Alice could not imagine some stranger advising her on how to change flow rags without sight. Hopefully, she was pregnant and wouldn’t have to deal with the problem for nine months.
That musing brought a greater worry to focus. “How will I care for my baby? I won’t even be able to find him if I set him down.”
Jacko laughed and covered her face with tender kisses. “Of course, you will. Our child will be laughing and making noise every moment. And with eyesight or not, you will be the best mother a child could want. And I will be here with you. As a man of leisure, we can raise our wonderful children together.”
She smiled and nodded in agreement. With Jacko, everything good was possible. She pressed her cheek against his chest. “Are we really going to let Mother attend that trial alone?”
“Never! We will set out early tomorrow morning and arrive at nine. When the court ends at four, we shall determine at that time if she needs our company through the night.”
Alice sighed with contentment. “I love you with all my heart. You are truly my hero.”
“And you are my beloved lady,” Jacko whispered before he tilted her chin up and kissed her with fiery passion.
Chapter 29
Jacko and Alice left in the wee hours of the morning so they were the first to arrive at Westminster Hall. Knowing Mrs. Collins would need to testify, Jacko chose the bench directly behind the podium for the prosecution.
When Mrs. Collins entered, she started at the sight of them waiting for her, but approached, shaking her head. “I hope the jury listens to me better than you two.” Despite her scolding, Jacko could tell by the relief on her face that their early morning ride had been worth the trouble.
He assisted the lady to her seat, and settled Alice next to her, before resuming his seat on Alice’s other side of the long bench. He knew his beloved would feel safer secured between those she loved.
Both of the Collins women held their chins up, and their backs straight, exuding an inner strength he greatly admired.
He squeezed his beloved’s hand tight as a surge of pure love ran through his veins. No one observing her would know she was blind. She retained all her confidence, despite her setback.
A half-hour later, once the courtroom had filled, guards brought Mr. Carson through the back door and led him to an elevated box where he would stand throughout his trial.
Carson studied the crowded courtroom with contempt. Upon locating his wife and Alice, his eyes narrowed in hate. Jacko was amazed Mrs. Collins not only met his gaze, but did so with certainty and equanimity.
Alice, naturally, did not meet his eyes, no matter how long he glared at her. Her focus remained forward and unflinching. To Carson, it must seem that she deigned him not worth a glance. Jacko smiled as he noticed the man’s clenched fists. Alice’s lack of attention bothered the bastard. Despite all the years he made her life hell, she no longer noticed him at all.
Jacko raised her hand and kissed it while the bastard watched. She turned and smiled. “Are you feeling ignored?” she teased.
Jacko laughed softly. “Not I.”
Mrs. Collins had not missed his meaning, and smiled at Jacko with a nod of approval. Let Carson know the women had moved on with their lives and his torment had taken nothing from them.
The morning droned on with the dull legal battles over the admission of evidence. The defense lost every move to suppress.
At noon, they went to a nearby café and enjoyed a pleasant meal. When the waiter moved Alice’s cup of tea while setting down the plates, Jacko moved it back so it was exactly where she had left it. Once the waiter was gone, Jacko turned her plate so the meat lay directly before her. “Squash and leeks at nine o’clock, rice at three and meat at six.”
She smiled at him and ran her fork over the roast beef to gauge its size. Moving to the right side, she made her first cut.
Jacko was concerned she might suffer embarrassment if people approached and tried to shake her hand, but while many stared, and several women smiled at Mrs. Collins, none came to the table. If Mrs. Collins felt shunned, she did not show it.
Upon returning to court, the jury entered and the trial began. Mr. Sebastian Ebbs, the solicitor for the prosecution, spoke to the jury. “Elijah Carson had the perfect wife. I could bring a hundred witnesses attesting to Mrs. Carson’s gentile kindness to her husband and exemplary manners. Fortunately, I do not believe that is required, because Mrs. Carson is well known by this esteemed jury of lords.” Ebbs bowed to the twelve men and then turned his glare at the defendant. “Mr. Carson, however, is not a true peer and there are many aspects of his background you probably do not know. Aspects his attorney dearly wished to keep from you. Fortunately, justice prevailed and you will learn the ugly past of this pretender who dared to claim equal amongst you.”
