Free West of Paradise by Gwen Davis

said that was more offensive than anything I used.”
    â€œDid you not give him your word … an oath?”
    â€œLacks foundation, your honor,” said Crowley. “There is no evidence that—”
    â€œWithdrawn. If you ‘loved’ him, why would you invade his privacy?”
    â€œPrivacy?” Sarah said. “He was more public about his leanings than anyone since Oscar Wilde. Didn’t you ever have lunch with him?”
    â€œWhy would you make him sound so callous?”
    â€œThey were his own words.” She did not quite look at Jessup. All through the trial they had avoided each other’s eyes. (“I thought she was my friend,” he had keened, over and over during his testimony. “I spoke to her as my friend. She betrayed me.”) “All of them his own words.”
    â€œDid you include what Jessup might really have wanted to say?”
    â€œThere isn’t room in a book for everything Normie might want to say. There isn’t room in a whole library.”
    One of the jurors tittered. Sarah’s attorney, his shoulder angled so the judge could not see the gesture, raised his hand in warning, almost imperceptibly shook his head. No sarcasm, he had cautioned her at breakfast. Everyone was already aware of how clever she was. They had all read the book. And no real display of wit. Jurors didn’t like uppity women. Remember Jean Harris, he’d counseled her. Juries didn’t favor bright women, as prejudiced as they still might be against gays. Juries liked deviant men more than women who thought they were smarter than anybody, especially if they were.
    â€œAnd yet you say you liked him.”
    â€œI did like him.”
    â€œWasn’t your ending his chapter as you did, with the suicide, a deliberate and malicious attempt to defame—”
    â€œObjection.” Crowley was on his feet. “This is not a libel trial.”
    â€œWill counsel please step forward,” the judge said. “I have warned you both for the last time,” he said very softly, as they stood before him.
    Arnold tightened his tie, stepped back, and readdressed the witness. “Miss Nash, why did you end the chapter with that revelation?”
    â€œThere wasn’t anything Normie hadn’t told me about himself, from his sex life to his educational background to his much-too-early potty training at the punishing hands of the mother he’s now so concerned about. He never stopped talking. The only thing he kept silent about was the boy who hanged himself. I found that out on my own. It seemed to make a point.”
    *   *   *
    â€œMy colleague will tell you that Sarah Nash damaged this man’s career and hurt his health, ladies and gentlemen of the jury,” Oliver Crowley said in his closing argument. His gray suit was quite rumpled now, a hard-working contrast to his adversary’s impeccable tailoring, as his emotional style was to the older man’s reticence. “I will have no further chance to rebut him. So I ask you to listen very carefully and hold in mind what I’m telling you now.
    â€œNorman Jessup has lost none of his power. He is simply a man who has lost some weight. A man who could not control his other appetites, even with a young boy who was obviously unbalanced. His cravings are exceeded only by his hunger for publicity, his yearning for self-promotion. He brought this suit for the same reason he talked to Sarah Nash, soliciting more celebrity.
    â€œHe says Sarah Nash and he had a contract. That she invaded his privacy. You’ve heard him. I believe you see without any help from her how little privacy he chooses to have. He is, by his own proud admission, publicly, a philanderer. And not exactly as we’re used to them. Should such a person receive damages? They say that virtue is its own reward, ladies and gentlemen. Let it be the same with