'Your sofa?'
'Yes. Nothing else. Dr Archer took advantage of my hospitality by coming unbidden to my bedroom and climbing naked into my bed.'
'Are you saying he assaulted you?'
'He assaulted my hospitality. He assaulted all acceptable norms of behaviour.'
'But did he touch you?'
'Not then, but he made it very clear that he intended to . . .' she gestured apologetically to the jury, '. . . in his own words 'fuck me' at a later stage and what I wanted would have nothing to do with it.'
She looked at the jury and back at Paul Archer before he had a chance to wipe that smug smile off his lips and she knew the jury had seen it too. 'He made it clear he liked his women to resist him, Your Honour. He left me in no doubt as to his intentions towards me.'
Archer's brief stood up. 'My client is not on trial for things he may be imagined to do in the future.'
Kate pointed at Helen Archer. 'He raped that poor woman.' She turned again to the jury. 'And he should be made to pay.'
Archer's barrister leapt to his feet again, summoning some outrage. 'I object, Your Honour.'
'Sustained,' said the judge. 'The jury will disregard that last remark.
Which was like telling a drowning man not to breathe in.
Delaney leaned against a lamp post. He lit a cigarette and wondered how long it would be before smoking was banned in all outdoor public places too. As it was you could be fined fifty pounds for flicking a fag end into a drain. But the law was the law, you had to respect it.
The sky overhead for once had a remarkable amount of blue in it, the soft white clouds that dotted here and there were motionless and the sun was actually shining. It was a bright, crisp, chill autumn day. An autumn day like it should be. As it was in his childhood, when the seasons knew how to behave themselves.
It was a day for new beginnings.
Kate came out of the courthouse, her smile, the epicentre now of Delaney's solar system, as bright as the sun itself.
'What happened?'
'He got seven years and four months.'
'You don't feel guilty?'
'Not a bit of it.'
Delaney nodded. 'A certain degree of moral flexibility allows us to do what we do.' He grinned and flicked his cigarette into the drain at his feet watching it spark as it hit the grating below.
'I didn't perjure myself, Jack, I just didn't tell them I knew Helen Archer was lying.'
At that moment the woman in question came out of the courthouse, she was surrounded by friends and family. She looked across at Kate and gave her a small, quick smile.
Delaney pointed at the statue adorning the roof of the court building. 'Audrey Hill told me that there is no God and we all know that Justice is blind, so we just have to look out for each other, don't we?'
Kate linked her arm in his as they walked away. 'Seems to me that looking after you is going to be a full-time job.'
Delaney dropped his voice to the rich burr of his childhood tongue. 'That's because I'm all man, sweetheart.'
Kate laughed. 'All ego maybe.'
