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

of men and women than she thinks she does. I fear she may have made a bad choice of her own.’ She pondered a moment then put the thought aside. ‘No matter. That is a subject for other ears. What I want to talk to you about is Seoras MacKay.’
    I sighed heavily. ‘There is little I can tell you, your Ladyship. You know the events of the last two days?’
    She nodded briskly. ‘That he was sent from Downies’ Inn in the company of his foster brother, and has not been seen since.’
    I could not see the direction of her interest. ‘I had not realised that Seoras was … known to your Ladyship.’
    She sniffed. ‘Hmf. You are scarcely a man of the world Mr Seaton, if you do not know that I am related to half the country round. There is a degree of cousinage between the MacKays and my own family, and Seoras’s father and I are friends of old: the Forbeses have long been allies of the MacKays in the north. I hear you yourself saw Seoras in Downies’ Inn the night the recruiting officers were there.’
    I acknowledged that I had done.
    ‘Then I fear there will be no happy outcome to this tale.’
    I did not know how to tell this woman who had suffered so much unjust loss that not every misadventure must end in tragedy. I chose my words carefully. ‘The boy will be coming to in the back room of some drinking place, or lying low until he thinks the furore over his absence has passed. It has happened often enough like this before, and they always come back.’
    ‘Not this time. His companion has already been found, has he not? In what condition was the boy?’
    So I told her of Hugh’s cuts and bruises, his sodden clothes and the weeds in his hair.
    She stared away from me, into the fire. ‘Tell me exactly what happened, what was said in Downie’s Inn the night before last.’
    And so I did, although I could not see what purpose it would serve. When I had finished, she was silent a few moments before saying,
    ‘Then Seoras MacKay is dead, Mr Seaton. He is dead.’
    Her words startled me, and before I could respond, we were interrupted by the arrival of Matthew Lumsden’s wife, and all chance of asking Lady Rothiemay how she could pronounce with such certainty upon the thing was lost, but I reflected on it that night, and on several after.

5
Rumours at the Session
    Sarah had had little to say when I told her that evening of Lady Rothiemay’s good regard of her. In fact, she had looked almost displeased by it.
    ‘She meant well by it, you know.’
    ‘I have no doubt she did, but it would please me better to know that no one in Banffshire remembered my name.’
    ‘Sarah,’ I sighed, ‘it was a long time ago, and of those who remember it at all, none will blame you.’
    I knew the minute I said it that I had done wrong. I wanted to bite back the words, but it was too late. When her response came, it was slow, and deliberate.
    ‘Will they not? That is very good of them.’
    She had never forgotten, could never forget, the jeers and the stones hurled at her as she had been driven, pregnant by her brutish master, from the burgh of Banff nine years ago, and while we had made, over time, this life for ourselves here in Aberdeen, I had never once been able to persuade her to return to that town with me. It was a matter we rarely spoke of, and I was glad to leave it now.
    ‘Do you think I am a fit person to judge who will make a good schoolmistress?’
    Her face softened, and a mischievous look came in to her eyes. ‘You are a terrible person to judge such a thing. I do not know what her Ladyship was thinking of. You think a stocking well-turned if your heel does not go through it at the first wearing, and letters well learned if the Catechism can be recited back to you.’ She glanced at Deirdre, who was busied in plaiting a strand of my hair with one of her own ribbons. ‘Look at you. You appear beyond comprehending that little girls might ever need the slightest discipline. If left to you, the schoolmistress’s