Remember Me - Lesley Pearse [157]
‘Not just me, I hope,’ she managed to say, hoping he’d have the sense to realize her predicament with the men. ‘We are all in it together, and you haven’t yet met my friends.’
‘Of course, of course. They felt for you all up there,’ he said, then held out a box containing a considerable sum of money. ‘There was a collection for you to help with expenses while you are in Newgate. I am overjoyed for you all.’
James introduced himself and the other men. ‘Does this mean you are prepared to defend us now?’ he asked, taking the box from Boswell’s hand.
‘Now that the public has joined Mary in twisting my arm, I have reconsidered and think I can defend you men too, that is, if Mary is prepared to reconsider.’ Boswell beamed, looking to each of the men’s faces and apparently not seeing Mary’s frantic gestures from behind them. ‘I hope you appreciate your loyal friend! And now we must talk about the next stage. I believe there is no possibility of the death penalty now, just prison. But I’m determined to get you all a pardon.’
He didn’t wait to see how they took this news, but carried on, ‘I’ll be there for all of you next week, and meanwhile I’m going to see Henry Dundas, the Home Secretary. He’s a dear friend of mine.’
The moment Boswell had gone, James let out a whoop of joy and jingled the box of money. ‘He knows the Home Secretary,’ he gloated. ‘And people made a collection for us. We’re going to be set free!’
Sam looked at Mary reflectively, making her blush. ‘He offered to defend you alone and you turned him down, didn’t you?’ he asked in an awed voice.
The other three men frowned, not understanding. Nat asked Sam what he was talking about.
‘Don’t you see?’ Sam shook his head at their stupidity. ‘That lawyer wasn’t here by chance. He came to see Mary again. The reason she didn’t tell us about his visit the other day was because he only wanted to defend her. She turned him down because of us!’
‘You did that?’ Nat said, his blue eyes wide with incredulity.
‘Holy Mother of God,’ James exclaimed. ‘And we laid into you!’
Mary blushed furiously. ‘It doesn’t matter now,’ she murmured.
‘It does matter, Mary,’ Sam said, putting his arm around her. ‘That crowd up there collected the money for us because of what you said in the dock. I’m sure that’s why the lawyer changed his mind about us too. Once again you’ve saved our lives.’
Mary couldn’t sleep at all that night for her mind was whirling with ‘what ifs’. What if they stayed in prison for months or even years until the public lost interest in their fate? They would never get a pardon then. What if Boswell was just a braggart like Will and didn’t really know the Home Secretary? What if she did get pardoned? Where would she go, and how would she live?
If the public’s imagination was fired up about her plight as Mr Boswell said, then her family would be bound to hear of it. Her mother would surely die of shame to know her daughter’s name was in the newspapers. Mary couldn’t help but be amused to think of her worrying about that, after all she’d been through. But her mother’s feelings were still very important to her. And she badly wanted to see her and the rest of her family.
At the second hearing in the magistrates’ court, the five returned escapees were told officially that they would not be hanged. They were to receive an indeterminate sentence without a trial. To the men this was good enough; they had fame and enough money to be comfortable in Newgate, which after some of the other prisons they’d been in was paradise. It would of course be wonderful if Boswell got them pardoned, but they weren’t counting on it.
But Mary couldn’t see it the same way. She wanted to be hanged or to be freed, no half measures. She could wait for freedom, but she needed to know exactly how long it would take before she could walk on grass again, swim in the sea, smell flowers and cook her own meals. She couldn’t spend her days in a gin-soaked stupor, the time-honoured way of Newgate.
Boswell was right in saying everyone in England would hear about them.