Bold Counsel (The Trials of Sarah Newby) Read Free Page B

years we’ve had together. When she throws you out, as she probably will one day, don’t come crawling back to me. Don’t demean yourself like that.’

3. Jason Barnes
    ‘S O YOU threw him out, just like that?’
    The solicitor, Lucy Parsons, settled back in her seat opposite Sarah Newby, as their train pulled out of York station. A comfortable, round woman with a vast fund of Yorkshire shrewdness, Lucy had spotted the signs of strain when Sarah arrived at the station. Her skin looked pale and lined, the bounce was gone from her normal brisk stride. She’d explained as the train came in, heaving her bag into the first class carriage with a defiant shrug.
    ‘Bob’s having an affair. I told him to leave.’
    Lucy gazed at her friend with concern. She was one of Sarah’s closest friends and colleagues. She had been the first to entrust her with a steady stream of cases without which a young barrister becomes simply a highly qualified member of the unemployed. When they first met, Sarah had just completed her pupillage. As an ‘elderly’ novice in her mid thirties, she was exactly the type whom many solicitors avoided. But Lucy had seen something in the clear hazel eyes and determined face that others had missed. This one’s like me , she’d thought. She deserves a chance, at least.
    So she’d sent her a few cases and her trust had been amply repaid. Lucy’s clients began to experience an unexpected run of success. Sarah’s sharp eye for detail and incisive courtroom manner left lying witnesses exposed and badly prepared counsel humiliated. The two women - Lucy short, cheery, and circular, Sarah slender, smart and brisk - began to appear regularly around the courts in York, Leeds and the North-East. Their cases became more challenging, their successes more satisfying. Two years ago their relationship had been tested in the fire of Sarah’s controversial defence of her own son, a case which Lucy feared might end her friend’s career for good, in a blaze of tabloid publicity and professional disapproval. But they had come out stronger than ever.
    Since then they had prospered. Lucy was now a partner in a firm of solicitors in Leeds, and thus able to send a stream of increasingly complex - and lucrative - criminal cases Sarah’s way. Hence now, these first class seats, an extravagance they would once have shunned. The comparative comfort made it easier for them to spread out their papers in relative privacy.
    But Lucy had no intention of starting work without hearing the full story of Sarah’s quarrel with Bob. Sarah gazed out of the window for a while, as the train picked up speed. Then she turned back to Lucy. Her smile was strained, she wore more makeup around the eyes than usual. The sharp lift of her chin, though, was as defiant as ever.
    ‘Well, yes. I told him to get out, and leave me to mourn in peace. Which he did, somewhat to my surprise. Perhaps it’s me, I look fiercer than I feel.’
    Sarah attempted an ironic, self-deprecating smile. It worked quite well for a second. Then an unwanted, renegade tear trickled out of the corner of her eye. She stared out of the window, and fumbled for a tissue in her bag.
    ‘And this happened when?’
    ‘Monday. Two days ago.’
    ‘And you haven’t heard from him since?’
    ‘He sent me a text - for Christ’s sake - to say he’d be seeing a lawyer about the divorce, and when could he come round for his clothes?’
    ‘Did you answer?’
    ‘I sent him one word - Wednesday . Today, while we’re in London. Anything left when I get back is going to Oxfam. Every last sock.’
    ‘I’d have done that already. Or cut off the sleeves and shredded his Y-fronts.’
    A faint smile crossed Sarah’s face. ‘I was tempted, Lucy, believe me. But I’ve had enough publicity. I didn’t want to end up in the News of the World . Again.’
    Their eyes met, remembering the press pack that had pursued them up the steps of York’s Crown Court every day of her son’s trial.