The Salt Assizes

The courthouse roof has been leaking since the autumn gales, and nobody has decided whose job it is to fix it, so the puddle in the aisle has become a fixture — islanders step around it now without looking. Bettany Roke stands where the accused stand, though nobody has said the word accused. She is holding her hat. Behind her, eleven people have come in out of the rain to watch, which is nine more than usual.