The Blue Cloak by Shannon McNear

Author:Shannon McNear [McNear, Shannon]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781643523163
Publisher: Barbour Publishing, Inc.
Published: 2019-06-14T16:00:00+00:00

The trial for Elizabeth Walker was the first on the docket the next morning, and Ben could find nothing noteworthy in the proceedings, which led quickly enough to an acquittal. Sally’s followed immediately after, once Betsey had been taken back to the cell and Sally brought out.

Ben could feel Rachel’s anxiety from where she sat beside him as if it were his own. And indeed, his own gut seemed tied in knots. Such an exercise in folly, and yet not, this putting women to trial for Thomas’s awful death—women who doubtlessly witnessed it but Ben was sure had not participated or colluded in it. Whether, however, they were culpable merely by their reluctance to speak against the men was another thing entirely.

Sally too was acquitted, however, and stood at the bar, jouncing her newborn at her shoulder and swaying a little as the verdict was read. Beside him, Rachel sighed and put both hands over her face.

The defense then rose and requested a retrial for Susan. That was granted, and set for the next day.

As Sally was led out—arrangements had to be made for hers and Betsey’s actual release—Rachel turned to him.

“Now we see what they do with Susan’s case tomorrow,” he said, before she could even ask.

That evening, the ordinary was full of talk about the trials, what could be done for the women, how Susan had avowed, along with the other women, that if given the chance, she only wanted to return to Knoxville and begin a new life.

He and Rachel had no doubt that it was true, at least from Sally’s lips. The desperation on her face when she’d said it to Rachel and Ben after her acquittal—the tears of obvious relief—were convincing enough. Of the other two, it remained to be seen. Ben had heard stories while in law school of folk who, accustomed to the roughness of a particular life of lowness, were unable or unwilling to choose otherwise when offered the opportunity.

And these women, and their history, were very much an unknown, even now.

He was unsurprised however when a speedy acquittal came for Susan the next day. The courtroom broke out in excitement, with the wail of Susan’s baby rising above all else at the sudden tumult. The woman’s gaunt face was wreathed in smiles as she patted the child to soothe her, while nodding her thanks to the jury and judges.

This part was over, and perhaps the Harpe women truly would have a new start. Now it remained to recapture the men.

The craving to be part of that chase rose up in him with a hot bitterness that Ben could rarely recall feeling before, if ever—and that likely would never sleep until Thomas’s murder was well and truly answered for.

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