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Chapter Twenty-Three
Ace had not been too far wrong when he predicted what thehaut ton’s attitude to Lady Josephine would be, once the scandal had come out in her absence.
No cards were left for her, welcoming her back to London. She heard of a ball being given by one of the Prince Regent’s lady friends. Lady Hermione had been invited. Lady Josephine had not. When Lady Josephine exercised her horse on Rotten Row, she received no waves from other gentlewomen in their carriages. In fact, the park cleared within minutes of her arrival, as if it would be infectious even to be seen in the same vicinity as the wicked Lady Josephine.
“You have to understand,” Lady Hermione tried explaining to her friend. “The Earl and his mother, the Dowager Countess, are thought very highly of by thehaut ton.It’s the Earl’s stellar Naval record; it’s the fact that the Prince Regent counts him as a close friend. None of these people want to hear they were wrong about him—that he’s actually a monster in disguise. Because then what does that make them?”
“They’d prefer if I had just kept my mouth shut and married him without creating all this fuss about bad treatment?”
“Precisely,” said Lady Hermione. “They would have wanted you to shut your eyes and put up with it for England’s sake, like the old saying goes.”
“Not to mention the fact that I am Ace’s mistress,” Lady Josephine said bitterly. “I suppose that doesn’t help either.”
“No. Although secretly women might envy your obvious happiness, they will say you’re a harlot, and the Earl had every right to act as he did. ‘She’s lucky she’s alive,’ they’ll say. ‘Why, if it weremyhusband,hewould have….’ That sort of thing,” Lady Hermione explained.
“Hermie? You put their case very well. You don’t agree with them about me, do you?”
“No, of course not. You’re my dearest friend, and you always will be. I am just preparing you for what’s likely to happen at the Earl’s trial.”
* * *
Waiting for the trial, which was scheduled in September, Lady Josephine tried to take comfort in the people who truly cared about her. Lady Hermione had been right; her father was looking much healthier. She should be glad of that. And Ducky was there, a great listener to one’s worries.
Her cousin, Lady Seraphina, had departed Clover House, taking little Horace with her. It was understandable that ’Phina would leave to go to her own brother’s funeral, and then remain down in Rosterbrook to mourn him. But it felt to Lady Josephine like something larger was going on—that Lady Seraphina blamed her for Baron Roster’s death. She imagined they would probably not see Lady Seraphina or little Horace as visitors for a long time, if ever.
Johnny Shiemour was tried first. It was in the Old Bailey, London’s most famous courtroom. Lady Josephine had not been called to testify at that trial. Most of what Shiemour had connived at behind the scenes had not actually been witnessed by her.
There were enough other witnesses, not to mention those people testifying against Shiemour’s character, to make the trial a foregone conclusion. He was found guilty of kidnapping, assault resulting in grievous bodily harm, and conspiracy to murder. He was lucky; none of these was a capital crime, technically. His life would be spared.
But he was sentenced nonetheless to a lifetime of exile—transportation to the penal colony in Botany Bay, Australia.No doubt, thought Lady Josephine,he will leave his greasy mark on Australia as he has done in London.
* * *
Then came the Earl’s trial. Because he was a peer of the realm, he had the right to be tried only by his fellow lords. Such a trial was a rare occurrence. It was marked by ceremonies and procedures handed down from as far back as King John’s reign. The Lord High Steward would act as judge, and peers would be selected as Lords Triers, to act as the jury.
It was quite a public spectacle, and it received coverage by every newspaper in England. So practically every household throughout England would know not just of the crimes of the Earl of Worthington, but also of that woman, his one-time betrothed, whose flagrant wickedness had driven the Earl to such evil lengths.
“Just be brave, and answer each question honestly,” Ace told Josie the morning the trial was to start. “And I will do the same. That’s all we can do. We’ll look back on this ordeal, Josie, years from now, and we’ll see how unimportant it really was to us.”
King’s Counsel, the prosecutor for the Crown, presented the case against the Earl first. The Earl’s barrister, one of the most notable lawyers in all of England, would then cross-question the Crown’s witnesses.
Lady Josephine Wallace, daughter of the Duke of Clover, was formally called to the stand. She wore somber, restrained clothing, and her hat had a long veil in the front that hid her face almost completely. King’s Counsel led her through interminable examples of the Earl’s cruelty to her throughout their engagement.
This took hours. Counsel for the defense objected repeatedly that this information was irrelevant. But King’s Counsel was sure the Earl would try to tear down Josephine’s credibility. So he wanted to destroy the Earl’s character first.
“Your lord father hired a bodyguard for you, a famed pugilist, one Mr. Smith by name. Is that correct, my lady?”
Lady Josephine said it was.
“By any chance, do you think His Grace may have hired this bodyguard to protect you from your intended’s temper?” asked King’s Counsel.
Counsel for the defense sprang to his feet. “Objection, my lord,” he said to the Lord High Steward. “Leading the witness, calling for speculation by the witness….”It’s going to be a long day,thought Lady Josephine.
* * *
Ace, sitting in the witness box, watched Josie give her testimony.She is holding up well,he thought. But they haven’t got to the difficult parts yet.
King’s Counsel led her through the events occurring at Worthington Hall on the weekend they visited. He emphasized the brutality of the Earl and his sisters.
