“Transportation?”
“To the Caribbean is my guess. But I’m here to talk about you primarily, not them.”
Mind awhirl, she was trying to keep up with all the repercussions and possibilities. Leith could go free. Leith could be transported to somewhere other than the colonies, once the favored destination for convicts. Or Leith could hang. On the other hand, Euan and Cochrane faced all of the same. She still knew nothing of Lyrica’s involvement or the lack of it.
Another headache beat at her temples. “’Tis terribly complex.”
“Should the worst happen and Leith is convicted, I advocate your coming immediately to Bath. Niall and Loveday will remain here, of course, for the time being, depending on what happens next.”
Bath. Without Leith, Bath was an empty shell of a place. Would she spend the rest of her life missing him? Grieving him? Mourning the life they would have had with the twins?
“The tolbooth chaplain is the one who conveyed Leith’s letter to me to give to you. If you’d like to pen a response, I will carry it back to him in hopes Leith will have it.”
“Of course.” She went to a writing desk along one damask-clad wall. Her hands fairly shook, and she willed her headache away.
Just then, Loveday swept in with a medicinal toddy. “I know that look,” she said, setting the hot beverage down atop the desk. “You’ve had few of your spells since coming to Scotland, so ’tis especially apparent to me here.”
Juliet thanked her, then took out ink, sand, and a newly sharpened quill. For a moment she froze as she stared downat the pristine paper. She exchanged her pen for a bracing sip of the toddy as Loveday took her seat beside Father and they conversed quietly by the fire.
Dearest husband,
I did not think it possible that I could love you more in absence, but I do. Each day without you seems a lifetime, though I continue to hope and pray the door of that cell will swing open and you will take me in your arms again. Not once have I ever doubted you. The grievous wrong done you will come to light. ’Tis only a matter of time. God Almighty will make a way. Do not worry for a moment about me or our children. They are a consolation and joy to me without you, though bittersweet. More and more I see you in their changing faces, their moods, even the tone of their voices. They do you proud, and I am beyond blessed to be their mam.
We shall all be reunited. Think not of any future other than beautiful, restorative Bath. We shall have the honeymoon till now denied us. See you soon, my heart.
Your ever loving wife, J
She leaned closer, a tear spattering the paper where she’d signed her name. The drop gave an extra flourish to theJ. After drying the ink with sand, she affixed the indigo seal with her intaglio ring and wax from a lit candle.
She had sold Royal Vale to Nathaniel Ravenal, who’d manumitted the Africans. She was no longer an indigo heiress. She was Leith Buchanan’s wife, and her future had never been more uncertain.
64
They that know no evil will suspect none.
Ben Jonson
The verdict was imminent, Tennant’s note read. Juliet should return to Glasgow.
So, the hour had come. Quickly, she made ready. She wanted to be near Leith no matter what. Done with teetering between hope and trepidation, she would behave with strength and honor, as Proverbs said, and rejoice in time to come.
“Let me fetch Miss Loveday from the stillroom to go with you,” Rilla said in concern.
“Nay. She’s needed here.” Juliet stood in Lamb Hill’s foyer as Minette brought her cape. “I want her to be near the twins when they awaken from their nap. They love her company, and I would fret otherwise, especially since Bella is recovering from a fever. I’ll send word as soon as I can from Virginia Street as to what’s transpired with Mr. Buchanan.”
“Your guard goes with you, I reckon.” Rilla looked toward the front door a footman was opening, revealing a closedcarriage being brought round the circular forecourt. “My prayers go with you too.”
After a hasty goodbye, Minette followed Juliet outside, the guard tipping his hat to them as he waited on horseback behind the coach. Today there was no rainbow above Lamb Hill. A downpour turned the dusty driveway a deep chocolate brown as they rattled down it, shutters closed against the damp spring air. Minette looked so tense, so downcast, that Juliet was tempted to tell her Édith had been found. But she herself knew better, and Tennant had said the details would be revealed at the trial and not before.
“I’ve been praying for a maiden assize, madame,” Minette said quietly.
“A maiden assize? I’ve not heard that term before.”
“Oui, it is when the sheriff presents the presiding judge with a pair of white gloves, a sign of purity, that announces there is no death sentence.”
How symbolic, even beautiful, a gesture. For a moment dread fought its way forward again at the mention of death, but the image of the gloves, a flawless white, righted her. Darkness and light. She still felt in the midst of a battle between good and evil. Which would prevail?
Thankful they were not far from Glasgow, Juliet sat back and took out her watch on its coral chain, a gift from Zipporah, to check the time. Half past ten.
