Charlotte had come home and she spent hours in Barnaby’s room listening to him read from the storybooks he had bought for her. And then one day the doctor arrived with the sergeant in tow.

‘I’m so sorry, but we shall have to take him back to the cells now, Mrs Greenwood. The doctor informs me that he is well enough to be moved and the magistrates will want him to appear in front of them when they arrive.’

Amber bristled. ‘But why? He still can’t go anywhere with his leg in splints and we could always bring him into town when he’s due to appear!’

But despite her protestations Barnaby was loaded onto the back of the police wagon and taken away. Both Charlotte and Amber were devastated, although the sergeant had promised faithfully that they would make him as comfortable as was humanly possible.

‘It’s so unfair,’ Amber told Mrs Jennings with tears in her eyes when her kindly neighbour walked over later that day with fresh milk and an apple pie. She had been wonderful to them and Amber didn’t know how she would have managed without her.

‘It is that, lass, but life is often unfair.’ She had grown to be very fond of Amber and utterly doted on little Charlotte.

And now Amber forced herself to ask the question that had been keeping her awake at night. ‘What do you think will happen to him, Mrs Jennings?’

The old woman swallowed nervously. The whole town was buzzing over Barnaby’s fate and the common opinion was that if he couldn’t prove that he hadn’t stabbed Bertie Preston he would be hanged. But as well as what had happened to Bertie, the town was also buzzing about the death of Mrs Preston. It appeared that someone had seen Bertie there late on the evening she had been killed and they had been quarrelling. Most people surmised that he had gone to his mother for money yet again, and when she had none to give him, he had killed her in a fit of rage, but now that Bertie too was dead it was doubtful if they would ever know what had really happened.

‘I don’t rightly know, lass,’ she answered tactfully, avoiding Amber’s eyes. ‘The offence is too serious for the magistrates to deal with here so I reckon they’ll send him to crown court to be tried and then it’ll be up to the judge.’

‘He’s going to hang, isn’t he?’ Amber suddenly burst into tears and in a second, Mrs Jennings had her wrapped tight in her arms.

‘Best try not to think about it.’ She felt angry that the police hadn’t taken into account what Amber had told them and yet she also understood that the evidence against Barnaby was very incriminating. ‘You’ll just have to let things take their course.’