Pat McIntosh - The Merchant's Mark

‘It would,’ said Gil. ‘Go on.’

‘That Barty Fletcher has kin in Roslin.’ He looked uncertainly at Gil’s expression. ‘That was all he said, Maister Gil. And then he turned and went back up the vennel.’

‘It must have been terrifying,’ said Alys, her brown eyes round. Not, Kate noted, You must have been terrified , but, It must have been terrifying.

‘I’d not have forgiven myself,’ said Augie Morison earnestly, ‘if you’d come to any harm, Lady Kate. Whatever he was after, it could never have been worth that.’

‘It’s one thing about a life of pilgrimage,’ Kate said lightly. ‘You meet soon or late with every ragabash in Scotland. Babb and I have trapped pilferers before now — though never so redhand,’ she admitted.

They were seated in the castle courtyard on a bench, which two of the Provost’s men had carried out for Kate rather than have Babb heave her up and back down several turns of the tower stair to Maister Morison’s lodging. About them, members of the castle household scurried back and forth carrying furniture and rolled-up tapestries, readying the Archbishop’s lodging for the arrival of the King’s party the next day.

‘But what was he after?’ Alys asked.

‘The second half of the treasure. He seemed quite certain it should be there.’

Morison shook his head, biting his lip.

‘I took him for an honest man,’ he said sadly. ‘Well, as honest as any of them.’

‘Most of us are honest till we’re tempted,’ said Kate. ‘I think maybe Billy was tempted beyond his limits.’

‘By the man with the axe,’ said Alys, nodding.

‘Axe? What man with an axe?’

‘We saw him in Hog’s tavern,’ Alys explained.

Morison looked from one to the other of them in horror.

‘What have you lassies been up to?’ he demanded, and then, ‘I’m sorry, Lady Kate, that slipped out. But what your brother will say when he hears this I just don’t know.’

‘Maybe we shouldn’t tell you, then,’ said Kate.

‘I’ve heard this much,’ he said. ‘I’d better hear the rest.’

‘Oh, it gets worse,’ said Kate. She recounted the episode in the Gallowgait, while Morison’s mobile face reflected amazement, anxiety, concern, and finally a stern determination.

‘Lady Kate,’ he said when she had finished, ‘I can’t accept any more help if it brings you into sic danger. You could have been badly hurt there in the tavern, and as for Billy Walker breaking into the chamber where you lay sleeping, well! I can’t bear to think of it. I must ask you to leave my house, my lady, and go back to your uncle’s in Rottenrow.’

‘What, and leave your bairns alone?’ said Kate. He paused, open-mouthed. ‘I’m not finished, Maister Morison.’

‘Aye you are. I’ll send the bairns to our Con out at Bothwell,’ he said, recovering himself. ‘Andy can take them. Con’s got an altar at St Bride’s, you know that, he can surely find a woman in the town to mind them till I can bring them home again. The Provost’s men will question Billy and learn what he knows, and you can stay out of it in safety, Lady Kate. And yoursel, Mistress Mason,’ he added belatedly.

Kate exchanged a glance with Alys past Morison’s shoulder.

‘I’m still not finished, maister,’ she said. ‘There’s more to tell you yet. I said it gets worse, and it does.’

‘Why, what’s happened? Not the bairns?’ exclaimed Morison in alarm.

‘No, no, the bairns are well. One of Mistress Mason’s lassies is with them just now,’ she assured him, ‘teaching them to play at merry-ma-tanzie.’ She took a breath, and plunged on before he could interrupt again. ‘No, maister. Last night, after all was quiet again, there was a second inbreak. Whoever it was, he never got into the house, but he found where we’d shut Billy in the coalhouse.’

‘And?’ He looked intently at her face, and read the news there. Appalled, he put out a hand and covered hers where they lay in her lap. ‘Lady Kate, you’ve met a deal of trouble and pain for me. Was it you found him?’ She shook her head, thinking of the moment when Andy had stumbled into the house, grey-faced with shock, blood on his boots. ‘Our Lady be praised for that mercy, at least. How was he killed?’

‘Cut to pieces,’ said Kate carefully. ‘With an axe, or something of the sort.’

‘With an axe ?’ Morison looked down at his hand, retrieved it hastily, and crossed himself. ‘Our Lord have mercy on him,’ he muttered, and both girls said Amen. After a moment he continued, ‘Did nobody hear anything? The other men? Ursel? No, Ursel wouldn’t hear the Last Trump once she gets to snoring. How did he get in the yard, Lady Kate?’

‘The same way Billy did, Andy reckons,’ said Kate, ‘up from the stable yett. Babb and I never heard a thing. One of the men said he thought he heard shouting, or maybe something fall, out in the yard not long before dawn, but there was nothing else so he jaloused it was maybe a cat. Andy had a word to say to him about that, but as he said, who’d have thought there would be two inbreaks in the one night?’

Morison nodded, took a deep breath, and passed a hand down across his face. ‘Have you taken it to the Provost?’

‘We told him first,’ said Alys. ‘He agreed you must be informed, maister.’

‘I’m grateful.’ He smiled wryly. ‘At least I think so. The poor fellow. God and Our Lady have mercy on him,’ he said again. ‘Lady Kate, you must see — this is not safe for you. Tell me you’ll go back to your uncle’s house.’

‘Babb’s with me,’ said Kate, looking across the yard at her waiting-woman, who was towering over the two men at the castle gate. ‘She’s an army in herself.’

‘Not against a man with an axe. I want you out of my house, my lady.’

‘That’s not very friendly,’ she reproached. ‘I am right glad when ye will go And sory when ye will come , is that it?’

He coloured up. ‘Once this is done wi you’ll be a welcome guest if you choose, but right now it’s not safe. Lady Kate, I beg you, will you go back to Rottenrow?’

‘Aye, when I know the bairns are safe.’

‘Send Andy to me when you get back down the brae,’ said Morison. ‘I’ll gie him his orders. If you’d just let him have a bit coin out the small kist in the counting-house — I’ll gie you the key. Ursel can show you where it is.’ He patted his doublet, and drew a key on a chain from inside it.

‘He’ll come up as soon as he’s free.’

‘Is there anything he should bring with him?’ Alys asked.

Morison shook his head. ‘I’m right well treated,’ he confessed. ‘I think Sir Thomas doesn’t believe ill of me. Unless,’ he added hopefully, ‘Andy brought one of my books.’

‘Where are they?’ asked Kate, turning the key over. It was warm in her hand.

‘They’re in my counting-house and all, on the shelf above the desk. Just send any of them, but you’ll make sure, Lady Kate, won’t you, if it’s one that’s bound in two-three volumes, that they’re all there?’

‘No,’ said Kate deliberately, ‘I’ll send you one volume of this and another of that.’ He stared at her and laughed uncertainly. ‘It adds variety,’ she told him, straight-faced, and opened her purse to stow the key safely.

‘What have you in mind?’ asked Alys as they made their way down the crowded High Street.

‘In mind?’

Alys turned to look up at Kate, her quick smile flickering. ‘You did not say you would leave Morison’s Yard,’ she observed.

Kate, perched on the back of her mule, answered the smile, but at her other side Babb said, ‘Leave? I should think not, my doo! Leave those bairns wi nobody to see them safe but a pack of daft laddies and that bauchle Andy?’