Highland Sinner

by Hannah Howell

  Tormand smiled briefly, but the seriousness of the situation severely dampened his usual ready sense of humor. It was good that Simon had so quickly accepted his innocence, if only because it revealed that his friend had not fully believed in his guilt despite his rage. It was not good that Simon had not found any clue save what was left for him to find. That meant they had no trail to follow to find the murderer. It left Clara’s killer free to kill again. If Tormand was right in thinking he was the real target, the killer would not be gaining what he sought this time. It was very possible that the man would kill again and could well continue to do so until Tormand was hanged.

  Pouring himself some more ale, Tormand seriously considered getting blind drunk. It was a temptation he had to ignore and swore to himself that this would be his last drink for quite a while. He needed his wits to remain sharp, for it was a dangerous time. Someone out there wanted him disgraced and dead. The memory of Clara’s butchered body was more than enough to remind him of what lengths his enemy was willing to go to achieve that end. Tormand knew he did not deserve the guilt he felt, but it did not lessen it by much. In fact, if he and Simon did not stop this killer, Tormand suspected he could quickly reach the point where he would be willing to take the blame just to make the killing stop.

  “I dinnae think Clara will be the only one,” Simon said.

  Wincing at that echo of his own thoughts, Tormand nodded. “Nay, I fear not. If this was all to bring me to the scaffold then the failure of it to do so will make him try again. I will not be caught off guard as I was this time, however.”

  “I think it would be verra wise if ye went nowhere alone.”

  “That could be a problem.”

  “Why?”

  “Weel, there are some places and times where a companion could prove awkward.”

  Tormand did not need the looks his friends were giving him to know he was being an idiot. It was only good sense, good defense, not to be caught out alone again. He could not allow his enemy to catch him again. Next time he might not be so lucky as to wake up and slip away before someone caught him lying next to a dead woman.

  He inwardly winced. That sounded callous, a selfish concern only for his own safety. Unfortunately, he had to be that cold despite his possible culpability in the death of Clara and any other woman who may yet follow her to her grave. If he ended up blamed for Clara’s murder or any that may follow, the real killer would slip away unpunished. Tormand was determined to make the man pay for what had been done to Clara and, he prayed, before the beast could do that to any other woman.

  There was also a deep need within him to know why. Tormand knew a lot of that need was because of the guilt he could not shake. He might be able to ease some of it if he learned why this man hated him so much. And, Tormand thought, possibly hated the women he had bedded. Clara’s beauty had been utterly destroyed; even her lovely hair hacked off. There had been anger and hatred behind that attack, yet that made no sense. Sad to say, he could not think of any man, lover or husband, who had revealed any feelings for Clara that were so deep they would cause such an insane rage.

  “Scowling like a stern father willnae change my mind,” said Simon. “Ye are nay a fool, Tormand. Ye ken verra weel the need to ne’er be alone until this madmon is caught and hanged.”

  Yanked free of his thoughts by Simon’s words, Tormand sighed. “Aye, I see the wisdom of it, but that doesnae mean I must like it.”

  “Celibacy willnae kill ye, but this enemy of yours will.”

  “Celibacy?” Tormand had no intention of admitting that he had been celibate for several months, if only because he did not wish to study the reasons why too closely. “Jesu, I think I might prefer hanging.”

  “Idiot.”

  “Mayhap, but the need for a guard wasnae really why I was scowling. I suddenly thought that, weel, the way Clara was butchered seemed to reveal a fury, a hatred, and I could think of no one who felt so strongly about her. Sad to say. If the plan was to brand me a killer of women, such butchery wasnae really necessary.” When Simon just stared at him for several moments, Tormand actually shifted a little uneasily in his seat. “’Twas just a thought.”

  “A good thought. One that I should have had myself.” Simon muttered a curse. “Aye, there was fury and hatred in that butchery, one that was aimed directly at all that made Clara beautiful and desirable.”

  “It could still have been torture to gain information,” said Walter, although his expression revealed his own doubts about that.

  Simon nodded. “It could be, but, truly, Clara would have told him, or them, anything about anyone at the first touch of the knife. Everything she knew would have tumbled from her lips after one lock of her hair was cut off. Clara was vain beyond words. Her beauty was all to her. And, I still believe she was gagged through it all, which just strengthens my belief that this was not done to get information.”

  “So we still have nothing.” Tormand stared into his empty tankard and resisted the urge to fill it up again.

  “Nay, we have a murder that someone was determined to blame on you,” Simon replied. “That appears to point toward some enemy of yours nay matter how often I study it.”

  “Could it not also point to some enemy of Ranald’s? What could be more humiliating to a mon than to have it so publicly seen that his wife was bedded and then slaughtered in their marriage bed?”

  “Clara was too weel kenned as a whore for that to matter. Aye, and Ranald’s mistress is weel kenned. Nay, all were aware that neither wife nor husband honored their vows in that marriage.” Simon stood up. “Are ye coming with me to see if we can find a blood trail?”

