Pat McIntosh - The Harper's Quine

‘So it was the money,’ said the Official.

‘Yes. And possibly the plate, though I think her brother had that,’ Gil added. ‘We may never know its fate. I dare say there are silversmiths all over Scotland who would melt it down and never ask about the crest. She simply feared that if Sempill spoke to his wife he would discover that she had never had any of the rents from Rothesay. And you only had to look at Lady Euphemia to tell she was an expensive woman.’

‘I’ve always wondered how John could afford her,’ said Philip Sempill.

‘So she borrowed Antonio’s dagger, went out of St Mungo’s during Compline, and called Bess over. They were kin by marriage, Bess had no reason to be suspicious. Euphemia coaxed her into the Fergus Aisle so they could sit on the scaffolding, or maybe so she could throw up in privacy, for the traces were there.’ By his side Alys stirred, but said nothing. ‘Then she knifed her, seized her purse and the gold cross to make it seem like robbery, skelped back over the scaffolding and into the kirk for a quick word with St Catherine — ‘

‘I wonder what the holy woman was making of that?’ said Ealasaidh heavily.

‘Quite so. And after the service, when they all went out, she gave Antonio back his knife. I saw him sheathing it. I was just on their heels going into the kirkyard.’

‘How did she know how to strike so deadly?’ asked the mason. ‘Or do you suppose it was luck? And why the musician’s dagger and not her own?’

‘Not simply luck, for she killed Bridie the same way. I think one of her lovers may have taught her how to use a knife. It is the kind of thing she would have relished knowing.’ Not Hughie, he thought. Surely not Hughie?

‘Her own knife is — was a small one,’ Philip Sempill observed. ‘I saw it often at mealtimes. I suppose the Italian’s was better suited to the task.’

‘Would a woman think of such a thing?’ asked Maistre Pierre.

‘Euphemia would,’ said Sempill firmly. ‘She was drawn to knives, and blood. When one of the men cut his hand on a broken crock, Mally could scarce bind it up for Euphemia getting in the way staring.’

‘I remember, her reaction to the Italian’s blood was yet stronger,’ said the mason.

‘She must at some point have checked the purse,’ Gil continued, ‘probably on her way back into St Mungo’s, and found only a few coins, a key which must be the key to Bess’s box, and the harp key, which she dropped or threw away. The purse went on the midden. Maggie found the cross and the other key, hidden in a secret place in her jewel-box until it should be safe to bring them out. I expect if Sempill had ever got his hands on Bess’s effects she would have coaxed the box from him and made use of the key.’

‘She cannot have seen Davie and his girl, I suppose, though you told me she claimed to have done so,’ said Maistre Pierre. ‘No doubt she was alarmed when we began to search for Bridie Miller.’

‘She must have enticed Bridie into Blackfriars yard in the same way,’ Gil continued. ‘The girl was easy enough to identify, she was telling the whole market what a narrow escape she had had, and she would be flattered by a lady who asked her advice about where she could be private. Euphemia had taken care to dress differently. On May Day evening she was wearing a hat, and the next day and also when I met her in the market on Thursday she was wearing a linen kerchief, a monstrous thing which changed her appearance completely. Like the Widow in Dunbar’s appalling poem — schene in her schrowd and schewed her innocent.’

‘I had never seen her wear such a headdress before those two days,’ said Philip Sempill. ‘It surprised me, I can tell you.’

Gil nodded.

‘She can’t have stopped to find out whether the poor lass saw anything, she simply got rid of her as quickly as possible. I suppose it is characteristic that she also took the few pennies Bridie had on her, as she took Bess’s coin, though it would scarcely pay for a finger of one of her gloves. The scent on Bridie’s kerchief puzzled me, until Mariota Stewart said something about Euphemia’s perfume smelling different when it was stale.’

‘Aye,’ said Maggie. ‘That was the other thing, Maister Gil, only you were so quick to be rid of me. All the clothes in her kist smelled like that, and it wasny the same as when it was on her at all.’

‘I noticed that often,’ said Philip Sempill.

‘And I’ve noticed that, fresh or stale, it makes Maister Mason sneeze, just as hawthorn flowers do. And then the serjeant arrested Antonio. I also bear some guilt for what happened then, because I know John Sempill, I should have been quicker to realize what he would do.’

‘No, Gil. I know him even better,’ said John Sempill’s cousin, ‘and I was taken by surprise too. Euphemia should also have known what would happen.’

‘I think she did. She had known John well, and for a long time, and think how economical to get one lover to execute the other. What would the Italian have told if he was put to the question? He didn’t look to me like a man who could withstand the thumbscrews or the boot.’

That would have silenced his music,’ said the mason. Ealasaidh flinched, but the harper did not stir.

‘I never asked her point blank, but I expect she would have sworn that he was with her all the morning Bridie was killed. If he was questioned, he would have told all he knew about her movements, both when Bess died and when Bridie died. I suspect he was also the father of her child. John’s success has not been notable in that way. So Antonio had to go, and as Maister Mason says, her reaction to the spilt blood was powerful. What sticks in my craw is that the poor devil begged her to help him, addressed her as Donna mia cara, dear my lady — and that was his reward.’

‘Poor devil indeed,’ said Philip Sempill. ‘I will say, I knew what was happening — that she had taken the Italian to her bed — and I hoped John never found out, but I never looked for it to end that way.’

‘Then we went to Rothesay and discovered this largescale pauchling of the rents. As I said, I had eliminated you and John both by then, but I was still thinking in terms of James Campbell, and every word I heard seemed to confirm it.,

‘To me, too,’ agreed Maistre Pierre in answer to Gil’s raised eyebrow. ‘But I cannot understand yet how Maister John Sempill never recognized the — what is your word? — pauchling. Embezzlement. He must have known what his land was worth.’

‘John doesn’t read very well, Grammar School or no, and he’s not a great thinker,’ said Philip, grinning. ‘I tried to suggest the rent was a bit low, but he’s so taken with James’s education, and yours, Gil, that he would never entertain the idea that things might not add up.’

‘And so you knew it was the good-sister; said the harper.

‘When she ran, I knew,’ said Gil. ‘Something I learned in Dumbarton set me thinking things through again. James Campbell had been there looking for Annie Thomson, and gone away without speaking to her because she was demented with a rotten tooth, poor lass. Her mother described him, and identified him as a Campbell. Now, if he was guilty, he knew what she might have seen, he had no need to question the girl publicly, and every incentive to make contact with her secretly and do away with her like the other lassie. Since he had tried to contact her quite openly, I could infer that he was not guilty, but had a reason for wanting to know what she had seen or heard the evening Bess died. So I began putting things together — there was that, and a conversation I had with Euphemia Campbell the day Bridie was killed when she knew far more than she should have done, and Mariota’s remark about the perfume — and began to think perhaps I knew the answer. But until Euphemia saw the cross and ran, it was simply the most likely explanation.’