The Prisoner by Karyn Monk

Author:Karyn Monk [Monk, Karyn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2012-01-16T01:49:16+00:00

Chapter Eight

The Inveraray courthouse was an elegantly spare building of precisely cut blocks of biscuit-colored stone. Completed in 1820, it had been designed by the architect James Gillespie Graham, who had been sensitive enough to realize that men who were cooped up in a chamber with the onerous burden of dispensing justice all day long might appreciate a little light and air. Therefore, several large, paned windows filled the relatively spacious courtroom with either inspiring cheer or oppressive gloom, depending on the weather.

On the cold December day of Charlotte’s trial, a thick gray mantle of cloud effectively blocked any hope of sunlight. This left the courtroom both freezing and dark, forcing the sheriff, lawyers, and clerks to bundle themselves in extra layers beneath their black robes. With their yellowing sausage-roll wigs perched precariously upon their heads and their wrinkled robes ballooning out around them, they looked like a flock of bored, fattened ducks ready to be plucked and roasted upon a spit, Genevieve thought.

“… and since that terrible day I’ve not been able to have an easy moment, either in my shop, or on the street, or even in my own bed at night,” Mr. Ingram mewled pitifully. “Those young ruffians beat me so badly I suffer constant pain. The doctor has told me I will have to endure it for the rest of my life.” He rubbed his gray head and winced, as if he were afflicted at that very moment, then gave the sheriff a mournful look.

“Thank you, Mr. Ingram,” said Mr. Fenton. The prosecuting counsel was a pasty-faced man with a sharply pointed beak of a nose, beneath which he sported an enormous lobster-red mustache. “You may step down.”

Mr. Ingram made a great show of hobbling as slowly and stiffly as possible to his seat on the hard wooden benches where the audience sat. Genevieve had an almost irrepressible urge to yell out “fire!” and then see how quickly Mr. Ingram was able to flee the confines of the building. When she had paid him a visit but three days earlier he had flapped his arms with athletic vigor as he scrambled about pointing to the damages his shop had incurred. His current physical impairment had mysteriously manifested itself since then.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.