The Merchant's Mark

by Pat McIntosh

  ‘Would he so?’ said Kate. ‘And to see it brought before the King like that?’

  ‘Oh, aye,’ said the Official, with the same absence of expression.

  ‘How did he serve the late King?’ Kate asked.

  Her uncle threw her an approving look. ‘He was one of the custumars,’ he recalled, ‘and made a fair profit on the customs of Leith. I think he served for the King in that sorry business wi my lord of Albany’s treason, ten or more year ago, and I’ve no doubt the Preceptory held some of this same hoard for the King in ’88, when it was clear what way things were going.’

  ‘So why should he not know where the treasure is now?’ asked Alys.

  ‘The late King planted boxes of it all up and down the east side of Scotland before the rebellion,’ said Kate, ‘like a squirrel in autumn. Quite likely he’d not have recalled all of it himself, even had he lived, from all I’ve heard, let alone the rest of us guess where it might have gone.’

  ‘No to mention,’ added David Cunningham, suddenly abandoning legal discretion, ‘my lord St John of Jerusalem changing sides just afore the rising.’

  ‘Is that his title?’ said Alys, round-eyed. ‘Kate!’

  ‘Of course!’ said Kate. ‘The Baptizer!’

  They exchanged glances all three.

  ‘It fits,’ agreed her uncle slowly. ‘It fits what I know of the man. But we have no proof.’

  ‘Proof is easy,’ said Alys sweepingly ‘It is merely a matter of evidence.’

  ‘I like the “merely”,’ said Kate.

  ‘No, but wait. What do we know? The man with the axe had paid Billy to open a gate somewhere, and he was sure there should be more treasure here in the house.’ She paused. ‘There was Billy’s tale of a thief in the yard at Linlithgow. What if the treasure had been held there, and the man with the axe was the thief?’

  ‘Billy said the thief ran off,’ objected Kate.

  ‘He said there was a fight,’ Alys reminded her, ‘so there must have been more than one man. He also said the thief was nowhere near the cart, but patently somebody was. If he lied in that, he may well have lied in other things.’

  ‘I wonder if Mall heard any more?’

  ‘We can hardly ask her just now, poor lass.’ Alys clasped her hands and gazed down at them. ‘If the treasure was hidden in the yard, and this man of Knollys’s came to fetch it, and something went wrong – I suppose it means that Knollys has known where this part of the treasure has been, and perhaps intended to keep it to himself for some reason.’

  ‘Will Knollys would need no reason to hold on to money,’ said David Cunningham. ‘It’s what makes him a good man for Treasurer. Your conjecture is no bad, Alys my lassie, but it could as well be Noll Sinclair.’

  ‘Sinclair?’ said Kate. ‘I mind him. We stayed at Roslin one time, my mother and sisters and me, when I was a wee thing. They were kind to me. Do you mind, Babb?’

  ‘No doubt,’ said her uncle, over Babb’s agreement, ‘but he holds land in Linlithgow, and I’m certain he’s let some part of it to a cooper. If the coin was hidden in the yard, it was hidden on Sinclair’s land.’

  ‘Is that likely, sir?’ Kate asked.

  ‘Oh, aye. Sinclair was aye a good friend to the Crown.’

  ‘But the man with the axe did not mention Sinclair,’ objected Alys.

  ‘You need more information,’ said Canon Cunningham firmly. Kate noted the you again. ‘But for now, lassies, what are the two of you to do? I suppose you must go home from time to time,’ he said to Alys, who smiled quickly. ‘But you, Kate, are you to stay here? I hardly think it safe.’

  ‘Maister Morison said the same,’ said Kate. ‘But I don’t like to leave the bairns. There should be someone in the house to take charge.’

  ‘Bairns?’

  ‘They’re in the yard,’ said Alys, ‘with Matt’s friend Mistress Thomson.’ The Official craned to see out of the window. His thin cheeks creased in a rare smile as he saw the little girls, who were industriously sweeping a small patch of ground with two very large brooms, while Matt and Mistress Thomson lifted broken crocks. ‘Kate is right, sir, there should be someone in control. There are only the two women in the house, and one of my lassies on loan, and though Andy has his master’s trust, he also has his hands full with the men and the yard. He can’t see to two bairns as well.’

  And for how long? Kate wondered, biting her lip. What will come to their father? Imprisoned, however kindly, kept from his trade and his household –

  ‘What will happen to Maister Morison, sir?’ said Alys.

