William Monk 07 - Weighed in the Balance

pressing bodies. Hands reached up for the harness, and the driver cracked his whip. There was a howl of rage, and the coach plunged forward again, throwing Zorah and Rathbone off balance. Without thinking, he put out his hand to steady her and kept hold of her. He could not think of anything to say. He wanted to be able to tell her it would be all right, somehow or other he would rescue them both, but he knew of no way, and she would not have been comforted by a lie, only angered.
    She looked at him gratefully but without hope.
    “I did not kill him,” she said, her voice barely audible over the rattling of the wheels and the roaring of the crowd behind them, but perfectly steady. “She did!”
    Rathbone felt a chill of despair settle over his heart.
    Hester also traveled home from the court in a state of profound misery. She was deeply afraid for Rathbone, and the more desperately she tried to think of a way out for him, the less could she see one.
    She went in through the front door at Hill Street shivering with cold, although it was quite a mild afternoon; she felt so crushed she had no heart to give herself energy.
    She did not want to speak to either Bernd or Dagmar, and she was sure they would have arrived home before she did. They had their own carriage, and they had not stayed to the bitter end to see Rathbone and Zorah mobbed as they left, bearing the rage and the hatred of the crowd.
    She went straight upstairs to her room, and after taking off her outer cape, knocked on Robert’s door, which was ajar.
    “Come in?” he said immediately.
    She opened the door and was surprised to see Victoria sitting in the easy chair and Robert in his wheelchair, not on the bed. They looked at her eagerly, but there was no tension in them, and their chairs were close together, as though they had been talking earnestly before she knocked. Robert’s face was not pale anymore. The late autumn sun and wind had given him color as he had sat out in the garden, and his hair, flopping forward over his brow, was shining. It really was time they had a barber in to cut it.
    “What happened?” he asked. Then he frowned. “It wasn’t good, was it? I can see it in your face. Come and tell us.” He indicated a second bedroom chair. His eyes were full of concern.
    She was aware of the warmth of his feeling. Suddenly she was furious that someone she liked so much should be crippled, confined to a chair, almost certainly for the rest of his life, denied the chance of a career, of love and marriage, the things his peers expected as a matter of course. She found herself almost choked with emotion.
    “Was it really as bad as that?” Robert said gently. “You’d better sit down. Would you like me to ring for a tray of tea? You look pretty upset.”
    She tried to force a smile and knew she had failed.
    “You don’t have to pretend,” Robert went on. “Is the verdict in already? It can’t be, can it?”
    “Did she withdraw?” Victoria asked, puzzled.
    “No. No, she didn’t withdraw,” Hester replied, sitting down. “And the verdict is a long way off yet. Sir Oliver hasn’t even started. But I can’t see that it will help when he does. It has reached the stage now where Zorah will be fighting to keep from the gallows herself …”
    They both stared at her.
    “Zorah?” Robert said aghast. “But Zorah didn’t kill him! If she had, she would be the last person to mention murder. She’d be only too happy they all thought it was accidental. That doesn’t make any sense!”
    “Perhaps they don’t think she is sensible,” Victoria pointed out. “They may think she’s a fanatic, or hysterical. I know that they are saying she is very eccentric, and that she dresses in men’s clothes and has been to all sorts of unsuitable and indecent places. And of course they are suggesting that her morals are appalling.”
    Hester was startled that Victoria should be aware of such things. How on earth did she know? Then she remembered Victoria’s drastically altered circumstances. She must have come down so far in the world that she no longer had anything like the life of the young lady she had been before her family’s disgrace, and no doubt now also financial dependency upon relatives. She was probably far better acquainted with the harsher side of life and its realities than Robert was.
    He was staring at Victoria, and she colored unhappily.
    “Who is saying that?” he asked her. “That’s totally unjust.”
    “When