repent later.
The dirt and stones would crunch under our feet even at a slow pace, and alert Colum to the attempted stealth of our approach. So we strolled straight up to the door unchecked. Gage thrust it open, sending a young man staggering back from the position he’d just taken up by the window. He turned to run, but my husband was too quick for him, collaring him and swinging him back against the wall, which trembled with the force.
“Colum Brunton, we have some questions for you,” he stated, just as the boy lashed out with a punch. It appeared to glance off Gage’s upper arm as he twisted, but must have connected with sufficient force to hurt, for he uttered a low curse.
“I dinna ken nothin’,” Colum gasped as he tried to flee again.
Gage shoved him back against the wall, leaning into him as he pressed his upper arm against his breastbone just below his neck. If he raised his arm but another inch, he could choke the lad. “We’re not here to hurt you. And we’re certainly not here on Helmswick’s behalf.”
“So ye say,” he grunted. “But what o’ the other?”
I could see that Gage’s eyes reflected the same confusion mine did. “What other? Renton?”
Colum momentarily stilled, searching my husband’s face. But he soon renewed his struggle. “I dinna ken anything!”
“Listen. Listen!” Gage shouted as he pushed harder. “Do you think I’d bring my expectant wife with me if I intended to kill you?”
He nodded toward me, and Colum turned his head to look at me for the first time, his eyes wide with fear.
“We truly don’t intend to harm you,” I coaxed. “But Mr. Renton is dead, and we think you might know something that could help us figure out who killed him.”
His gaze dipped to my bright blue sling, revealed by the part in my cloak, before searching my face. I tried to appear as earnest as possible. It must have been enough, for he abruptly relented, sagging against the wall. However, Gage continued to hold tight to him, in case it was a trick.
“Will you talk to us?” I asked, advancing a step closer.
He nodded in defeat.
I turned to close the door while Gage grabbed hold of his shoulders and marched him over to a raggedy armchair in the corner. He told him to sit, and then stood glaring down at him. I elected to perch on the edge of a ladder-back chair several feet away.
Pushing the hood back from my face, I glanced surreptitiously around the room. It was neat and tidy, save for a pile of walnut shells beneath the chair where Colum slumped, and decorated in faded chintz and rose-printed fabrics. “Whose cottage is this?” I asked.
“Daisy. One o’ the dairymaids up at the estate farm,” he mumbled, apparently having no compunction about getting the girl in trouble for harboring him.
“Is she your sweetheart?”
He shrugged.
I fought a frown, not finding his behavior thus far to be in any way commendable.
“We know you took a bribe from Lord Helmswick.” Gage’s voice held a hard edge. Evidently he hadn’t appreciated the lad’s lack of chivalry either. “To spy on his wife.”
“Aye. So what of it?” Now that he’d been caught, he had lapsed into a belligerent sulk. One I would have liked to slap him out of.
“And what did you report to him?”
The vee between his brows deepened. “Well, nothin’. I took the blunt, I admit. But then I . . . I had second thoughts.”
He’d had second thoughts or he’d spent all the money without doing the deed for which he’d been paid?
“So you hid?” Gage surmised.
“Well, no. No’ because o’ that.”
Gage glanced at me, but I kept my eyes trained on Colum. “Then why?”
“Well, I met that other fellow ye mentioned—Renton—up at The Sheep’s Heid. We got to talkin’ aboot Lord Helmswick. I didna ken what a rotten varlet his lordship was.”
I would have thought his asking a stranger to spy on his wife would have alerted him to such, but I must have higher standards.
“Did ye ken he made Renton’s sister into a harlot, forced her, and then ne’er honored his promises to her? Practically killed her wi’ his own hands in the end.” He scowled, crossing his arms in front of him when this failed to inspire a reaction from us. “But maybe ye dinna care when it’s no’ yer own kind.”
So Renton hadn’t told Colum that Helmswick had married his sister. Did that mean it wasn’t true? Or had