Weighed In The Balance Part 20

"Have you seen the plaintiff since she left your home shortly after that event?"

"No sir. Prince Friedrich's funeral was held in Wellborough. There was a memorial service in Venice, where the Prince and Princess spent most of their time, so I believe, but I was unable to travel."

"Have you seen the defendant since that time?" Harvester's voice was mild, as if the questions were of no more than social interest.

"Yes sir, I have, on several occasions," Wellborough replied, his voice sharpening with sudden anger.

In the gallery, several people sat a little more uprightly.

"Can you tell me what happened at the first of these occasions, Lord Wellborough?" Harvester prompted. "Please do describe it with a modic.u.m of detail, sufficient so that the gentlemen of the jury, who were naturally not present, may perceive the situation, but not so much as to distract them from what is germane to the case."

"Most certainly." Wellborough turned to face the jury.

The judge's face so far wore an expression of unemotional interest.

"It was a dinner party given by Lady Easton," Wellborough told the jurors. "There were about two dozen of us at the table. It had been a very agreeable occasion and we were in good spirits until someone, I forget who, reminded us of the death of Prince Friedrich some six months earlier. Immediately we all became a trifle somber. It was an event which had saddened us all. I and several others spoke of our sorrow, and some of us also spoke of our grief for the widowed Princess. They expressed concern for her, both her devastating loss, knowing how deeply and utterly they had cared for each other, and also for her welfare, now that she was completely alone in the world."

Several of the jurors nodded. One pursed his lips.

There was a murmur of commiseration from the gallery.

Harvester glanced at Gisela, who sat motionless. She had removed her gloves, and her hands lay on the table in front of her, bare but for the gold wedding ring on her right hand and the black mourning ring on the left. Her hands were small and strong, rather square.

"Proceed," Harvester said softly.

"The Countess Zorah Rostova was also present among the dinner guests," Wellborough said, his voice thick with distaste, and there flickered across his eyes and mouth something which could have been anxiety.

Rathbone thought of Monk's last trip to Wellborough, and wondered precisely how he had elicited Wellborough's cooperation, almost fruitless though it had proved.

Harvester waited.

The room was silent except for the slight whispers of breathing. A woman's whalebone corset creaked.

"Countess Rostova said that she had no doubt that Princess Gisela would be well provided for and that the grief would be a.s.suaged in time," Wellborough continued. His mouth tightened. "I thought it a tasteless remark, and I believe that someone else pa.s.sed a comment to that effect. To which she replied that considering Gisela had murdered Friedrich, the remark was really very mild."

He was prevented from going any further by the gasps and murmurs from the body of the court.

The judge did not intervene but allowed the reaction to run its course.

Rathbone found his muscles clenching. It was going to be every bit as hard as he had feared. He looked sideways at Zorah's powerful profile, her long nose, eyes too widely s.p.a.ced, subtle, sensitive mouth. She was insane, she must be. It was the only answer. Was insanity a plea in cases of slander? Of course not. It was a civil case, not a criminal one.

He did not mean to look at Harvester, least of all to catch his eye, but he found himself doing it. He saw what he thought was a flash of rueful humor, but perhaps it was only pity and knowledge of his own una.s.sailable case.

"And what was the reaction around the table to this statement. Lord Wellborough?" Harvester asked when the noise had subsided sufficiently.

"Horror, of course," Wellborough answered with anxiety. "There were those who chose to a.s.sume she must mean it in some kind of bizarre humor, and they laughed. I daresay they were so embarra.s.sed they had no idea what else to do."

"Did the Countess Rostova explain herself?" Harvester raised his eyebrows. "Did she offer a mitigation as to why she had said such an outrageous thing?"

"No, she did not."

"Not even to Lady Easton, her hostess?"

"No. Poor Lady Easton was mortified. She hardly knew what to say or do to cover the situation. Everyone was acutely uncomfortable."

"I should imagine so," Harvester agreed. "You are quite sure the Countess did not apologize?"

"Far from it," Wellborough said angrily, his hands gripping the edge of the railing of the box as he leaned forward on it. "She said it again."

"In your hearing, Lord Wellborough?"

"Of course in my hearing!" Wellborough said. "I know better than to repeat something in court which I do not know for myself."

Harvester's composure was unruffled. "Are you referring to that same dinner party or to some other occasion?"

