When Mr. Henderson agreed that I had given the facts correctly, the judge narrowed his eyes and stared at the man, the distaste on the judge’s face quite prominent.
“Did you give Shama a dying foal and later withdraw this questionable gift and then force her months later to work without pay in order to buy that which by oral contract you had freely given her?”
Mr. Henderson stumbled over such an attack. He made uh noises, shot a glance back at me, then did his best to explain. “I’m a businessman. I can’t give away prize animals. That horse of hers is worth a considerable amount. I did give her a really good bargain in trade.”
“No. You cheated her,” the judge stated. “Did you listen to her tale of how she kept that foal alive? Would you have nursed it as tenderly or as capably? By your own words, it seemed you didn’t want to bother doing so. This child, has from what I’ve observed, received almost no support from this town, other than Mrs. Swenson and someone called Old Mother, who has apparently passed on. But that is not something I feel should be addressed in court, although a weighty amount of guilt should sit on the shoulders of every citizen of this town in treating this innocent child so poorly.
But from a legal standing, if not the moral one that I just pointed out, you took advantage of this child to make her labor in your garden when she had already endured great hardship in tending this foal, even being forced to increase her debt to provide the ailing colt with what he needed: vet bills, sustenance, and hours of doctoring. In addition to straining her health under this heavy load, she apparently had to work off th debt this caused since you didn’t provide any manner of support for the foal’s care.”
“Although I was called here to this village in order to address Mr. Barner’s complaint, yet, I have the freedom to confront other injustices. Tell me, Mr. Henderson, for how many hours did this child dig, weed, and tend that garden of yours? What price would someone else have received for such employment?”
Mr. Henderson had only done me a favor in coming to the court session. With the judge’s assault, I regretted having asked Frey’s former owner to attend my trial. I’d never meant to have Mr. Henderson publicly embarrassed in front of the villagers or to force him to have to pay me for the gardening.
However, Old Mother did have another saying that seemed to apply: Karma sometimes lies in wait before sinking in her fangs.