  The Official abandoned the view of the children and sat back, looking from Alys to Kate.

  ‘That depends,’ he said. ‘He needs to show clearly he had no knowledge of the barrel, which is no an easy thing. This matter of his man breaking in and then being murdered, while he himself was held secure, should go in his favour.’ He paused to consider, eyeing Kate carefully. ‘Aye, I suppose you had best stay here the now, Kate. If it comes to a trial, no doubt the law will put someone in place, but the Justice Ayre won’t reach Glasgow for weeks.’ His thought was clear to Kate: At least it gives the lassie something to think about. She lifted her chin and eyed him back, and after a moment he gave her another of those rare smiles. ‘My, Kate. Times I see your father in you. Does it matter to you, what happens to Amphibal Morison’s boy?’

  Kate opened her mouth to deny the imputation, closed it again, and looked down. Behind her Babb said, with a warmth equalling the sudden warmth of Kate’s face, ‘Who’d want to see a man brought to his end by a spiteful creature like Billy Walker? No wonder she’s taking an interest, Maister David!’

  ‘Aye,’ said Kate. ‘Babb’s right, sir.’

  ‘Aye,’ said her uncle, with that legal lack of expression, and rose. ‘Well, I had best be up the road. I have a case to look over for the morn. Gang warily, my lassies,’ he added, looking from one to the other. ‘You’ll keep me informed, won’t you?’

  ‘We’ll report to you, sir,’ agreed Kate. His mouth twitched, but he only raised his hand for the blessing.

  By the time the two men selected by Andy for the task came home from their expedition to the Hog, the house was relatively quiet. The hall, swept and polished, bright with fire and candlelight, was strewn with cut pieces of linen, and more was stretched out on the great board which had been set on its trestles for the purpose. Round it, under the branches of light, the women were sewing, with the support of small cups of a reviving herbal cordial which Ursel had produced from her stillroom. When Andy stepped into the house with the two cheerful men behind him, he looked round approvingly.

  ‘Where’s the new one?’ he asked. ‘The nourice?’

  ‘She didny want to leave them,’ said Ursel. ‘Wynliane’s no right yet. Here, Jennet, that’s a sleeve to that shift, and I think Babb has the other.’

  ‘Aye, well, I tellt you how it would be,’ said Andy.

  Kate grimaced, and Alys nodded. ‘You did indeed, Andy,’ she agreed, ‘but we had to try to bath them. I wonder if there is a better way to approach it,’ she said thoughtfully. ‘Perhaps if an adult got in with them?’

  ‘We’d be better to wash the bairn standing in a basin,’ said Kate. ‘It can’t be good for her, upsetting her so she screams like that.’ She looked past Andy. ‘Jamesie, William. What did you learn?’

  They came forward, dispensing fumes of ale and the greasy cooking smells which clung to their clothes. Ursel sniffed, and primmed up her mouth.

  ‘No a lot, my leddy.’ This was Jamesie, lanky and dark-haired, turning his bonnet in his hands. ‘Mattha Hog says he’d be right glad to take the coals off our hands, my leddy, but I never discussed the price, since you never tellt me to.’ Kate nodded approvingly. ‘And then we sat down, like Andy tellt us, and took a stoup of ale, and listened a bit, and talked a bit. They were wanting to hear how Billy dee’d.’

  ‘What did you say?’ asked Alys.

  ‘What we saw,’ said William. ‘How he was c
ut to pieces like wi an axe.’ He looked at his colleague. ‘I thought one or two folk looked sideways at that. As if maybe they were feart the fellow wi the axe was in the place the night.’

  ‘Aye, but he wasny,’ said Jamesie.

  ‘Naw. So then,’ pursued William, ‘one fellow asked what Billy was after when we took him redhand last night, so we tellt them what he said about the maister’s kist, and how a’body kens the maister keeps his coin up at the castle. And we tellt them how it was you and Babb that catched him,’ he added, ‘and how Babb wanted to put skelfs under his fingernails and set light to them –’

  ‘That wasny me, it was Jamesie that wanted to set light to them!’ said Babb indignantly, needle poised over a scrap of linen.

  ‘I never!’ said Jamesie, equally indignant. ‘It was your brother Ecky, William Soutar.’

  ‘Whoever it was,’ said Kate, ‘we never took up the idea. What did the Hog have to say to that?’

  ‘Well, I think they’ll no come calling uninvited,’ said Jamesie, grinning.