"Both..." Wellborough straightened up. "She made the statement again that evening when Sir Gerald Bretherton remonstrated with her, protesting that she surely could not mean such a thing. She a.s.sured him that she did-"

"And what was the reaction to her charge?" Harvester interrupted. "Did anyone argue with her, or did they dismiss it as bad behavior, possibly the act of someone overwrought or who had indulged too much?"

"They tried to do that," Wellborough agreed. "Then she made the same charge again about a week later, at a theater party. The play was a drama. I cannot remember the t.i.tle, but she said again that the Princess Gisela had murdered Prince Friedrich. It was an appalling scene. People tried to pretend they had not heard, or that it had been somehow a wretched joke, but it was perfectly apparent that she meant precisely what she said."

"Are you aware, Lord Wellborough, of whether anyone gave the charge the slightest credence?" Harvester spoke softly, but his words fell with great deliberation and clarity, and he glanced towards the jury and then back again at the witness stand. "Please be most careful how you answer."

"I shall be." Wellborough did not take his eyes off Harvester's face. "I heard several people say it was the most malicious nonsense they had ever heard, and of course there could be no question of there being an atom of truth to it."

"Hear, hear!" a man called from the gallery, and was met with immediate applause.

The judge gave the audience a warning look, but he did not intervene.

Rathbone's jaw tightened. His best hope might have been a strong and subtle judge. But perhaps he was being foolish to believe he had a hope at all. The Lord Chancellor's words rang in his ears. Was this discretion or simply absolute surrender?

Beside him, Zorah was impa.s.sive. Maybe she still did not realize her position.

"From those who knew her, of course," Wellborough said, still answering the question. "And from a great many who did not. But there were those who repeated it, and the ignorant began to question. There were servants who spread t.i.ttle-tattle. It caused much distress."

"To whom?" Harvester said quietly.

"To many people, but the Princess Gisela in particular," Wellborough said slowly.

"Did you meet anyone personally for whom her reputation had suffered?" Harvester pressed.

Wellborough s.h.i.+fted his weight from one foot to the other.

"Yes, I did. I heard ugly remarks on several occasions, and when the Princess wished to return to England for a short stay, it became impossible to employ acceptable staff to look after a small house for her."

"How very unpleasant," Harvester sympathized. "Have you reason to believe this occurred as a result of these accusations by the Countess Rostova?"

"I am quite sure it did," Wellborough replied coldly. "My butler attempted to employ a household so she could stay peacefully for a few months during the summer, to get away from the heat of Venice. She wished to retire here away from public life, quite naturally in the circ.u.mstances. This fearful business has made it impossible. We were unable to obtain a satisfactory staff. Rumor had already spread by word of mouth of the ignorant."

There was a murmur of sympathy from the gallery.

"How distressing." Harvester shook his head. "So the Princess was unable to come?"

"She was obliged to stay with friends, which did not offer her either the privacy or the seclusion which she had desired in her bereavement."

"Thank you, Lord Wellborough. If you could remain where you are, my learned friend may have questions to ask you."

Rathbone rose to his feet. He could almost feel the tension crackle in the air around him. He had racked his brain to think of anything to say to Wellborough, but everything that came to his tongue could only have made matters worse.

The judge looked at him inquiringly.

"No questions, thank you, my lord," he said with a dry mouth, and resumed his seat.

Lord Wellborough moved down the steps, walked smartly to the door and went out.

Harvester called Lady Wellborough.

She took the stand nervously. She was dressed in a mixture of dark brown and black, as if she could not make up her mind whether she should be in mourning or not. A death was being discussed, a murder was being denied.

"Lady Wellborough," Harvester began gently, "I do not have many questions to ask you, and they all concern what may have been said by Countess Rostova and what effect it had."

"I understand," she replied in a small voice. She stood with her hands folded in front of her and her eyes wandering to Gisela, then to Zorah. She did not look at the jury.

"Very well. May I begin by taking your mind back to the dinner party you and Lord Wellborough attended at Lady Easton's house in London? Do you recall that occasion?"

"Yes, of course."

"Did you hear the Countess Rostova make the reference to Princess Gisela and Prince Friedrich's death?"

"Yes. She said that the Princess had murdered him."

