Disorderly Knights - Dorothy Dunnett [258]
‘And she was very good at lying,’ said Sybilla. ‘I can confirm that, if it has any value. But why spread the rumours at all?’
‘To prepare the ground. She is, as you know, to bear a child. It is not mine, and could be proved, I suppose, not to be mine, but I shall be accused of having fathered it, and in an atmosphere so emotional that reason must be swept away entirely. That will be the last move—or nearly the last move. And it must be done, for effect, soon. Joleta’s condition will become public any moment now. For Gabriel to be mortally hurt by the revelation, the blow must come first. He will know, by now, from our little scene yesterday at Mid-culter that he is safe; that I have spurned Joleta and alienated my family without apparently having any suspicion of himself. That, indeed, up to now has been my only strength—that he is vain, and has conducted his campaign without truly examining his pawns, except for their faults.
‘Fortunately, perhaps,’ said Lymond with a wry smile which did not touch his eyes, ‘among the throng of mine he missed my only virtue, which is persistence. Joleta cannot travel, but the news will be brought, any day now, that whoever lay by the rose has emphatically borne the flower away, if not the bush. By that time, the news of Thompson’s little affair will be reaching the Queen Dowager and she will do what she threatened—descend on St Mary’s to clean it out. Instead, she will find, I should guess, St Mary’s under sole control of Sir Graham, bitter but brave. You may not object,’ said Lymond pointedly, ‘but if I am to lose my life in the same way as Will Scott, I should like it to be clear why.’
There was a little silence. Then Janet Beaton, speaking carefully, said, ‘Will died on the stairs at Liddel Keep, defending it from the Kerrs. He died from a left-handed sword-thrust that cut off his right arm.’
Lymond looked again at his hands. ‘Adam,’ he said. ‘You were there. Do you remember Randy Bell’s account of how Will died? It was quite accurate. He said, “He took the brunt of the rush for the stairs. I was in the middle and Crawford at the top when they burst in, and he pushed past us all.” Is that right?’
‘Yes,’ said Blacklock.
Lymond looked up, and now in his narrowed eyes they saw some of the temper concealed up to now. ‘ “I was in the middle,” Bell said. A left-hand sword-cut from below, Janet, is quite indistinguishable from a right-hand sword-cut from behind … except for the angle of the cut. Will Scott was killed by a blow that cut downwards.’
‘Bell!’ Slowly, Alec Guthrie got to his feet and stared, thick hands on the boards, at the head of the table. ‘Will Scott was killed by Bell?’
‘Of course,’ said Lymond. ‘Think, my butty. Who supplied Adam with drugs? Who worked with Plummer on the siege engine that nearly killed the Harperfields? Who came with such magnificent timing to Dumbarton to interrupt my tête-à-tête with Joleta? Who killed old man Turnbull just as he was protesting, no doubt, that what he had done was done under orders, and that killing Turnbulls was no part of the scheme? You didn’t see a Scott kill the old man, Adam. You only assumed he did. It was Bell’s hard luck that I actually got to the Keep from Dumbarton, and he couldn’t slip out before the attack, as he’d planned. The Kerrs wouldn’t have got into the Keep without that cellar key. Who left them the key? Who bribed the Turnbulls? Bell would know, as well as Gabriel. It was Bell who tried to delay leaving St Mary’s in order to weaken Scott’s alibi still more for the cattle killing. Philippa should have died too, if I hadn’t got her away. As it was, the Scott clan was nearly cooked like pies in an oven, and the herd slaughtered, thus alienating Buccleuch from the protection of St Mary’s. Tosh has been with Wat as you know, Janet, ever since. For Gabriel is manipulating the concerns of the Scotts and the Kerrs. But for Tosh, the two families would have come face to face without our protection at the Hadden Stank: two warnings concerning the date failed to reach