  Tormand reluctantly stood up. Going back to the bloody scene of the crime was the very last thing he wanted to do, but he knew it could help them find at least some of the answers they needed. He just hoped Ranald was not around. Although the man had known that Tormand and Clara had been lovers, Ranald had barely hidden his dislike of Tormand. Tormand could never understand why he was treated so, when half of the men at court had also known Clara intimately. He did not care to see how that dislike might be displayed if he was forced to face Ranald in his own home while Clara’s mutilated body was undoubtedly being readied for burial.

  “Weel, that was fun,” muttered Tormand an hour later, as he followed Simon into one of the tunnels Clara’s lovers had slipped through on far too many nights.

  Ranald had been nearly as bad as Tormand had feared. It was plain for anyone to see that the man was angry, perhaps even honestly grieving, and that he saw Tormand as a perfect target to aim that fury at. If not for Simon’s uncanny ability to interrupt and end such tense confrontations, Tormand suspected that he and Ranald would have been at sword point now, fighting in the great hall of the very house where Clara had died.

  “I briefly wondered if he had actually loved Clara, but, nay, I think he but grieves the loss of her influence,” Simon said, as he walked along very slowly, holding a bright lantern as he studied the ground in front of him. “Whore she may have been, but she did have some influence. She also gained a lot of useful information from the men she took to her bed, the kind of information that helped Ranald a lot. He must also still suffer from the sight of what was once his beautiful wife. Still, I shall look harder at the possibility that he killed her.” Simon suddenly halted. “Aha, look at this,” he murmured as he crouched down.

  Tormand crouched beside Simon and looked closely at the spot his friend studied so intently. “Blood?”

  Simon lightly touched a finger to the spot, licked his finger and, ignoring Tormand’s grimace of distaste, nodded. “Definitely blood. We are in luck. The stone floor in this tunnel didnae allow it to sink into the ground and ’tis cool enough down here to keep it from hardening into nay more than a stain.” Simon stood up. “I think we have found our trail.”

  His hope that a quick solution to this mystery might be found rose as Tormand followed Simon. The trail led them out of the passage into the back alley and continu
ed north. It disappeared behind the stables run by the most popular inn in town where the constant traffic of people and horses had wiped it clean. Simon took nearly an hour searching in all directions to see if he could find the trail on his own before he went to get a dog. Tormand stayed close by his side, although his hope for a swift solution was beginning to fade away rapidly.

  As soon as Simon’s dog Bonegnasher caught the scent they moved quickly and once again Tormand found his hopes rising. The race ended at a deserted hovel at the edge of town. Tormand could smell the blood as he and Simon stepped inside. He did not need Simon’s skills to know that they had found the place where Clara had been tortured. The killer had not bothered to clean up after butchering the woman. Tormand felt the sting of bile in the back of his throat, but forced himself to stay with Simon. The way Simon so calmly and carefully looked over the bloody scene made Tormand determined to overcome his own squeamishness.

  He did not have the strong gifts so many of the women in his family possessed, especially since his branch of the clan was not actually blood related, but he did have a small skill at sensing emotion, at times almost scenting it in the air. It was not easy here where the air was so thick with the stench of blood, but Tormand closed his eyes and tried to reach out to the echoes of the feelings left behind by those who had been here before him. It was a trick one of his more gifted cousins had shown him and it did allow him to make the most use of his meager talent. The sharp tang of fear was no surprise, but once he pushed beyond that, Tormand sensed other things. Lingering in the air was the anger and hatred he had suspected was behind the mutilation. Those feelings were tainted with something he could only assume was madness.

  “Get anything?” asked Simon.

  Tormand opened his eyes, realizing that Simon had probably guessed that he had some little gift a long time ago. “Fear, anger, hatred. There is a coldness to the latter two. But, there is also something else. I think it is madness.”

  “Most certainly.”

  “Did ye find anything?” Tormand asked, as he followed Simon outside and took a deep breath in the hope of clearing the stench of death from his nose.

  “Nay more than that this is where the crime was committed. By the time Clara was carried out of here she was already dying.” Simon held out his hand. “I also found this.”

  Tormand frowned at the small hairpin Simon held. “Clara’s?”

  “Nay, this is a common bone one. Clara would never wear such a thing.” Simon put it in his pocket. “It could have belonged to a woman who once lived here, but I will keep it all the same.”

  “So we have failed.”

  “Aye and nay. We havenae found the killer, true enough, but I didnae expect to. Nay, that will take time.”

  “Another woman could die.”

  “I fear so, but there is naught we can do about that.”

  “We must just wait until it happens?”

  “We cannae set a guard on every woman in the town, Tormand. Nay, we just keep hunting, my friend. Hunting until we catch and cage this bastard.”

  And pray I dinnae hang first, Tormand silently added.

  Chapter 3

  Morainn struggled to ignore the way the shopkeeper crossed himself as she entered the small dim room where he displayed his wares. She was tempted to leave, to not gift him with her business, but she needed some of his sturdy barrels for the cider and mead she made and he was the only cooper in town. She would simply ignore him as she had ignored all the other townspeople who had moved away, crossed themselves, muttered prayers, or made a sign they foolishly thought could ward off evil as she had walked through town. It hurt, but she should be used to that pain, she told herself.

