The Betrayal of Maggie Blair - By Elizabeth Laird Page 0,98

It reared up, as forbidding as a monster's head, and was crowned by a castle whose massive stone walls made me shudder.

"Is that where my uncle is? In the castle?"

"No. They'll not have put the Covenanters in there. The place is buzzing with soldiers like bees in a jar. Your uncle will be in the tolbooth. See that tower halfway down the city? That's it. That's the prison. He'll be in there, for sure."

My knees felt weak, and I sat down on the ground. From the castle at the top to the palace at the bottom, with the bristle of houses in between, the city of Edinburgh seemed to glare at me.

You'll never get in here, its frowning walls seemed to say. And you'll never get your uncle out. Go away. Go back. Go home.

But I had no home to go to. I'd come this far. I had to go on.

"How do we get in?" I asked Tam. "And where will we go once we're inside?"

Tam had sat down beside me and was pulling from his pocket half the singed carcass of a hare, which he had trapped the night before. He tore it into two pieces and handed my share to me. He studied the city as he gnawed on the hare's bones, his eyes half shut in calculation.

"It's not going to be easy, Maidie."

"I can see that."

"We can't go through the gates like ordinary folk. Terrible strict they are these days, with all the panic on. It's permits and badges and letters you need before they'll let you in. But I have a trick or two. And I've some old friends who will help us out once we're inside the walls. You'll have to trust me, Maidie."

I felt a rush of love and gratitude for the wily old man.

"I do, Tam! I always will! You don't know how grateful I am. You always look after me. You always know what to do. I just wish I was rich. I'd give you lots to eat and plenty of whiskey, and you'd have a new coat every year, and a bed with a linen sheet like they have at Ladymuir."

His mouth opened in a hideous grin.

"That's very good of you, darling. I take that very kindly." He looked as pleased as if I really did have a comfortable home to offer him. "When you're settled, if you can find room in your house for poor old Tam, I'll end my days as happy as a king. It won't be long. A pretty girl like you can find a husband. That cousin of yours, Ritchie Blair, he seems a nice-enough young man. A bit serious, perhaps. But he likes you, I could tell."

He stopped. His sharp ears had caught the sound of footsteps above us, and he was already on his feet, creeping quietly into a crevice in the hillside. I followed him. We stood motionless until the lone traveler went past, then settled ourselves comfortably again for the long wait ahead.

Talking of the future had set a question nagging in my brain. Annie had talked of a letter. Of money owed to me from the Laird of Keames and Mr. Macbean.

The seed she had planted in my mind that day had grown like a weed at first. I'd thought and dreamed about having money of my own. I'd asked Annie again several times, but from the way she'd laughed at me, I'd decided that the whole thing had been just a malicious invention that she'd made up to torment me.

But if there's any truth in it, I thought, Tam might know. He's from Bute. He knew my father.

"Who's the Laird of Keames, Tam?" I asked.

"Mr. Bannantyne. Whatever made you think of him?"

"It was something Annie said. Months ago. She said he'd owed my father money. And Mr. Macbean did too."

"Did she, now?" Tam had cracked the bone he was chewing, and he was sucking out the marrow. "I wouldn't set any store by that, Maidie. Your father died a long time ago, God rest his soul."

"She said she'd seen a letter about it. At Macbean's."

"A letter, eh?" Tam looked impressed.

"What kind of a man is Mr. Bannantyne? Do you know him?"

"I wouldn't say I know him." Tam inspected the bone and regretfully threw it away. "But he's a decent sort of body. He caught me once with a fat trout that I'd ... rescued ... from his stream, and he let me off with a cursing. In fact, as lairds