A servant came out from the kitchen, an elderly woman he had thought long retired. ‘Peace to you, sir, do not be alarmed.’ Never had such words impressed on him more violently, the opposite effect.
‘Where is my wife?’
‘Mistress Meg is here, and the midwife too. All is in hand.’
‘What midwife here?’
‘The labour has begun.’
He stared at her. ‘It cannot have begun. It is far too soon. I must go to Frances.’
‘Whisht, will you sir, you cannot see her now. Leave them to their work. She is in good hands. Come to the kitchen. There is a fire, and a warming drink.’
‘I do not want your fire,’ Hew protested peevishly, ‘I want to see my wife.’ His house rebelled against him, thwarted and distorted his will at every turn. Gavan Baird appeared, with his crumpled coat and foolish ruffled hair, grinning from the library. ‘Come and sit with me. For there is a book I want to share with you. We need not interrupt the ladies at their work. They will be some while.’
Hew was consumed with a wild dislike of him. ‘Have you gone quite mad? I want to see my wife!’
‘Now is not the time.’
Hew pushed Gavan Baird, and his simpering, away, and leapt upon the stair. He had not reached the landing place upon the second floor when Robert Lachlan came, welcome as an ogre rising in a dream, a nightmarish attempt to keep him from his task. Lachlan, unlike Baird, would not be pushed aside, and he was quite prepared to match Hew blow for blow, if ever Hew were fool enough to attempt to fight. Finding his way blocked and further progress barred, Hew assailed him fiercely, ‘Is this friendship, Robert? To deny me the entrance to my own house?’
‘Dinna disport like a bairn. You don’t want to go there, and the women do not want you. She is well provided for, with Meg and Bella too. Whit wad they want with you? Leave it to a lass.’
‘But what can I do, Robert? How can I help?’
‘I recommend strong liquor. It will make the time pass, wondrously. When Bella lay in with wee Billy, the whole thing went by in a flash.’
‘When Billy was born,’ Hew corrected, ‘you were out cold for three days.’
‘What did I say to ye? Done in a flash. And a grand bonny babby is he.’
His sister Meg appeared, the calmest voice of reason in this frantic world, coming down the stair. ‘Keep your voice low, Hew. You make too much noise.’
‘What has happened, Meg? How does Frances do? Why have you left her?’ he cried.
‘Did I not just tell you to keep down your voice? Frances is quite safe, for now, with Bella Frew. Her labour has begun. It cannot be of help to her to hear you rage and shout.’
‘But Meg, it is too soon.’
‘It is early, yes. But babies do not mark the days off on the calendar. They come when they will come. Trust her with us, Hew. I came out for a moment, to find one of your servants. For I think the time has come, to send a man for Giles.’
A panic came upon him, gripping at his bowel. Physicians were not called upon, never were they called upon, until there was a real and present threat of death. ‘Why would you do that?’
‘Why, then, should I not? He is my husband, and your dearest friend.’ Meg’s response was bright. But she could not conceal the shadow in her face.
Bewildered, he whispered, ‘It cannot be now. I have brought candles for her.’
Glossary
Caquetoire a 16th century ‘gossip chair’
Lubber an idle lout
Poffle a croft or small landholding, appearing in place names
Scunner a cause for disgust
Timmerman a carpenter
ALSO AVAILABLE IN THE HEW CULLAN SERIES
Hue & Cry
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‘A gripping and welcome addition to the growing genre of historical crime fiction’ Waterstone’s Books Quarterly
‘An elaborate, closely plotted tale that combines extensive research with high drama’ The Herald
1579, St. Andrews. A thirteen-year old boy meets his death on the streets of the university city of St. Andrews and suspicion falls upon one of the regents at the university, Nicholas Colp. Hew Cullan, a young lawyer recently returned home from Paris, uncovers a complex tale of passion and duplicity, of sexual desire and tension within the repressive atmosphere of the Protestant Kirk and the austerity of the academic cloister.
Fate & Fortune
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1581: young St Andrews academic Hew Cullan is unhappy with his life and disillusioned with the law. After his father’s death he is invited by the advocate Richard Cunningham to complete his legal education in Edinburgh as Richard’s pupil at the bar. Among his father’s things Hew finds a manuscript entitled ‘In Defence of the Law’, directed to the Edinburgh printer, Christian Hall. At first, he resists its influence, but when a young girl is found dead on the beach at St Andrews, he is left unsettled and confused. He resolves to take the book to press and agrees to Richard’s offer. Embarking on his new life in the capital, he falls in love. His relationships are fraught with lies and secrets and lead to brutal murder on the borough muir. Hew suspects a link with the dead girl on the beach. As he begins his desperate search to find the killer, he finds that the truth lies closer to home.
Time & Tide
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In the swell of a storm, a ship is wrecked in St Andrews harbour. A young Flemish sailor, the last man aboard, collapses and dies at the inn. The cargo of the ship appears a welcome windfall but soon brings devastation to the town as petty squabbling turns to rage and tragedy. Hew traces the ship to its source in Ghent, where he uncovers a strange secret. Unwilling to allow the law to take its course, he returns once more to the bitter role of advocate, to find his deepest principles are tested to the core.
Friend & Foe
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St Andrews. 1583, and tensions are running high. Dissension rages between King and councillors, and between the separate factions of the Kirk. At St Mary’s college, the reformer Andrew Melville is unsettled by a series of unnatural events, while the ailing Archbishop Patrick Adamson plays out his darkest fantasies, in the safe seclusion of the castle vaults. Hew is called to investigate a mysterious incident and finds suspicion falling upon him as he is ensnared in a world of superstition, subterfuge and death. This new Hew Cullan story sees the academic lawyer once again in the company of his sister Meg and her husband, physician Giles Locke, in their most challenging case yet. Alliances are formed; there are old scores to be settled; old ghosts reappear and spies are abroad. The king’s escape from captivity throws all in confusion, and as Hew’s loves and loyalties are put to the test, his own life and future are no longer secure.
Queen & Country
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1587. After three long years, exiled from home and family, and drawn into the depths of the London underworld under the tutelage of Elizabeth’s spymaster Francis Walsingham, Hew returns to Scotland with his new English wife Frances. The execution of Mary, Queen of Scots has unleashed a torrent of anti-English sentiment in the Scottish people and fear in King James VI, jeopardising Hew’s now unlawful marriage. However, the king invites Hew to investigate the perplexing meaning of a death’s head painting that has come into his possession. What does it symbolise, and is it a message from his dead mother? And are the local painters all that they appear? If Hew solves the mystery, his marriage to Frances will be blessed. The stakes have never been higher as he embarks on a quest for love and life.
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