  And they were all hypocrites, anyway, she thought as some of her hurt began to spin itself into anger. They came to her quickly enough when they or someone they cared for was hurt or sick and the leech or midwife could do nothing to help. They also sought her out when they needed answers no one else could give them. If she was so evil that they could not even stand to be near her, what did that make them when they came begging at her door for help?

  She took a deep, slow breath to quell that anger. It only made her head ache and gained her nothing for the pain. The way the big-bellied cooper paled a little when Morainn looked into his small eyes told her that not all of her anger had been tucked away. The fool probably feared she was about to change him into a newt or something worse, she thought. If she possessed such magic she would not be so kind.

  Morainn was just concluding her business with the man when she felt a sharp coldness in the air and she knew it was not from a change in the weather. She quickly smothered the urge to sniff the air like some hound, thanked the man for his reluctant help, and stepped outside. Her barrels would be brought to her home on the morrow and she had no need to linger in the town that had so callously tossed her out years ago. Whatever tainted the air was not her concern, she firmly told herself as she started the long walk home.

  Just as she reached the edge of town where lived those with money enough to have a bit of land with their house, a man burst out of a fine home only yards away from her. Morainn could see that he was shaking, his face pale and sweat-soaked as he bellowed for a king’s man or the sheriff. She actually took a few steps toward him, thinking to help him, when her good sense abruptly returned. People did not appreciate her efforts to be kind.

  From the houses near to his and even from the more crowded center of town, people began to rush toward the man, drawn by his cries. Morainn hastily sought out a place where she could stand apart from the swiftly gathering crowd. She moved to the side of the man’s house and into the shade beneath a huge tree that was probably older than the man’s house.

  Although she knew she could slip around the back of the house and continue on her way home, it was more than curiosity that held her in place. Instinct told her that, for the moment, it might be best simply to remain one of the crowd. The cold she had felt at the cooper’s shop was much sharper here and she suddenly knew that someone had died violently. A little voice of caution in her head told her that slipping away home might look a little too much like fleeing to people who would soon be hunting for a killer.

  “My wife is dead!” cried the man. “Dead! Butchered in our bed!” He bent over and emptied his stomach, barely missing the fine boots of the two men who were rushing to his side.

  She had been right about the bitter taste of that cold, Morainn thought, although she would have preferred to be wrong. One of the two men who had run up to the grieving man’s side ran into the house only to run out a few minutes later looking as though he, too, would soon be emptying his belly. Many of the gathering crowd looked as though they dearly wanted to invade the house to see what could so upset two strong men. Morainn could not understand that sort of curiosity. If what was in that house was enough to make two strong men publicly vomit, what sane person would want to see it?

  A hush came over the crowd and Morainn watched as people shifted to allow two more men through its ranks. She recognized the tall, black-haired man as Sir Simon Innes, a king’s man rumored to be able to solve any puzzle. When her gaze settled on the man at his side, she nearly gasped aloud.

  It was the man from her visions. She could not see if he had mismatched eyes from where she stood, but she had no doubt at all that it was him. Everything else about him was just as she had dreamed, from his long, deep auburn hair to his graceful, broad-shouldered body. Morainn remained within the shadows, but shifted a little closer to the house hoping to catch a name for the man who haunted her dreams.

  “Sir Simon!” The distraught man grabbed Sir Simon by the arm. “Jesu, but I have need of a mon like ye. Isabella has been killed. She…she…” The man began to weep.

  “Try to calm yourself, Sir William,” said Simon, his voice holding a calm that even Morainn felt. “I will find the mon who did this. Ye have my word on that. But, now I must go and see what has happened for myself.”

  “’Tis a
wretched sight,” muttered the man who had gone into the house after Sir William had told him what had happened. “I didnae e’en step inside the room. One look was enough.”

  “Nor did I,” said Sir William. “One look was all it took, all I could abide, and no one who sees Isabella can doubt that she is dead. That she has been brutally murdered. I truly didnae need to go farther than the threshold.” He suddenly became aware of the man standing by Simon’s side. “What is that rogue doing here?”

  “Sir Tormand Murray has helped me solve such puzzles before. I wish him to help me now so that I can be sure we put the noose around the right mon’s neck.”

  Morainn thought that was an odd way to speak of the help Sir Tormand might offer.

  “How do ye ken he didnae—”

  “Careful, Sir William,” Simon said in a voice so cold even Morainn shivered. “Dinnae toss out an insult ye can ne’er take back. Ye are good with accounts, but nay so good with a sword, aye? Tormand is verra good, as am I.”

  Sir William paled a little, showing that he understood the threat. He pressed his lips together tightly and took several deep breaths before saying softly, “He kenned my Isabella ere I married her.”

  Sir Simon clasped the man by the shoulder. “The words to recall here, m’friend, are ere I married her.”

  The men were speaking so softly that Morainn edged even closer so that she could catch every word.

  “He kenned Lady Clara, as weel, didnae he and three days ago she was murdered.” Accusation was clear to hear in Sir William’s voice, revealing that he had already forgotten the threat of challenges, but he was wise enough to nearly whisper his words.