Pat McIntosh - The Counterfeit Madam

‘Did they say aught about Dod Muir?’ he asked.

‘No, I — only that they had not seen him yesterday or the day before since.’

‘Were you no blate about lying in the man’s house, if he was away?’ demanded Andro.

‘I had lain there afore. My kinsman said he had spoken to Dod.’

‘Had he, now?’ said Gil. ‘When was that?’

Neil shrugged.

‘He was not saying. I wondered, mind you,’ he admitted, ‘when I saw that all his gear was lying out, and he had never washed his porridge-pot.’

‘Ah, was it you cleaned the crocks?’ Gil asked.

Neil nodded. ‘Though I would not be touching another man’s working graith,’ he said earnestly, ‘so I never moved any of his knives and that.’

‘How tall was Dod Muir, would you say?’

‘How tall?’ The gallowglass looked startled. ‘A wee sprout of a fellow. Well shorter than me.’ He looked at his two guards, who were showing signs of boredom. ‘No taller than your man here, maybe even a handsbreadth less.’

‘As short as that?’ Gil considered Jimmy, fully half a head shorter than the gallowglass. ‘An easy enough target then, for a bigger man.’

‘It was him that was in the kist right enough?’ asked Neil. Gil nodded, and the man crossed himself and bent his head briefly, muttering something in Ersche. ‘He was quick tempered, so my kinsman said, but he was aye friendly enough to me, and hospitable,’ he said after a moment.

As epitaphs go, thought Gil, you could do worse. ‘What does your kinsman say about the man Miller?’ he asked. ‘Does he call him Dusty to his face?’

‘To his face? No him!’ said the gallowglass, and stopped, mouth open, looking dismayed. There was a short pause, into which Andro said,

‘What Miller is that? You’re no talking o Maister Millar at St Serf’s, are you?’

‘No,’ said Gil, without taking his eyes off Neil Campbell. ‘It’s another man entirely, isn’t it, Neil? Have you met him?’

‘Never,’ said Neil firmly.

‘Don’t you want to? How is he involved in all this?’

‘How would I be knowing that?’

‘Does he strike the coin? Is that where it all comes from?’

‘I have no knowledge of that,’ said the gallowglass. ‘All I did was carry the coin, Maister Gil. There is no knowledge at me of where it came from nor how my kinsman is in the matter.’

‘Is that right?’ said Gil sceptically. ‘He never speaks of it in front of you, he and his wife never discuss it in your hearing?’ He considered the man’s blank expression. ‘Neil, you ken the penalty for making counterfeit coin. It’s treason, because it’s falsifying the King’s image. False coiners are condemned to be hanged, drawn and quartered, and by the time that happens they’re like to be glad of it. Better to tell me what you ken, so I can speak for you.’

The narrow face was intent, as some inward battle was fought. Finally the blue glance slid sideways to meet Gil’s gaze and the gallowglass said,

‘There is little enough that I know.’

‘Ah!’ said Andro. ‘Now we’re getting somewhere!’

‘Tell me it,’ Gil encouraged, ignoring him.

It was little enough, indeed. Neither Neil nor his brother had set eyes on the elusive Miller, though both had heard him named about the toft.

‘Feart for him, they are,’ said Neil. ‘The least wee word fro him, they act on it immediate.’

‘Why?’ Gil asked. ‘What hold does he have over them?’

‘I would not be knowing that. But my cousin and his woman were arguing when I came to the house yesterday,’ expanded Neil, unstoppable now he had decided to talk, ‘and Bethag was saying the same, asking at Noll why was he bound to the man, and Noll bade her close her mouth, she knew nothing of it. He is dwelling down the Gallowgate, I am thinking, maybe outside the port, and they were saying he had been in Clerk’s Land on,’ he paused to count on his fingers, ‘Thursday, would it be? and he was enraged for something, carrying on like Herod so Bethag was saying, and frighted the Saunders’ bairns, and wanting Dod Muir to see to something for him, that Dod wouldny, so he … killed … him,’ he said, grinding to a halt as he realized what he had given away. Gil eyed him steadily, and he swallowed in some alarm. ‘There was only what the woman was saying,’ he protested, ‘I never saw it, nor spoke of it with my kinsman! And she never said no more than that, for they saw me at the door and left off their arguing.’

‘So you kent he was dead,’ said Gil.

‘I see why they might be feart for this Miller,’ said Andro drily. ‘We never lifted the two women, maister, seeing there was all those weans. Will I send out and fetch them in?’

‘I’ll go out there, I think,’ said Gil. ‘Likely they’ll talk better in their own place. And Neil may come with me to translate if it’s needed,’ he added kindly. Neil threw him a hunted look.

‘Maybe I should staying here,’ he said, without much hope. ‘No doubt that the captain here would be wishing me still under his eye.’

‘Will you no wait for the quest on the old dame?’ Andro asked, ignoring this. ‘The women will have been cited for the second quest, they might come out to see the whole show, bring the weans and all. We’ll ha folk selling hot pies and gingerbread in the court here afore we know where we are.’

‘Send one of your men round the crowd wi a hat,’ recommended Gil. ‘That ought to keep the numbers down. I’ll go now, then I might be back in time for the quest.’

Clerk’s Land was oddly silent. Even the screaming children were absent, the lorimer’s workshop was shuttered, there was no smoke rising through the thatch of Saunders’ house. Two passing apprentices stopped when they saw Gil at the top of the muddy track.

‘They’re all away,’ said one, a spotty youth with a scar on his brow. ‘Up at the Castle.’

‘Getting put to the question, maybe,’ said the other gleefully, ‘getting all their fingernails pullt out and their teeth broke. There’s nob’dy there.’

Gil thanked them and looked about him, waiting until they had gone reluctantly on downhill.

‘Maybe they’ve all went elsewhere,’ said Neil hopefully.

‘Maybe,’ agreed Gil. He moved forward, alert for anything stirring. Beyond the lorimer’s shack where the path opened out the place was still quiet. Dod Muir’s house was understandably deserted, and rats scurried away from his woodstore as they approached.

‘They’re all away, maybe,’ said Neil. ‘Will we just be going back to the Castle now?’

‘Quiet,’ said Gil. He stood still, listening, and after a moment heard it again, the low murmur of women’s voices. It came from the whitesmith’s house.

It took some persuasion before the gallowglass would step up to the door. Gil watched from a little way behind the man, as he rattled at the tirling-pin on the doorpost and then stood looking uncomfortable while the voices inside turned to hissing whispers.

‘They’re maybe not-’ he began, half turning from the door, just as it opened. The woman on the threshold gave him one quick glance, and Gil another, and said in Scots,

‘It’s yourself is it then, Neil Campbell? And what are you doing here? How is it you that’s lowsed, and no my man or my brother? And you,’ she said, with another hard look at Gil, ‘prowling about here again. What are you after?’

‘A word wi yourself, mistress,’ said Gil politely, raising his hat to her. ‘And wi Mistress Bethag and all.’

‘Well, we are wanting no words with you,’ she retorted, ‘so you may take yourself away, whether to your wife or the hoors next door I carena!’

‘It’s talk wi me now, or talk wi the Provost’s men at the Castle,’ Gil suggested, ‘and I think you’ll find I’m more civil than they are.’