hearing, whatever we think of them. If that doesn't suit you, then you'd better go somewhere else, because there's no place for you here!"
" 'Ere! 'Oo are you callin' foreign? I'm as English as you are! An' I pay me taxes, but not for the likes of 'er to play fast an' loose wi' the law. I believe in the law, I do. Can't 'ave women going 'round murderin' their 'usbands every time they get a fit o' jealousy. No one in England'd be safe!"
"You don't believe in the law," Monk accused bitterly. "You believe in the rope, and mob rule, you just said so."
"I never did. You lyin' bastard!"
"You said forget the trial, overthrow the courts, hang her now, without waiting for a verdict." Monk glared at him. "You want to do away with judge and jury and be both yourself."
"I never said that!"
Monk gave him a look of total disgust, and turned to Hester, as they rose on adjournment, taking her a trifle roughly by the elbow, and steering her out through the noisy, shoving crowd.
There was nothing to say. It was what they could have expected: a crowd who knew no more than the newspapers had led them to believe; a judge who was fair, impartial and unable to help; a prosecuting counsel who was skilled and would be duped 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 perversely annoyed 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. "WeVe got to find die others; the other people who do this abysmal thing. But where? It's no use saying the old colonel did - we'll never prove