Jacko thought the solicitor’s early separation of Carson from his peers heavy-handed, but clever. These men were far more likely to convict a pretender than one of their own.
Mrs. Collins was called first to testify. She portrayed the epitome of grace and dignity as she explained Mr. Carson’s reaction to the newspaper, declaring her the soul of the suffragettes.
“Did he ask you to stop attending the meetings?”
Mrs. Collins shook her head. “No, he did not. He called me into the library, where a Dr. Turnbelt and two large men in white coats waited. He told me I would rue the day I had crossed him. I asked him, ‘How had I crossed him?’ He had never forbidden me to attend gatherings with other women. He then looked at the doctor and said, ‘You see, she is insane.’ The doctor then nodded in agreement.”
“Was Dr. Turnbelt your regular doctor?”
Mrs. Collins shook her head. “No, I had never met the man before.”
“What happened next?”
“The two large men secured me in a confinement jacket.”
“Did you struggle?”
She smiled. “Had I thought it would save me, I would have, but no, I did not. Rationally, it made no sense to struggle against such large brutes. I hoped, by not resisting, they would not cause me true injury. Even so, they were excessively forceful.”
“Did Carson have anything to say before they carried you off?”
“Yes, he said I would suffer a great deal before I died.”
“Was he in rage as he said this?”
“Actually, he seemed almost pleased.”
The prosecutor repeated her words to the jury and asked the gentlemen to remember them. He then approached Mrs. Collins. “I know discussing what happened during your hellish stay in Bedlam must be difficult for a lady of your breeding, but it is necessary for these gentlemen to understand the true torment Elijah Carson wished you to suffer before he sent an assassin in to kill you.”
The solicitor for the defense, Mr. Smithstone, jumped to his feet. “Objection!”
The judge glared in his direction. “Sustained. Now sit down.” He then smiled at Mr. Ebbs. “Please proceed.”
While legally, the prosecution had lost the skirmish, to Jacko’s perception, Ebbs had made his point with such encouragement from the judge, that it also became a win with the jury.
Not a sound could be heard in the courtroom as Mrs. Collins spoke of her tenuous survival in Bedlam. “I traded the jewels I had been wearing to buy my survival. The guard had to sneak me a bare sustenance of gruel and putrid water because he had orders I was to receive nothing.”
She pressed her hand to her chest. “I was also initially placed in a ward with women, mostly young, chained to the walls. Visitors would come and…” She looked up at Mr. Ebbs. “Is it truly necessary for me to say what these men did?”
“No ma’am. If any of the jury does not know what goes on in such wards, I will cover it at a later time. However, we do need to know of your tribulations.”
Mrs. Collins nodded and held her head up high. “I am neither young nor attractive, so I was spared the horrors those women endured. After a few days, they moved me to a different ward where th
e inmates were left alone. Unfortunately, my move also meant the man I had bribed to bring me food was no longer my guard. I befriended the poor woman in the cage beside mine and she shared her meager food and water. However, they were barely feeding her enough to survive as it was. Sharing it, we were both slowly starving to death.”
Alice gasped and gripped Jacko’s arm. He wished they were already married so he could publicly comfort her. Clearly, her mother had never shared the details of her tribulations, and his beloved was discovering for the first time how close she had come to losing her.
Mrs. Collins sighed. “I had hoped my friends or daughter would figure out what Mr. Carson had done and rescue me. However, after a month, I realized I had to stop accepting food from this kind woman, or we both would die.” Mrs. Collins looked at the jurors. “I was on my third day without food or water. I could no longer raise my head from my straw mattress. My throat was too parched to speak. The craving for sustenance tormented me day and night and all I could think was that not even death could be worse.”
