He approached the wide-topped barrel and she realized it was full of water. Before she could protest, he flipped her around so that she was upside down, and did it so quickly and neatly, she knew he had had a lot of experience. With her hands tied Bethoc could do little to fight him but she tried anyway.
“Huh,” he grunted. “Braies. Takes all the fun out of me work.”
She opened her mouth to call him a depraved fool only to shut it fast and take a deep breath as he plunged her into the water. Bethoc went still, concentrating fiercely on just holding her breath for as long as she could. Despite all of her efforts not to, she began to thrash as her lungs ached with the need to take in some fresh air. He pulled her up just as she lost the fight and then held her upside down as she coughed out the water she had swallowed.
“Ye ready to confess?” he asked.
“Aye,” she gasped out. “I didnae kill Kerr Matheson.”
“Ah, lass, I dinnae think that is what the sheriff will be wanting to hear.”
He dunked her in the water again and again she gave the same answer to the question. His calm manner never changed and that infuriated her. It was a useless rage for it changed nothing.
By the fifth time she was put into the water she was sure she would drown. She could not hold her breath any longer. She was exhausted and her body ached from rough handling. When the water flooded in as she gasped for air, Bethoc thought of Callum, of how she would never see him again, and then wished she could kill William. He pulled her out and she hung limply from his grasp. When he set her on her feet and she collapsed, retching painfully as her body fought to rid itself of water, she wondered how long she could endure this. Rolling away from the mess she made, she began to slip into unconsciousness, and welcomed it.
“Answer the question, lass,” came William’s voice from above her.
“I didnae kill Kerr Matheson,” she replied in a weak, unsteady voice, “and if your fool sheriff would just think for a moment, he would see that truth.” She thought she heard him sigh as she slipped into the blackness.
* * *
Callum strode into the sheriff’s office with as much grace as he could manage. Three men were there. He assumed the man seated at the table he faced was the sheriff and looked him over as he fought to contain his anger, an anger he knew was born of his fear for Bethoc. Just because it was the law who had her did not mean she was safe. The man seated before him looked overfed and smug.
“I seek a person I believe ye have just gathered up, Bethoc Matheson,” he said.
“Do ye now.” The sheriff folded his hands over his rounding belly. “Weel, the lass is here because she killed Kerr Matheson, her own father.”
“That mon wasnae her father.”
“All the more reason for her to be killing him then.”
Robbie kept close to Callum’s side as he strode up to the table. “That lass didnae kill anyone.”
“Men told us there was something going on at that house so we went out there. Found her standing o’er the body. No one else about. She had a cloth all laid out for his body and was planning on burying him. Verra suspicious that.”
“She went there to bury the mon. How is it suspicious?”
“Hiding the proof of her crimes. Did ye ken she cut the mon to pieces?”
“Ye did have a good look at the lass, aye?” When the sheriff cautiously nodded, Callum continued. “And ye actually believe she could do all that to a grown mon? Could subdue him, get him in a chair, tie him up, and then slowly kill him?”
Callum could see the man had doubts but he needed someone to take the blame for the killing. He wondered if someone wanted Matheson’s land. With Bethoc convicted of his murder it could all be taken away so easily. It could prove difficult to pull her out of this mess even if the sheriff could see the one accused was an ill fit.
“Weel, we think she had the lads help her,” the sheriff finally said. “We are looking for them too.”
“Are ye now? So ye believe they all turned on the mon?”
“They were naught but cast-off bairns when he took them in. Ye ne’er can tell how such as them might act, now can ye?”
Callum felt a sharp rise in his anger and fought it back down. “Who were these men who sent ye out to the house?”
“Five rogues who have long been round the village. Leader is a big fellow with a scar on his face.”
“I would like to see Miss Bethoc Matheson now.”
“Nay, no one speaks to her until she is ready to tell me the truth.”
Before Callum could speak, Robbie took him by the arm and forced him to start walking away. “What are ye doing? We have to get Bethoc out of here and away from that fool idiot of a sheriff.”
