This bully would not lay a hand on Richard’s head if she had aught to say about it. “Surely you don’t suggest he provided aid and comfort to anyone while visiting the necessary, my lord? How revolting! Plain common sense must boggle at the idea.”

“Vulgar rustic!” Captain Loring’s exclamation rang through the room. There were some mutters of agreement, but a few outright guffaws drowned them out. The King’s shoulders shook suspiciously.

“As for giving anyone money, how could he do that when we neither of us had access to any until we arrived in London?”

At this the captain tore off a sheet of paper from his note-book. Flourishing it, he approached the clerks and handed it to the nearest one, who in turn offered it to the judges. As he returned to his place, he saluted her with a mocking bow.

The justices read his message through once and held a whispered conference. After what appeared to be an agitated debate, they resumed their seats. Sir Robert once more addressed her.

“The court is greatly interested in knowing how a great heiress and her husband could not afford to pay the shot at a second-rate inn. Perhaps you could enlighten us, Lady Harcourt?”

Bethany had once nearly fallen into an old gravel pit when part of the path she walked had given way after a month of rain. Her stomach lurched the same way now as she sought a firm path through this ploy to discredit them both. Her mind went blank as she scrambled to reply.

“I am confused, my lord. Am I on trial for treason or for paying my debts?” In spite of her earlier intention, Bethany peeped over her shoulder at Richard, but so did everyone else in the chamber.

Leaning negligently against the wooden bar, he regarded the row of judges with an air of faint boredom. Only the glitter of his half-closed eyes betrayed any tension. He shot her a warning glance as the furious Chief Justice replied.

“You are charged with aiding and abetting the escape, after its failure, of several participants in the uprising led by Thomas Venner. The timing of your marriage to a young woman of means is far too convenient to such a plan. On what possible grounds can you claim not to have the funds to carry it out?”

Bethany waited for Richard to explain the truth. He looked at her with a half-smile and shrugged.

“Ah.” He bowed to Sir Robert. “My thanks for enlightening me on that point.”

As he continued silent, it dawned on her that he would not give the court the explanation that might help save his life.

Surely he would not sacrifice his life to his honor. She gazed at him in something like horror at the idea. Only one solution presented itself to her. She took a deep breath, for she feared a misstep would mean Richard’s execution.

“Your Lordship asked me to clarify a point, I think?” Bethany waited until she had the attention of the entire room.

“I should think the explanation would leap to the eye, gentlemen.” She paused as if waiting for a response. “As I said, Lord Harcourt and I eloped. We married in London. Only then did we have access to my inheritance.” Excited whispers broke out at this disclosure of scandal, but she did not wait for them to subside.

“Even in the highly unlikely event he sympathized with the traitors, he would have had no means of supporting them.” She finished her statement, watching its effect on the judges. Another point suddenly occurred to her.

“I must congratulate the court on finding so well informed a witness as Captain Loring. For one who says he merely chanced upon this supposed plot, he shows a remarkable grasp of the events surrounding it.”

She did not try to hide her scorn, and ripples of agreement swept through the room, but only a few. The King, looking less amused than his wont, nodded as his wide mouth curled cynically.

Sir Robert snapped at her not to speak of Captain Loring again before resuming his examination. Hoping she had scored her point, she listened to his next question.

“Do you seriously expect this court to believe that over the course of three days, you and Lord Harcourt did not spend any significant length of time apart?”

“My lord, I did point out that we were eloping.” She raised her eyebrows suggestively. “I have no intention of going into the details of our activities, but I assure you we spent nearly all of our time in the same room. One might say ’twas our honeymoon trip.”

The chamber burst into laughter. Two of the judges smiled broadly and she even heard a few bouts of scattered applause. Sir Robert, evidently considering it fruitless to question her further, testily announced that she might step down from the witness stand.

After he dismissed her, Bethany rose from her seat. Uncertain of where to go, she gratefully followed a guard who escorted her to a place on the floor in front of the jury. As she passed Richard, she tried to gauge his state of mind. His impassive face gave no hint of his thoughts.

Studying him up close, he appeared even more drawn. Her heart ached at his humiliation and hurt at the insult to his family’s name. She hoped he would not consider her testimony another attempt to discredit him. She simply could not think of another way to save his life.

Sure he would despise her pity, she attempted a smile with trembling lips. He did not react openly as she took her place near him.

She must have been the final witness to speak, for the Chief Justice directed the jury to render its decision. Its members left their seats to huddle in a knot on the floor far enough away from the galleries that their debate could not be heard.

“My Lord, do not allow her to stand so close to the traitor.” A sneer cut across Arthur Loring’s face as he uttered the last word. A chorus of hisses from Richard’s supporters erupted.

Bethany herself stepped forward, ready to confront the captain, until her husband’s voice stopped her.

“I should like to request that Lady Harcourt be escorted from the court before the verdict is given.” She whipped her head around to face him.

“I beg your pardon?” She and Sir Robert asked the question in unison. He sounded surprised. Bethany’s tone indicated a more passionate emotion.

“Given the effort the lady exhibited in her attempt to save my life, I fear she may be overcome in the event I am convicted.” His calm request carried over the chatter of the audience. Her temper, already tried by the grueling ride and her fear for his life, issued forth in a whispered stream of angry words.

“Do you dare to tell me that after I rode from north Yorkshire till I near fainted with exhaustion, and then subjected myself to that dreadful man’s questioning, you are throwing me out of the chamber?”

“Madam, you are overwrought, and I wish only to spare you any further pain.” His low, measured tones failed to soothe her.

“No, my lord, I am not ‘overwrought.’ I am livid. What are you going to do next, order me back home?”

“As a matter of fact, yes, I think that might be best under the circumstances.”

“Of course, sending me back to Yorkshire proved so helpful to you last time!” She suddenly became aware that they spoke aloud, and that the entire room sat listening to them. Several of the men shook their heads at her in disapproval. A few openly chuckled. The King held a kerchief before his mouth to hide his smile.

“I believe the Chief Justice can dismiss the accusation that she testified out of partiality for her husband.” His Majesty addressed his courtiers, but this witticism also carried from one end of the court to the other.

She ignored them all, except for Richard and the Chief Justice. “I am not leaving unless the guards carry me out.”

“Shameless Jezebel!” She could not place the vaguely familiar voice that shouted. When she craned her head toward the part of the crowd it had come from, she saw no one she recognized.

“If the jury might deliver the verdict?” Sir Robert regarded her balefully. She flushed hot at the realization that the jury had finished deliberating. She stood as near Richard as the guards allowed. He did not glance in her direction, but his fingers tightened once more on the bar before him as the Chief Justice read the jury’s decision.