‘I don’t need anything from you.’ Pearl snatched her hand away as their mother was brought to the dock. The judge came in and bowed. Apart from Agatha’s family, only the court stenographer and a few other officials remained.
‘Madam,’ he said once he was seated, ‘I hold you in contempt of court.’
Agatha puffed out her chest, ‘Don’t be so—’
‘Madam, be quiet!’ The judge’s tone was authoritative. ‘You seem to be a woman of good breeding and good education. You should know it is unlawful for you to express an opinion in open court; an opinion which might endanger the chances of a fair trial. Yet you deliberately made your comments loudly enough for the whole court to hear. I thereby fine you twenty pounds or one week in jail.’ With that he banged his gavel and stood up.
Agatha’s jaw dropped. ‘But I don’t have twenty pounds.’
Her protest fell on deaf ears. Everybody in the courtroom bowed and the judge left.
‘This isn’t right,’ Agatha cried out, but the officers of the court were already taking her down the steps to the holding cell. ‘Call this justice?’
Pearl burst into tears. Freddie came and sat on the other side of her, but his wife was so upset, she hardly noticed. ‘What did your mother mean when she said she doesn’t have the money?’
Pearl shrugged. She didn’t dare tell Freddie that her mother was stony-broke. Freddie handed her his handkerchief and she blew her nose.
‘What are you doing here anyway?’
‘I was concerned about you, that’s all. I got word of what happened to your mother, so I rushed over. Why doesn’t she have any money?’
Milly stood to leave as Freddie was repeating the question.
‘I don’t know,’ Pearl wept. In her agitated state, she didn’t think to mention the fact she had seen her husband was already in the court. ‘She forgot to bring her handbag, I suppose.’
Freddie had a puzzled expression on his face. He pointed to the floor. ‘Isn’t that it?’
Pearl dried her eyes and looked down. Sure enough, her mother’s handbag was under the seat in front of where she’d sat. It had tipped over, probably when her mother had stood up, and its contents had spilled. They spent the next couple of minutes picking everything up.
‘Here’s her purse,’ said Freddie, and before Pearl could stop him, he opened it and pulled out a five-pound note and some change. ‘There’s not enough in here to pay the fine,’ he began. ‘I only have enough in my wallet for the return train fare home. Do you have any money?’
Pearl looked in her own purse and found three pounds, seven and six in loose change.
‘I’ll go to the bank,’ said Freddie, pushing the handbag back into his wife’s hands but taking the purse.
Pearl glanced up at the clock on the wall. It was ten minutes past four. ‘All the banks will be closed now,’ she said. ‘They shut at three.’ She gave her husband an anxious look. ‘What are we going to do?’
‘Find a shopkeeper willing to cash a cheque,’ said Freddie, waving his cheque book in the air. ‘You wait downstairs in the foyer.’
Still fighting back her tears, Pearl made her way downstairs.
Bad enough if her mother was in a cell all night, but if she was locked up for a whole week – well, it didn’t bear thinking about. As she sat on a bench, Pearl spotted Milly holding hands with Lena. Pearl’s lip curled.
This was all stupid Milly’s fault. If she hadn’t got mixed up with those dreadful fairground people, she and her mother wouldn’t be in this mess. A wave of rage passed through her and Pearl swayed. Lena thought Milly was so wonderful, but what would she think if she knew that her perfect sister had cursed her mother to death all those years ago?
Just then, Freddie burst through the door and together they hurried to the bursar’s office to pay Agatha’s fine. Freddie was called in and Pearl went back to her seat. A few minutes later, her mother walked out into the corridor.
When the others got outside, Lena and Seebold were immediately surrounded by a sea of newspaper reporters. Milly took charge of the situation, telling them to come with her to the Swan. When he opened the door, the landlord fended off the reporters and they all sat in the ladies’ snug with a pot of tea. Because it was out of hours, the landlord made an elaborate gesture of generosity which meant that Seebold could sit with them.
‘Thank God that’s over,’ said Milly, passing the cups around.
Seebold gave her a knowing look and grinned. ‘Put the Worthing Wonderland on the map though, didn’t it?’
Lena seemed shocked. Milly frowned crossly.
Seebold raised his eyebrows, feigning innocence. ‘What?’
Chapter 29
As Pearl walked downstairs the next morning, she could hear angry voices coming from the breakfast room. Her mother was barking, ‘How dare you? I have a good mind to telephone the police!’ while her husband was doing his best to drown her out by shouting, ‘It’s not what you think, Mother-in-Law.’
Last night had been a strange one for Pearl – a lot better than she had come to expect from her husband, but strange. She had become used to him being distant and unresponsive towards her, but last night he’d been kinder, softer, almost considerate. After the trial, he’d wanted to pay her mother’s fine and, back home and alone in their bedroom, he’d seemed keen for her body but he’d been a gentle lover. She’d lain in bed afterwards, staring at the ceiling. Why couldn’t it be like this all the time? And why the sudden change? When she’d got up this morning, she was feeling happier than she had done in a long time but now it looked as if everything was spoiled. Why on earth were they so angry with each other?
When Pearl came into the room, her mother and her husband appeared to be arguing over her mother’s handbag. As soon as they saw her, they both turned to her for support.
Pearl put her hands up. ‘Don’t shout at me,’ she cried. ‘What’s going on?’
Her mother was the first to speak. ‘I just walked in here and found him rummaging around in my handbag,’ she said huffily. ‘Can you believe that? The man is nothing less than a rogue and a thief.’
‘You’ve misunderstood me, Mother-in-Law,’ said Freddie. ‘If you care to look inside your purse, you’ll find all your money is there.’
With an angry glare at him, Agatha opened her purse. He was right. Everything was as it should be. Freddie turned to his wife. ‘I was putting it all back when she crept up behind me.’
‘So you have been taking my money,’ Agatha said coldly. ‘I knew it. I knew it.’
‘No, Mummy, he wasn’t.’ Pearl almost buckled under the furious glare her mother gave her but, with her husband beside her, she was brave enough to continue. ‘When the court bailiff took you away, you dropped your handbag on the floor. We picked everything up and after the judge said you were to be fined, I opened your purse and then we pooled all our resources.’
‘So you took my money to pay the fine?’ Agatha squeaked.
