Pat McIntosh - The Merchant's Mark

‘Huh,’ said the child, and studied him for a moment with that penetrating stare. ‘Can me and Wynliane come to the feast?’

A black-browed woman Gil faintly recalled from a difficult morning in Dumbarton entered the hall with another linen-wrapped child in her arms. She took in the situation and said firmly, ‘Come away now, Ysonde!’ Finding she was ignored, she set down the little girl she carried. There was a small sound of protest, and a hand emerged from its wrappings and clung to her skirts. ‘Come up, poppet, and go to your bed.’

‘Can we?’ said Ysonde, still staring at Gil.

‘If your da says you may,’ he said diplomatically.

‘Ysonde!’ Mistress Thomson came forward to take her hand, trailing the other child, and paused to bob to Gil. ‘Good e’en to ye, maister. I hope I see you well. Come up, my lammie. Time you were in your bed.’

‘Ask the lady for her blessing,’ said Ysonde, pulling away and sticking out her lower lip. Her sister, silent within her cocoon of linen, nodded agreement. Kate, to Gil’s surprise, without hesitation delivered the blessing their mother had used all their lives. Ysonde submitted to being shepherded towards the stairs, and as their new nurse paused at the cupboard by the doorway to light a candle for the ascent peered past her sister and suddenly gave Gil a brilliant smile.

Babb had gone into the other room, and now returned and strode out of the house with a bundle of linen. Kate watched her go, then said, ‘The Axeman killed the man in the barrel? So does that mean Augie — Maister Morison’s not like to be tried for the murder?’

Alys raised an eyebrow, with a glance at Gil, before she recalled herself and looked away again.

‘I hope Augie’s in the clear, for we found, or to be exact Socrates found where the man was likely killed, in Linlithgow.’ Kate muttered something, closing her eyes, and crossed herself. ‘It seems to me Billy was involved in the death, which might be bad for Augie, but Billy’s actions since have not suggested they were in it together.’

‘So what did you find?’ Kate pressed. ‘Tell us.’

‘Can I not get a drink first?’ he parried. ‘Is all the household out at the laundry?’

Alys, tight-lipped and blushing darkly, rose and took a candle out to the kitchen. Gil watched her go, and looked anxiously at his sister, who shook her head and shrugged. After a little Alys returned with a tray, and handed cups of ale, not looking at Gil and deftly eluding his attempt to touch her fingers as he took his. She had brought a platter of bannocks and cheese; wary of causing further offence, he took one when she offered it, but when he bit into it found that he was hungry.

‘I needed this,’ he said. She still did not meet his eye, but her expression lightened a little. He went on eating, and between mouthfuls gave them a description, as terse as Kate’s, of the events of his journey, from the musicians in Stirling to Rob’s burial in Roslin that morning. Alys listened as intently as his sister, and when he described the fight above Linlithgow her hand went up to her mouth, though she still did not speak. At the mention of de Brinay and his men, Kate clapped her hands together.

‘We were right!’ she said to Alys. ‘The Preceptory is involved! Mall said a strange thing,’ she explained to Gil. ‘She heard the man with the axe say to Billy that the Baptizer wanted his gear back. At first we wondered if it might mean the Knights of St John. It is the Baptist that’s their patron, isn’t it, not the Evangelist?’

‘It is,’ he agreed, through another mouthful of bannock.

‘But then the old man said the Treasurer’s title is Lord St Johns, so could it be him?’

‘The Baptizer,’ he repeated. ‘Well, the Preceptory is involved, I ken that for certain now. The Baptizer might fit. Listen to the rest of it.’

He went on with the tale. They heard him out, Kate frowning, Alys thoughtful.

‘I am truly sorry about Rob,’ she said when he had finished. ‘He was a good servant, and kind to the horses.’

‘Aye,’ said Kate. ‘He’d been to Rome, had he not, Gil? St Peter bring him to bliss, then.’

‘Amen,’ said Alys, and they all crossed themselves.

‘We have nearly all we need,’ Gil said after a moment. ‘We’ve still to find the man Baldy, and the one with the feather in his hat, and find out which side they were working for. Did you say they’d been seen in the Hog?’

‘On Wednesday,’ Kate nodded. ‘It sounds like the same men. And the fellow who saw them thought Mattha Hog knew them. Mind, it’s second-hand news, Gil. The two we sent down there last night were tellt this by another.’

‘There are more than two sides,’ said Alys, ‘that is obvious.’

‘The cooper is Sinclair’s man,’ said Kate, counting them off on her fingers. ‘So was the man in the barrel, Our Lady defend him. This Johan and the knight were for the Preceptory. The Axeman — I’m right glad to hear he’s dead, and so will Babb be — he was against both the others, but were Sinclair and the Preceptory acting together?’

‘Not entirely,’ Gil admitted. ‘However that’s sorted now. And I did think that Treasurer Knollys was very eager that I should go into Ayrshire.’ He reached for another bannock, and found the platter empty.

‘So the old man said. But surely he’s involved anyway,’ said Kate, ‘both as Treasurer and as Preceptor.’

‘The two interests may conflict,’ said Alys.

‘But then who did the Axeman mean by the Baptizer?’ wondered Kate again. ‘Who was he working for? The Preceptory, or Knollys, or someone else? And who is his woman? We’ve had no luck asking about this Maidie.’

‘He called his axe Maidie,’ recalled Gil.

‘His axe?’

‘He cannot have been from the Preceptory,’ said Alys.

‘You see that too?’ said Gil. Kate looked from one to the other. ‘He wasn’t with the cooper,’ Gil expanded, ‘else he would never have had to ask about the carts, and the cooper would never have told me he did ask. But we ken the cooper is with the Preceptory, since he sent Simmie to warn them we were on the road.’

‘Um,’ said Kate. ‘It’s far more complicated than I realized. I thought you just went about asking questions till the right answer came out.’

‘But how do we get proof?’ said Alys, pursuing her own train of thought. ‘He will never admit it without some kind of proof.’

‘It may be more complicated than that anyway,’ suggested Gil. She nodded absently.

‘What are you talking about?’ said Kate. ‘Have I missed part of the conversation?’

‘It depends who paid the man Baldy,’ said Alys suddenly. ‘What a pity you did not catch him too.’

‘We lacked forethought there,’ he admitted, and she giggled, and then finally met his eye and smiled at him a little sheepishly.

‘Could it have been Noll Sinclair who paid him?’ said Kate. ‘Or the cooper, even, setting a trap for someone with you as the bait?’

‘Now I never thought of that,’ admitted Gil. ‘Though I thought the trap was for us. I still feel a fool, being decoyed up on to the hillside to look for a dead pig’

‘We know the Axeman killed Sinclair’s man in the cooper’s yard,’ offered Kate.

‘Something was killed in the cooper’s yard,’ corrected Gil. She pulled a face, but nodded agreement.

‘And probably the same night,’ supplied Alys, ‘the barrel of books was taken off Maister Morison’s cart and the barrel with the head and the treasure put on it.’

‘Why?’ said Gil. ‘That’s the strange thing. Why send the barrel to Glasgow?’

‘Accident,’ said Alys. She sat up straight. ‘I know! Kate, you know we thought the Axeman was left-handed. It is the kind of mistake they make. We had a left-handed kitchen-lassie once and she could never put things in the proper place.’