Lies and Misdemeanours by Rebecca King Page A

stepped into the inner courtyard. Her stomach dropped to her toes at the sight that greeted her. She froze. A wave of sickness swept through her and she wondered briefly if she was in the middle of a nightmare. But she knew that she wasn’t when the jailer moved to stand beside her.
    The discordant rattle of his keys sounded loud in the silence of the yard, which was broken only by the rhythmic clank of picks and shovels hitting the dirt.
    “Oh, good God,” she whispered.
    Her eyes widened in horror at the sight of Charlie and Simon, along with two other men, lined up against the far wall. All of them were digging their graves.
    “We want to talk to them,” Wally growled. His voice shook with suppressed emotion as he stared at the sight that no man wanted to see. He slid a hand around Hetty’s waist, but neither of them knew whether they were supporting each other, or themselves.
    “How can they be condemned if they haven’t had a trial yet?” Hetty whispered as she levelled an accusatory glare on the jailer.
    “They were tried yesterday,” the man replied with a frown. “Were you not told?”
    Wally shared a look of horror with Hetty. “If we had been, we would have made damned sure that they had a fair trial,” he snarled. “How could they be tried so quickly?”
    “Meldrew arranged it,” the jailer replied.
    The look he gave Wally effectively said; ‘ did you expect anything else from that man’.
    Wally knew that what had happened wasn’t the jailer’s fault, but it was difficult not to consider that all of the people in supposed positions of ‘authority’ around the jail were guilty of being corrupt.
    Before either of them could say anything else, the jailer hurried over to the prisoners.
    Hetty and Wally looked at each other as they waited for the prisoners to be released from their duties and allowed to come over to them. Thankfully, because of their need to dig, none of the prisoners had chains on today, and Charlie and Simon were able to walk unhindered toward them.
    Hetty fought a sob as she saw the changes two days in the jail had wrought upon both men. They were both a little thinner, considerably paler, and had not slept well from the look of the dark circles beneath their blood-shot eyes. They were both dirty, and clearly hadn’t been given anything other than the most basic of necessities with which to survive.
    “Are you alright?” she whispered.
    Rather than answer, Charlie walked straight up to her and drew her into a huge hug without even saying ‘hello’.
    He buried his face in her neck, and drew in a deep breath that was quintessentially Hetty, and immediately felt everything within him began to settle into its rightful place. He knew then that if life had been kinder, and circumstances changed so that he had any chance of surviving this, he would have made her his wife.
    The feel of her against him calmed his nerves, and he placed a tender kiss at the base of her neck while he savoured the precious moment of being able to hold her tightly. He had spent each night since his arrival in the jail on the cold, dank floor of the fetid cell thinking about the way the sunlight shone in her hair and the way her lips curved when she smiled. He had yearned to be able to see her again.
    Now that she was before him, he just couldn’t bring himself to let go. After all, he knew now that he would probably never get a chance to hold her again.
    “Hetty,” he growled.
    He had gone over in his mind what he would say to her if he ever got to see her again. Now that she was here, words failed him. Emotion ran high, to the point that he struggled not to fall at her feet and beg her to marry him. It was only the soreness on his wrists, and the sounds of spades hitting dirt that reminded him that even innocent, he was still a condemned man, and Hetty deserved better.
    “You were tried,” she whispered in horror.
    “It was a bloody kangaroo court ruled by that bastard, Meldrew. He has set us up,