A Stroke of Malice (Lady Darby Mystery #8) - Anna Lee Huber Page 0,101

a helmet on his crest.”

I hadn’t thought to verify what the Helmswick crest was, but what she’d described sounded correct. “You saw it?”

“I’ve seen it many o’ times,” she hedged as she and the other woman shared a speaking look.

“And that morning,” I pressed. “December seventh. Did you see it leave Traquair for the toll road?”

“Aye.” The woman’s gray eyes scrutinized me. “But not before he stopped and spoke to Colum Brunton on his way to the brewery first.”

My gaze met Bree’s, neither of us having expected this. “Were you able to hear what was said?”

“Nay.” She dipped her head toward a tidy house set near the fork in the road that led to Sunlaws to the west, and Innerleithen to the northeast. “Saw ’em through a break in the hedgerow on my way back from milkin’ the goat. I couldna hear what was said. But his lordship took braw Colum up in his coach and they set off back in the direction o’ the castle.”

“Did they return?”

She shrugged. “The coach did. I heard it clatter past no’ more than a quarter hour later.”

Not long enough for Helmswick to have even walked to the abbey ruins from the nearest lane. But there would have been time enough to carry Colum Brunton to the verge near the castle gates as the earl conferred with him along the way. The question was, what about?

“How long after this was it before Mr. Brunton disappeared?” I asked.

Once again she conferred with her friend. “One . . . ?”

“Closer to two weeks.”

She nodded.

“And no one has seen him since?”

They shook their heads, but the woman who possessed the ointment recipe seemed less certain of this. I watched her, waiting for her to say more, but she kept her mouth tightly shut.

“Did Mr. Brunton act any differently during those weeks before his disappearance?”

But it appeared this was more than they were willing to share. “No’ that I can recall,” the gray-eyed woman replied, though I could tell that this was an obvious lie.

Realizing we would get no more information from these women, I thanked them before Bree gave them each a sack packed with provisions from the castle. She’d been the one with enough forethought to ask the cook to have them made up. Money could too easily be spent at the pub, to the detriment of the rest of the family.

Their relief that I had ceased my questions was evident, but mistrust arose again when I asked which home belonged to Mrs. Brunton, Colum’s mother.

“She dinna ken any more than we do,” the shrewd one insisted. “You’ll only upset her.”

I let them go with a nod, afraid if I pressed them they would only hurry ahead to her house to either warn her or whisk her away. If we were lucky, Gage would obtain directions from someone inside the pub.

We waited for perhaps another minute before he emerged from the darkened interior smelling strongly of ale and peat smoke. “Well, it appears young Colum acquired a small windfall shortly before his disappearance. The proprietor claims he bought many a round of drinks for himself and his friends, and started to swagger about the place as if he owned it. Had to throw him out one night for brawling with another lad while they were both deep in their cups.”

Bree and I sat looking at each other as he relayed what he’d uncovered, connecting the pieces with what the women had told us.

Noticing our silent communication, Gage turned to us quizzically. “Why do I get the sense that none of this information is new to you?”

“It is, but . . . we think we know where Colum got that money.” Then I explained what we’d learned about Helmswick taking Colum up into his coach.

He listened with interest, rubbing his index finger over his lips as he did sometimes when he was thinking. “You believe Helmswick bribed him?”

“Or hired him to do some sort of task.”

He nodded, his eyes narrowing at the ceiling. “Yes, I suppose that makes more sense.”

“Perhaps when he saw him walking toward the castle, he deduced that’s where he was employed. His decision to hire him could have been spontaneous.”

“But what better way to keep an eye on his wife than to hire an estate worker to do it, and then give him enough blunt to bribe the household staff to share what they knew,” Gage said, finishing my thought.

“Except he dinna use the money for bribes. Or no’ much o’ it,” Bree