  ‘It was so you,’ muttered William.

  ‘Did you learn anything more?’ said Kate, seeing the way the discussion was heading.

  ‘No in the Hog, no,’ admitted Jamesie. ‘But when we left –’

  ‘Calling me a liar –’

  ‘This fellow came out after us, casual-like, and had a wee word as we cam along the Gallowgait.’

  ‘What fellow was this?’ asked Alys.

  Jamesie shrugged. ‘He never said his name. What he did say was, he’d heard Billy and this fellow wi the axe talking in the Hog yestreen. Afore you were there yourself, my leddy.’

  ‘Yes?’ said Kate.

  ‘Our Ecky never said such a thing in his life.’

  ‘He said there was something about a barrel, and a yett, and a key. And he said the fellow said Billy had cheated him.’

  ‘It was a’ havers,’ said William, suddenly abandoning his brother’s reputation. ‘You don’t need a key to seal a barrel.’

  ‘Did Billy seal the barrel?’ asked Alys hopefully.

  Jamesie shrugged again. ‘He never said. He said Billy was feart for the Axeman.’

  ‘We kenned that,’ said Andy. ‘Is this all you’ve got, you pair of useless loons?’

  ‘Naw,’ said William unexpectedly. ‘Other thing he said, he’d seen the fellow wi the axe in the Hog afore. Wi two other men.’

  ‘Men? Not a girl?’ said Alys. ‘We still need to look for this Maidie.’

  William shook his head. ‘He just said men.’

  ‘When?’ Kate asked. ‘Did he know the other men? Or describe them?’

  ‘He didny ken them, for we asked him that. He said one had a hat wi a feather in it.’

  ‘Like half the householders in Glasgow,’ said Andy in disgust. ‘You’re a useless –’

  ‘When was this?’ Kate asked.

  ‘No yesterday but the day afore. Wednesday,’ said William, counting on his fingers.

  ‘Did he hear what they were saying?’ asked Alys.

  ‘Naw.’

  ‘They stayed in a wee corner, by theirsels,’ elucidated Jamesie.

  ‘But,’ said William, ‘he reckoned Mattha Hog knew them, for they got the good ale without asking for it.’

  ‘A pity they never got the fellow’s name,’ said Kate, once the men had been thanked and sent out to the bothy.

  ‘I said the man with the axe was not acting alone,’ said Alys. ‘But why was he in Glasgow on Wednesday? That was before the cart ever came home with the barrel on it.’

  ‘Maybe they’d missed it on the road,’ suggested Babb, running her thread across the beeswax.

  ‘It still makes little sense,’ said Alys, and frowned down at her seam.

  ‘I think we only have half the picture,’ said Kate. ‘We’ve no more than we can learn here in Glasgow. Gil may have the other half.’

  ‘True,’ agreed Alys, and sighed. ‘I wonder when he will be home?’

  And when he comes home, thought Kate, will he set Augie Morison free?

  The inquest on Billy Walker was an altogether more expeditious affair than the one on the unknown head in the barrel. This probably had something to do with the imminent arrival of the King and half the court; most of the supporting column had already arrived and the outer yard was full of men shouting over laden mules and oxcarts full of cushions, folding furniture and half of the Master Cook’s batterie de cuisine. French curses floated over the chaos; as Kate was hoisted by Babb up the fore-stair into Sir Thomas’s own lodging she heard Alys giggle.

  The corpse lay on a hurdle propped on trestles in the midst of the hall. In deference to Mall’s feelings, and possibly those of the other women present, someone had spread a length of canvas over it. Mall herself was stationed near the bier, dry-eyed and apprehensive, her beads in her hand and a clean apron over her worn blue gown. The woman beside her was so like her she could only be the sister from Greyfriars Wynd.

  ‘He’s done better wi the assizers this time,’ muttered Andy as one of the men-at-arms set a chair for Kate. ‘There’s Mattha Hog again, but the rest’s no so close wi him as Thursday’s lot was. Just the same, I should ha sent our men to find some of our own friends. And you stand here, Ecky Soutar, where I can keep my eye on you.’

  The serjeant bore in the burgh mace, and Sir Thomas made an entrance, took his seat on the dais and dealt briskly with the business of choosing the assizers, ignoring any suggested names of which he did not approve and ending with a group of sheepish citizens being sworn in by the clerk in batches of five.

