Excerpt



Next Lydia decided to see if there was a complete report included for the doctor. Somethinganything that was more specific than what had been included in the first copy request. She couldnt imagine a final determination of death being omitted from the inquiry report. But after a thorough search Lydia could find absolutely nothing. She decided that either Dr. MacKay hadnt been able determine a cause of death, or he hadand it had been stricken from the file, just like those letters had been omitted from being read during the inquiry itself. Lydia hoped she would be able to verify the cause of death with the vital records Karen had brought back from the courthouse.

Lydia did find that there was one other physical testimony that had actually been given during the inquiry, but not copied during the original request for some reason; and that was of the Captains clerk Silla. The funny thing was, Lydia noticed, unlike the other testimonies, the court clerk didnt write down a last name for Sillashe was simply listed as Clerk Silla. Lydia wondered if that had been deliberate, or simply a slip on the clerks part. The omission probably wasnt really important, Lydia thought, just a little strange, especially coming out of a court of law.

As Lydia recalled from the previous reading; Lissa the oldest child had taken the younger children to Silla, when Katherines mother had found her on the floor of the kitchen. Sillas portrait of the deceased young woman was replete with pity. Lydia almost stopped reading once she had started, it had bothered her so, but she knew she needed to see the whole picture. As she always told the kids, ignoring something didnt make it go away.

She also realized that there was something about Silla that was nagging at the back of her mind. For some reason, that womans name sounded awfully familiar in another way. Lydia knew she would have to go back and double check the genealogy that Julia had provided, and find out what it was.

First she tackled Sillas testimony

Lissa came running down the street with a passel of children following her. They were screaming and crying. Lissa was holding the smallest one, who I believe is two. She told me that she thought Mrs. Bower had died, and she needed a place to leave the children before the doctor came, and then the black wagon. She started crying even more and kept saying that she didnt understand why she had lost so many mothers. I asked her how she knew that Mrs. Bower was dead, and Lissa told me she just knew by how she had looked. Lissa told me she had decided not to wait around and see. I will be honest and tell this court that I felt sorry for the later Mrs. Bower I had talked with her several times before she married Mr. Bower, and tried talking her out of the marriage. But she was very stubborn and insisted that Mr. Bower could make her life easier. She told me she wanted to relieve herself as a burden on her parents, since their farm was struggling

Lydia would have liked to see the looks on Katherines parents faces, when that had been said. Were they still there when Silla spoke, or had they left by then? Since it didnt say what order the testimony had been given in, they could very well have sat there and listened while their dirty laundry was exposed to the community.

Silla continued by stating that

I noticed the child was not doing well right after the marriage. I explained to her after they were married, when she would come in for training at the mercantile that being married to Mr. Bower was a challenge. I also explained to her that he was very demanding, but you earned his respect if you towed the line. I really thought that Katherine was just a spinster looking for an easy life, and felt she got a big shock when she married the Captain against my advice. Melissa his first wife was such a strong and enterprising woman. The other two girls, simply speaking, were not a testament to her memory.

WHOA! Warning lights popped on in Lydias brain. How dare that woman make such judgments about someone else? From just that little bit of information, Lydia knew that Silla admired the way the Captain had treated his family. And to some extent she had even helped it along.

At that point Lydia sat the file gently aside (hurling it across the floor had been an option, but Lydia hadnt given into the feeling), and started to look at the other information Karen had brought back. She decided to try and make an attempt to read more of it later. But Lydia was finding it way too emotionally draining to see someones life being reduced to gossip and innuendo in that way. It also appeared that all the Captain and Silla had done in their testimony was try to justify what he had done to those poor women. The inquiry hadnt been assembled to determine Katherines cause of deathit was to establish whether he had been at fault. Deep down, Lydia knew that neither question would be answered directly from that file.