A Pig of Cold Poison by Pat McIntosh Read Free Book Online Page A

foster-son, Maistre Pierre launched into an account of how the boy had escaped into the garden that morning, and had been found seated on the stone bench beside the wolfhound Socrates, singing to a blackbird.
    ‘He has a sweet little voice,’ said Alys, ‘and very true.’
    ‘Well, his father is a harper,’ Kate pointed out, ‘and his mother could sing, by what you tell me.’
    Morison had turned his head, listening to a disturbance elsewhere in the house. He pushed his chair back, but before he could rise the chamber door was opened.
    ‘Maister?’ said Andy Paterson. ‘My leddy? Here’s Adam Forrest out in the hall, wanting a word wi Maister Gil, and I’ve two o the mummers in the kitchen on the same errand. What’ll I do wi them all?’
    ‘Give the mummers some ale and bid them wait,’ said Kate decisively, ‘and ask Maister Forrest if he’d care to step in here and join us, and bring him a glass and trencher.’
    Adam Forrest, much embarrassed, refused food but was persuaded to some more of Morison’s claret.
    ‘My good-sister Barbara keeps a good kitchen,’ he said, ‘we’d our supper already, though none of us was that hungry, what wi one thing and another.’
    ‘Nor are we,’ agreed Morison, in flagrant disregard of Maistre Pierre’s laden plate. ‘It’s a bad business, Adam.’
    ‘Aye, a bad business,’ agreed Adam, ‘and I’m right sorry to ha troubled you at your meal, Lady Kate, but –’ He slid a sideways look at Gil. ‘I just. It’s a bit.’ He ran a finger round the rim of his wineglass. ‘I just –’
    ‘Go on,’ said Gil encouragingly.
    ‘Well. Will you be looking further into the business, Gil?’
    ‘He will,’ said Kate and Alys, speaking together.
    Gil suppressed irritation and said, ‘I’ll report to my lord, but I think he will want me to investigate, aye.’
    Adam sat back and nodded in obvious relief.
    ‘You don’t think Maister Bothwell guilty?’ Alys said.
    ‘I’d never ha taken him for a pysoner,’ said Adam simply. ‘It’s what we all deal in, certainly, the most of an apothecary’s trade is in things that will kill in some quantity or another, but we’re sworn to use our skills to support life, no to end it, and Nanty’s a good craftsman, I’d never ha thought he’d bring the craft into disrepute this way, no matter Frankie Renfrew’s opinion.’
    ‘Do we know yet what was in the flask?’ asked Maistre Pierre. ‘Your brother was to prove it, I think.’
    ‘He was just setting to that when I came out,’ admitted Adam. ‘We were both of us right puzzled by it. It’s a kind of a whitish liquid, like almond milk, though I couldny say if it smells like almond milk too, for we never got too close to it, seeing what it’s done to Danny Gibson.’
    ‘And what was that?’ said Gil. ‘What signs did you observe before he died?’
    ‘Gil, must we hear this again? You saw him too,’ objected Morison, taking Kate’s hand.
    ‘I’m no apothecary,’ Gil said quietly. ‘I’d as soon hear what the trained man saw.’
    ‘Well, we all saw him,’ said Forrest with confidence. ‘Nanty said he never swallowed, it was only a couple of drops touched his mouth. But with that minimissimal dose, he went short of breath even after he’d had time to recover from the battle, there was a great excess of choler which made his face red and caused him dizziness so that he fell down.’ He closed his eyes to recall the scene better, and Kate bit her lip and turned her face away. ‘His breathing was fast and shallow, with a great strain on the heart, leading to seizures,’ he recited, as if he was composing a report, ‘which eventually slew him.’ He crossed himself. ‘We did what we could, the five o us, but it’s my belief there would never ha been any saving him, no matter what remedies we tried.’
    ‘It sounds like no ailment I ever heard of,’ said Alys. ‘It could only be poison, I am certain.’
    ‘And I,’ said her father, ‘and the