His Wife, Her Sister, Their Secret novel · Chapter 19 of 24

Chapter 19: The Hearing

We went in by two doors.

At ten to eight, Dennis's wife unlocked the kitchen's back door from the inside and let my sister in out of the dark, with the baby on her front under a coat.

She sat Poppy on a stool behind the serving hatch, where the food goes through, and put the kettle on.

I know because I watched from the hall.

Then I walked in through the front with Joss, and I stood at the door with the wives.

The main hall was full.

It held every brother in a cut and every wife in a coat, sixty people, with the trestles stacked against the wall and the chairs in rows.

Dennis sat at the head, behind a table with a gavel on it that I had never once seen him use.

Joss walked up the aisle alone and stopped in front of him.

"Brothers," Dennis said. "And sisters. I take no pleasure in this."

He sounded sorry.

"Anchor stood at our table on the eleventh of March and claimed a child. By the law of this club, no man can take him from his father. That's the oldest law we have. It's a good law."

A murmur went round the hall.

"But a claim has to be true. A brother who lies to the table spits on every man here. He spits on the ones in the ground."

He let that sit.

"So I ask him now, in front of all of you. Joss Holroyd. Is the boy yours?"

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