Degrees of Hope (20 page)

Edward smiled.

“So, is business prospering for you?” Hope asked.

“I'm not in trade myself. I preferred the law as my profession.”

“I have much respect for lawyers, although I confess, I have always thought the law itself to be a very dry topic.” 

“Indeed; whilst I very much enjoy the practice of law, even I think that the tomes use far more words than are strictly necessary. Do you have a brother in the profession?” He was curious as to how she had ever come to read a law book, for few women ever took an interest.

“My father is a magistrate.”

“That would be Earl Marchwood?”

“Yes, that's him. Do you specialise in a subject?”

“Criminal law. I am a prosecutor for the Crown.”

“That must be fascinating.”

“Never a dull moment,” he agreed. “Now that we have been properly introduced, I wonder if I might ask you to reserve a dance for me later on?”

“I should be happy to,” Hope smiled at him. “Do you have a preference?”

“A waltz perhaps?”

“I do still have one waltz free.”

The rest of the evening positively flew by and Hope danced with Bradley, Edward, his father Mr Klein and two other gentleman of her acquaintance. Although Bradley was her preferred partner (not that she would never admit such a thing to him) Edward proved to be very congenial company and she found herself hoping to see more of him during her stay.

Having spoken to the dress designer and seen the sketches of the wedding dress, Hope was now showing Mrs Cooper a series of possible designs for the gloves.

“I like this one, but I wonder if we could use the beading around the cuff, from this sketch?” Mrs Cooper asked, showing her the two drawings in question.

“That should be easy enough.” Hope took the sketches back and began to quickly draw the beading onto her preferred design. “Something like that?” Hope asked, showing her the sketch.

“Yes, that looks perfect.”

Hope took the sketch back to finish it.

“Are you looking forward to the wedding?” she asked.

“I am, although perhaps not as much as when I was young.”

A knock came at the door and the butler came in.

“A letter has arrived for Lady Beaumont.”

He handed the letter to Hope, who smiled as she took it, and both ladies thanked him. Hope opened the letter but her smile quickly turned into a frown.

“Oh, no!” she cried.

“Whatever is the matter?” Mrs Cooper asked.

“You know of the disappearance of my friend, Honoria Arundell?”

“Of course.”

“Well it seems that her brother, James, discovered that her husband had been mistreating her, and he challenged Malcolm Arundell to a duel!”

“Oh dear! Are they all right?”

“James is fine but Malcolm was seriously wounded and now James has been arrested!”

“My word, I never realised that you had such excitement in the north.”

“What was he thinking?” Hope asked aloud, although she didn't expect an answer. “A duel? It's the 1860s, not the 1660s! Foolish man!”

“And what of the husband?” Mrs Cooper asked.

Hope read more of the letter before she could answer.

“It seems that he was shot in the hip. He is seriously ill and the doctor is not sure that he will survive.” She looked up from the letter. “If he dies, James will be charged with murder!”

“Do you need to return home?” Mrs Cooper asked.

“I don't know. If he is smart, James will ask to be tried by the House of Lords and so have to come to London. I don't believe that they have never found one of their own guilty of duelling before.”

“He is nobility then?”

“Yes, although he is the second son and had hoped to make the church his profession.”

“And if he doesn't request a trial by his peers?”

“Then he is a fool!” Hope cried.

“Considering that duelling is illegal, I think that his foolishness has already been proven.” Mrs Cooper said, as kindly as she could.

“You're right,” Hope sighed. In fact, refusing a trial by the House of Lords sounded just like something James might do, preferring to be tried by a petty jury of regular men.

“Can your father not help? He is a magistrate, is he not?” Mrs Cooper asked.

“Yes. Mother says that he is trying, but magistrates only deal with small crimes. James' case will be heard by the Assize Court, which usually comes to Marchwood in July.”

“I am sorry, my dear.”

“Thank you.” Hope managed a weak smile. “If I might retire to my room for a while, I should like to reply to the letter.”

“Of course.”

“Thank you. I shall have your sketch finished by dinner time, I assure you.”

“Oh piffle, there's plenty of time for that. You do what you must.”

“Thank you, Mrs Cooper. You are very kind to me.”

She left the room, MacDuff following faithfully after her.

A little later that afternoon, there came a knock on Hope's door and Mrs Cooper came in.

“I hope you don't mind, my dear, but I asked Edward Klein to stop by. He is very well informed on most legal matters and I thought that if he couldn't set your mind at ease, at least he could help you understand what might happen.”

“That's very kind of you,” Hope smiled, “but please don't put him to any trouble on my account.”

“He's already here, my dear. He rushed over as soon as I sent the note. Would you like to talk with him?”

“Indeed.” Hope stood up, pleased that he would care enough about her to be so eager to help.

Edward was waiting in the front parlour, sipping a cup of tea as he waited for them. He rose to his feet and took Hope's hands as she came in.

“You look pale,” he said.

“Yes, I have been taken a little by surprise by these events, I confess.”

“Then sit down and tell me everything.”

“That could take some time.”

“I'm not going anywhere.”

So Hope sat and began her tale with Honoria and Malcolm moving to Marchwood. She noticed that Edward absently reached out and petted MacDuff behind the ears for a while, although his attention still seemed focused on her.

