Free Three Round Towers by Beverley Elphick

smugglers then?’
    â€˜No, surely not, why would you think that?’ I was alarmed by this suggestion.
    â€˜Most folk downriver be smugglers of one sort or other. Southease, Telscombe and Piddinghoe are known for the trade.’
    â€˜That’s shocking!’
    â€˜Well, I don’t see you turning down a spot of my brandy young lady. Where do you think it comes from?’
    Under cover of darkness we talked about the smugglers and how most people subscribed to getting their brandy, wines, salt, spices and tea via middlemen. The smugglers were a rough lot and it didn’t do to try and trade directly with them, not if you were respectable folk. I was amazed when Mrs Makepiece described some of the crimes committed in the pursuit of cheap brandy. Drink thinned down with cheaper strong drinks or even cold tea. But the worst and most shocking was the murder of anyone who got in their way: they had even been known to kill their own men if they were suspected of turning. There was not much that they wouldn’t do to further their business and that trade extended for miles inland through a network of tinkers and travellers; most of the excise were in their pay as well as the constabulary.
    I couldn’t make out if Mrs Makepiece was for or against them but she seemed to be willing to buy as long as she didn’t see the nasty side of things. I wondered if that might be why my mother had left the area. I still wanted to go and find my family but Southease had taken on a sinister air.
    The next day Billy-alone called round to see me and asked what had happened to the little cradle Becca had made.
    â€˜I left it in the reeds where I found Beth.’
    â€˜If we found it we could show that it was in Becca’s mind all along to give herself up for the baby,’ he explained.
    Mrs Makepiece was listening and butted in. ‘I think the constable and his men have searched the whole area – they would have been looking for the wooden stave…’
    â€˜Did they find it then?’ said Billy.
    â€˜What, the stave?’
    â€˜No, the cradle.’
    â€˜They won’t know nowt about the cradle, I didn’t mention it,’ I said, realising my mistake.
    Billy was gone in a flash and I cursed myself for a fool in not mentioning the cradle to the coroner. Billy was right in that it showed what Becca was planning. It still didn’t show who had hurt her body afterwards though.

Chapter Seventeen

    The very next day I was summoned to the coroner’s office again. Farmer Elwood appeared at our door and said he would accompany me. I was very anxious but glad to have such a man at my side. I kissed Mrs Makepiece goodbye outside the clock tower. I knew she was worried sick but I tried to settle her spirits by being calm myself. She pushed her hankie into my hands and whispered to be brave, upright and remember I had good friends nearby.
    The coroner was sitting at his desk and after a formal greeting with Farmer Elwood he addressed himself to me.
    â€˜Esther, I am sorry to have to tell you that Farmer Coad has made a statement to the constables that you did kill Becca in order to take her baby for your own.’
    I gasped and started to protest but he silenced me with a raised hand.
    â€˜He accepts that the child was a result of his union with Becca and declares that she was a known trollop. He has called on his sons to bear witness that Becca conducted herself lewdly and he also called on various people who were at the Midsummer Fair where, he said, she was seen to flaunt herself to all and sundry.’
    I was robbed of my voice by this shameful slur on Becca and by the knowledge that my voice against Farmer Coad and his sons was unlikely to be heard. Farmer Elwood, at my side, spoke.
    â€˜Have they any proof that Esther might have killed Becca?’
    â€˜No, it is her word against Coad’s. But it is not my place to decide who is or is not, guilty. My role is to ascertain