Candace Robb - The Fire In The Flint

Roger returned too quickly.

Malcolm rose from the table as Aylmer handed him something tied in one of Christiana’s forgotten veils. ‘You did not find Maggie?’ He placed the heavy bundle on the table.

Roger looked haggard and shook with an energy that would explode in violence if it found no other outlet. ‘She was not at Ada’s. Her friend had not seen her. So we went to your house. Someone had been there. Stools grouped in a circle. And that — ’ he nodded at the bundle — ‘was on the floor near the door.’

Malcolm looked down at it, then back to Roger. ‘What do you fear?’ he asked softly, doubting his son-in-law’s ability to contain himself. ‘Why would she go to my house?’

‘That is booty from your house, if I’m not mistaken,’ said Roger. ‘Did Maggie surprise thieves?’ He shook his head. ‘I don’t know. I don’t know. Tell me about the sterlings men have been demanding of you.’

The sins of the father shall be visited upon the children . ‘Why would she go to my house?’ Malcolm cried. ‘She must have known there might be trouble.’

‘When I told Ada about Jonet’s friends, she suggested that Maggie would go after her, and that your house might be tempting, empty, unguarded. Jonet might be collecting items of value, hiding them.’

Malcolm looked down at the cloth. ‘So Maggie and Celia might have frightened Jonet.’

‘And then what? Where are they?’ Roger asked angrily, as if he suspected that Malcolm knew.

Pressing his hands to his temples, Malcolm tried to think but his heart was racing and visions of men desperate for their money falling upon his daughter struck him dumb. He dropped back on to the bench and buried his head in his hands.

‘You and your brother are two of a kind,’ Roger said, his voice hoarse with emotion. ‘If she’s suffering because of your scheming I’ll kill you.’

It was small comfort to Malcolm to realise that Roger’s desperation was that of a devoted husband.

*

Having reassembled in the Ruthven hall and convinced Gilbert’s wife that they needed no refreshment, the meeting was called to order by James.

‘Shall we begin with Jonet?’ he suggested.

Margaret had taken a seat beside the maid, and James stole glances at her throughout Jonet’s narration. Her colour high, her jaw set, he found Margaret lovely and formidable, far more so than he’d considered her in Edinburgh.

‘Dame Christiana chose that spineless Marion over me to be lady’s maid,’ Jonet was saying, her face livid with recalled anger. ‘After all I’d done for her, all the times I made excuses for her. She was one mistress who never put her hand to any task about the house. Never. But you won’t believe it, then they had the gall to leave me to see to both their house and Dame Margaret’s. But John Smyth showed me how ill-used I was. He knew, for he’d been used by the family as well. He said Master Malcolm had done nothing to deserve my loyalty.’

James watched Margaret register a range of emotions from sympathy to anger to amusement.

But Jonet had left out what was most important.

‘What did they hope to find?’ Margaret asked.

Hugh leaned forward, only now becoming interested.

Jonet’s eyes flicked round the circle. ‘I could be hanged for saying.’

‘I’m sure Smyth told you that,’ said James, ‘but he’s dead, and the other spies will see you limping and understand that we beat the truth out of you.’

‘They’re stronger than you are,’ she said, but her face was flushed and for the first time she looked frightened.

James shook his head. ‘They are intruders, they are on foreign soil, surrounded by us.’ He smiled to show her his confidence. By Celia’s movement, he could see that she understood his purpose and found it discomfiting, but Jonet seemed to find comfort in it.

‘You think that Master Malcolm was on your side,’ she said, ‘but I know that King Edward of England is using Kerr ships.’ Her smile was little more than a sneer.

‘Then why were the English searching his things?’ James asked.

‘They searched Master Roger’s house, too,’ she reminded them.

‘Yes,’ said Margaret, ‘we know how thoroughly you have betrayed our trust, Jonet. There is no need to tell us.’

But if Margaret had thought her words would cow the maid, they seemed to have the opposite effect.

Jonet turned to James. ‘You’re a Comyn. It’s your family and the Bruces who are killing us, not the English. You’re fighting over the crown and we’ll never have peace while either of your families have it. That’s what King Edward knows.’

James was momentarily speechless. Gilbert muttered something under his breath.

Margaret shook her head at the maid. ‘Clever words from John Smyth,’ she said. ‘He was not so clever while working for my father. Still, what he apparently did not understand is that we have nothing to fear from a struggle between the two great houses of Comyn and Bruce, for they are interested in killing only one another. But King Edward is slaughtering our people. He murdered so many of the merchants of Berwick that the streets ran with their blood. No Comyn or Bruce would ever condone such a deed.’

Jonet dropped her eyes to her hands.

Everyone was looking at Margaret, but she did not notice, bent as she seemed on enlightening the maid.

‘What else did he tell you?’ she asked Jonet.

‘That William Wallace fought beside King Edward in Wales.’

Margaret glanced up at James.

‘Many of our countrymen did, to our shame,’ he said, ‘but not William Wallace.’

Hugh shifted on his seat. ‘Some say it is for that deed God is punishing us.’

Jonet shrugged.

‘So what did Smyth and the others hope to find?’ James asked, wishing to end this interrogation soon.

‘Proof that Master Malcolm was not as he seemed. That he was cheating the English at the same time as they were sailing his ships.’

‘And did they find anything?’

Jonet looked at Gilbert and Hugh. ‘Ask them.’

But it was Margaret who explained the silver/ sterling exchange in which the two men had invested.

Having had much experience with Malcolm’s brother Murdoch, James asked in confusion, ‘Why had you entrusted Malcolm with your funds?’

‘He’s one of the most trusted merchants in Perth,’ said Gilbert with indignation. ‘We’d no cause to doubt he would be fair with us.’

‘I would have trusted him with my life,’ said Hugh.

‘I believe my father miscalculated his risks,’ Margaret interposed. ‘He thought Longshanks had taken all the soldiers from this area with him to Flanders. He was taken by surprise when his ship was boarded on the Tay by the English and he thought only of his freedom. It was not the honourable thing to do, I grant you, and I am not defending him.’ She glanced at Jonet, perhaps expecting to see a sneer, but the maid’s spleen seemed to have been spent.

There was much more James wished to know, particularly what Jonet knew of the spies, but that could wait until they reached Wallace, who would still be at the camp outside town. He took Margaret aside.

‘Wallace will want to talk to her, and it’s time you met him. Are you willing?’

She did not hesitate. ‘What of Celia? If she remains behind her silence will anger Roger — you know how stubborn she can be, and I know the extent of my husband’s temper.’

‘Have you a friend with whom she might stay the night?’

Margaret looked aside. ‘A night,’ she said, as if to herself. ‘The men will be without a cook. What of Fergus?’ She shook her head impatiently. ‘He’ll sleep through the night.’

James watched with interest.

Margaret met his gaze again. ‘Ada,’ she said. ‘Celia can go to my friend Ada.’