That brought her up short. “But if I plead guilty, I will have a criminal record!” One that, if she was ever unlucky enough to be arrested again for producing and publishing seditious libel—a very real possibility when she worked forEquitas—would guarantee her a one-way trip to Botany Bay!
He threw up his palms. “Which no one need ever know about, so long as the bloody fine is paid! I can beg another favor and keep it from the newspapers and then this all ends here!”
“But the blot on my record stays here! Indelibly written on an official document that could be used against me at any time!” Portia threw up her own manacled palms, wishing she could tell him exactly why the stakes were suddenly so high. “And correct me if I am wrong, but under the conditions set out in that outrageous piece of legislation called the Blasphemous and Seditious Libels Act that your corrupt bully of a constable is so fond of quoting, if I am found guilty of a second offense of such libel—no matter how similarly unjust that charge might be—the punishment is automatically fourteen years transportation!” A punishment that made her throat constrict with fear. “I cannot and will not take that risk!”
“Risk?” Leo grabbed her hands. “You are covered in ink, Portia!”
“But I am always covered in ink!”
“They don’t know that!” He pointed to the door. “And the whole court just heard you call Nolley a liar—on that alone I guarantee that any chance of risk has been replaced by certainty as he now has three magistrates as witnesses. Do you know what impact that will have on a jury? Be in no doubt, if they uphold Nolley’s testimony, youwillbe convicted of seditious libel if this goes to trial and it will be on your record anyway. The only difference is that this way you won’t end up imprisonedandmolested as well as fined! That is the only real risk that you should be concerning yourself with now!”
“But I am innocent and, given time, I could prove that!”
“If you are…” That damningifcut through her like a knife. “And if you can get proof, then I can get that blot on your record bloody well erased! In the meantime, seeing as you are so fond on divvying up everything and everyone behind nonsensical battle lines, this is my world and not yours. So trust me and just do as I say!”
Chapter
EIGHTEEN
“Portia Elizabeth Kendall, you are charged with composing and publishing seditious libel on this day in the city of Bath in accordance with the Blasphemous and Seditious Libels Act of 1819. How do you plead?”
As Corston read out the charges, Leo hoped fervently that she would do as he had asked but still wasn’t sure that she would. They had argued like cat and dog right up until the last moment when the clerk of court had come to fetch her. She had been adamant, but he hoped that she understood how limited her options currently were. If this was wrong, he had given her his word that he would make it right. In truth, even if she was as guilty as sin as the evidence suggested she was, he would single-handedly charge against a rampaging army if it kept her out of harm’s way.
That’s what a man did for the woman he suspected he was already more than half in love with—even if she had an adamant and nonsensical reason why she wouldn’t allow herself to attempt to love him back.
A sudden epiphany he would have to digest properly and deal with once this crisis was over.
“How do you plead, Miss Kendall?” Lord Corston was as frustrated with her silence as Leo was.
Portia squared her shoulders and stuck out her chin and Leo’s gut clenched in fear. Her expression was defiant as she flicked her gaze his way and he willed her to see sense.
Please, Portia! Trust me!
She looked away and stared at the floor, releasing an audible sigh as she seemed to deflate in the makeshift dock. “Guilty.” Her voice was small and defeated and he hated it. Hated seeing this fearsome, formidable woman who always radiated such fire reduced to a browbeaten shell of self-loathing.
He wanted to go to her. Wrap her tight in his arms and tell her that it was all going to be all right, but he knew that wouldn’t go down well with the court, who already suspected that she meant more to him than an employee should. Instead, he had to settle for being supremely grateful that she was safe and everything else could wait until tomorrow.
They left her manacled as the clerk took down all her particulars, treating her like a common criminal, and that galled. But he sat on his hands and waited quietly, counting every excruciating second until they deigned to release her into his care.
“Place of birth?” asked the clerk.
“Newton St. Loe.”
Corston’s ears pricked up. “My neck of the woods, eh? I knew a Kendall way back—a Terence Kendall. He was a gardener, or maybe a groom, on my estate for a while, I believe. Is he any relation?”
There was no imagining the venom in Portia’s tone as she replied. “He was my father and he was your gamekeeper for fifteen years.”Why the blazes hadn’t she told him that? And what else didn’t he know about her?
“Whatever he was, he was a good man. One who knew his place.” Corston could not have been more patronizing. “You would do well to follow his example, Miss Kendall, and learn yours.”
Her lovely eyes narrowed at that dismissive chastisement and for a moment, Leo was sure she was about to tear Corston off a strip, butshe didn’t. She clenched her jaw instead and only spoke again when spoken to, and only to answer questions for the record.
At Nolley’s insistence, the fine was a hefty one, but Leo paid it without comment, then waited while the constable finally produced the keys to unlock the humiliating shackles. “She’s all yours again, your grace.” The innuendo in the vile little man’s tone chafed, but not as much as the way Nolley shoved Portia toward him. “And you are welcome to her.”
It took all Leo had just to nod as he maneuvered her to the door. He would deal with the constable in due course. Right now, his only priority was getting Portia home.
He helped her into the waiting carriage where she sat stiffly opposite, staring out of the window rather than look at him.
“I know that you are angry, Portia.”
