Chapter 9 - The Trial of Blackwood
The scandal rocked the entire kingdom.
The news that the late Lady Eleanor had survived a murder attempt by her own husband spread like wildfire. The Royal High Court of Blackwood was convened, presided over by the King’s own Grand Magistrate.
Daniel and Lady Genevieve were placed in iron chains, standing in the wooden dock before a courtroom packed with hundreds of screaming townspeople demanding justice.
Martha took the witness stand, detailing the sabotage of the carriage, the jump made by Genevieve, and the cold-blooded cutting of the rescue rope. Then came the ultimate blow: Eleanor presented the original land deeds of the estate, legally proving that Daniel’s father had stolen the land from Eleanor’s family decades prior.
Daniel had no defense. He broke down on the stand, blubbering, pointing fingers at his mother, while Genevieve screamed curses at her son for being a coward.
The Grand Magistrate slammed his heavy wooden gavel down, his voice echoing over the courtroom.
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"Daniel Sterling! Lady Genevieve Sterling!" the Magistrate declared sternly. "For the crimes of attempted high murder, treason, and grand fraud, you are stripped of all titles, all lands, and all nobility. You are sentenced to life imprisonment in the deep stone mines of the Northern Waste, where you shall spend the rest of your days in heavy labor."
As the guards dragged the screaming, sobbing mother and son away in chains, Daniel looked back one last time at Eleanor. She stood in the front row, holding Julian’s hand, watching his absolute destruction without a single tear in her eye.
