THIRTEEN
Marc decided to avoid Baldwin House and go straighthome, for there seemed little use in meeting Robert for furtherdiscussion of the case as they had apparently agreed to disagree.Anyway, the trial would finish tomorrow or Thursday. He was alsohoping to get some sympathy from Beth after his bitter clash withCobb in the wig-room. Beth, however, had other ideas. She shippedJunior and Maggie off to the kitchen with Etta and directed Marc tosit down with her on the chesterfield in the parlour.
Marc took one look at her face and said, “Notyou too, darling?”
Beth smiled. “I take it yer friends have notbeen impressed with the way you conducted yerself today?”
“That’s an understatement,” Marc said, andtook the opportunity to unburden himself of the day’s tribulations.Beth listened intently, as she always did, but there were nosympathetic nods except when he repeated Robert’s maxim about thesupremacy of the law itself. But she did offer a tiny smile atCobb’s reappearance to fetch his helmet.
“I’m real sorry you and Cobb had it out,” shesaid when he had finished, “but I can see why he was so angry. Thiswas a big investigation fer him. And on his own, too. You made himlook bad today. I hope to Heaven you don’t have to put him on thestand.”
“So do I.”
“Still, I’m surprised you lost yourtemper.”
“When he questioned my motives, I lost allpatience with the man. And I just struck back, somewhat blindly,I’m sorry to say.”
“Well, dear, I saw somethin’ in you todaythat I hadn’t seen before.”
“Oh?”
“And I don’t mean just yer grit anddetermination and downright stubbornness.”
“Well, thanks for those anyway.”
Beth frowned. “I hate to say it, but Ithought you were unnecessarily cruel to Jake Broom.”
“Why ‘unnecessarily’?” Marc said with moresarcasm that he intended. “Wouldn’t ‘cruel’ do nicely?”
“Now don’t get in a huff, luv. I meant what Isaid. I know you have to be cruel sometimes in a courtroom wherelives are at stake. The greatest cruelty is to hang a man who isnot guilty, I know that. I just thought you went further than youhad to. You accused the lad of bein’ a rapist when you knew hewasn’t. And Cambridge showed the jury that was so when he went onabout the young man not returnin’ to do himself in with acock-and-bull story.”
Marc was duly chastened. He had gonefurther than he had planned to. Showing the jury that Broom wasfanciful and could have misinterpreted or wrongly described thescene in the stall was all he needed to do. Broom’s testimony hadbeen impeached long before Marc had got carried away,Dougherty-like. “I don’t know why I did that,” he said. “I sowished to see this thing over, for the sake of that suffering oldman.”
Beth looked so serious that Marc was sureanother accusation was coming, but she said quietly, “Whatare yer motives, luv?”
“Cobb accused me of toadying up to theBaldwins and fighting for my own self-interests in regard to theReform party, and I suppose he was close enough to the truth tohave me respond in anger. But what drives me, in addition tofriendship and party loyalty, is justice. I believe Seamus Baldwinis incapable of that crime or even of paying for a botchedabortion, and I desperately want to get an acquittal.”
“So you have no doubts about hisinnocence?”
Marc was startled by the suddenness of Beth’squery. “Of course not. Don’t tell me that Neville Cambridge isgetting to you, too?”
Beth laughed. “No, he’s not. You’ve foughthim blow fer blow. I’d say the jury is still out.”
“What worries me deeply, win or not, is thatI may have jeopardized my friendship with Cobb and with Robert, thetwo men I admire most in this world. To lose the case and myfriends would be too terrible to bear. All my effort would havebeen for nothing.”
Beth patted the back of his hand:
“Nothin’ is never fer nothin’, luv.”
***
Sixteen-year-old Edie Barr, the Crown’s finalscheduled witness, was first up on Wednesday morning. She was bothnervous and excited. She was aware of her blond good looks and ofthe fact that they were being appreciated by the packed galleries.Her employer’s son, Robert Baldwin, had taken her aside earlier andtold her she was to tell nothing but the absolute truth whenstanding in the witness-box. There would be no recriminations as aresult of her testimony and, under no circumstance was she to feelthat she ought to tell less than the truth in order to protect theBaldwin family. She had nodded dutifully, but had already mappedout what she was going to say and why.
“Miss Barr, do you know the defendant well?”Cambridge began.
“I do, sir,” Edie said in her most adultvoice. “Mr. Seamus came to Spadina on the first of July of thisyear. I seen him many times a day ever since.”
“In your capacity as an upstairs maid atSpadina?”
“That’s right. I’ve worked fer Dr. Baldwinfer two years.”
“And Betsy Thurgood worked with you?”
“Betsy was the tweenie – ever since August.She worked a bit up and down. We shared a room.”
“Please describe your relationship withSeamus Baldwin, beyond servant and master.”
Edie blinked, then understood what waswanted. “Oh, we both called Mr. Seamus our uncle, Uncle Seamus. Hesaid we had to.”
“Isn’t it odd for a gentleman of some sixtyyears to be so chummy with the hired help?”
Edie winced at “hired help” but said, “Yes,it is. But Uncle Seamus was like a big kid. He loved to tease andplay pranks, and he let us tease him back – as long as we didn’t doit in front of visitors. Then it was all ‘yes, sir’ and ‘no, sir.’”Edie did not once look up at Uncle Seamus in the dock. In fact shekept her wandering gaze everywhere but on that side of thecourtroom. For his part, Uncle Seamus seemed for the first time totake a steady interest in the proceedings, leaning forward on therailing of the dock.
“So he liked to tease, did he?”
“Not always,” Edie said with a glance atRobert seated behind Marc. “He was our tutor, too. He had us readto him and helped us with our writin’ and sums.”
“Taking an inordinate interest in two youngmaids, was he?”
Marc got up, but it was Justice Powell whobarked, “Do not put words into the witness’s mouth, Mr. Cambridge,especially ones she herself would never utilize.”
Cambridge apologized. “Tell us, Miss Barr,what form the teasing would take.”
Edie blushed prettily. She loved that “MissBarr.” “Well, Uncle Seamus liked to bounce up behind us and giveour ribs a tickle. And we’d all laugh.”
“I see. Up and down the ribs, eh? Whatelse?”
“He’d bring us a sweet in our room and thenmake us answer a riddle to win it.” Edie frowned. “Betsy alwayswon.”
“Now tell the court about your being aventriloquist’s dummy.”
Edie happily recounted sitting on UncleSeamus’s knee and flapping her jaw in synch with his words. Herpretty eyes widened as she told of the response they got at severalsoirées at Spadina, and she lingered over potentially salaciousdetails, which seemed to please Neville Cambridge greatly. Marc,however, thought this testimony was redundant as earlier witnesses,including Beth, had already established Uncle Seamus’s eccentric,elfin habits and his attraction to children and young women. Butthere was more to come.
“So it would be fair to say that you and MissThurgood liked and admired Seamus Baldwin, referring to himaffectionately as your ‘uncle’?”
“Yes, sir.”
Cambridge now drew from among his notes asheet of paper. “I am holding here a letter, Milord, which I wouldlike to introduce as Exhibit B. It was found by the police amongthe effects of Betsy Thurgood in her room at Spadina, as theattached affidavit will attest to.”
The clerk took the letter and attestation tothe judge, who perused them carefully. Marc had seen the letter andhad a pretty good idea what was coming. The letter was now takenover to the witness.