  ‘Right, neighbours,’ said the Provost when this was complete. ‘We’ve the body of a man here, and this court is convened to establish who he is, how he died and if we can tell who was responsible.’

  ‘If ye dare,’ said someone from behind Kate.

  Alys twisted round to look, and Sir Thomas stretched himself up, glaring. ‘Who said that? Andro, see who it was. Another word and you’re out of this chamber, whoever you are.’

  ‘Jemmy Walker, was it no, maister?’ muttered Ecky Soutar to Andy, who gave him a look that silenced him. Sir Thomas was speaking again.

  ‘Now, neighbours, the first thing is to determine who the dead man is. Has any of you looked on him?’

  With some shuffling of feet, the assize admitted that the most of their number had keeked under the canvas, and that those who had done so were agreed that the corp was Billy Walker, that had been carter to Maister Augustine Morison of Morison’s Yard in the High Street. Sir Thomas nodded, and his clerk wrote the name down.

  ‘And who found him dead?’ he asked.

  ‘That was me,’ said Andy with reluctance.

  After her recent experience of questioning witnesses, Kate admired the economy with which Sir Thomas extracted what Andy had seen when he opened the coalhouse door, and had it confirmed by the serjeant, who was more subdued than Kate had seen him. Then it was her turn; Sir Thomas very courteously bade her stay where she was, and came down into the hall to take her evidence, followed by his clerk. The assize were let out of their pen to come closer, so that they could hear her, and she described how Billy had broken into the house, how she and Babb had trapped him, and how they had questioned him and shut him in the coalhouse.

  ‘We thought he’d be safe there till the morning,’ she said, and was surprised to find her voice shaking.

  Alys, beside her, put a hand on her shoulder, and Sir Thomas said gruffly, ‘There, now, you wereny to ken. Is there any questions?’ he demanded fiercely of the assize.

  ‘Aye,’ said someone. ‘Ask the leddy what Billy Walker was after, breaking in like that.’

  ‘He said he was looking for treasure,’ said Kate. They keep coming back to that, she thought. We can’t deny it forever.

  ‘Which is daft,’ said Andy at her other side. ‘When it’s well kent my maister keeps his coin up here wi you, Provost, and there’s never been treasure in Morison’s Yard.’

  ‘And what was the leddy doi
ng in Morison’s Yard anyway?’ said another voice. ‘It’s nane o your house, is it?’

  ‘I’m there to keep an eye on the bairns,’ said Kate, raising her chin.

  ‘Oh, aye,’ said the serjeant. ‘These bairns I never saw. I didny see them yesterday either.’

  ‘They’re six and four year old, a bit big to miss. Maister Morison fetched a barrel of spectacles last week to the pothecary’s,’ said Kate rather tartly. ‘Maybe you should go and try some, serjeant.’

  There was laughter, and Serjeant Anderson scowled. Sir Thomas looked round.

  ‘Is there any more questions for Lady Kate?’ he demanded. ‘Right. Thank you, my leddy. Now who was it heard a noise in the yard?’

  Ecky Soutar stood forward and admitted to having heard a noise, thought it was a cat knocking something down, and gone back to sleep.

  ‘Hmph,’ said the Provost. ‘I’ll wager your master’s steward had a word to say about that.’ Ecky’s eyes slid sideways to Andy, and he gave a shamefaced nod. ‘Well, and what time was this?’

  ‘I don’t know, maister,’ said Ecky. ‘It was still dark, that’s all I can say, sir.’

  With some evidence from the serjeant about the amount of blood on the coal, at which Mattha Hog looked smug and Mall looked as if she might faint, and about the absence of blood on any of Morison’s household, Sir Thomas wound up the questioning. The assize was led off to the refreshment presumably waiting in an inner chamber, and Sir Thomas stepped down from the dais again and came to speak to Kate.

  ‘A bad business, my lady,’ he said. ‘It must have been a shock to you.’

  ‘A shock to the whole household,’ said Kate. ‘Andy, here, found him, as he just tellt you, sir, and the other men were working wi him the day before.’

  ‘And why were you in the house, anyway?’ Sir Thomas went on in a low voice.

  ‘As I said,’ said Kate, ‘I’m there to mind the bairns till we sort out this charge against their faither. He’s an old friend, sir, and a friend of my brother’s. I knew his wife, I’ve known Maister Morison since I was the age his bairns are.’

  ‘Oh, I see.’ Sir Thomas nodded. ‘You’re acting for your brother, are you?’