by Pat McIntosh
‘The man who is dead was dead before that,’ said Ealasaidh.
‘The barrel that we found the head in,’ Gil explained, ‘left Linlithgow early Tuesday on a merchant’s cart. By the time you saw Balthasar coming from Mass, both barrel and head were halfway to Castlecary.’
‘Oh,’ said Marriot, not fully convinced.
‘I’m glad to hear you saw him,’ said Gil encouragingly, ‘for I liked the man. I still have to find a name for the dead man, but at least I’ve eliminated one.’
‘Just leaves the whole of the rest of Scotland, eh?’ said the flute player.
‘If the dead had odd eyes like Barty,’ said the man who had admitted Gil, ‘was he maybe some kind of kin to him? It’s no that common a feature, see.’
This was generally agreed to be a good point.
‘There you are, maister,’ said the lutenist with the green ribbons. ‘Gang to Linlithgow, find Barty, and you’ll get a name for your corp.’
‘If he’s still there,’ said the bass vièle.
‘If he wasny, he’d be here, where the pickings are,’ said the tenor singer beside Marriot.
One or two of the men laughed, but McIan said, with sudden authority, ‘Go to Linlithgow the morn, Maister Cunningham, and ask your questions again. There will be answers.’
‘But the now,’ said the bass vièle, ‘he said he was the audience. We aye need an audience. Gie the man another drink, Alissy, and he can listen to this new piece for us. I still say you want to be half a tone higher there, Edward,’ he went on, turning abruptly to the flute player. ‘It’s away too sweet like that.’
Chapter Four
Kate Cunningham, sitting in the arbour in her uncle’s garden, stared out over the lower town and thought bleakly about her future.
It seemed to contain very little that was positive. St Mungo had been her last resort. Restricted though their income was, she had travelled widely in the past two or three years, following the pilgrim roads of Scotland with offerings and petitions for saints from Tain to Whithorn without success. She wondered if she had offended Mungo by turning to him the last, and found her mouth twisting in a bitter smile.
‘What has changed?’ said Alys in her accented Scots.
Kate looked round, and found her new relation sitting on the grass nearby. The smile softened; in the few days since they had met she had found a great liking for this slender, elegant, terrifyingly competent girl.
‘Changed?’ she said now.
‘Since yesterday, for example,’ said Alys.
Kate turned her head to look out over the burgh again, trying to decide whether she could answer that.
‘All my hopes are away,’ she said at last. ‘The rest of my life’s still the same, but now I’ve no hope of ever getting rid of – these.’ She nodded at the crutches propped beside the arbour.
‘All your hopes?’
‘You sound like my brother. No, I suppose, not all. I still have my hope of salvation, but what else is there? How can I lead a useful life? How can I lead a good life, even?’
‘You said,’ said Alys diffidently, ‘that the saint bade you Rise up, daughter.’ Kate nodded. ‘Dreams often go by image and metaphor. Do you think, perhaps, he meant you were to rise up above your difficulties? To ignore them?’
‘He could have said so,’ Kate said sourly. ‘It’s no that easy to ignore having to be carried downstairs every day.’
Alys was silent for a while. Then she said, ‘I came out to ask for your help.’
‘Mine? What help can I be? Did you not hear me, Alys?’
‘Your brother,’ said Alys, colouring slightly as she always did when she mentioned Gil, ‘left me a task. Someone must speak to Maister Morison’s men about the bringing home of that cart, with the barrel on it, and the sooner the better. I need a companion. Would you come with me?’
‘Why not take one of your lassies?’ said Kate, aware that she sounded pettish. ‘Or that Catherine?’
‘I’d rather have this Katherine,’ said Alys, her elusive smile flickering. ‘My lassies will be busy about the dinner just now, and Catherine will be asleep over her prayer-book, since she last saw me in my father’s care. Will you not help me? We can have your mule brought round, and you can ride down, and Babb and I can walk. Then you may dine with us, and come home after.’
‘Oh, well,’ said Kate after a moment. ‘I might as well, I suppose.’
The three women halted in the gateway to Morison’s Yard, staring at the disorder within.
‘Mon Dieu,’ said Alys after a moment, ‘quelle espèce de pagaille!’
‘You’ve not been here before?’ said Kate, as her mule pricked his long ears at a blowing wisp of straw.
