It took just a minute to reach the oaken frame outside the manor house. Time enough for Laffite to recover his voice. “She did this,” he shouted at the Bailiff and his men, the crowd, anyone his eye fell upon. “She gave me that brooch, just now. She’s the thief not I. Hang her. Let me prove it in battle if I must.”
People listened, and some looked at her, though most talked loudly and pushed to get the best view of the gibbet. Marion held her head up. Let them look.
Beneath the timber gallows the Bailiff ordered Laffite’s hands tied behind his back. He then had his men form a ring to keep the crowd back. He raised his hand and the crowd quietened. “Amis Laffite,” he said. “You have been caught in possession of stolen goods. Under the right of Outfangentheft, granted to me as Bailiff of t
