Part 38 (2/2)
”What was the purpose for him to accompany you there?”
”He was my doctor,” she said. ”He was treating me.”
”For what, Mrs. Breckenwood?”
Julia's full lips thinned. ”I don't understand why that should be important. It's nothing to do with this business.”
”Please answer the question, Mrs. Breckenwood,” the judge said.
She flushed again. ”For my nerves. He was treating me for my nerves.”
Howe nodded. ”So, Dr. Seth also attended to you day and night, and you were not having intimate relations. The same could be true of Dr. Seth and Mrs. Carelton, couldn't it?”
Julia frowned. ”I . . . I suppose so. But-”
”What exactly did Mr. Carelton tell you about Dr. Seth's relations.h.i.+p with his wife?”
”Objection,” Scott called out. ”Hearsay.”
”You opened the door yourself, Mr. Scott,” said the judge. ”I'll allow it. Please continue, Mrs. Breckenwood.”
Julia bowed her head. Her voice was so soft I had to strain to hear it. ”He said that Dr. Seth had made advances toward Lucy.”
”Did he say how Mrs. Carelton reacted to those advances?”
Julia would not look at him. ”He said she had rejected him.”
”Do you have reason to believe those words aren't true?”
”No,” she whispered. ”I suppose not.”
”So you have no real knowledge that Mrs. Carelton and Victor Seth were having an affair?”
”No.”
”Now, Mrs. Breckenwood, I have only a few more questions. How long have you known Mrs. Carelton?”
”All my life.”
”And yet you did not know her well.”
”We were never good friends, as I said.”
”But you claim to know her well enough to understand her state of mind as she walked down those stairs to the dining room the night of October sixth?”
”Well, I-”
”In fact, you don't know what Mrs. Carelton was thinking, do you, Mrs. Breckenwood?”
”I can a.s.sume-”
”But by your own admission you didn't know Mrs. Carelton well enough to a.s.sume. Isn't that true?”
There was a pause. Julia glanced at me, and her gaze was so hostile it felt like a slap. ”Yes,” she said.
”Are you acquainted with the symptoms of insanity, Mrs. Breckenwood?”
She said, ”Why, it's easy enough to tell.”
”Have you spent time in a lunatic asylum?”
”Of course not!”
”Are you a doctor?”
”No, but-”
”You don't know what a doctor might call insanity, do you, Mrs. Breckenwood?”
She was silent. Howe went on as if she'd spoken. His voice raised dramatically. ”In fact, Mrs. Breckenwood, not only do you have no knowledge of Mrs. Carelton's illness, you have no knowledge of her life beyond what you've seen at the opera and at parties, do you?”
”No.”
”So you are hardly qualified to judge if Mrs. Carelton was indeed insane the night she shot her husband, isn't that right?”
Julia sighed. ”Yes.”
”And what about Mr. Carelton? When did you meet him?”
”When we all did. About a year before Lucy married him.”
”Do you know where he came from?”
”No.”
”Did you know anything of his history?”
”No.”
”What did you think of Mr. Carelton?”
”What did I think of him?” She looked puzzled.
”Yes.”
”He was . . . We were all surprised when Lucy married him.”
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