Pat McIntosh - The Merchant's Mark

‘I don’t know, it’s fair coming to it when a decent young woman canny sleep safe in her bed at night. Are you sure you’ve taken no hurt, lassie?’

‘I’m not hurt, sir.’

David Cunningham tut-tutted, shaking his head.

‘It’s the fault o that brother o yours,’ he said. ‘I’m sure we never had the half of these killings before he started looking into them. And your father just encourages him,’ he added severely to Alys. Her elusive smile flickered, but she made no answer. ‘What was a thief doing in the house anyway? And then another ill-doer in the yard. And what were you doing sending a man up for your spare poles? What came to the good set?’

They explained, as clearly as they might, and he listened intently, asking the occasional penetrating question. When they had done he sat silent, sipping at the tiny cup of Dutch spirit which Babb had quietly brought in while they talked.

‘So who is this man with the axe working for?’ he said at length. ‘It seems to me you need to find that out.’

‘We thought,’ said Alys, ‘to send two of the men down to the Hog after dinner, to see what they might learn.’

‘Aye,’ he said thoughtfully. ‘It would need to be done wi care, but it might pay you.’ You , thought Kate, and exchanged a glance with Alys. ‘You got a sight of him, did you say, Kate?’

‘I did, sir,’ she agreed. ‘I’d ken him again — even if he shaved his wee beard. But there was no badge on his cloak that I could see.’

‘I never seen one neither, Maister David,’ said Babb from behind Kate’s chair. ‘And I got a right look at him as he cam out of that nasty tavern.’

‘And what did the servant lassie say about him? Do you think you can believe her?’

‘She thought he was a stranger to Glasgow,’ supplied Alys, ‘with an accent from Stirling or Edinburgh or some such place.’ She grimaced. ‘I confess I would not hear the difference. He pressed Billy to complete some task, and Billy said he was paid only to open the yett. She thought they did not mean this yett. Then the man ordered him to get his master arrested for murder, and to steal the key to the kist.’

‘The Axeman seemed certain there should be more treasure,’ added Kate. ‘Oh, and there was that odd thing he said about his own master.’

‘He did not say it was his master,’ objected Alys scrupulously.

‘True. He said — Mall told us he said, The Baptizer wanted his goods and gear back. We assumed he meant his master.’

‘I think we can believe the girl,’ Alys said judiciously. ‘She was in such great distress, I do not think she was lying, and the rest of her story knits well with what we know already.’

Canon Cunningham nodded, and took another sip of the Dutch spirit, rolling it thoughtfully on his palate.

‘Juniper,’ he said enigmatically. ‘Aye, Alys, she had reason to be distressed, I suppose.’

‘It makes no sense,’ said Kate. ‘There was a strange man’s head and a bag of coin and jewels in a barrel brought home from Blackness, and now another stranger running about Glasgow, persuading Billy there should be more of the coin and jewels still hid in this house, and killing him when he can’t find it.’

‘And chopping your oxter-pole in two and all, my doo,’ said Babb.

‘Maybe Gil has learned something more,’ said Alys.

‘Aye, Gilbert,’ said Canon Cunningham. ‘Where did you say he was gone?’ he asked casually. The two girls looked at each other.

‘He was going to Stirling,’ said Alys. ‘He left with four of Sir Thomas’s men, I thought.’

‘Aye, and Rob and Tam from my household and all,’ agreed the Official. ‘I ken he went to Stirling. I’m just wondering where he would go after that.’

‘Linlithgow,’ said Alys positively. ‘My father left this morning, to go by Kilsyth and then meet him in Linlithgow. He would not change his plans without letting us know.’

‘Why do you ask, sir?’ said Kate.

‘No reason,’ said her uncle. He drew his spectacles from his sleeve, unfolded them and fitted them carefully on his nose. ‘I had a word from Robert Blacader,’ he went on, feeling in his sleeve again. ‘He writes that he saw your brother yestreen, and had the tale of the treasure and the quest from him. And,’ he glanced at Alys, ‘that he has bidden Gilbert report to him.’

‘Oh!’ said Alys, and her eyes shone.

‘Quite so,’ agreed the Official. He located the piece of paper, drew it from his sleeve and unfolded it. ‘Where are we now? Aye, and also that Will Knollys had a long word wi Gilbert after he spoke wi the King, and I am tellt he was avysit to carry his search intil Ayrshire.’

‘Oh, no,’ said Alys positively. ‘He was certainly to meet my father after he was in Stirling. To go to Ayrshire he must come back through Glasgow, not? Linlithgow is the other way, I think.’

‘I doubt whether your father would let him go into Ayrshire alone,’ Kate contributed.

‘Aye, I’ve no doubt you’re right,’ agreed her uncle. ‘We needny worry about Gilbert. He’s a man grown, after all.’

‘I never worry about him,’ said Kate.

Her uncle threw her a sharp look, and Alys said, ‘I know very little about Treasurer Knollys, sir. Do you know him?’

‘I do,’ said David Cunningham without expression. Alys waited hopefully.

‘Isn’t he one of the Knights of Rhodes?’ Kate asked.

Canon Cunningham snorted. ‘He contrived to be made Preceptor here in Scotland of the Knights of Jerusalem and Rhodes, the Order of St John, though he isny in minor Orders, let alone one of the Knights. He pays the Preceptory’s taxes,’ he added fairly, ‘as he can well afford to do, between the income he has from the Order and his own trading along the English coast. He’s been Treasurer of Scotland since the commencement of this reign, if I mind right, and spends a lot of his time bickering wi Robert Lyle about where the late King’s hoard went to and trying to lay his hands on what’s still to be found. He’d be overjoyed to see that bagful your brother found.’

‘Would he so?’ said Kate. ‘And to see it brought before the King like that?’

‘Oh, aye,’ said the Official, with the same absence of expression.

‘How did he serve the late King?’ Kate asked.

Her uncle threw her an approving look. ‘He was one of the custumars,’ he recalled, ‘and made a fair profit on the customs of Leith. I think he served for the King in that sorry business wi my lord of Albany’s treason, ten or more year ago, and I’ve no doubt the Preceptory held some of this same hoard for the King in ’88, when it was clear what way things were going.’

‘So why should he not know where the treasure is now?’ asked Alys.

‘The late King planted boxes of it all up and down the east side of Scotland before the rebellion,’ said Kate, ‘like a squirrel in autumn. Quite likely he’d not have recalled all of it himself, even had he lived, from all I’ve heard, let alone the rest of us guess where it might have gone.’

‘No to mention,’ added David Cunningham, suddenly abandoning legal discretion, ‘my lord St John of Jerusalem changing sides just afore the rising.’

‘Is that his title?’ said Alys, round-eyed. ‘Kate!’

‘Of course!’ said Kate. ‘The Baptizer!’

They exchanged glances all three.

‘It fits,’ agreed her uncle slowly. ‘It fits what I know of the man. But we have no proof.’

‘Proof is easy,’ said Alys sweepingly ‘It is merely a matter of evidence.’

‘I like the “merely”,’ said Kate.

‘No, but wait. What do we know? The man with the axe had paid Billy to open a gate somewhere, and he was sure there should be more treasure here in the house.’ She paused. ‘There was Billy’s tale of a thief in the yard at Linlithgow. What if the treasure had been held there, and the man with the axe was the thief?’