She breathed in and faced the jurists. “I do not believe I would have survived another day had God not intervened. The guards rotated and the man I originally bribed was assigned to my new ward.” She smiled at the memory. “He risked his job to bring me back from near death. I was thus strong enough to stand and leave on my own accord when rescue arrived near the end of my second month of internment.”
She looked at the jury. “I owe my life to the kind woman and courageous guard. Without their assistance I would have died.”
“Thank you for your brave and honest testimony recalling a nightmare no lady should ever endure.” Mr. Ebbs then nodded at Mr. Blackstone and took his seat.
The defense tried to blacken Mrs. Collins’ reputation by drawing out her beliefs of women’s rights, but to Jacko’s view all he did was prove her to be the most rational of women.
When her testimony ended, she slowly stood and stepped off the witness stand. By the tightness of her lips and pale complexion, her testimony had drained more of her strength than she let on. Jacko worried she might faint before reaching her seat, but with stubborn determination the lady held strong and sat down beside Alice without a falter. He leaned over and squeezed her hand. “Well done.”
She returned a faint smile and focused on the current witness, Dr. Turnbelt.
The balding man had a nervous tick of rubbing his eyebrows that made him look more like an inmate of Bedlam than its admission doctor.
Mr. Ebbs glared at him with such contempt that the doctor’s forehead burst out in droplets of sweat. Using the sleeve of his wool jacket, the trembling man dried his face.
Mr. Ebbs walked over to the jury and stood with them. “What motivated you to admit this sane and rational lady into Bedlam?”
Dr. Turnbelt gripped the edge of the small fence-high panel that surrounded the witness chair. “She were a much different woman that day. Screeching and pulling at her hair, speaking gibberish about the devil.”
Jacko could tell by their sneers of contempt, the men of the jury did not believe a word of it.
Mr. Ebbs shook his head in disgust. “And how much were you paid for providing this diagnosis of madness?”
The man rubbed his eyebrows furiously, finally answering, “I don’t recall, maybe a quid. Nothing out of the ordinary.”
“Nothing out of the ordinary?” The prosecutor stormed to his podium and retrieved a paper. He held up a bank check and read it aloud. “Pay to Dr. Turnbelt, two thousand pounds. Elijah Carson.” He handed the check to the jurors as he turned on the doctor. “Two thousand pounds is a far cry from a quid. And think carefully before you say another word. Perjury is a serious crime, as is slander. State another lie, and I will see you charged with both.” Ebbs smiled and hooked his thumbs in his vest pockets. “And it will be the easiest case I have ever won. And when it is done, you won’t have a single quid left to your name, nor a job.”
The man’s bottom lip quivered. “I take back what I said about the lady. I’ll tell you what I know.”
Ebbs retrieved the check from the jury and provided it to the judge as he replied to the doctor. “You have slandered a fine lady and you have lied about your payment, be very careful you speak nothing but the truth henceforth.”
The doctor gulped and nodded rapidly. “Mr. Carson contacted me the week prior, asking what was necessary to commit a person to Bedlam.”
“A week prior?” Ebbs looked at the jury. “Then this attack on Mrs. Carson had nothing to do with a report tying her to the suffragettes. Mr. Carson simply made use of it as an excuse to remove his very gentile and kind wife from her massive fortune.”
Mr. Smithstone jumped up. “I object!”
The judge glared at him. “Sustained, now sit down and shut up.”
Mr. Ebbs glared at Mr. Carson with contempt for a long moment. “I object, as well. No more questions for this witness.”
The solicitor for the defense, Mr. Smithstone, rose. “Dr. Turnbelt, in your educated opinion is screaming about the devil a clear and indisputable sign of severe madness?”
Dr. Turnbelt rubbed his eyebrows. “It is, but…”
“Thank you, that is all.” Smithstone sat down.
The doctor shook his head. “No, it’s not! The lady never talked about the devil. That’s what Carson paid me to say, but it’s not the truth. She was as calm as she was today.”
