The Devil's Recruit by S. G. MacLean Read Free Book Online

now were, her startling blue eyes could put the fear of God and the love of woman into any man in the North.
    ‘Your Ladyship,’ I made my long-disused bow, ‘I had not realised …’
    ‘No doubt you had not. Your head was rarely out of a book. But you must be the only man in Aberdeen who didn’t know I was in residence here with Lumsden.’
    ‘The guard …’
    ‘Indeed. Would that others had as little interest in mymovements as yourself, Mr Seaton. But enough of that. Tell me, when were you last at Banff?’
    ‘Three months ago, in the summer.’
    ‘And all is well with the good doctor?’
    I knew my friend Dr Jaffray had several times tended to Lady Rothiemay and her children when their own physician from Huntly could not be got. ‘All well.’
    She nodded, satisfied. ‘Good. Tell him he must visit me the next time he is in Edinburgh. Tell him to bring with him a deck of cards. He relieved me of twenty Dutch florins the last time I saw him, and I would win them back.’
    I glanced briefly at Isabella Irvine. ‘You are going to Edinburgh?’
    It was Lady Rothiemay who replied. ‘Aye, that cesspit of ministers and politicking. My enemies are busy, defaming me daily before the Privy Council, and it will not be long, I’d wager, until they have me on the back of a cart headed down to one of the castle jails.’
    This was enough to rouse Isabella at last. ‘No, my Lady, your friends …’
    ‘My friends can only do so much without they set a noose around their own necks.’ Her voice softened and she smiled at the younger woman. ‘You have surely seen enough of the world by now to know that. Anyhow, I doubt Mr Seaton takes any great interest in our affairs.’ Living as I was in a town constantly agog at the depredations said to have been visited upon her foes by men loyal to Lady Rothiemay, I did not demur. She turned slightly to address meonce more. ‘I hear you are still regent at the Marischal College. Can no place be found for you at King’s?’
    The lady was suspected of strong sympathies with Rome, and I judged it best not to mention to her my forthcoming call to the ministry. ‘I am content at Marischal, your Ladyship.’
    ‘I am sorry to hear it. I will get Dr Forbes to work upon you.’
    I took this opportunity to turn the conversation away from myself. ‘Dr Forbes tells me your son does well in the schools.’
    She softened further. ‘Aye, he does. And he is to bring him here to me tonight. Only God knows when he might see his mother again.’
    ‘I will pray that it might be soon.’
    She inclined her head a little. ‘Thank you, Mr Seaton, but I begin to wonder if God listens to prayers when the name of Katharine Forbes is mentioned. And your own boy does well with Mr Wedderburn here?’
    Jaffray had told me before that this woman forgot nothing about the lives of those in whom she took an interest. ‘He makes progress, but at the moment he dreams of nothing but being a soldier.’
    ‘That is as it should be. And your daughter, what age is she now?”
    I told her that Deirdre was almost seven.
    ‘Then she might make a pupil for you, my dear.’
    In my anxiety to avoid the undiminished odium thatradiated from the eyes of Isabella Irvine, I had not noticed Christiane Rolland, the young sister of the French master, Louis, seated rigidly on a stool a little to the left of her, quietly sipping at her wine. She seemed a small thing, a delicate article of fine china, in this room of power and substance.
    ‘Christiane, I am sorry, I had not noticed you there.’
    She nodded back, attempting a smile. ‘Mister Seaton.’
    Lady Rothiemay was pleased. ‘You know my young friend then.’
    ‘Very well,’ I said. ‘Her brother is a former scholar of mine, and a friend.’
    ‘I’m glad to hear it. That is something in her favour.’
    I dared not glance in Isabella Irvine’s direction to gauge her reaction to this remark, but I was certain Lady Rothiemay had, and I began to suspect that her