Game of Kings - Dorothy Dunnett [254]
“Hud your tongue, ye sacco, socco, ferrum, dwellum, legalizing cricket—”
“—whose son you had enticed from the family hearth, purely to enable these two men to make an advantageous capture?”
“Not at all. I had a transaction of my own to complete. I was hoping to do so under cover of the ensuing melee.”
“A transaction with Lord Grey?”
“So far as his abhorrence of me would admit. I wished to meet a member of the English force, for private reasons. I had induced Lord Grey to arrange the meeting by promising him Will Scott.”
“Thus Sir Walter, Lord Culter and Mr. Scott were all invited into this commodious trap by you at the instance of Lord Grey?” asked Lauder. “In that case you certainly hoped to bring them within easy reach of the Lord Lieutenant.” Out of the corner of his eye he saw their lordships shuffling. He paid no attention, but kept his voice as unvarying as the panel’s. The man was an actor all right. But so was Henry Lauder.
Crawford of Lymond said, “Mr. Scott was invited in such a fashion that he could not possibly arrive in time to be in danger. The message to Sir Walter and my brother was sent without Lord Grey’s knowledge.” Someone at the table shifted, and Lauder turned instantly. “Yes, Sir Wat?”
Buccleuch hesitated, looking across the hall at his son. “That’s likely to be right,” he said at length. “At least, they ran like the hammers when they saw us coming.”
“And you followed, I gather, into the jaws of half the English army?”
Buccleuch said shrewdly, “What’s your argument? D’you think that after the showing-up he got at Hume Castle, Grey would stand by and allow the man to invite half the Scottish army to Heriot? I’m damned sure Grey didn’t know Culter and I were coming.”
The Lord Advocate stretched his legs. “Are you, Sir Wat? To my mind, all the signs point to an astonishing trust by Lord Grey in the Master of Culter. He made an appointment with him, we are told, without the support of more than a few armed men in a particularly deserted spot in the middle of enemy country. I fail to understand your reference to Hume Castle.”
The Earl Marischal stirred. “Wat means the attack on Hume led by a Spaniard last October,” he said. “They captured most of a supply train and wrecked half the fortifications. Mr. Crawford claims to have organized it.”
“Oh? Dear me, I see this is another point on which Mr. Scott is anxious to speak,” said Lauder. The redheaded boy, angrily on his feet, began, “I can vouch …” and was smiled down by the Queen’s Advocate.
“Later, Mr. Scott. It makes very little difference to the argument, you know. Lord Grey’s animosity, on Mr. Crawford’s own showing, was mainly directed against yourself and not against the Master of Culter. We have already proved that the Lord Lieutenant trusted him sufficiently—or was certain enough of his loyalty—to allow him prior information of Lord Grey’s own movements.”
Scott was still on his feet. He said angrily, drowning Tom Erskine’s voice, “Grey didn’t even keep his part of the bargain. He didn’t even bring up the man the Master expected to meet.”
“Then there was a bargain,” said Lauder placidly. “Mr. Erskine?”
Tom said quietly, “I can vouch for Lord Grey’s feelings toward the Master of Culter as demonstrated at Hexham. There was no question of his being on any but the worst terms with both Wharton and Grey.”
Lauder looked unimpressed. “We have already proved, surely, that this is a man who sells himself to the highest bidder. If Lord Grey indeed failed to pay him in whatever coin had been agreed for his betrayal at Heriot, it was inevitable, surely, that such a man should bite the hand which failed to feed him. It does not alter the fact that the message inviting Sir Wat and Lord Culter to Heriot was sent off before his encounter with Lord Grey, and therefore before he could have known that Lord Grey was not keeping his side of the bargain.
“And remember,” the Lord Advocate added agreeably, “that at that time both Lord Culter and Sir Walter were publicly committed to seize Mr. Crawford. You are being