Pat McIntosh - A Pig of Cold Poison

‘And the shoes.’

‘ Komm, p’tits pigeons ,’ called Gerrit ahead of them. ‘Later for that. Mine schout drifts, wir mussen — ’ He abandoned the attempt to explain further and shouted abuse at his men in Low Dutch. Two of them splashed after the escaping boat. In the lantern-light Nicol Renfrew and his wife, a number of Dumbarton shoremen, the remainder of the mariners from the Sankt Nikolaas , were shouting at one another. Two Dumbarton men held Nicol by the elbows, his nose dripping darkly, Stockfish Tam confronting him from a handspan away with repeated demands for his two groats and the money to make good any damage from the grounding. Grace, also in the clutch of a couple of boatmen, was dishevelled and half-weeping, but when she caught sight of Alys she seemed to relax slightly.

‘What here?’ demanded Gerrit over the noise. ‘What passes?’

Stockfish Tam turned and reiterated his claim. Gerrit heard him, looked at the heap of baggage, kicked Cuth-bert ’s planks where the boat lay on the sand, and nodded.

‘Two groat,’ he said to Nicol.

‘I’d ha given him his money long since,’ said Nicol, ‘only that these fellows willny let go my arms.’

‘And the baggage into mine schout ,’ continued the big Dutchman, ‘before water deepens. Hoy there — Martin, Tonius, bring here the schout ! Klaas, Custumar Renton t’attend .’

‘The custumar? I suppose I’ve you to thank for that, maister lawyer,’ said Nicol sourly. He handed some coins to Stockfish Tam, who inspected them in the lantern-light, abruptly ceased his complaints and stood aside for the Sankt Nikolaas men to transfer the boxes and bundles to their own boat. Thus lightened, Cuthbert was easily pushed off the sand into the deepening channel. The tide must have turned some time since, Gil understood, as water swirled round his calves.

‘You!’ Gerrit grasped the arm of one of the shoremen, and indicated Gil and Alys. ‘You take these two Sankt Nikolaas, ja? Is goed .’ He gestured to the men who still held Nicol. ‘And you, leave Klaas and vrouw in mine schout . We see to all now.’

Sitting in the bow of yet another small boat, Alys clamped to his side, Gil contrived not to tell the boatman what was going on, while he thanked him for turning out at low tide.

‘Aye, well,’ said the man, hauling on the oars in a leisurely way. ‘Tam’s no a bad sort, even if he is fro Glasgow. We’d no go out all on the mud for just anyone, ye ken.’

‘Mud?’ said Gil. ‘I thought it was sand.’

‘Sand where Cuthbert ran aground,’ agreed the boatman. ‘Sand halfway to shore fro that. But it’s mud a’most all else. Swallow you to the knees, it will, and hold you till you drown on the next tide.’

Alys drew a horrified breath and tightened her grip of his free hand. Gil registered the risks they had taken, then put the information resolutely aside as the little boat bumped against Sankt Nikolaas ’s round flank, and concentrated instead on helping his wife on to the rope ladder, holding it taut and steady for her to climb. She reached the top, and he heard her speak gratefully to someone helping her over the side; as he began to ascend he heard feet rush on the deck, a flurry of movement, a cry from Alys and another from Luke.

‘Mistress! What —?’

‘Nicol!’ That was Syme. Gil scrambled up as fast as he might, the ladder swinging across the planks, and reached the top as Nicol Renfrew giggled and said:

‘Now, ye’ll all just stand back, away from me and where I can see you. And if that’s you, Gil Cunningham, you’ll come no nearer than the rail, or your wee wife finds out how sharp my dagger is.’

The grey light on one side, the lantern-light on the other, showed him a chilling scene. Gerrit, his mate, his mariners stood by the far rail; Syme and the custumars had apparently just emerged from the cabin, and Grace stood in the midst of the waist. All were staring at a point by the mainmast, where Nicol Renfrew held Alys in a close embrace, her black linen hood crooked, the dawn striking pale on the blade of his dagger against her throat.

‘Nicol!’ said Grace. ‘What good does this do? We’re on board now, we sail in an hour or two, why are you — ’

‘He’s here to stop us,’ Nicol said. ‘He’s here to take one of us for poisoning Frankie. Is that no right, Maister Cunningham?’

‘Poison?’ repeated the custumar. ‘Is there poison in your baggage, maister? Is that what you’re exporting?’

‘No, my loon, he canny do that,’ said Grace, ‘for Frankie took a heart attack, that’s certain.’

‘Is it?’ said Nicol mockingly. ‘And who caused that?’

‘Not me, Nicol,’ she said, a desperate note in her voice, ‘and not you, surely?’

‘What passes here?’ demanded Gerrit. ‘Klaas, was maks u ?’

Alys stared at Gil in the growing light, and swallowed hard.

‘Your father had drops for his heart already,’ she said carefully to Nicol without turning her head. ‘You knew he had them.’

Gil unglued his tongue from the roof of his mouth and said, in a voice he scarcely recognized, ‘Nicol, did you poison your father?’

‘I never gave him anything he’d not prescribed himself,’ Nicol said.

‘That’s not what I asked you,’ Gil said. ‘Mistress Grace, did you poison Frankie Renfrew?’

‘I did not,’ she said. ‘I swear by my hope of salvation, I did not.’

There was a pause. Nicol turned to look at his wife. Gil tensed to jump forward, but Alys made a small movement of her hand. Stay back .

‘Grace? Is that true?’

‘I’ve just sworn it, my loon,’ she said.

Nicol’s gaze swung back to Gil. ‘D’you believe her?’

‘Do you?’

‘A course I do. No, wee lass, you’ll not trick me like that,’ he added to Alys, adjusting his grip on her arm. Over by the other rail the mate had begun stealthily moving backwards away from the group. ‘Gerrit, tell Hans I can see him. I’ve still got a blade to this bonnie wee wifie’s throat, and I’ll use it if he gets too close. A course I believe Grace,’ he continued, as if he had not interrupted himself, ‘I ken fine when to believe her.’

‘And I you, Nicol,’ said Grace. ‘Give him his answer. You didny poison Frankie either.’

Nicol looked at Gil again, smiling happily. ‘Then we needny ha come away like this,’ he said.

‘This is all nonsense,’ said Maister Renton suddenly. ‘What’s the trouble, anyway? I’ve still to prove these packages and write you out a docket for whatever port you’re headed for, and I’ve more to do the day than stand here fasting, waiting for you to tell us why you’re — ’

‘Get on and prove them, then,’ said Nicol. He drew Alys to one side, and nodded at the heap of boxes. ‘There you are, and plenty folk to help you. Grace, you have the keys, haven’t you no?’

‘But what is it about?’ Gil demanded. ‘You’ve never said, man. Why are you threatening my wife? Why did you steal her away down the river in the first place? She’s no wish to go wi you, and you’ve a wife of your own.’

‘She’s too clever,’ said Nicol. The hand holding the dagger shook a little, and a bead of something dark sprang on Alys’s neck. ‘Too clever by half. She’d worked it all out, afore ever we left Glasgow, and told it all to Grace, the bits Grace didny tell her, all the way down the Clyde.’ At the words Grace looked over her shoulder from where she bent to the stack of boxes. She and Alys exchanged a long look, but Nicol went on, ‘Frankie Renfrew brought about his own death, and I believe that, but I’m none so sure you do, Gil Cunningham.’