Hope was able to go into quite a bit of detail about events, until it came to James discovering Honoria's abuse. She didn't know how he had found out, nor how much he knew. She let him read her mother's letter for himself but it too wasn't specific on many details.

“So?” Hope asked, willing him to have good news.

“Mother told me that he is a noble and if he chooses for his case to he heard by the House of Lords, I believe that they will find him innocent. Not only are they unwilling to convict one of their own, given the provocation your friend received, I can't see how they would convict him.”

“But?” Hope asked, clearly knowing that he wasn't finished but was hesitant to continue.

“Should he choose a trial in the Assizes Court, I cannot believe that he would not be found guilty. And of course, given that he is of good character as you say, there is always the possibility that he will plead guilty.

Hope visibly blanched.

“No, he can't! I won't let him! That monster has taken too much from me already; I won't let him take Honoria's brother too!”

“Then perhaps I could represent him,” Edward suggested.

“But you are a prosecutor!”

“Indeed, which means that I am very well placed to advocate for him. I can talk to the prosecution and see if they would be willing to indict him on a lesser charge.”

“What about the trial?” she asked.

That will likely be short, probably no longer than a day, if that. We will need to show that, James is it?”

“Yes.”

“Then we will need to show that James received considerable provocation to act this way.”

“How will that help?”

“Because the jury and judge will likely be more lenient on him if we do. Now, do you have any proof of the abuse Honoria suffered at her husband's hand?”

“Only what I saw. Mother witnessed her cut lip once, and she heard Honoria's confession after she lost the baby.”

“But neither of you actually saw her being beaten?”

“No,” Hope sighed. “I'm certain that his household staff did but Malcolm has terrified them into silence.”

“You would be surprised how often fear of the law overcomes other fears,” Edward tried to reassure her. “I believe that once under oath, they will most likely tell the truth.”

“So you think we have a chance?”

Edward considered his next words carefully before replying.

“If Mr Arundell should die, then I believe that we have a chance of escaping the death penalty but unless Mr Ashdown chooses a trial by the House of Lords, he will not get away with this.”

Hope nodded her understanding and Edward was impressed with how well she was taking the news.

“So what might he be sentenced to?”

“After the death sentence, the most likely outcome is life in prison or transportation.”

Hope nodded her understanding. “Thank you for your candour.”

“You are very welcome.”

“Looking at the best case scenario, what might happen if Malcolm should survive?”

“Mr Ashdown will likely be charged with assault, although there is always the chance that we could talk Mr Arundell out of pressing charges, or perhaps buy him off with compensation.”

“I doubt he would let bygones be bygones,” Hope confessed. “He has a mean and bitter nature, and it is my understanding that he does not want for money.”

“Perhaps, but men who love money are often keen to hoard more.”

“And if he does go to trial?”

“In that instance, given the provocation, we may even be able to get a not guilty verdict.”

“Who would have ever thought that I would be praying for Malcolm's good health!” she said, recognising the irony.

Edward returned her smile. “And my offer to represent him in court still stands, no matter the charges.”

“Then I accept.”

“Won't you have to check with Mr Ashdown?”

“James' family fortunes have been dwindling for a while now, mostly gambled away by his father. According to Honoria, he receives a small stipend from a grandmother, I believe, but nowhere near enough to afford your fees. I shall be paying for your services, and I don't intend to give James a chance to say 'no'.”

Edward smiled, appreciating her spirit and decisiveness.

“Then I hope it will be a pleasure working with you.” He held his hand out and Hope shook it.

It was decided that Edward Klein would journey to Marchwood the following day and speak with James, although the news he had to report was not good.

Chapter Nineteen

Hope couldn't believe the total and utter idiocy of James. She reread Edward's letter again, just to be sure but she hadn't read it wrong.

James was insisting on pleading guilty!

Edward had done what he could to talk James out of it but without success.

On a happier note, Edward was confident that he could secure bail for James since her father, Lucien, had agreed not only to speak to James' character, but also to put up the bail money. The hearing was tomorrow and Edward was confident that James would be free by sundown.

Malcolm's condition was unchanged, seriously ill but alive.

Although she still had another two days in London with Mrs Cooper, she decided to leave early and return to Marchwood, arriving on the 5 o'clock train.

No one knew to expect her and MacDuff, so she hailed a hansom cab to drive her home and arrived at the same time as James, who was returning from the Magistrates Court with her father.

She hadn't really given much thought to where he would be staying but of course her parents would offer to put him up. He could hardly continue to lodge with Malcolm, could he? He was probably also bound over to stay in the county, or some such, so returning to London was out of the question for him too.

She also hadn't given any thought to how he would appear but although it had only been little more than a week since she had seen him, he looked decidedly different. His curly hair looked even more dishevelled than usual. He looked slightly gaunt, his pallor was grey, and he had dark smudges under his eyes.

Despite how bad he looked, he found a smile as he got out of the carriage and noticed her.

“Hope.” That was all he said as he stepped towards her, his eyes shining.

Hope stared dumbly at him, trying to process his altered appearance. As he reached her, he took her in his arms and held her tightly. Hope couldn't help but put her arms around him too, for he seemed to be in such pain.

“I'm so sorry,” he said as he pulled away, taking hold of her shoulders and looking into her eyes. “You were right, I was such a fool.”