Rathbone looked across to where Gisela sat. He tried to read the expression in her face and found himself unable to. She appeared unmoved, almost as if she did not understand what was being said. Or perhaps it was that she did not care. Everything that had pa.s.sion or meaning for her was already irretrievably in the past, had died with the only man she had loved. What was being played out in the courtroom barely impinged on her consciousness-a farce with no reality.

"Did she say it once or several times?" Harvester's voice brought Rathbone's attention back.

"She repeated it again on at least three other occasions that I know of," Lady Wellborough answered. "I heard it all over London, so heaven knows how many times she said it altogether."

"You mean it became a subject of discussion-of gossip, if you like?" Harvester prompted.

Her eyes widened. "Of course. You can hardly hear something like that and not react to it."

"So people repeated it whether they believed it or not?"

"Yes...yes, I don't think anyone believed it. I mean...of course they didn't." She colored. "It's preposterous!"

"But they still repeated it?" he insisted.

"Well...yes."

"Do you know where the Princess was at the time, Lady Wellborough?"

"Yes, she was in Venice."

"Was she aware of what was being said about her?"

She colored faintly. "Yes...I...I wrote and told her. I felt she should know." She bit her lip. "I hated doing it. It took me over an hour to compose a letter, but I could not allow this to be said and go uncontested. I could defend her by denying it, but I could not initiate any proceedings." She stared at Harvester as she said it, a slight frown on her brow.

Rathbone thought she seemed very concerned that Harvester should understand her reasons, and it occurred to him that perhaps he had coached her to give this answer, and she was watching him to see if she had done so correctly. But it was a fact that was of no use. There was nothing he could make of it to help Zorah.

"You gave her the opportunity to defend herself in law," Harvester concluded. "Which she is now taking. Did you receive a reply to your letter?"

"Yes, I did."

There was a murmur of approval from the gallery. One of the jurors nodded gravely.

Harvester produced a piece of pale blue paper and offered it to the usher.

"My lord, may I place this letter into evidence and ask the witness to identify it?"

"You may," the judge agreed.

Lady Wellborough said that it was the letter she had received, and in a slightly husky voice, she read it aloud to the court, quoting the date and the plantiff's address in Venice. She glanced at Gisela only once and met with the merest acknowledgment.

" 'My dear Emma,' " she began in an uncertain voice " 'Your letter shocked and grieved me beyond words. I hardly knew how to set pen to paper to write you a sensible answer.' "

She stopped and cleared her throat without looking up from the paper.

" 'First may I thank you for being such a true friend to me as to tell me this terrible news. It cannot have been easy even to think how to say it. Sometimes the cruelty of life seems beyond bearing.

" 'I thought when my beloved Friedrich died there was nothing else left to hope or fear. For me it was the end of everything that was happy or beautiful or precious in any way. I truly did not think any other blow could wound me. How very wrong I was. I cannot begin to describe how this hurts. To imagine that anyone at all, any human being with a heart or a soul, could think that I could have injured the man who was the love and core of my life, is a pain I do not think I can bear. I am beside myself with grief.

" 'If she does not withdraw absolutely, and confess she was intoxicated or mad, I shall have to take her to court. I shall loathe every second of it, but I have no choice. I will not have Friedrich spoken of so-I will not have our love defiled. To my everlasting grief and loneliness, I could not save his life, but I will save his reputation as the man I loved and adored above all others. I will not, I will not have the world suppose I betrayed him.

" 'I remain your indebted friend, Gisela.' "

She let the paper rest on the railing and looked up at Harvester, her face white, struggling to keep her composure.

No one was looking at her; almost every eye was on Gisela, even if all they could see was her profile. Several women in the gallery sniffed audibly, and one juror sat staring fixedly and blinking rapidly. Another blew his nose unnecessarily hard.

Harvester cleared his throat.

"I think we can safely a.s.sume that Princess Gisela was deeply distressed by this turn of events, and it caused her even greater pain above that which she already suffered in her bereavement."

Lady Wellborough nodded.

Harvester invited Rathbone to question the witness.

Rathbone declined. He heard the rustle of surprise from the gallery, and his eye caught the movement of a juror and the disbelief in his face. But there was nothing at all he could do. In such a desperate situation anything he said would only give Lady Wellborough the opportunity to repeat her evidence.