Unlikely Traitors by Clare Langley-Hawthorne Read Free Book Online

the narrow, deserted country lane, there had been no one to hear her screams. Now, surrounded by journalists outside and servants inside, she knew she could not make a sound. She had to keep it all bottled up inside and that only made her feel all the worse. At this moment she hated Lord Wrotham. Hated him for letting her be lured by the illusion of having somebody she could rely on. Over the last two years she had found the independence she had sought and then, just as she had begun to believe in herself, feel comfortable in her own skin, he had torn up the foundations she had struggled so hard to build.

CHAPTER THREE
    BRIXTON PRISON, LONDON
    The following morning Ursula visited Lord Wrotham in Brixton prison on the south west outskirts of London. Infamous for having some of the worst prison conditions in England, Brixton was the place where untried prisoners were sent while they awaited trial. Ursula’s vision of Lord Wrotham’s cell was of a dank, dark, rat-infested place and, as she entered the foreboding prison entrance, she saw nothing to assuage her fears. Samuels stopped the motorcar and, as she stepped out, Ursula shuddered. If she failed and Lord Wrotham was found guilty of treason, he would be taken from here to Pentonville prison and hanged, his life as expendable and deplorable as all the other murderers and traitors. The idea sickened her for a moment and, holding on to the car door to steady herself, she tried to banish her morbid thoughts. With a deep breath she lifted the narrow woolen skirt beneath her pannier and ascended the wide stone staircase that led to the main prison door. Her sturdy Oxford shoes echoed as she walked across the entrance hall to the visitors’ desk.
    Deep in her thoughts, she almost walked into Sir Robert Pemberton KC, who was striding forth from one of the corridors, top-coat flapping behind him. He pulled up once he saw her and regarded her intently with his shrewd brown eyes.
    “I see you decided to ignore Lord Wrotham’s advice and visit after all,” he said.
    “Yes,” Ursula replied, refusing to be intimidated.
    “Well, while you’re here you may as well try and drive some sense into the man!”
    Pemberton’s mood darkened.
    “Pardon?”
    “Get him to tell you something, anything, that I can use by way of a defense! At the moment he refuses to disclose anything. At this rate, he may just as well plead guilty. Bloody fool!”
    Ursula looked startled.
    “Pardon my language,” Pemberton apologized, misinterpreting her reaction. “But he is really being most infuriating. I’ve practiced law alongside him at Temple Chambers for nigh on ten years now and I’ve never known him be like this.”
    “Not being a lawyer,” Ursula said. “I really don’t know all the issues that have to be addressed in a treason case…” She looked at him expectantly. Perhaps he could tell her something to steer her way to finding the evidence she needed to clear Lord Wrotham’s name.
    “It is most unusual, I admit, for a charge of high treason to be made during peacetime. I fear Lord Wrotham must have many enemies in Whitehall, if this is the path that they have chosen. Though planning an assassination of a member of the Royal family—I hardly feel that even merits a response, it is so plainly ludicrous! No, it is the question of Ireland…and the Germans…that worries me the most. I only wish he would tell me what else I am to make of his meeting with McTiernay and Count von Bernstorff-Hollweg—if not to foment rebellion then for what?”
    “Are you saying the charges against Lord Wrotham relate to some meeting he had with Fergus McTiernay and Friedrich von Bernstorff-Hollweg?!” Ursula was surprised to hear the names of the two men Lady Wrotham had mentioned repeated here.
    “Yes, most of the crown’s evidence hinges on details related to a meeting held at the Count’s castle in December 1911. Indeed, the Count, himself, is the main witness in this case.”
    “He