“So Lankanal bought you?”
“He did.”
“And then what happened?” For the first time, Elihu Richmond seemed truly interested in the testimony.
“He kept me locked up in his place of business for over a year.”
“His place of business?”
“Yes. The Palace of Angels. A gambling saloon and house of prostitution in the French Quarter.”
A woman in one of the chairs near the back actually swooned. There was much commotion as she was carried out like a fallen doe hanging limp between two men while her bonnet dangled by its ribbons from her neck.
“Go on.” Richmond was leaning across the table toward her, his neck twisted so that he could look up at her. “What did you do there?”
The room was hushed. Olivia’s face burned and her heart hammered in her chest. Everyone in the room was leaning forward, intently staring at her from the edges of their seats, anxious to hear every sordid detail of the time she had spent with Darcy. The air was close and hot and still, and for a moment she thought that she was going to faint. She took a deep breath and then another. Flashes of memory assailed her, days and nights locked in Darcy’s suite. The first few weeks he had not given her any clothes, kept her nude to prevent escape.
He had never brutally harmed her, certainly not the way he had done in the cave. His patience and skill always paid off, and eventually he would win over her traitorous body, if not her mind. How could she put any of it into words? How quickly did one die of shame?
A man near the door snickered. Chairs creaked. She looked to Noah again for strength and knew that was a mistake. His face was already dark with anger, his hands fisted on his thighs.
“Miss Bond, I asked you a question,” Richmond said, licking his lips. “What happened while Lankanal had you in his possession?”
Olivia opened her mouth to speak but never got a word out, for Noah had jumped to his feet.
“Stop!” His voice echoed around the silent room. His footsteps were heavy as he strode to her side. He was shaking with rage.
“Enough, Olivia. We’re leaving.”
Chapter 21
Pandemonium broke out. Even Richmond struggled to his feet. He ignored the wooden spoon and took to pounding on the tabletop with the worn bible.
“Sit down, sir!” he hollered. “Sit back down and be quiet or I’ll have Ern toss you out.”
Noah tugged on Olivia’s hand. “Come on.”
“Oh, Noah.” She touched his cheek and smiled up at him. “I have to do this. It’s all right, really.”
“I won’t have you humiliated, not for him.” He indicated Darcy with a lift of his chin.
“I have to do what is right. I can only tell the truth. My concern before was in telling my family, but now they already know all there is to know and they still love me anyway.”
He looked over the crowded tavern, at the men and women with their heads together, conferring with each other in hushed whispers, pointing, staring at the two of them, at Darcy and at Olivia’s family.
When he looked into her eyes, her heart lodged in her throat.
“I love you too, Olivia. I will always love you.”
Upon hearing the words she had never thought to hear from him again she closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and willed her tears not to fall.
“Then please, go back to your chair, Noah. I’ll be fine.”
He hesitated a moment more. A wave of relief went through her when Noah finally let go of her hand and slowly walked back to his seat. He stared down the crowd with every step.
“Are you ready now?” the judge asked. “Any more theatrics?”
She shook her head. “No, sir.”
“Fine. Then go on.”
Olivia finally looked at Darcy. “Mr. Lankanal locked me in his private suite and kept me there for weeks. Eventually, he let me move about the place, but not often, and never alone. I devised a way to escape by hiding in a pile of laundry, stealing one of the house slaves’ dresses, and slipping out.”
She told of hiring on for the trip up the Mississippi with the Marlboroughs, but left out the rest of the sordid details.
“After I was separated from the Marlborough family, Noah LeCroix found me and led me here, to Shawneetown.”
Finally she allowed herself to look at Noah again. Although he was sitting very still, she knew him well enough to see that he was seething. She concentrated on his tender, public profession of love and knew she could bear anything now.
“I thought I was safe until I saw Darcy Lankanal here in town. He told me that I still owed him the money that he paid the river pirates for me. He claimed that I had not worked off my time yet. He used that to blackmail me and made threats that led me to believe that he would kill Noah and my family if I didn’t go back to New Orleans with him. After everything he had already done, I believed him. When I left with him, I had no idea he would try to frame Noah for a crime he never committed.”
