24

Rose and Aurora sat in the courtroom throwing encouraging glances at Effie, who stood in the dock looking as forlorn as an abandoned dog. It was unbearably hot and the dark wooden panelling and formality of the court were oppressive. The elderly judge, forbidding in his wig and robes, kept sighing wearily. The way he kept glancing at Effie made Rose think that he had already decided she was guilty, and was irritable that he had to sit through the evidence being presented against her, and just wanted to pronounce sentence so he could retire for his lunch. The lawyers appointed by Edward had expressed their dismay at the hurried nature of the proceedings, and asked for more time to consult with their client, but their pleas had been dismissed by the judge. Every time Effie’s defence lawyer stood to speak the judge looked ever more crotchety. His hand made an unconscious circular motion as if he was trying to hurry him on.

“This isn’t fair, this isn’t justice,” hissed Rose loudly to Aurora after Effie’s lawyer had been cut off by the judge mid-stream. The judge glared in their direction. Rose looked around the courtroom. Edward was missing as he was still trying to secure Thomas’s release from Newgate, but there was a good turnout from Campion’s in the public gallery, led by Lottie and Tessa and some of the other ballet girls, and most of the bar staff. Even Billy Proctor was there. She had caught him exchanging a word with Inspector Cliff on the steps on the way into the court and she felt annoyed that the inspector had so clearly ignored her note. For a horrible moment she had wondered whether Billy might be giving evidence against Effie; she wouldn’t put it past him, always lurking around backstage where he wasn’t supposed to be and spying on people. But clearly her suspicions had been misplaced, or he wouldn’t be in the courtroom now.

The prosecution were calling a witness. Tobias Fraggles entered the court and made his way into the witness box. He kept his eyes on the floor, and an ugly flush spread across his handsome face as expressions of surprise and hisses came from the public gallery. He took the oath and stood uncomfortably in the box as the prosecution lawyer quizzed him about his name and address, and established that he had been at Campion’s working backstage on the night of Gandini’s death.

“Mr Fraggles, on the night in question did you go to Mr Gandini’s dressing room just before the show?”

Tobias cleared his throat. “Yes, sir,” he said, still not raising his head.

“Why was that?” demanded the lawyer.

“I ’ad a question for the wizard ’bout the placing of the table. I wanted to make sure I ’ad it right. The wizard was a right stickler for fings being just so. ’E don’t like anyfing out of place.” Tobias was looking and sounding more confident.

“And did you ask Mr Gandini about the table?”

“No,” said Tobias shaking his head.

“And why was that, Mr Fraggles?”

“Cos when I got to Mr Gandini’s dressing room there was a right racket goin’ on. I could ’ear it through the door. I dinna want to interrupt.”

“Could you identify the speakers?”

“One of ’em was the wizard. He kept saying, ‘calm down, calm down.’”

“And the other?” asked the lawyer.

“It was her, Effie Madley,” said Tobias, pointing straight at Effie. “I’d know ’er voice anywhere.”

“And what was the accused saying?”

Tobias looked straight ahead and said loudly, in an unwavering voice, “I hate you.”

The lawyer put his head on one side like a curious bird. “Anything else?”

Tobias nodded. “One day, Gandini, you’re going to get what’s coming to you: a bullet through the forehead.”

There were gasps.

“No,” shouted Rose. “That can’t be true.”

“Silence!” roared the judge. “Or I will clear the court. I will have anyone who interrupts removed.”

Rose’s mind was racing. It didn’t sound like Effie, and unless Effie had been feigning a respect and affection for Gandini all along, it was at odds with the way that she had always talked about the magician – not least because she always gave him the courtesy of calling him Mr Gandini. She desperately wanted to get the attention of the defence lawyer, but he was already on his feet and cross-examining Tobias, who was sticking to his story like a dog with a juicy bone. Rose had to admit that he sounded both consistent and convincing. The defence lawyer was finishing his examination of the witness.

“Mr Fraggles, do you have any grudge against the accused?”

“None at all,” said Tobias smoothly. “She liked to try and ’elp out in the workshop. She’d try and mend fings. But course she’s only a girl and she ain’t got no strength and the brains for that sort of fing. I always tried to ’elp her best I could, but she’s got a right temper on her. She threatened me once with an ’ammer.”