‘No,’ admitted Alys, looking round. ‘How ever could he let his men work like this? I would be ashamed to – of course his wife is dead.’
‘Her is non hoom, her nis but wildernesse. Where should we start?’ asked Kate. ‘Is there anyone here to question, or is the place deserted?’
‘There’s somebody down yonder,’ said Babb suspiciously. ‘Ye can hear voices.’
As she spoke the door of the barn at the far end of the yard was flung open and a skinny boy scurried out, making for one of the sheds. Halfway there he caught sight of the visitors, skidded to a halt staring, then turned and scurried back into the barn. The words Three bonnie leddies floated out.
‘Hmf!’ said Babb. Andy Paterson appeared in the doorway, and hurried forward, the boy beside him.
‘Forgive the wait, leddies, we’re a wee thing owerset here,’ he said, raising his blue knitted bonnet, and stopped, a grin spreading across his face. ‘Lady Kate! John, you never said it was Lady Kate!’ he remonstrated, aiming a cuff at the boy, who ducked expertly.
‘No reason the boy should know me,’ Kate said. ‘How are you, Andy? And the family?’
‘All well, so far’s I’ve heard,’ said Andy. ‘Madam your mother’s well, then, leddy?’
‘She is,’ said Kate. ‘Andy, this is Mistress Mason, who’s to marry my brother.’
‘Wish ye well, mistress,’ said Andy. He raised the bonnet again to Alys, and nodded companionably to Babb. ‘And what’s your pleasure, Lady Kate? Mistress?’
The two girls exchanged a brief look, and Alys gave Kate one of her infinitesimal nods.
‘A word with the men who brought the cart from Linlithgow,’ Kate said.
Andy’s eyes narrowed. ‘What for?’
‘In case any of them remembers something that might be useful,’ said Alys. ‘You want your master out of the castle and back in the yard, don’t you?’
‘Aye, I do, mistress,’ said Andy. ‘And if it’s like that.’ He turned to the boy. ‘John, run and mak siccar Billy Walker’s no left the yard yet. I’ve just bidden him gie us his room,’ he expanded to Kate. ‘You’ll have heard from Maister Gil what passed at the quest, then?’
‘What like a man’s Billy Walker? Is that him at the back yett?’ asked Babb. Andy swung round, let out a roar, and set off at a run. Babb, grinning, dropped Kate’s crutches with a clatter, hitched up her skirts and pounded after him. She overtook him easily halfway down the yard, swept past him and seized Billy as he slipped through the gate.
‘Let me loose!’ he shouted as she dragged him triumphantly back to her mistress. ‘Let me away, you fairground show! I’ve been turned off, it’s none of my mind now, it’s nought to do wi me!’
‘Well, now,’ said Kate thoughtfully, studying him from her perch on the back of the mule. ‘Maybe if you can tell us anything useful . . .’ She paused, glancing at Andy’s scowling face, and changed what she had been about to say. ‘One of us might put in a word for you with another master. I take it you’d liefer work than starve?’
‘What if I would?’ he said sulkily. ‘That yin wasny for giving me the choice.’
He jerked his head at Andy, who expostulated, ‘I wasny? What about yersel, Billy Walker? Ye’ve tried to put us all out of our work! If the maister gets hangit for
murder, what will the rest of us do?’
‘I tell ye, I never meant for that,’ said Billy. ‘And forbye, he’s got the money to get off. He never done it, he’ll no get –’ He squirmed in Babb’s grasp. ‘Will you let me go, you great lump?’
Kate exchanged another glance with Alys, who said, ‘Is there somewhere we can talk to Billy? And then to the rest of the men who went to Linlithgow?’
‘One at a time, you mean?’ said Andy, and chewed his lip briefly. ‘Aye, well, ye can sit in the house, if ye can get up the stair, my leddy Or there’s the sheds. No that one,’ he said in significant tones, nodding at the nearest, ‘ye’ll not want to sit in that one, but there’s others. Only thing is, the women are a’ to pieces in the kitchen, the both o them. We’ll no can offer you any refreshment, you’ll understand. It’s a good question whether me and the men’ll get any dinner.’
‘I can get up the stair,’ said Kate. ‘We’ll sit in the house.’