“But now you believe Mr. Lankanal did not kill this man Belts?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because he said he didn’t. He’s not one to let an opportunity go by, so when Betts collapsed, he took advantage.”
“After all he did to you, you believe him? I find that pretty hard to swallow, little lady.”
The room was stifling, the air too close for comfort with so many people crowded together. Olivia looked at Darcy again.
Gone was his bold, arrogant demeanor, his overbearing confidence. His once high-glossed boots were muddy and scratched beyond repair, his swallowtail coat torn and stained. The leg of his trousers was ripped at the knee. He looked wrinkled and tired and disheveled. His face was purple with braises, his lips cut, his eye still swollen. In the courtroom, surrounded by all the others he looked smaller, his once-threatening presence diminished by all that had happened. He was watching her intently without a trace of fear for his life, only regret.
He had tried to have her and had failed. He had also made her a promise to go back to New Orleans and leave them all in peace. She could not explain why, but yes, she believed him.
“I think I know him well enough to know when he’s lying, and I’m certain he is telling the truth about Betts.”
The judge’s hands stopped fidgeting with his papers. He stared at her through rheumy hazel eyes. The room fell silent as a tomb.
“But yet before, you truly believed he would have harmed your family?”
“At the time I did.”
The judge let out a long-suffering sigh and shook his head.
“You forgive him, girl, for all he did to you?”
Olivia looked at Payson. Her father was on the edge of his seat, staring at Darcy. She had seen the same expression on her father’s face often enough; it was one he wore when he was trying to come to terms with some new philosophy he had just read or when he was wrestling with the words of a new poem.
Beside Payson, Noah sat watching her. She could almost feel him willing her to be strong, to ignore the whispers and expressions of distaste and condemnation on the faces of the crowd. She knew that he would try to fight them all if she gave him even the slightest indication that this whole affair was getting the best of her, so she was careful not to look into his face for too long.
“I asked if you can forgive Lankanal, girl?” Richmond repeated.
Certain of her answer, she turned to the judge.
“I do, sir. I forgive him.”
“And why is that? Because you have some lingering feelings for the scoundrel?”
“The only thing I feel for him is loathing. But I am ready to put the past behind me, once and for all, and in order to do that, I must forgive him.”
At last she looked over at her father. He was watching her with pride, his eyes bright.
A stunned silence hung over the room until the judge finally said, “Thank you, then, Miss Bond. You may sit down.”
As Olivia once more took her seat beside Noah, E
lihu Richmond turned his watery gaze on Darcy and squinted across the space that separated them from the rest of the room.
“I suppose I ought to hear your version of the story, Mr. Lankanal, afore I pass judgment. So step on up here and tell it.”
Darcy stood and made his way, chains dragging, across the floor.
“Ern, get those things off that man,” Richmond instructed. “He don’t look like he could outrun a child the shape he’s in anyway.”
Ern quickly freed Darcy, who politely thanked the judge for his compassion.
“Don’t think that means you still aren’t gonna swing, young man. Now get on with it.”
Darcy turned to face the room. Intentionally, he did not straighten to his full height. He played up his cuts and bruises, turning the most battered side of his face toward the crowd. He scanned the crowd of farmers, merchants, miners, and pilgrims, the fortunate souls able to get a seat in the crowded room, and reminded himself to raise his voice so that the old judge heard every word.
“How far would any of you men go to have the woman you loved by your side? Would you track her down? Would you hire men to find her? Would you let her go without a fight?”
He could see that his opening caught them off guard, and waited while the stunned audience mulled over the questions he had put to them. “If so, then you would be guilty as I am. I was obsessed with a woman.” He nodded at Olivia. “When she left my … protection—” He cleared his throat, knowing that he was stretching the truth a bit too far, but the crowd was with him. “When Olivia Bond left my protection I was hell-bent on getting her back any way I could. Months went by. I couldn’t find her. Finally Telford Betts came to me and told me he’d seen her here in Shawneetown. I did come here and I did threaten her family, it’s true. I threatened to harm Mr. LeCroix. But I knew Olivia well enough to know that the mere threat of harm to them would be enough, that she would go with me to save her family.”
The judge toyed with the wooden-spoon gavel. A fly buzzed around the cuts on Darcy’s face. He brushed at it, winced when he moved, and made certain the crowd noticed his terribly pained expression.
“Nice little tale, Lankanal, but get to the murder. Why did you kill Betts?” Richmond was obviously tired and irritable. It had been a long, hot afternoon for everyone, and Darcy figured even longer for someone as old as Methuselah.
“I swear I did not kill Telford Betts, as I have said before. He dropped dead in his own room. I had gone there early to wait for him, but he took so long getting back that I fell asleep on his bed. When he walked in, he told me how LeCroix had accosted him and had even tried to choke him. During the scuffle, LeCroix had dropped his knife and Betts picked it up. He was pretty proud of having snuck it into his coat without anyone seeing him do it. He was very nervous and riled up over everything that had happened, and pressing me to pay him off for leading me to Olivia. Suddenly, he turned red and fell to the floor. I thought he had passed out, but he was dead.
“When I looked down and saw LeCroix’s knife on the floor beside him, it dawned on me I could make certain that the half-breed didn’t follow me and Olivia back to New Orleans.”
The onlookers began to murmur to each other. Somewhere in the back of a room a baby fussed. Darcy waited while its mother quickly skirted between the chairs and hurried from the room. The sound of crying faded down the street.
“Are you telling me that you stabbed a dead body?” The judge cupped his hand around his ear.
“Yes, sir,” Darcy shouted. “I stabbed a dead body.”
Richmond nodded sagely. He pursed his lips, sucked in the bottom one, and shoved it out again. “Damnedest story I ever heard,” he muttered.
“Thank you, sir,” Darcy smiled.
Richmond said, “But if anyone doesn’t have anything else to say, you have no proof, Mr. Lankanal. All I have is the word of a fornicator, a flesh peddler, a gambler and the word of his former whore. You really expect me to believe either of you?”
Noah was on his feet again, his face filled with rage. Olivia grabbed his arm and pulled him back down.
Richmond looked over the audience. “If nobody else can speak for you, then I’ll have to declare you guilty and set the hanging for dawn tomorrow.”
Darcy’s heart fell to his toes. He grabbed the edge of the table, not certain whether he could stay on his feet. Tomorrow at dawn he would die.
Ern jumped to his feet. “Elihu, maybe …”
The judge blinked and looked up at Ern. “Dawn might be a bit too early. Let’s make it noon, then.” He opened his satchel and started shoving papers back into it.
Darcy felt the urge to run, knowing there was nowhere to go, no way to escape, even if he was capable of running. Suddenly he saw the auburn-haired girl who worked for the Bonds leap to her feet.
“Ye can’t hang ’im, sir. Not ’til I get to tell my part.”
Darcy frowned. What was her name? What could she possibly say that would save his neck from the rope?
“And what might you know relative to this case, missy?” Elihu’s gnarled hands stilled on top of his papers.
Before his legs gave out from under him, Darcy made it back to his chair. He sat down heavily and watched as the Bonds’ serving girl walked directly over to the judge’s table without a bit of hesitation.
“What’s your name, girl?”
“Molly MacKinnon. I’m the Bonds’ fetch-and-carry girl.”
She smiled down at Richmond with the same bold, impudent smile she gave everyone, but she soon sobered when Ern swore her in. Like a schoolgirl at prayer, she clasped her hands in front of her and then, in a voice loud enough for all to hear, she began.
“Mr. Lankanal came out to the cabin to threaten Mr. Bond. He said lots of bad things about Miss Livvie and finally, Mr. Bond asked him to leave, but Mr. Lankanal wouldn’t go, so me bein’ the best shot of the lot, I persuaded him. Soon as everyone was asleep, I slipped out of the loft and snuck into town. Ye see, I was gonna ask Mr. Lankanal to take me to New Orleans instead of Miss Livvie, for I always been wantin’ to get me a better life.”
“You say you sneaked into town the night of the murder?”
“That’s right,” she nodded, with a swift glance at Darcy.
At this point Darcy could only wait, dumbfounded like the others, to see what she was going to say. He was going to be condemned to swing for murder. Why would she want to drive the nails into his coffin?
“I saw him at the hotel, saw him go into Mr. Betts’s room and close the door. I made sure nobody saw me while I waited around in the hallway until I didn’t hear a sound inside and then slowly opened the door.”
At that point she looked down at her hands. Her shoulders drooped and she let out a long-suffering sigh. “My life ain’t been all that good since I come to America with me uncle. I thought if I could just get Mr. Lankanal to take notice of me, he’d forget about wanting Livvie back. She had no need of him, and I did.”
“I think I’m beginning to see where you are headed, young lady.” Richmond reached up and scratched his freckled head with yellow nails in need of trimming.
“Aye, sir, and though I’m not proud of myself, I’ve got to tell the truth of it. Mr. Lankanal was asleep on Mr. Betts’s bed. I slipped over and was about to wake him when I heard footsteps in the hall. I run to the wardrobe, climbed in and hid.” She shot a glance at Darcy. He straightened up on his chair. Her next words would either save or condemn him.
“Then it all happened just like Mr. Lankanal said. Betts came in, they talked and the man got all excited. He fell dead after showin’ Mr. Lankanal the knife. Then Mr. Lankanal, he tried to wake up Mr. Betts. He rolled him back and forth and laid his head on the man’s chest to listen to his heart. Then he waited a while to be sartin the man was dead before he picked the knife up and stabbed Mr. Betts.” She paused, shook her head and set her curls bobbing. “Stabbed Mr. Betts’s body, that is,” she quickly added. “He was already dead. I seen the whole of it, I did, and it was
just like Mr. Lankanal said.”
The crowd erupted again. Darcy could only sit dumbfounded and stare at Molly MacKinnon. She was either the best actress in the world, or she really had been there, watching the whole thing. Right now, he didn’t give a tinker’s damn if she was lying or acting. Right now she was his only hope, the only thing standing between him and a hanging at noon tomorrow.
Richmond was pounding the wooden spoon again, demanding order. His gravelly voice was going hoarse. Finally everyone settled back down.
“This certainly puts a new light on things, doesn’t it, Ern?” Richmond looked absolutely stunned, almost disappointed.
Ern Matheson merely looked perplexed. “Yes, sir, it does.”
“You swear you’re tellin’ the truth, girl?”
Richmond crooked his finger and motioned the serving girl closer. Darcy held his breath. Would Molly MacKinnon stick to her story, or would the judge wear her down?
The room was hushed and quiet. Sweat beaded Darcy’s upper lip but he did not bother to wipe it off.
“Well, girl? Is it true you saw Betts fall dead before Lankanal stabbed him?” Richmond wore a fierce expression as he stared up at the serving girl.
Molly never blinked, nor did she hesitate. “He turned blue as a Scottish lake and then white as a sheet. He was clearly dead, sir, a long time before Mr. Darcy let ’im have it with the knife.”
The judge rubbed his head again, sucked his lower lip in and out, then looked over at Darcy.
“You’re one lucky son of a gun, Lankanal, what with all these folks ready to testify in your defense, even the ones you wronged.” He stared Darcy in the eye. “But I’ll tell you right now, if I ever see you standing before my bench again, I’ll hang you just for the hell of it because I think you’re getting off too easy.” Then he banged the spoon on the table. “Not guilty,” he shouted. “No hanging. Court’s closed. Ern, help me stand up and get me outta here. I gotta take a piss.”
Blue Moon Page 29
