Death on a Longship

by Marsali Taylor

If I hadn’t told him about Alain’s death, I wouldn’t have been able to go to Yell. I wouldn’t have felt cleansed at last. In time, I’d be grateful.

  His first words dispelled future gratitude quite nicely. ‘That was a risk you took for Maree. How did you know Tarrant wouldn’t silence her?’

  ‘Not in front of so many people,’ I retorted. ‘He wasn’t stupid. He was calculating. Lie, get an expensive lawyer, pat Maree on the head, and say she’s unbalanced by her sister’s death.’

  ‘Exactly what he is saying.’

  ‘Do you think you’ll nail him though?’ I asked.

  His jaw set. ‘The crime was committed here, he’ll be tried here. I have faith in Scottish justice.’ He gave me a long, steady look. ‘You know you’ll be one of the key witnesses for the prosecution?’

  ‘The conversation about the baby?’

  ‘Write down what you heard now, word for word, and learn it off by heart.’

  ‘I didn’t know policemen were supposed to give advice like that.’

  He looked away from me, his lower lip pulling in against his teeth. ‘I’ve seen all Favelle’s movies. When I got this case I even thought that I might meet her.’

  Instead, he’d had to look at her body.

  I wasn’t a suspect any more; we were equals now. I looked him straight in the face, seeing his own grey eyes, not Alain’s any longer. ‘I won’t let her down,’ I said.

  ‘I’ll see you at the trial.’ He held out his hand. ‘And if you take off in a tall ship, I’ll personally run you in for everything I can think of the next time you set foot on Scottish soil.’

  ‘I’ll be there.’ We shook hands on it. He turned away, then turned back, fished in his pocket, and brought out a brown envelope. ‘When I went through your records there was one omission.’ He handed me the envelope. ‘A present.’

  If it was a letter, it was a long one; there were several thicknesses of paper inside. I stared at him, doubtful. He nodded, climbed over the guard rail and strode off, kilt swinging jauntily. At the marina gate, he turned to raise a hand, then clambered into his car and drove off, leaving me standing there, in the centre of the cockpit, with the envelope in my hands. I sat down, lifted the unglued flap and slid the contents out.

  It was an application form for a provisional driving licence.

  A note on Shetlan

  Shetland has its own very distinctive language, Shetlan or Shetlandic, which derives from Old Norse and Old Scots. Magnie’s first words to Cass are,

  ‘Cass, well, for the love of mercy. Norroway, at this season? Yea, yea, we’ll find you a berth. Where are you?’

  Written in west-side Shetlan (each district is slightly different), it would have looked like this:

  ‘Cass, weel, fir da love o’ mercy. Norroway, at dis saeson? Yea, yea, we’ll fin dee a bert. Quaur is du?’’

  Th becomes a d sound in dis (this), da (the), dee and du (originally thee and thou, now you), wh becomes qu ( quaur, where), the vowel sounds are altered (well to weel, season to saeson, find to fin), the verbs are slightly different (quaur is du?) and the whole looks unintelligible to most folk from outwith Shetland, and twartree (a few) within it too.

  So, rather than writing in the way my characters would speak, I’ve tried to catch the rhythm and some of the distinctive usages of Shetlan while keeping it intelligible to soothmoothers, or people who’ve come in by boat through the South Mouth of Bressay Sound into Lerwick, and by extension, anyone living south of Fair Isle.

  There are also many Shetlan words that my characters would naturally use, and here, to help you, are some o’ dem. No Shetland person would ever use the Scots wee; to them, something small would be peerie, or, if it was very small, peerie mootie. They’d caa sheep in a park, that is, herd them up in a field – moorit sheep, coloured black, brown, fawn. They’d take a skiff (a small rowing boat) out along the banks (cliffs) or on the voe (sea inlet), with the tirricks (Arctic terns) crying above them, and the selkies (seals) watching. Hungry folk are black fanted (because they’ve forgotten their faerdie maet, the snack that would have kept them going) and upset folk greet (cry). An older housewife like Jessie would have her makkin (knitting) belt buckled around her waist, and her reestit (smoke-dried) mutton hanging above the Rayburn. And finally … my favourite Shetland verb, which I didn’t manage to work in this novel, but which is too good not to share: to kettle. As in: Wir cat’s joost kettled. Four ketlings, twa strippet and twa black and quite. I’ll leave you to work that one out on your own … or, of course, you could consult Joanie Graham’s Shetland Dictionary, if your local bookshop hasn’t joost selt their last copy dastreen.

  Adults using the diminutives Magnie (Magnus), Gibbie (Gilbert), and Charlie may also seem strange to non-Shetland ears. In a traditional country family (I can’t speak for toonie Lerwick habits) the oldest son would often be called after his father or grandfather, and be distinguished from that father and grandfather and perhaps a cousin or two as well, by his own version of their shared name. Or, of course, by a peerie in front of it, which would stick for life, like the eart kyent (well-known) guitarist Peerie Willie Johnson, who recently celebrated his 80th birthday. There was also a patronymic system, which meant that a Peter’s four sons, Peter, Andrew, John, and Matthew, would all have the surname Peterson, and so would his son Peter’s children. Andrew’s children, however, would have the surname Anderson, John’s would be Johnson, and Matthew’s would be Matthewson. The Scots ministers stamped this out in the nineteenth century, but in one district you can have a lot of folk with the same surname, and so they’re distinguished by their house name: Magnie o’ Strom, Peter o’ da Knowe

  Glossary

  For those who like to look up unfamiliar words as they go, here’s a glossary of Scots and Shetlan words.

