By then, though, Amber was so wound up that she barely heard a word the stern-faced magistrates said and her eyes stayed fixed on the door for a sign of her husband, oblivious of the crowd chattering around her.
Suddenly there was a hush and, turning, Amber saw Barnaby being led into the room. He was leaning heavily on a crutch and two police officers stood on either side of him, as if they were expecting him to try and escape. His eyes immediately scanned the room and when they found her, he gave her a smile. He looked tired and was still far from well but as he was led to stand before the magistrates, he kept his head high and she was proud of him.
It took only a matter of minutes for the magistrates to read what he was charged with, and, after conferring in hushed voices, the most senior of the magistrates stood up and said solemnly, ‘Barnaby Josiah Greenwood, you stand before us charged with the murder of Albert Preston, the most heinous of crimes, and so we recommend that you shall be transported at the earliest opportunity to the cells below Pickering High Court where you will be kept until you stand before Judge Alberton who will decide your fate.’
A gasp of dismay went up around the room and Amber’s hand flew to her throat. Judge Alberton was commonly known as ‘the hanging judge’, and for a moment, she felt the floor rush up to meet her and had to grip the back of the chair in front of her to stop herself from falling.
‘NO!’ her tortured voice echoed about the room. ‘This isn’tfair! He was only protecting me and hedidn’tmurder Bertie!’
‘Be silent, young woman, otherwise you will find yourself on a charge of breaching the peace,’ the magistrate snapped.
Barnaby, his head lowered, was being led away and Amber began to elbow her way through the crowd to get to him, but it was no use, for by the time she had managed to get to the door Barnaby had already been pushed onto the prison cart outside. Lifting her skirts Amber raced to the other side of the market square and when the cart pulled up, she gripped the sergeant’s arm.
‘Please, Sergeant Mellor, may I see him, just for a few minutes?’
He looked over his shoulder before taking her elbow and whisking her into the police station as the two young constables outside helped Barnaby down from the cart.
‘Just let us get him back into the cells and I’ll give you ten minutes,’ he told her in a low voice. ‘But don’t get telling anyone I allowed it or it will be my head on the block!’
Ten minutes later she again descended the steep stone steps to find Barnaby sitting on his bed with his head in his hands, but he was calm. Most men would have been shaking at the fate that was soon to befall them and she couldn’t help but think how brave he was being.
‘Oh, Barnaby, what are we goin’ to do? This is all my fault,’ she cried as she held his hand through the metal bars of the cage. ‘If I hadn’t gone out that night an’ you hadn’t heard me scream?.?.?.’
‘Stop it.’ He gave her hand a little shake. ‘It wasn’t your fault that Preston attacked you, and you have tried to help me.’
‘But they won’t believe me,’ she whimpered.
He sighed before saying, ‘Listen, I want you to go home and forget all about me. I’ve brought you nothing but trouble, but at least you and Charlotte will be set up financially for life. You’ll never know how relieved that makes me feel. And don’t be frightened, Preston can’t hurt you anymore and you have the Jennings and Jimmy to help you.’ His face softened then as he told her gently, ‘But before you do go, there’s one more thing I need to tell you. I love you, Amber. I didn’t know what true love was when I was with Louisa so I want you to know that I’d rather have had the short time I’ve spent with you and our daughter than a lifetime with anyone else.’
‘Oh!’ Her eyes were so full of tears that his face was swimming in front of her. ‘I love you too?.?.?. so much. I don’t know how I can go on without you.’ And it shocked her afresh to realise that she meant every word she said. Somehow this man, who she had once thought she hated, had crept into her heart again and now she couldn’t envisage life without him.
‘Go now,’ he said in a shaky voice. ‘And promise me that you won’t try to come when they?.?.?. you know? I want you to remember me as I am now. Will you do that last thing for me, my love?’
She nodded numbly, unable to speak, then turned and stumbled blindly back up the steps.
Chapter Forty-Four
Two days later, Mrs Jennings informed her tentatively, ‘I heard that they’re movin’ Barnaby to Pickering tomorrow, lass, an’ that he’s before the judge the followin’ day?.?.?. I thought I should tell you.’
Amber clutched the edge of the sink where she was peeling potatoes and nodded. Through the window she could see Charlotte and Socks playing amongst the trees in the orchard and everything was just going on as any other day, and yet nothing was the same. The house felt empty without Barnaby’s presence and she missed having him to talk to. Time and again she had been tempted to go into town and beg the sergeant to let her see him just one more time, but she didn’t want to break the promise she had made to him and so, somehow, she had managed to stop herself.
‘That’s it then,’ she said brokenly. ‘I think we both know what the outcome will be! I’ve been prayin’ that somethin’ would happen to show that me an’ Barnaby were tellin’ the truth. He’s told them that he’s innocent but they won’t believe him and now?.?.?.’
As her voice trailed away and Mrs Jennings rushed forward to envelope her in her arms, the tears came so fast that she could hardly breathe and all the older woman could do was hold her tight. Seeing her mother cry, little Charlotte, who had entered the room and was pottering about the floor with Socks, began to cry too and the mood was gloomy.
Long after Mrs Jennings had left, Amber sat staring into space. She could only imagine how awful and frightened Barnaby must be feeling and the worst of it was she could do nothing to comfort him. Somehow, she managed to get through the day and after Charlotte was tucked up in bed, she went to stand on the cliff overlooking their little cove and sent up a silent prayer for mercy, although she had little hope of it being heard. Judge Alberton wasn’t known as ‘the hanging judge’ for nothing and with no witnesses to back their story all the odds were stacked against Barnaby being believed.
In the early hours of the morning, she finally went to bed but sleep eluded her and she lay listening to the distant sound of the waves breaking on the shore, her thoughts tortured. It seemed so unfair that just when she and Barnaby had come to realise how much they meant to each other that he should be snatched away and there was not a thing she could do about it.
She rose early and after making herself a pot of tea and forcing herself to drink a cup, she busied herself collecting the eggs and letting the chickens out of their coop to peck about the yard. There was a thick sea mist floating across the land and the silence was so eerie that she could almost have believed she was the only person left on earth. She certainly felt that way because now that Barnaby was about to be snatched away from her the future looked bleak.
Her thoughts were so far away that it was some time before she became aware of the sound of a horse climbing the hill towards the house and after glancing towards it, she was shocked to see that it was the doctor in his carriage. There was someone on the seat beside him, but because of the mist she couldn’t make out who it was until they drew closer and then the breath caught in her throat.
‘Barnaby!’ The basket flew from her hand, but she barely noticed the eggs smashing around her as she ran towards him, her skirts flying. ‘B-but I don’t understand!’ Her voice came out as a squeak. ‘I-I thought they were taking you to Pickering today.’
Barnaby was grinning like the cat who’d got the cream and so was the doctor as he drew the horse to a halt.
‘And so they were, my dear,’ the doctor answered for him. ‘But fortunately, a witness who saw what happened on the night of the attack came forward at the eleventh hour, as it were, in the early hours of this morning, and because of his statement, which backed the story you and Barnaby gave to the police, Barnaby is now a free man, so I thought I’d bring him home to you.’
