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‘She was a clumsy woman!’ Graves said darkly.
‘And was Ebony clumsy, too, and Sarah?’ He allowed the sarcasm he felt to be heard in his voice.
‘Occasionally,’ Graves replied, but there was a flush in his face and a sharp, brittle edge to his voice.
‘Are you clumsy also?’ Daniel asked. ‘Have you had broken bones?’
Grisewood rose again. ‘My lord, this is impertinent, intrusive, and ridiculous.’
‘It is not entirely irrelevant,’ the judge replied. ‘And I do not find it ridiculous. I would like to hear the answer.’
‘No, I am not clumsy,’ Graves said irritably.
‘Never broken a bone?’ Daniel raised his eyebrows. ‘Be careful to be exact, Mr Graves. We have science these days that can tell if a person has any broken bones, even before they are dead. Bones heal, but they look different from bones that have not been broken.’
‘No, I have never broken my bones, and no science will find that I have,’ Graves answered tartly. ‘What has this to do with the fact that Ebony killed Winifred and tried to get me hanged for killing her?’
‘Oh, quite a lot,’ Daniel said with a tiny smile. ‘But we will come to that later. Thank you, my lord, that is all I have for this witness.’
Grisewood stood up and had Graves restate his total innocence, and add some details of his suffering as a result of having been wrongly accused of murdering Ebony.
Daniel addressed the judge. ‘I am quite aware of all that, my lord. In case Mr Graves has forgotten, it was I who worked night and day to prove his innocence.’
‘Indeed, Mr Pitt knows it most of all,’ Grisewood said with a wide smile. ‘The prosecution rests, my lord.’
Chapter Twenty-Two
Daniel began his defence immediately after an early luncheon recess. He had spent the time with Kitteridge, turning over and over in his mind the possibilities. Should he present as much evidence as possible? Or should he not risk boring the jury, or giving Grisewood too much testimony to challenge? Grisewood would certainly do all he could to destroy Miriam. He would try everything to discredit her skills or make a mockery of her in the courtroom.
‘Are you sure I should expose her to that?’ he kept asking Kitteridge. ‘He’ll try to make her look ridiculous. He’ll use every prejudice possible.’
‘For heaven’s sake, Pitt! She’s a grown woman! Do you appreciate your mother fussing over you to protect you from life?’
‘No, of course not, but that’s different!’
‘Yes, it is! She’s your mother. It’s her job. You are not Miriam’s parent. In fact, she’s almost old enough to be yours.’
‘No, she isn’t!’ Daniel replied hotly.
‘She’s about two or three years short. She’s got Marcus treating her as if she’s made of porcelain, she doesn’t need you too!’
But Daniel was not convinced. All his witnesses were women, and he felt as if he were missing something vital. But which men could he call? Falthorne had already testified, so had Graves, the police, and the police surgeon.
‘Believe in yourself!’ Kitteridge said. ‘If you don’t, the jury will sense it and you’ll lose them. Bite the bullet, Pitt! Get on with it.’
And so Daniel began by calling Ebony Cumberford.
‘I apologise if I should slip and call you Ebony Graves,’ he began. ‘But the majority of the time I have known of you, it was by that name.’
She smiled ruefully. ‘I thought of myself by that name,’ she told him. ‘I will take no offence.’
‘Thank you.’ He then led her through her first meeting with Russell Graves, from her point of view. She insisted she had known nothing of Winifred’s existence. Graves appeared to be single, and behaved as if he were. He had courted her; she mentioned certain places and events they had attended together. He asked her to marry him, and she had accepted.
In time, they had moved to their present address in the outskirts of London. Sarah had been born, and then Arthur. In none of that time had Graves made any mention of an earlier marriage.
She knew nothing of the inheritance involving a title and estate. She had learned of it only when Winifred arrived and demanded to see her.
‘That must have been a tremendous shock to you,’ Daniel observed.