  aa : all

  an aa : as well

  aabody : everybody

  ahint : behind

  allwye : everywhere

  amang : among

  anyroad : anyway

  auld : old

  aye : always

  bairn : child

  banks : sea cliffs, or peatbanks, the slice of moor where peats are cast

  bannock : flat triangular scone

  birl, birling : paired spinning round in a dance

  blootered : very drunk

  blyde: glad

  boanie : pretty, good looking

  breeks : trousers

  brigstanes : flagged stones at the door of a crofthouse

  bruck : rubbish

  caa : round up

  canna : can’t

  clarted : thickly covered

  cowp : capsize

  cratur : creature

  crofthouse : the long, low traditional house set in its own land

  darrow : a hand fishing line

  dastreen : yesterday evening

  de-crofted : land that has been taken out of agricultural use, e.g. for a house site

  dee : you. du is also you, depending on the grammar of the sentence – they’re equivalent to thee and thou. Like French, you would only use dee or du to one friend; several people, or an adult if you’re a younger person, would be you.

  denner : midday meal

  didna : didn’t

  dinna : don’t

  dis : this

  doesna : doesn’t

  doon : down

  drewie lines : a type of seaweed made of long strands

  duke : duck

  dukey-hole : pond for ducks

  du kens : you know

  dyck, dyke : a wall, generally drystane, i.e. built without cement

  ee now : right now

  eela : fishing, generally these days a competition

  everywye : everywhere

  fae, frae : from

  faersome : frightening

  faither, usually faider: father

  fanted : hungry, often black fanted, absolutely starving

  folk : people

  gansey : a knitted jumper

  geen
: gone

  greff : the area in front of a peat bank

  gret : cried

  guid : good

  guid kens : God knows

  hae : have

  hadna : hadn’t

  harled : exterior plaster using small stones

  heid : head

  hoosie : little house, usually for bairns

  isna : isn’t

  joost : just

  ken, kent : know, knew

  kirk : church

  kirkyard : graveyard

  knowe : hillock

  Lerook : Lerwick

  lintie : skylark

  lipper : a cheeky or harum-scarum child, generally affectionate

  mair : more

  makkin belt : a knitting belt with a padded oval, perforated for holding the ‘wires’ or knitting needles.

  mam : mum

  mareel : sea phosphorescence, caused by plankton, which makes every wave break in a curl of gold sparks

  meids : shore features to line up against each other to pinpoint a spot on the water

  midder : mother

  mind : remember

  moorit : coloured brown or black, usually used of sheep

  mooritoog : earwig

  muckle : big – as in Muckle Roe, the big red island. Vikings were very literal in their names, and almost all Shetland names come from the Norse.

  muckle biscuit : large water biscuit, for putting cheese on

  na : no, or more emphatically, naa

  needna : needn’t

  Norroway : the old Shetland pronunciation of Norway

  o : of

  oot : out

  ower : over

  park : fenced field

  peat : brick-like lump of dried peat earth, used as fuel

  peerie : small

  peerie biscuit : small sweet biscuit

  Peeriebreeks : affectionate name for a small thing, person or animal

  piltick : a sea fish common in Shetland waters

  pinnie : apron

  postie : postman

  quen : when

  redding up : tidying

  reestit mutton : wind-dried shanks of mutton

  riggit : dressed, sometimes with the sense dressed up

  roadymen : men working on the roads

  roog : a pile of peats

  rummle : untidy scattering

  Santy : Santa Claus

  scaddy man’s heids : sea urchins

  scattald : common grazing land

  scuppered : put paid to, done for

  selkie : seal, or seal person who came ashore at night, cast his/her skin, and became human

  shalder : oystercatcher

  sho : she

  shoulda : should have, usually said sooda

  shouldna : shouldn’t have

  SIBC : Shetland Islands Broadcasting Company, the independent radio station

  skafe : squint

  skerry : a rock in the sea

  smoorikins : kisses

  snicked : move a switch that makes a clicking noise

  snyirked : made a squeaking or rattling noise

  solan : gannet

  somewye : somewhere

  sooking up : sucking up

  soothified : behaving like someone from outwith Shetland

  spewings : piles of vomit

  splatched : walked in a splashy way with wet feet, or in water

  swack : smart, fine

  tak : take

  tatties : potatoes

  tay : tea, or meal eaten in the evening

  tink : think

  tirricks : Arctic terns

  trows : trolls

  tushker : L-shaped spade for cutting peat

  twa : two

  twa-three (usually twa-tree) : a small number

  vee-lined : lined with wood planking

  voe : sea inlet

  voehead : the landwards end of a sea inlet

  waander : wander

  waar : seaweed

  wand : a fishing rod

  whatna : what

  wasna : wasn’t

  wha’s : who is

  whitteret : weasel

  wi : with

  wir : we’ve – in Shetlan grammar, we are is sometimes we have

  wir : our

  wife : woman, not necessarily married

  wouldna : would not

  yaird : enclosed area around or near the croft house

  yoal : a traditional clinker-built six-oared rowing boat.

  Next in The Cass Lynch Mysteries

  The Trowie Mound Murders

  Marsali Taylor

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  Copyright © Marsali Taylor 2014

  The right of Marsali Taylor to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

  ISBN 9781783755172

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the written permission of the publishers: Accent Press Ltd, Ty Cynon House, Navigation Park, Abercynon, CF45 4SN

  The stories contained within this book are works of fiction. Names and characters are the product of the authors’ imaginations and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental