William Monk 03 - Defend and Betray

and unable to help; a prosecuting counsel who was skilled and would beduped or misled by no one. The evidence proved that Alexandra had murdered her husband. That should not depress them or make them the least discouraged. It was not in question.
    Monk was pushing his way through the people who jostled and talked, swirling around like dead leaves in an eddy of wind, infuriating him because he had purpose and was trying to force his way out as if somehow haste could help them to escape what was in their minds.
    They were out in Old Bailey and turning onto Ludgate Hill when at last he spoke.
    “I hope to God he knows what he is doing.”
    “That is a stupid thing to say,” she replied angrily, because she was frightened herself, and stung for Rathbone. “He’s doing his best—what we all agreed on. And anyway, what alternative is there? There isn’t any other plan. She did do it. It would be pointless to try to deny it. There’s nothing else to say, except the reason why.”
    “No,” he agreed grimly. “No, there isn’t. Damn, but it’s cold. June shouldn’t be this cold.”
    She managed to smile. “Shouldn’t it? It frequently is.”
    He glared at her wordlessly.
    “It’ll get better.” She shrugged and pulled her cloak higher. “Thank you for saving me a seat. I’ll be here tomorrow.”
    She parted from him and set off into the chill air. She took a hansom, in spite of the expense, to Callandra Daviot’s house.
    “What has happened?” Callandra asked immediately, rising from her chair, her face anxious as she regarded Hester, seeing her tiredness, the droop of her shoulders and the fear in her eyes. “Come sit down—tell me.”
    Hester sat obediently. “Only what we expected, I suppose. But they all seem so very rational and set in their ideas. They know she did it—Lovat-Smith has proved that already. I just feel as if no matter what we say, they’ll never believe he was anything but a fine man, a soldier and a hero. How can we prove he sodomized his own son?” Deliberately she used the hardest word she could find, and was perverselyannoyed when Callandra did not flinch. “They’ll only hate her the more fiercely that we could say such a thing about such a fine man.” She spoke with heavy sarcasm. “They’ll hang her higher for the insult.”
    “Find the others,” Callandra said levelly, her gray eyes sad and hard. “The alternative is giving up. Are you prepared to do that?”
    “No, of course not. But I’m trying to think, if we are realistic, we should be prepared to be beaten.”
    Callandra stared at her, waiting, refusing to speak.
    Hester met her look silently, then gradually began to think.
    “The general’s father abused him.” She was fumbling towards something, a thread to begin pulling. “I don’t suppose he started doing it himself suddenly, do you?”
    “I have no idea—but sense would suggest not.”
    “There must be something to find in the past, if only we knew where to look,” she went on, trying to make herself believe. “We’ve got to find the others; the other people who do this abysmal thing. But where? It’s no use saying the old colonel did—we’ll never prove that. He’ll deny it, so will everyone else, and the general is dead.”
    She leaned back slowly. “Anyway, what would be the use? Even if we proved someone else did, that would not prove it of the general, or that Alexandra knew. I don’t know where to begin. And time is so short.” She stared at Callandra miserably. “Oliver has to start the defense in a couple of days, at the outside. Lovat-Smith is proving his case to the hilt. We haven’t said a single thing worth anything yet—only that there was no evidence Alexandra was jealous.”
    “Not the others who abuse,” Callandra said quietly. “The other victims. We must search the military records again.”
    “There’s no time,” Hester said desperately. “It would take months. And there might be nothing anyway.”
    “If he did that in the army, there will be something to find.” Callandra’s voice had no uncertainty in it, no quaver of doubt. “You stay at the trial. I’ll search for some slip he’s made, some drummer boy or cadet who’s been hurt enough for it to show.”
    “Do you think …?” Hester felt a quick leap of hope, foolish, quite unreasonable.
    “Calm down, order your mind,” Callandra commanded. “Tell me again everything that we know about the whole affair!”
    Hester obeyed.
        When