Disorderly Knights - Dorothy Dunnett [189]
It was a short ride. Blacklock never caught up with Lymond and so had no idea what he had learned. He only knew that swerving up a low hill and down the opposite side, he had to close his thighs sharply to avoid the man, who had suddenly reined, and then half-jump his mare sideways to avoid a large obstacle looming black on the slope. Next he saw that what he had taken for gorse bushes in the dark were other inanimate articles littering the whole valley before him. Then he heard, thinly and weakly through the spring air, the rumour of spent beasts in pain, and even then did not at once guess.
Dismounting, Lymond, Blacklock and the six men walked in silence from end to end of the valley, past every dead or dying animal that had once been the Kerrs’. Slashed, hamstrung, broken, stabbed or beheaded, every beast had been slaughtered or else uselessly maimed, with no regard for their agony or their value. Meat which would have kept Cessford and Ferniehurst all summer, and fed half of Edinburgh as well, lay butchered here on the grass. Near the beginning, Lymond struck a light from some tinder to look for the brand. They found it, marking each beast as a Kerr’s. It was then that they saw for the first time the triumphant S which overlaid every mark, crudely cut in each flank by the butchers. And in these parts, S stood only for ‘Scott’.
Shielding the flame in his hands, Lymond straightened and met Adam’s taut gaze. ‘You were with the Scotts before, during and after their attack on the camp?’
‘Yes. They didn’t do this. There wasn’t time. They were only concerned about punishing Turnbulls and getting their own cattle back.’
‘But you said that they came through Liddesdale once before, on their own.’
‘Yes. But that was yesterday. This was done today. These beasts are still warm.’ Adam added harshly, ‘In any case, if the Scotts had done it, wouldn’t they have taken home their own herd at the time? Why come back for it? Especially after signing their work?’
Lymond was staring at him. ‘Well done,’ he said. ‘That takes care of all the arguments. Now tell me how we’re going to prevent the Kerrs from going berserk when they ride over those hills and find this.’
At that, even the raised voices of the six men beside them were promptly cut off. Then Adam said slowly, ‘We can’t. But at least the Scotts will be well on the way home. That is—’ Through the cloudy wastes of his headache, there came to him the thing he’d forgotten.
He went on, ‘That is, they’d a call to make first. The Somerville youngster is at Liddel Keep, and Scott was going that way to escort the girl north.’
After a moment Lymond said, flatly, ‘When did they leave?’
‘Not ten minutes before you arrived.’
‘With the animals?’
‘Yes.’
‘Then they won’t be there yet. And when they get there, they’ll stay overnight. It’ll let the Kerrs get away, they would think, and rest the cattle and the men.’
Blacklock said irritably, ‘What’s so desperate? Gabriel may not bring them at all tonight. He knows by now that the Turnbulls are the culprits, but he may not tell the Kerrs until he’s sure Scott is away. And even if they come, they may well miss this field until morning. You didn’t notice it until you were told. And even if they find it, it’ll be morning until they can trace the Scotts by the cattle marks. And even apart from all those things,’ said Adam Blacklock with leaden patience, ‘what hope have one undisciplined Border family, however wild, in fighting the whole of St Mary’s?’
The light had gone out. Standing still at his side, Lymond said, ‘Do you want an answer? Whoever slaughtered these animals will make sure the Kerrs know about it by now. That’s why it was done. The actual killing, incidentally, was done by the Turnbulls themselves, for a fee. The man who gave them the