“Your honor, I wish that stricken…”
“Denied. You don’t get to strike an answer just because you don’t like it when they tell the truth, rather than their purchased lies.” He pulled out his timepiece. “This looks like a good place to end the day.”
Despite her blindness, Alice helped support her mother so they could leave the courtroom in a timely fashion.
Once in the carriage, Alice wrapped her arms around her. “I am so sorry I took so long to call Victor. I thought I would need proof before Mr. Thorn would investigate. But Victor believed me at once. My delay almost cost you your life!”
Mrs. Collins held her daughter tight. “Stop that. You have no reason to blame yourself. Do not make me regret you came today. The truth is I don’t know if I would have had the strength to testify if you and Jacko had not been there. So I thank you for coming to my rescue once again.”
***
Having no desire to be alone, but unwilling to subject Alice to a house she hated, Mrs. Carson decided they should all impose upon the Hamiltons.
Claire was happy when their party of three showed up at her door. She was as gracious and delightful as anyone could wish and even provided Alice and Jacko side-by-side rooms, to make a night rendezvous easier.
Alice was brushing her hair when she heard the door open and close. She did not have to wonder if it were her beloved. One deep breath told her as much. She could recognize his manly scent anywhere.
“I feel greatly ashamed for my anger at Claire when she came to Litchfield,” Alice admitted. She only wished to be treated as she treats her guests. Unfortunately, I lack the skill and patience to pamper people so well.”
Jacko slipped his hands around her and nuzzled her neck. “I must say, I like her a great deal better in her own environment. She seemed a different woman this evening.”
Alice nodded. “That’s true. She never scolded Victor once, and I could not detect any flirtation going on between her and the servant.”
“Nor I.”
“Perhaps she has realized she needs a man of her equal instead of a worshipping servant.”
Jacko laughed softly. “I could easily be your worshipping servant.”
Her body melted into hot lava as his hands ‘worshipped’ her. Dropping her brush, she turned to him. A moment later, he picked her up in his arms and carried her to bed.
She wished she could see his handsome face smiling down at her as they made love, but at least she held it in memory, so even if she could not see him presently, she could recall his face.
Chapter 30
&nb
sp; The next day, Inspector Stone testified on the riot that broke out in Bedlam, which the assassin hired by Mr. Carson used to enter undetected into the ward holding Mrs. Carson. Jacko appreciated how the inspector failed to mention either his or Vic’s participation.
Stone faced the jury. “Fortunately, Mrs. Carson had already been rescued from the facility, but then neither Mr. Carson nor his hired assassin knew that. Finding only one woman meeting the general description of Mrs. Carson, Mr. Carson’s hired assassin shot her in the face and left.”
Mr. Ebbs nodded. “This woman, was she in the cage next to Mrs. Carson’s?”
“Yes, she was.”
“The woman who had so generously shared her food to keep Mrs. Carson alive?”
“The same,” Inspector Stone replied.
“And how did you initially come to believe this woman to be Mrs. Carson?”
Stone’s eyes narrowed as he focused on the accused. “Mr. Carson came to the station early the next morning and told me he believed the woman killed in the Bedlam riot was his wife.”
Mr. Ebb’s eyebrows rose. “That is most odd. I receive all the morning papers, and I do not recall any of them mentioning a woman dying in the riot.”
“They did not. We purposely withheld the information. Mr. Carson had no legitimate way of knowing anyone had died.”
“Other than he knew because he hired a man to kill his wife,” Mr. Ebbs added.
“Yes. I personally escorted the man to the morgue where he identified the corpse as his wife.”
The prosecutor stared at the accused and then Inspector Stone. “But the woman was not Mrs. Carson. Why would he claim such a thing?”
“I later asked him why he misidentified the woman and he said he couldn’t make out her features due to the gunshot to the face. When I pointed out a round hole in the forehead should not prevent recognition of one’s own wife, he said the blood prevented him from realizing it was not her.”
A Right to Love: Romantic Spinoff From The Adventures of Xavier & Vic Book 2.5 Page 27
