Sir Edward waited for some time before he said, “Well, as you seem unwilling to answer that question, perhaps we should move on to what you said next? ‘If it was your intention to bring the company down, Lady Virginia, then … you have failed, and failed lamentably, because you were defeated by decent ordinary people who want this company to be a success.’ Can you deny, Mrs. Clifton, that what you were suggesting to a packed audience in the Colston Hall in Bristol that morning was that Lady Virginia is not a decent ordinary person?” He emphasized the last three words.

“She’s certainly not ordinary.”

“I agree with you, Mrs. Clifton, she’s extraordinary. But I put it to the jury that the suggestion that my client is not decent, and that her purpose was to bring your company down, is libelous, Mrs. Clifton. Or is that, in your view, also nothing more than the truth?”

“I meant what I said,” Emma replied.

“And so convinced were you of your righteousness that you insisted your words be recorded in the minutes of the AGM.”

“Yes, I did.”

“Did the company secretary advise against this course of action at the time?”

Emma hesitated.

“I can always call Mr. Webster to give evidence,” said Sir Edward.

“I believe he may have done so.”

“Now why would he have done that, I wonder?” said Sir Edward, his voice heavy with sarcasm. Emma continued to stare at him, well aware that he wasn’t expecting her to reply. “Could it have been that he didn’t want you to add libel to the slander you had already committed?”

“I wanted my words to be on the record,” said Emma.

Trelford bowed his head, as Sir Edward said, “Did you indeed? So we have established, have we not, Mrs. Clifton, that you took against my client on the day you met her, that this intense dislike was compounded when you were not invited to your brother’s wedding, and that years later at your company’s AGM, in front of a packed audience of the shareholders, you sought to humiliate Lady Virginia by suggesting she was not a decent ordinary person, but someone who wanted to bring the company down. You then went on to overrule your company secretary in order to ensure that your slanderous words were repeated in the minutes of the AGM. Isn’t the truth, Mrs. Clifton, that you were simply seeking revenge on an ordinary decent human being, who is now asking for nothing more than retribution for your ill-considered words? I think the Bard best summed it up when he said, He that filches from me my good name, robs me of that which not enriches him, and makes me poor indeed.”