‘Mistress Dickson rejects all of these accusations. Her own sister has admitted she was there at the birth. When her sister guessed at the pregnancy Mistress Dickson did not deny it. How could it be described as a concealed pregnancy if she had assistance?’

‘Come to the witness stand, Mistress Dickson,’ the sheriff said gravely.

I cannot say how the courtroom reacted when I stood up and took the stand, for the world shrank at that moment, until all that was left of it was the high-pitched singing of my blood racing through my head. I wondered, briefly, if I might collapse or forget entirely who I was.

Mr Suttie’s young-mannish voice pulled me back.

‘Tell us,’ he said, ‘how you felt when you saw your babe?’

My words fell like husks into the room. ‘I fell in love with her,’ I replied.

‘And had you kept your pregnancy a secret? Or were you just caught by surprise perhaps, and had not gathered your thoughts enough to tell everyone?’ I could tell Mr Suttie was offering me a way out – an excuse.

‘Caught by surprise, sir,’ I told him. ‘For I had been off-colour for some months, but did not think for a minute I might be with child, for I had only been married a brief while before my husband was press-ganged.’

The sheriff rapped his hammer on the bench and interrupted us. ‘Mistress Dickson, did you not even think for a minute you might be with child? Your belly was swelling and you must have felt movement? Were your gowns not getting tight?’

‘Mibbie they were,’ I admitted, remembering how I had sat and unpicked the seams, letting them out. ‘But I thought it was the fine meals I was getting, and it was not until quite near the end that I guessed.’

Sheriff McAllister exhaled.

‘In that case,’ he said, ‘how might you explain the fact that when your creel was searched by the constables, this item was amongst your possessions – a singular item that suggests, without any doubt, that you did indeed know that you were expecting a child and had known about it for some time?’

And with that, he lifted something up to show the courtroom what he was talking about.

The little white baby bonnet.

There was another huddle with the sheriff and the law men.

I watched the bonnet lying on the sheriff’s bench and wondered if I might just reach across and take it back, and I think mibbie I did try, my legs rising up, but two men pulled me back to my chair.

Then I noticed the way the clock had moved, when it all felt like a flash, but somehow it was already twelve of the clock, but I realized time did not really matter now.

Then the sheriff stood up and gave a long speech, but I do remember the most of it, for how could I not?