Pat McIntosh - St Mungo's Robin

‘There’s no vestry,’ said Lowrie, ‘so we robe in one corner or another. That corner, the day,’ he waved a hand. ‘We light the candle and the censer and go in, and Maister Kennedy begins the Mass.’

‘And the bedesmen are there waiting for you?’

‘I think they’ve said Prime by the time we get here.’ Lowrie held the curtain aside, and he and Michael followed Gil into the quire. ‘Maister Millar leads them in procession from the hall, so he was sitting up in his own place, I mind that. I’d the censer the day, no the candle, but it’s still no that easy to see out into the dark, you understand, and the black cloaks don’t show well, and the lugs of the stall sides hide all the faces. It can be quite strange,’ he admitted, ‘up here in the dark, wi all the voices round you and nobody to see. Just the same, their badges catch the light, and I thought I could see four each side, as if the Deacon was there and all. No in his own place opposite Maister Millar,’ he gestured at the two more elaborate stalls nearest the altar, ‘but down the west end next to Father Anselm. Maybe Mistress Mudie saw him,’ he added, ‘she was near the outer door when we came in, though she aye slips out after the Elevation to see to their porridge.’

Gil stopped at the altar step and turned, looking into the shadows.

‘Go and sit where you thought you saw him,’ he suggested. Lowrie obliged, spreading one hand across his chest to simulate the badge, and Gil nodded agreement. ‘Aye, I see what you mean. Your face is hid by the side where it curves out, but I can see your hand fine. Michael, what can you see?’

‘The now?’ said Michael nervously. ‘I can see his hand, aye, if he’d a bedehouse cloak on you’d see the badge fine. And I’ll swear the Deacon wasny in his own seat the morn,’ he added.

‘So was he here, then?’ Lowrie asked. Socrates reared up, one paw on the book-rest, peering into his face, and he reached out and patted the dog.

‘Aye, but he can’t have been.’ Gil paced down between the stalls, frowning. ‘There’s no doubt the man we lifted from the garden was dead by Compline last night.’

‘Maister Forsyth’s lecture,’ said Michael.

‘Aye, but before you go, Michael, I want a word wi you.’

The two students exchanged glances.

‘I’ll wait outside,’ said Lowrie.

As the door closed behind him Michael seemed to brace himself as for execution. Gil eyed him with some sympathy, and said reassuringly, ‘It’s none of my duty to oversee your behaviour, Michael. I’m no asking who she is.’

‘You’re no?’

‘No. Just watch you don’t get entangled in something your father won’t support.’ Michael stared at him open-mouthed, and he went on, ‘I want to know about your movements, yesternight and the morn — what time were you stirring about the bedehouse, and where. Even if you saw nothing, it helps.’

‘Oh.’ Michael swallowed. ‘I never thought of that. We must have — Oh,’ he said again, and put a hand on the nearest desk to steady himself.

‘Did your lass come in by this gate?’

Michael swallowed again, and shook his head.

‘Past Sissie Mudie?’ he said. ‘Not likely! I’ve got the keys,’ he disclosed. ‘I’d got permission to lie out of the college for the night, seeing as I was to ready the lodging for the old man — for my father. He’s due in Glasgow the morn for your marriage, maister.’ Gil nodded. ‘So I opened the back gate for her. That would be about …’ He paused, reckoning. ‘After Sissie was done trotting about getting two of the old brothers to their beds. One of them has the house opposite ours, and the other one’s next the hall. It would be near an hour after they finished their dinner, I suppose, afore even she started. And then the mad one began a great scene, and it took her long enough to settle him. It felt like past midnight afore all was quiet, though I suppose it wasny.’

‘And you opened the back yett and let the lassie in,’ said Gil, ‘and then what?’

‘Well, she was a bit — with the waiting, you understand,’ Michael confessed hesitantly. ‘Sissie took so much longer than I’d expected, and it was gey dark out on the Stablegreen, even with a lantern, and my — she was a wee thing upset, she said she kept hearing things. So I locked the gate quick and we got within doors, and then …’ He paused, with the glimmerings of an embarrassed smile.

‘That’s all I need to know,’ said Gil, suppressing his envy again. ‘So you locked the yett. You’re quite certain?’

‘Oh, aye. She wasny well pleased,’ said Michael cautiously, ‘that I took the time.’

‘And you saw nothing untoward? Nobody moving about or hiding behind trees?’

‘I wasny looking,’ said Michael.

‘A light in the Deacon’s lodging?’

‘I wasny — ’ Michael stopped, and considered. ‘No. I’d ha noticed that. I saw no light up there.’ He swallowed again. ‘Maister, we’ll be late for Tommy Forsyth’s lecture. Could I go, d’ye think?’

‘And this morning?’ said Gil, ignoring this. ‘When did you open the yett?’

‘As soon as they all went away through to the chapel for Prime. It was still full dark, and we never took the lantern out wi us, we never noticed a thing, if that’s what you’re asking. For all he must have been lying there by that time,’ he added tightly.

‘And you locked the yett again after she left?’

‘Aye.’

‘Was either of you out at the yett at all between those two times?’

‘No.’ Michael licked his lips. ‘We wereny across the threshold again till the morn. Nor looked out, even,’ he added.

Gil considered the younger man, who looked back at him uncomfortably and then dropped his eyes.

‘You’d best go to your lecture,’ he said. ‘No, wait! Gie me the key to the back yett. I’ll leave it here for you, and I ken where to find you if I need you.’

‘Aye,’ said Michael unhappily. He opened his purse and drew out a pair of keys on a ring. ‘I’ll not separate them. Leave them on a nail in the lodging, if you will, sir.’ He handed them over with reluctance, ducked one knee in a bow and left to join his friend.

Gil crossed the courtyard as the students’ footsteps receded along the narrow passage to the outside world, and on an impulse tapped at the open kitchen door opposite the hall.

‘Mistress Mudie?’ he asked.

‘Mistress,’ called a muffled voice within. ‘You’re asked for, mistress.’

A door at the far side of the kitchen opened, and Mistress Mudie looked out.

‘- never a moment in this place, who is it that wants me, oh it’s yersel, maister, I canny think what you’d want to ask me that I haveny tellt you already, come away in but, just so long’s ye don’t disturb Humphrey here, he’s feeling a bit better the now, aren’t you my poppet?’

Gil crossed the kitchen, nodding to the young man laboriously hacking vegetables at the bench behind the door. Mistress Mudie drew him into a small snug apartment, furnished with a cushioned settle and a folding table, one or two stools, and a little prayer desk with a worn hassock by the door to an inner chamber. There was an overpowering herbal smell, whose source was not clear, and a definite note of almonds. Betere is hire medycyn , he thought, Then eny mede or eny wyn; Hir erbes smulleth suete. His eye took in a brazier burning on the hearth with a metal trivet over it where several small pots were heating.

The youngest brother was sitting in a chair beside this, clasping a cup in both hands and staring anxiously at the wall. His heavy black cloak was folded over the back of his chair, and he wore a long belted gown of grey wool. Hearing Gil’s step he turned, and shrank back slightly.