There were more gasps from the gallery, quickly hushed. Rose thought she might explode. She knew for certain that the man was lying. If only Thomas was here to be a witness. He would set the judge straight about Effie’s character. She felt Aurora’s calming hand on her shoulder, but Rose was anything but calm. Effie was looking at her with the beseeching eyes of a kicked mongrel who was about to be dropped in the river.

The next witness had been called. It was the policeman who had been present on the night of Gandini’s death, and who had discreetly shown Inspector Cliff something that he found. The prosecution lawyer asked a number of questions before building to the climax of his cross-examination. He produced a small folded piece of paper, and it was passed to the policeman.

“I want you to examine this piece of paper carefully and tell the court if you are certain that this is the piece of paper you found when you searched Mr Gandini’s dressing room in the minutes after his death.”

The defence lawyer looked puzzled. It was clearly the first time he had heard about the piece of paper.

“Is this the piece of paper you found in the dressing room?” repeated the prosecution lawyer.

“Yes, sir, it is.”

“Will you read it out, please?”

The policeman cleared his throat. “Gandini, you is the walking dead. Watch yer back. EM.”

Rose starred at Aurora, her excitement growing. The note was clearly a fake. Whoever had written it didn’t know that Effie couldn’t read or write. Her mind lurched to the note she had found in Amy’s room. Whoever had killed Amy must also be responsible for Gandini’s murder, and was now trying to frame Effie for the crime! The words rose from her throat.

“This is ridiculous. It’s clearly a fake because—”

But she got no further. The judge pinned her with his furious gaze and summoned the court ushers, who yanked Rose from the courtroom, her protests drowned by the uproar all around her. Rose was bundled protesting through corridors and the grand hall and pushed out on to the court steps. She was weeping in frustration at the court system and her own stupidity. If she had only kept her mouth shut and sent a note to the defence lawyers, then perhaps they would have been able to prove Effie’s inability to read and write by demonstrating her lack of skill in the witness box. Although perhaps the cranky old judge would simply conclude that she was feigning. Rose began to feel that Effie had been right when she had said that she was doomed.

She didn’t know what to do but wait until Aurora came to find her. There was a big crowd gathered outside the courtroom, all clearly awaiting the verdict, some with a salacious excitement. In a daze Rose wandered among them. Two women beside her were talking loudly.

“Will she get the death sentence if she’s found guilty?”

“Too young,” said the other, sounding disappointed. “But she deserves it, the little minx. It was cold-blooded murder.”

“I wonder why she did it?” her friend replied.

“We’ll probably never know,” said the other shaking her head.

The crowd was growing. Rose felt herself jostled. This kind of crowd was prime territory for pickpockets. She peered around suddenly with the odd feeling that she was being observed from very close by. She thought she caught a glimpse of gooseberry-green eyes in a pale face, but lost sight of them in the crowd.

At that moment, people began to push their way out of the courtroom and a boy came running out through the doors shouting at the top of his voice: “Guilty! The verdict is guilty! Life imprisonment.”

The cry went up through the crowd. Rose suddenly felt faint. She saw Lydia and Edward making their way through the crowd towards her. They had obviously arrived just as the verdict had been announced.

“There you are,” said a man sagely. “Such an innocent-looking little thing, and a murderess. Maybe she knocked off that other one too, the one who is supposed to have drowned herself and the Doomstone in the river.”

Amy! Rose’s heart began to hammer in her chest and she started looking frantically around, searching the faces of the crowd, looking again for those distinctive gooseberry-green eyes. In the far distance over the other side of the square she could see a lanky girl. Her back was to Rose and she was pushing her way through the far side of the crowd away from Rose as if panicked by something.

Rose stared. It couldn’t be! Could it? Rose was about to cry out, “Amy!” when she heard her own name being shouted. It was Edward. He and Lydia were coming from the other side of the square and were almost upon her. She saw Aurora tear out of the court building and stumble down the steps to join them, blind with tears. Rose glanced back again to where she was sure that she had seen Amy, but there was no sign of her. Could she be mistaken? She must be! Rose’s heart was beating a tattoo. Around her the crowd had taken up the cry “guilty”, and were chanting it as if they were trying to taunt her with the word. Aurora, Edward and Lydia were all closer now, determinedly pushing their way towards her. Edward was weeping openly. When they reached Rose, Aurora and Edward wrapped their arms around her and the three of them stood for a moment together. When they broke apart, Lydia was gazing at her with pin-sharp eyes.

“My! You are as white as a sheet, Rose. You look as if you’ve just seen a ghost.”