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"How did you get that?" Berowne blurted "There wasn’t tiet to New Bern and back!" Then all the blood drained froy face seemed to have acquired all the blood Berowne had lost

The Justice cast hilance, but merely said, "Given that documentary proof is now entered in evidence, we find that the defendant is plainly not guilty of the charge of theft, since the property in question was his own On the matter of assault, however--" At this point he noticed that Ja in front of the bench

"Yes, Mr Fraser? Had you so else to tell the court?" Justice Conant dabbed at a trickle of sweat that ran down fro; with so many bodies packed into the sratify e describe more fully the attack upon him?"

The Justice raised both eyebrows, but shuffled quickly through the papers on the table before hi to a spot on the page

"Cous Fraser struck hi coround, whereat the defendant seized the bridle of the horse, leapt upon it, and rode away, calling out reue Coh from the dock pulled all eyes to the defendant, who sly at Mr Justice Conant, plucked a handkerchief fro the hook at the end of his left arm

"Oh!" said the Justice, and swiveled cold eyes toward the witness chair, where Berowne squirony

"And would you care to explain, sir, how you have sustained injury upon the right side of your face, when struck by the left fist of a us said cheerfully "Explain that one"

Perhaps feeling that Berowne’s attempts at explanation were best conducted in privacy, Justice ConantFergus Fraser with no stain upon his character

"It wasto the arm of her husband at the celebratory feast that followed the trial

"You?" Jalance "That fisted yon deputy in the face, ye mean?"

"Not my fist,otat the memory, "save he snatched Geret hi to her skirts, a piece of biscuit clutched in one grubby fist

"I don’t quite understand," Brianna said "Did Mr Berowne not want to ad another cup of ale and handing it to her "It was only Sergeant Murchison eant Murchison? That would be the army officer as at the trial?" she asked She took a small sip of the ale, for politeness’ sake "The one who looks like a half-roasted pig?"

Her father grinned at this characterization

"Aye, that’ll be the man He’s a mislike of me," he explained "This wilna be the first time--or the last--that he’s tried such a trick to cripple me"

"He could not hope to succeed with such a ridiculous charge," Jocasta chi out a hand Ulysses, standing by, moved the plate of bannocks the necessary inch She took one, unerringly, and turned her disconcerting blind eyes toward Jamie

"Was it really necessary for you to subvert Farquard Ca

"Aye, it was," Ja Brianna’s confusion, he explained

"Farquard Campbell is the usual justice of this district If he hadna fallen ill so conveniently"--and here he grinned again,in his eyes--"the trial would have been held last week That was their plan, aye? Murchison and Berowne They us, and force me down from the mountain in the midst of the harvest--and they succeeded in that much, damn the able to obtain a copy of the grant from New Bern before the trial--as indeed I could not, had it been last week" He gave Ian a smile, and the boy, who had ridden hellbent to New Bern to procure the document, blushed pink and buried his face in a bowl of punch