Established in the hall, the two girls confronted the resentful Billy still in Babb’s unloving grip. Alys had flung wide all the shutters, only partly lightening the gloom and in addition revealing the thick layer of dust which lay alike on dull furnishings and the clutter of musical instruments in a corner. Kate dragged her gaze resolutely from these and said, ‘Explain yourself, Billy.’
‘I’m no wanted here,’ he retorted, ‘the auld ruddoch made that clear enough, so I don’t see why I should help ye, and ye’ve no right to be holding me here neither. Mem,’ he added reluctantly as both stared pointedly at him.
‘Billy,’ said Kate, ‘do you know what a wilful false assize is?’
‘I do not. And I’ll no take lessons in the law from a lassie.’
‘That’s a pity,’ said Kate calmly, ‘for if it was proved this day’s assize was wilfully false, and you had aught to do with it, you’d be up for a fine that would have you working for your keep the rest of your life.’ Maybe Gil was right, she thought, and I should study the law.
‘I had nothing to do wi it! It’s no my doing if my cousin . . .’
‘Yes?’ said Alys.
Billy muttered something inaudible. Babb shook him, and he said, ‘If my cousin repeated what I tellt him to the other assizers.’
‘And what did you tell him?’ demanded Babb in his ear. ‘Tell my leddy, now.’
Billy rolled his eyes at her so that the whites showed in the dim.
‘What I said at the assize,’ he said, with an attempt at nonchalance. ‘That it was my belief the maister kent by far mair nor he was saying about the barrel, and how he kept us out of the way while it was opened. As for him saying it was books inside it,’ he added sourly, ‘a likely tale that was, and so I thought from the start.’
‘And what did you know about the barrel yourself?’ asked Alys. ‘Did you see it hoisted out of the ship?’
‘Aye, I did,’ he admitted reluctantly. ‘And it stood on the shore while we got the two big pipes on to the cart, and then we got it on the back of the cart and tied the tail up.’
‘Why load it on the back?’ Alys asked curiously. ‘Why not on the top, in the dip between the two great pipes?’ She held up her hands to illustrate the question, and Billy gave her a sharp look.
‘Because the maister was feart it might fall off the top,’ he said. ‘So I kenned it was worth something.’
‘And there was no other barrel the same size?’ Kate said.
‘I never saw one. There might ha been.’ He stopped, staring at Alys, who had drawn her wax tablets from her purse and opened them. ‘Here, are you to write down every word I say? For that’s no fair!’
‘And how not, if you’re speaking the truth?’ Babb demanded, towering over him. ‘What’s to fear from your own true words?’
‘And how do I ken she writes it down exact? You’re on my maister’s side, you’re going to twist all I say against me –’
‘So you admit you aren’t on your maister’s side?’ Kate said quickly.
‘I never said that,’ said Billy, hunching his shoulders.
‘Then answer my leddy,’ said Babb, giving him a shake. He glared at her, then at Alys.
‘Aye,’ he said sulkily, ‘but she better write it down right.’
‘Be sure I will,’ said Alys sweetly, her stylus poised.
‘Was the cart covered?’ asked Kate. ‘A hood, a canvas apron?’
‘Naw. No this time o year.’
‘And then what happened?’ asked Alys. ‘That was on Monday afternoon, was it?’
Billy shrugged, as far as he might in Babb’s rigorous grip. ‘If you say so,’ he muttered.
‘Where did it go next?’ Alys prodded.
‘Linlithgow. To the cooper’s yard,’ said Billy sulkily.
Bit by bit they got the information out of him. At Linlithgow the cart had lain in a barn in Riddoch the cooper’s yard; at Kilsyth the next night it had been put in the dyer’s cart-shed.
‘And I got logwood dust on my hose,’ said Billy sourly, displaying the dark mark down one thigh.
‘You slept with the cart?’ said Alys. He nodded. ‘So you would have seen anyone who touched it?’
‘I never saw anyone near it,’ said Billy.
‘So it was a quiet night, both nights?’ said Kate.
‘Hah!’ said Billy, looking faintly smug. ‘That’s all you ken.’
Kate considered him briefly ‘What way was it not quiet?’ she asked. ‘What happened, then?’
Billy wagged his head. ‘No a lot.’
