Pat McIntosh - A Pig of Cold Poison

And nor did I last night, thought Alys, too busy thinking about — No, put it out of your mind, don’t — The images came hurtling back to confront her, and she drew a shivering breath. Meg struggling with her mother and the two midwives, the dirt and smells and indignity, the screaming and pain -

A sermon she had once read listed the five dangers to the soul newly freed from the body, Demons, punishment, the remnants of sin, doubt of the way and shrieking . She felt she understood the last one now.

‘I spoke to my lassies again, did Gil say?’ Kate said, holding her son upright. Inside the swaddling bands and the multiple woollen wrappings his legs kicked against her knees. ‘No, it’s since I saw him. Stand up, wee mannie, stand up. What a clever boy! They had another thing to say about — about the lass next door.’

Alys made an enquiring noise, not trusting her voice.

‘They both said, when she crossed the kitchen,’ Kate recalled, ‘and went on to the stair, she was just behind Andrew Hamilton.’

‘Andrew — the wright? Or his son?’said Alys, startled.

‘Oh, the boy, I’d think,’ said Kate, eyes dancing. ‘I doubt my lassies noticed the carpenter, he’s away too old for them. Young Andrew’s a likely laddie, he’ll disturb a few folk’s dreams when he gets his growth, and these two are no so much older than he is.’

‘What was he doing in the kitchen?’ Alys wondered.

‘Likely went out to the privy. He’d come back in by the kitchen to see about Ursel’s gingerbread, I’ve no doubt. Which reminds me, Ursel said there was marchpane fancies, tell Gil, but the laddie who died would have none of them. Quite sharp in refusing, he was.’

‘And yet he smelled of almonds when he was stricken down,’ said Alys. ‘That must be the poison right enough. Gil has learned that it might have been made from nuts, almonds I suppose. I never heard of such a thing.’

‘Nor did I.’ Kate bounced her son, who blew bubbles at her. ‘A bababa! A bababa, then!’

‘Did your lassies notice whether Nanty Bothwell followed Agnes?’

‘Isa didn’t notice. Mina said he did, but that it was a good bit after. I think since Bowster found the two of them talking it can’t have been that long. Long enough no to be obvious, I suppose.’

‘And Andrew Hamilton was ahead of them on the stair,’ said Alys thoughtfully. ‘So did he hear what she said to Bothwell?’

‘We could ask him,’ said Kate. ‘It might help Gil.’

They looked at one another.

‘Will you call at the house,’ Kate went on, ‘or will I send John to get him round here just now? He’s more like to tell us what he heard if his mother isn’t listening.’

‘His mother was at the gossip-ale last night, and past hearing anything much when I saw her. I’d think she had a sore head today.’

‘Yes, Babb told me she snored all afternoon at mine. Right, then. If you step up into the yard you’ll likely find John Paterson.’

The steward’s nephew was very willing to leave his task and go to look for Andrew Hamilton, but warned Alys shyly it might take some time to find him.

‘See, mem, I’ve no notion where they’re working the now,’ he admitted. ‘I’d heard they’d finished one task, but there’s two more places I could look.’

‘Then go and look, if you will,’ said Alys, and returned to report this to Kate, who was unfastening her gown preparatory to feeding Edward.

‘It’s worth the try,’ Kate said, applying her son to her breast. ‘There’s a clever boy!’ She looked up, and studied Alys’s face again. ‘Had Meg a bad time of it?’ she asked. ‘The word that reached me wasny good.’

‘She did.’ Suddenly Alys was back in that space between the bed and the window, Meg’s screams echoing in her ears while the other women knelt doing dreadful things -

‘Alys.’ Kate’s hand reached across the guzzling baby to clamp down on hers. ‘Alys, how much did you see?’ She hesitated, unwilling to put it into words. ‘Screaming and pain and blood?’ She nodded in relief. ‘Look. Never let it worry you. It’s not that bad. You forget, Alys.’

