Much of the inquiry centers around Misserimus Dexter, a friend of Eustace born without legs, an eccentric bordering on madness, whose testimony on behalf of Eustace may have saved him from a guilty verdict, and suggested suspicion of a female guest. Playmore, who is eventually won over to her cause, she pursues an investigation to uncover the real murderer. Assisted by Benjamin, and Eustace’s attorney, Mr. When she refuses, Eustace leaves her to fight in a distant war in Spain, where he is later seriously wounded. Valeria determines to remove that blot, even though Eustace, and her old family friend, Benjamin, urge her to leave it alone. The trial ended with neither a “guilty” nor a “not guilty” verdict but a third allowed in Scottish law, “not proven.” Such a verdict left Eustace under a cloud of suspicion, a permanent blot upon his reputation. She finds a picture of her husband with another woman, Sarah Macallan, and after further searching finds a book with a narrative of the trial of Eustace Macallan for the murder of Sarah by arsenic poisoning.
Instead she persists, returns to London, and tracks down Major Fitz-David, a ladies’ man who, while refusing to divulge her husband’s secret, permits her to discover it in his study. She is discouraged by her husband from inquiring further into the circumstances that led to their marriage under an assumed name. Valeria recognized her from a photograph she had found among her husband’s effects. On her honeymoon she discovers the Eustace’s real surname was Macallan after a chance encounter with her mother-in-law, who had disapproved of the marriage. Valeria Woodville’s marriage to Eustace Woodville begins with an ill omen when she signs the wedding register with her married rather than maiden name. The Law and the Lady is a later work (1875) with probably the first female sleuth in the genre.
Wilkie Collins is one of the early writers of detective fiction, most famous for his The Woman in White and The Moonstone, two works that established his reputation among the reading public of his time who eagerly awaited the serialized releases of each of his stories. Summary: Valeria Woodville discovers her new husband has a past that is under the cloud of a “not proven” murder accusation, and pursues an investigation to fully vindicate his innocence. The Law and the Lady, Wilkie Collins (edited with an Introduction and Notes by Jenny Bourne Taylor).
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