Mrs. Wallace picked up a paper and cleared her throat. “Honey Mary-Angeline Lovett, the sixteen-year-old minor child, is now orphaned after her parents were jailed for violating the anti-miscegenation laws of the Commonwealth of Kentucky and God. We feel it is in the best interest of the state to protect its people against harm and immoral indecency. This girl,” she spat out, “has lived with the Blue heathens, criminals, and has continued to live a sinful, criminal life and is to be remanded to the House of Reform immediately and per Judge Roy Taylor’s initial order, dated March 6, 1953, for its own safety and so that no one takes undue advantage of its tender youth.”
It, she referred to me again like she’d done in Thousandsticks. I was mortified, and I opened my mouth to protest, but the shame clamped it shut. The room grew stuffy, and miserable, I plucked at my collar and slipped off my gloves, placing them on our table, worriedly rubbing my sweaty palms. Dropping my gaze to my lap, I studied the disgrace seeping into my hands. Mr. Morgan looked at me questioningly, and just as quickly, I pulled my gloves back on.
“Your Honor, I’m prepared to respond,” Mr. Morgan said dryly and sat back down.
“Not so fast, Counselor,” Judge Norton said. “Mrs. Wallace, do you have any proof that Miss Lovett has committed any crimes or is currently engaged in illegal activities?”
“We do, Your Honor. We have several.” Their lawyer stood.
Mr. Morgan leaned over to my ear. “Have you told me everything?”
I looked up wildly at him and feverishly nodded my head.
“Proceed, Mr. Vessels.” Judge Norton flicked a wrist in the lawyer’s direction.
“On the morning of March 6, 1953, the state witnessed Honey Lovett in the company of Pearl Grant and the notorious John Smith, a known moonshiner. Miss Lovett willfully gave false information to the state and stole the identity of another by claiming she was the moonshiner’s daughter just visiting the home where her parents had holed up before they surrendered, then fled the county. A very serious interference with an investigation and outright lying to an officer of the law and a government servant of the people. On the morning of March 30 of this year, the now-deceased Perryman Edwin Gillis visited Sheriff Buckner to report—”
Mr. Morgan stood and abruptly shouted. I jumped in my chair. “Objection, your Honor! Hearsay and lack of foundation, and nowhere in the opposing papers.”
“Objection overruled,” the judge quipped. “Please continue, Mr. Vessels.”
“Thank you, Your Honor. Mr. Gillis sought to register a criminal complaint against Miss Lovett for interfering with his marital relationship after he found Miss Lovett in criminal conversation with his wife, Guyla Belle Gil—”
“Your Honor!” Mr. Morgan jumped up again. “Objections on the same grounds, particularly from a dead man who we will never be able to interview or cross-examine.”
“Overruled. Please go on, Mr. Vessels,” Judge Norton said.
“Miss Lovett insisted that Mrs. Gillis read a censored and controversial sex-fiction book titled The Awakening by known feminist, Kate Chopin, who supports the disgraceful abandoning of wifely duties and the abandoning of a husband and their children. Miss Lovett did this in hopes that Mrs. Guyla Belle Gillis would do just that.” He pressed down his drab, stained tie. “And because of this criminal intent by Miss Lovett to destroy the sacred sanctity of holy matrimony, we now have both parents deceased and their poor three-year-old son, Jonathan Bailey Gillis, orphaned. Three lives destroyed by her.” He stabbed an accusing finger toward me, making me recoil.
“I didn’t, sir,” I hissed into Mr. Morgan’s ear. But my heart grew heavy, and the weight of the deaths and little Johnnie’s loss nearly suffocated me so that I felt I was on trial for them.
Sneering, Mrs. Wallace shot me a tight, satisfied smile.
“Your Honor, I must object to this double hearsay from a dead man, not to mention a murderer, also totally without foundation and not mentioned in any of Mr. Vessels’s papers,” Mr. Morgan said as he rose again, casting a concerned eye my way.