The Sins of the Fathers

Chapter Seven

Ellington Manor

Meadvale

Surrey

"Spurious claims such as this do not help your cause, Slade?" His honour, Judge David Bacliff grumbled, his big red nose seeming even larger on the screen as he leaned forwards to grab something out of sight on his desk. Slade rolled his eyes.

"The Republic versus Lady Philomena Forbes set a recent precedent, your honour?" Slade insisted, used to old boy's moods. He had probably had a few big glasses of claret over lunch and needed a nap, not problems. He had never liked Slade's regular attempts to cheat the system and he did not like upsetting the politicians. "She was even abused by the exact same man...how can you say that is spurious?"

"Because there never was a Republic versus Lady Forbes...that is not even her legal name now, Slade?" Bacliff said, his glasses on the end of his nose, bouncing up and down. "I have never heard of such a case?"

"But you signed the judicial release? Probably under pressure from on high?" Slade calmly suggested, holding a copy of the judgement up to his webcam and watching Bacliff stare at it, holding his glasses closer to his eyes, trying to make out the writing. "Lady Forbes...or if you really prefer, Sister 2430109...certainly never appeared before you...but they needed a judge to legitimise the paperwork, which set a legal precedent...so you surely need to give Sister 0023878 the same consideration?"

"Stuff and nonsense.?" Bacliff grumbled, but uncertainly.

"Your honour, this document has been widely shared by media outlets all over the world as I understand it, and I can show you a video of President Symonds announcing the release of Lady Forbes at a recent press conference?" Slade insisted and the Judge frowned down the line at him, clearly perplexed, and getting angry.

"Email it to me...a copy...or whatever...and I will consult?" Bacliff barked, before ending the call, and Slade sat back in his chair, thinking things through. One of the many enigmas surrounding the Reformists was their respect for the law. They did not defy the courts, other than changing laws they did not like. Once they had made their changes, they followed their own rules, religiously. Bacliff was an old duffer, but he was a fair judge at his best, so if he said there was no ruling on Mena's release, and he had not signed one, then another little part of the story was starting to unravel before his eyes. Harrison Slade could see exactly why the President might have wanted to forge the release. He did not want anyone to know that Skylar and Mena had been let out of the Winstanley Priory at home, let alone publicise Sebastian Osborne's involvement. Faith in the Order had to be maintained, and nothing about the case would do that, so with their velvet curtain pulled tightly shut, he had fudged it. Osborne's enquiry, or investigation, or whatever they chose to call it, was a private affair. The good bishop had been allowed to break all the rules by interviewing serving nuns, but by confining the operation to his own Chapter House at Ellington Manor, it was all kept very quiet. As far as the general public were concerned, it was business as usual, no nun had ever escaped the Order, no nun had ever been released, Bishop Ralph Winstanley was indisposed and Charles Montague was still enjoying his retirement somewhere.

"Other than the release of Miss Hamilton and Lady Forbes, which was spun as an olive branch after Fletcher's state visit to London, it's radio silence everywhere?" Pan Deacon said after Slade joined him for a stroll in the gardens, ostensibly to prepare for their meeting with Drew Symonds, but in reality they were both finding the atmosphere inside the Manor a little oppressive. "There is an international determination to keep the allegations out of the media until they find a way to suppress the inevitable public reaction? It's not just here?"

"Hence, you flying more or less solo...and the armed guards patrolling the grounds?" Slade sighed, staring at a patrol marching around the wall at the far end of the property. "Are we all under house arrest?"