The Small Museum by Jody Cooksley

Author:Jody Cooksley
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Allison and Busby
Published: 2024-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

20

The Marlborough Assizes

‘Let me in, Maddie.’ I tapped against the metal grid of the door, straining to hear a response. The cell looked empty. Hard to see through the small hatch, but I assumed she was in a corner. Number seven. Definitely the number I was given by the guards. Keen moaning from the room next door filled the corridor. Someone called out for God to help him. How long before Maddie crumbled in this place? Why would she not take my help?

‘Maddie.’ I tapped again and the moaning rose in pitch. ‘They’ll only allow a half-hour visit before they throw me out again. Talk to me, please.’ Sour smells of sweat and excrement came through the grilles. Unwashed clothes and unemptied buckets. I couldn’t stand to think of her alone for hours on end, wondering if she’d be condemned to die. No wonder it was taking her fight.

‘It’s not afternoon tea.’ The guard stomped back along the corridor, opened the door roughly and gestured for me to go inside. Purple-red blotches covered the lower part of his face. ‘You don’t need to ask permission to visit.’ He gave the next door a vicious kick and the moaning stopped suddenly. Then he dropped back to the doorway and scratched at his neck. ‘Go on then. I’ve better things to do than stand here.’

I stumbled, put out a hand to steady myself. The wall was slimy with damp that seemed to stay on my hands. Rubbing them together, I walked inside, blinking in the gloom. It smelt the same as the corridor. Maddie was curled on a hard straw pad, bound in cloth the colour of her dress and just as dirty. I crouched beside her and touched her as gently as I could in case she was sleeping. She wasn’t. But she didn’t move or turn.

‘I want to help you, Maddie. I’ve been there, every day, have you seen me? Can you see in the gallery?’ What a stupid thing to say. Of course she didn’t want to look there. All those people gawping at her pain. ‘I can’t talk for you unless you ask them. You have to ask them.’

Tears ran dirt streaks down her cheeks. She didn’t move or speak. I put my arm around her shoulders.

‘You only have a few days left. Don’t let them decide this without you.’

Maddie stirred and sat upright, hugged her arms around her knees. ‘I don’t want you and Ambrose mixed up in my trouble.’ Her head rested on her arms, muffling her voice, and I strained to hear. ‘It’s what started it all. Lucius, his father, their reputations. They think it’s worth more than anything. More than life.’

‘Ambrose isn’t …’ What was I going to say? That he didn’t care about his reputation? Of course he did, they all did. But I was pretty sure he didn’t care about it more than life. I thought of him with our child. He loved him, of course he did. But would he put him first, before name and reputation? I shook my head.

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