her papa was and why the government seemed determined to keep his whereabouts a secret. Surely, someone should have realized that if Papa was in England when the rebellion was being planned, he could not have been one of its masterminds. How could he have met with the rebels in Montreal? He hadn’t left Malloryville until he’d come north to attend the Ellices’ party and been captured. And surely Edward Ellice’s father, “Bear” Ellice, one of the richest men in the entire world, would not have had Papa as a friend if he’d been plotting against his government. That had to count for something.
But being in the courtroom had given Sophie an idea: what if she and Lady Theo went to a proper judge, not one of these officer ones, and swore on the Bible that Papa had lived in London and had only come back to Vermont in September?
Luc appeared lost in his thoughts as well. He didn’t seem as bored as Sophie felt, but he looked as though he were someplace else. Someplace sad. Trying to imagine where that might be, Sophie was surprised when everyone stood suddenly and the officer-judges filed solemnly out of the room. A babble of noise broke out, people stretched, and Mr. Christie turned to them. “Well, that’s it for today. The court’s adjourned till tomorrow. I’d be honoured if the two of you would be my guests for luncheon. You must be hungry by now.”
Sophie hadn’t realized she was hungry. Nor had she thought about eating. She looked at Luc, raising her eyebrow in an unspoken question. Before Luc could answer, Lady Theo walked across to them. “Children,” she said. “Now, please.”
Sophie smiled her thanks at Mr. Christie as he stood to let her pass, and Luc thanked him for his invitation and shook his hand. Then they meekly followed Lady Theo from the room, using the door at the front rather than the one at the back that everyone else had to use. Bailiffs and constables scurried to open doors for Lady Theo as she swept past them and into the frigid outdoors.
John Coachman had the carriage waiting. “Home, John,” she said to him, and once they were on their way, she looked sternly at Sophie. “We will not discuss this morning until luncheon is finished. Then I want a full explanation.”
CHAPTER THREE
It was a sombre meal and, as soon as they had finished, Lady Theo suggested they retire to the back parlour.
Sophie felt as though the sword of Damocles hung over her when she entered the room. Lady Theo arranged the chairs so that she and Luc sat close to the fire. Close to its warmth, but to its light as well. Sophie thought she’d done it deliberately and felt aggrieved. While Lady Theo’s face would be hidden by shadows, her own would be as transparent as daylight.
For a few long minutes the three of them sat in silence. Luc fiddled with things on the table beside him and Sophie fervently wished she was anyplace else. Lady Theo seemed content to let them fret. Just as the silence became unbearable, she cleared her throat and turned to Sophie. “Now then, young lady, what was the last thing I said to you this morning?”
“That you supposed you had no control over what Luc did but that I had to stay in the house all day,” she answered sulkily.
“And did you?”
Sophie glared. “You know I didn’t.”
“Yes, I know you didn’t. What I don’t know is why you would disobey me.”
“Someone had to be with Luc.”
“And I planned to be,” Lady Theo answered sharply. Then she sighed and leaned forward, letting Sophie see the lines of exhaustion and worry on her face. “Sophie, child, this is a horrible situation for all of us. Unless we trust each other, it can only get worse. Can you understand that?”
After Sophie nodded her head, she went on, “What have I told you ever since we came to Montreal?”
Sophie quickly looked across to Luc. This wasn’t the scolding she’d expected. “That I had to watch what I said because we could all get into trouble. That if I said the wrong thing and the wrong people heard me, we could all be charged with treason.”
“And, today you saw just how serious treason is, Sophie. That could have been any of us on trial. A couple of the things we did during the rebellion made us just as guilty as some of those men.”
Luc nodded, his face haggard. “I feel terrible, Lady Theo. I know that I’m far more guilty than some of them. More than poor Lesiège, for sure. He’s just there because they’ve mixed him up with someone else. But when General Clitherow made his speech, telling us that treason was the worst of all crimes, I thought he was looking straight at me.”
“It’s not fair, Lady Theo,” Sophie burst out. “Mr. Christie, the man who explained everything to us, thinks the judges have already made up their minds. They’re not going to listen to anything — they’re going to find everyone guilty.”
“They shouldn’t be judging them anyway,” Luc added. “Like Sophie said, they fought against them. They can’t possibly be neutral. Maybe we need another rebellion to make sure they treat us fairly.”
“That’s enough, Luc,” Lady Theo said sternly. “That’s just the kind of talk the government wants to stop. As much as I hate to say it, I think your Mr. Christie was right. The verdict has already been decided. I’m sorry, Luc. Desperately sorry for Marc and the other men. I’m afraid, however, that you have to prepare yourself to accept the worst.”
When Luc choked on a sound that was suspiciously like a sob and buried his face in his hands, Sophie dragged her chair closer to him, then turned back to face Lady Theo. “You shouldn’t have reminded him.”
Lady Theo ignored her and spoke again to Luc. “I’m only trying to help you understand. I looked at those officers’ faces carefully today. They mean business, I’m afraid. However, that’s not why I wanted to talk to both of you.”
She waited until she had their complete attention. “Sophie, I gave you a direct order this morning when I told you to stay here. Now, why do you think I’d do that?”
Sophie squirmed in her chair, her fingers twitching on the armrests. She couldn’t gauge Lady Theo’s mood and didn’t know whether she should brazen it out or be contrite. “Maybe because you didn’t want me to get hurt in the crowds?” she responded, half-flippantly. “Or maybe you didn’t want me to see the courtroom because I might worry too much about what would happen to Marc and Papa?”
“I had both those reasons in the back of my mind. Neither was the main one. Now tell me, either of you: you saw the people in the courtroom today. What did you notice about them?”
Luc looked across the room to Lady Theo, his attention diverted from his brother’s fate. “A lot of ugly English who wanted my brother’s neck stretched by the hangman’s rope.”
“Well, yes. They were unforgettable,” Lady Theo replied. “But think. What other groups were there?”
“I suppose there were other English, the ones like Mr. Christie,” Luc said grudgingly.
“And the country people,” Sophie added, thinking back to the jammed stairwells and the smell of food in the courtroom. A few had looked resentful and seemed willing — like Luc — to start another fight. Most had seemed fearful, as though they, like Lady Theo, thought the verdicts were a foregone conclusion.
“Think. Harder,” Lady Theo responded. “There was one
