And he looked over her head at Jessica and. Come, Anthony.”Ī path opened up for him, though he did have to lead his wife and son around Gabriel and Jessica and Mary in order to reach it. “If no one among you is man enough to hold this man until the authorities can come to arrest him and haul him off to jail, where he belongs, then I will have to make those arrangements myself. For now,” he said, speaking with an awful dignity. His wife set a hand on his arm again, and again he shook it off. And Manley seemed lost for further words. Or read.” He looked triumphantly about him.īut his words fell flat. “How much did you pay the strumpet? And her father and husband? How much did you pay Miss Beck? And the groom who wrote a letter-if he did write it? In my experience grooms do not write. “You brought a fortune from America with you, Thorne,” Anthony Rochford blurted suddenly. Manley had turned even paler, if that was possible. “She does name that someone else in her letter,” Gabriel added, his eyes fixed upon Manley. He waited for the renewed swell of sound around them to die down. “And I have a letter,” Gabriel said, “written by the lady herself and witnessed by her father and her husband, exonerating me from that charge. “Even for that rape,” Manley said, repeating the word at least one of his fellow guests had found offensive, “he deserves to die.” “Remember there are ladies present, Rochford.” “Besides,” Manley cried, trying to reestablish his hold on them, “he is a ravisher as well as a murderer. The crowd no longer seemed so eager to pounce.

“It is easy to get your friends to say anything you wish, Gabriel. “I have a firm alibi, you see,” Gabriel said. It was currently locked inside a safe in Netherby’s study at Archer House. I have a letter from him in safekeeping.” He was helping me tend a wounded fawn one of the grooms had brought me. Gabriel was at my cottage for several hours of the afternoon when poor Mr. “Truth is the only thing to be told, at all times. Rochford,” she said in her calm, deep voice. “I never have to consider for long before telling the truth, Mr. But you may wish to consider well before perjuring yourself in order to save him from the gallows.” Gabriel was always a great favorite with you, I recall. “You are a long way from home, Miss Beck. “Be quiet, Marjorie,” Manley commanded, his voice harsh.

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