‘Go on,’ said Babb, shaking him again. ‘How was it no quiet? You’ve said this much, you’ll finish the tale or I’ll beat it out of you.’
‘You’ve no need o yir threats. It was – it was just a thief in Riddoch’s yard,’ revealed Billy. ‘But whoever it was I never saw him near the cart,’ he said again.
‘A thief? Why did you not come out with this at the inquest?’ Kate demanded. ‘There’s Maister Morison held in the castle, and –’
‘I tell you, I never saw him near the cart!’ Billy repeated.
‘What did you see?’ Alys asked.
He shrugged again. ‘No much. I heard more.’
Another prolonged session of questioning got a description of sorts. Billy had been woken by shouting, and possibly by the sound of a fight. He had looked out of the barn, but the yard was dark. The cooper had leaned out of a window bellowing threats, and then come down in his shirt, roused his household and searched the yard with lanterns.
‘But they never found anything,’ said Billy. ‘Nor anything missing,’ he added. ‘There was barrels overturned and that, and when I rose in the morning the shavings had all been kicked across the yard, so I sweepit them thegither for them, but they said there was nothing taken. But I did think one of them got away by the back yett.’
‘One of them,’ repeated Alys. ‘You said just now you never saw him near the cart. Was it one man, or several?’
‘I never counted them,’ said Billy. ‘It was all dark, see.’
Babb shook him angrily. ‘Keep a civil tongue, you,’ she growled.
‘If there was a fight, there must have been more than one man in the yard,’ said Kate.
‘Oh, very clever,’ said Billy. ‘There you go, the both of ye, turning a man’s words against him.’ Babb shook him again, and he glared over his shoulder at her.
‘If you are speaking the truth, you have nothing to fear,’ said Alys. Billy snorted.
‘You said it was dark,’ said Kate. ‘Would you have seen if anyone went near the cart?’
‘I’d ha heard him at the barn door, would I no,’ Billy pointed out. ‘Or when he shifted the barrels.’
‘So you still don’t know when the barrel with the books in it was changed for the barrel that was opened yesterday,’ said Alys.
‘Maybe it was witchcraft,’ suggested Billy, and crossed himself.
‘That was hard work,’ said Alys as Babb ejected the indignant journeyman.
‘It sounds easy when my bro
ther talks about questioning witnesses,’ Kate admitted, sitting back in Morison’s great chair, ‘but it isn’t, is it?’
‘Will I ask at the kitchen, my leddy,’ said Babb, returning from the house door, ‘if they could manage a wee refreshment for ye, before you have in the other men?’
The two girls exchanged a glance.
‘The kitchen will be busy. Perhaps call Andy in first?’ Alys suggested.
Andy, turning his blue knitted cap in his hands, confirmed the initial details of Billy’s account. The barrel had been hoisted out first, laid on the shore, loaded on the tail of the cart. There had certainly been no other puncheon the same size in Thomas Tod’s vessel.
‘And what about this tale of a thief in the cooper’s yard?’ Alys asked.
‘A what?’ Andy’s open-mouthed stare and swelling indignation were answer in themselves. ‘He never – In the cooper’s yard? At Linlithgow? There was no a word of it in the morning, he just brought the cart round to the Blue Lion his lone when we was ready to get away. What thief’s this, mistress? What was taken? Did they catch anybody?’
‘So you weren’t in the yard yourself?’ Kate said.
He shook his head. ‘No in the morning, we just set straight off for the West Port to get out afore the traffic coming in blocked the gate. See, my maister’s got an agreement with Willie Riddoch,’ he expanded. ‘We don’t pay him by the night, they settle it up at the quarter-day atween them. But what’s this about a thief, my leddy?’
‘It wasn’t clear,’ said Kate. ‘I’d hoped you could give us a better story. It seems from what Billy says as if there was a fight in the yard, and someone got away by the back yett, but he claims nobody went near the cart.’
‘But did the cooper hear nothing? Has Billy invented it all, maybe?’
‘The cooper came down and roused his men,’ Alys said, ‘and they searched the yard, to no purpose. So Billy said.’
‘I don’t like it,’ muttered Andy. ‘Someone should get to Linlithgow, ask at Willie Riddoch what happened.’
‘My brother –’ Kate began, and was interrupted by a shrill, furious voice from the next room.