‘How?’ she burst out. ‘How can you forget that?’

‘When you’ve a new baby,’ Kate declared, ‘you’ll forget your own name. I think nursing rots the brain,’ she added, looking down at Edward. ‘No, the recollection of the crying-time vanishes away immediately. Ask Meg about hers and see what she says. Mother and Margaret both promised me, it would be bad at the time but you forget afterwards, because the bairn’s such a delight, and do you know, they were right.’ She smiled anxiously into Alys’s face, and shook the hand she held gently. ‘Never fear, lassie. My mother’s right about most things.’

‘That’s true,’ said Alys, mustering a shaky smile.

‘Put it out of your mind just now. You’re not …?’

She shook her head, trying to control the turmoil of feelings in her body.

‘Believe it, Kate, you’ll be first to hear after Gil and my father,’ she said, ‘if I ever — ’

‘Baby Floris is getting fed,’ announced Ysonde, materializing beside them. ‘Wynliane, Baby Floris is — ’

‘No need to tell all the neighbours,’ said Kate, laughing, as Wynliane hurried to join her sister. The two girls hung cooing over the baby, who rolled his eyes at them and redoubled his efforts, possibly in case of interruption. Alys looked about her.

‘Where is John?’ she asked.

‘In bed,’ said Ysonde. ‘It was his bedtime.’ She pointed at the further box hedges. ‘We made him a wee bed down there in among the hedge.’

‘Is he there now?’ Alys rose and went to look. There was no sign of the little boy. ‘Ysonde, he isn’t here. Where can he be?’

‘He must have runned away,’ said Ysonde. ‘He’s a naughty boy.’

‘I don’t see him.’ Alys stared about the garden, but saw no sign of a bright red tunic.

‘Ysonde, go and help Mistress Alys find John,’ prompted Kate. ‘Both of you. Nancy,’ she called, ‘where did John go?’

The cluster of women broke open, and three faces turned towards them. Nan, the older woman, was the first to realize what was being said, and got quickly to her feet.

‘Can he get through the fence?’ she asked. ‘A limber wee laddie like that, he’d get in anywhere.’ She turned toward the nearest of the neat fences which lined the long boundary.

‘The mill-burn!’ exclaimed Alys, her heart leaping into her throat. ‘Could he —?’

Edward screamed indignantly as Kate sat up straighter. She hastily shifted her hold on him, and he fell silent and resumed his meal.

‘Alys, go out and look on the path,’ she recommended. ‘It’s so muddy down there you’ll see his wee footprints easily if he’s got out. Nancy, Mysie, go and look in the kaleyard and then up in the yard, ask the men if they’ve seen him.’

‘Would he go so far?’ Alys asked, hurrying down to the gate. ‘When did we — when did you see him, Ysonde?’

‘Last night,’ said Ysonde. ‘It was his bedtime, I telled you.’

‘No, my lassie, not in your game,’ said Kate. ‘John might have run somewhere he shouldn’t be and we need to find him. How long ago was he here?’

‘Just a wee bit ago,’ offered Wynliane. ‘He was being our wee boy.’ She looked about. ‘Could he be hiding under the hedges?’

‘Maybe you should look,’ suggested Kate, and the two girls began to scurry round, bending to look under the little box hedges and calling ‘John, John!’

‘There’s no gaps in this bit fence,’ said Nan to Alys as she struggled with the gate. ‘I’d say he’s no out there, mistress, but you have to check.’ She hurried past, scanning the close-set palings. Alys stepped out on to the path which ran along the bank of the mill-burn, past the ends of the long narrow properties whose frontage was on the High Street. No small red-tunicked person was visible, no prints of the little leather shoes of which John was so proud showed up in the muddy, much-trodden surface. She looked up and down, saw a pair of workmen approaching, a woman with a basket of washing coming the other way. No sign of John, and surely if they had seen him they would wave, or shout, or -