“I ken it and we will.” Once outside by the horses, Robbie stopped and looked at Callum. “It is time for the laird of Whytemont to demand things. That is a mon who would bow before such things.”
“That was what I was about to do.”
“Ye dinnae look much like a laird right now.”
“This is nay a time to be worrying o’er what I am wearing,” Callum snapped even though a quick glance revealed he was wearing some very ragged clothes.
“Aye, it is. The sheriff is a fool, nay doubt about that, but he is one who recognizes, e’en fears authority. Men like that often do. But they need the show of it. And we are going to go back to get ye rigged out weel enough to put on a fine show. And while ye do that, I am going to go and try to get Sir Simon Innes.” Robbie helped Callum mount up.
“Ye ken Sir Simon Innes?” Callum asked in surprise. He had heard of the man from Payton but did not know Robbie had actually met him. “The laird of Lochancorrie?”
“Aye, played chess with him a few times. He was at Tormand’s and I stopped there for a wee visit once when returning from Payton’s. Good fellow.” Robbie mounted his horse and they started back to the cave.
“Do ye think he would, or could, help us?”
“’Tis a puzzle and he likes puzzles. It cannae hurt to try, aye?”
Callum nodded. He then prayed that Robbie was right as the more he thought on the matter of Bethoc in jail, the more he felt that is was greater than the sheriff’s need to blame someone for a murder on his watch. Any fool could see with a look at Bethoc that she could not have killed a man, could never have done what was done to Kerr Matheson. She had neither the strength nor the stomach. Someone knew only Bethoc had a claim to the land and this charge of murder would put an end to it.
When they reached the cave and Robbie rode off to try to get Sir Simon Innes to help, Callum washed and donned the clothes that fully revealed his place as laird of Whytemont. He looked at the boys who now stared at him as if he was a stranger and felt he had done well. Then he sat down on the pallet, thinking of how to tell them what was happening with their sister, a sister he knew was almost a mother to every one of them. When Margaret hurried over to sit with him, he sighed as she snuggled up next to him and decided to do the children the honor of telling them the full truth, no matter how hard it was.
“Your sister went back to bury your father. Someone had told the sheriff there had been a murder at the house and he arrived as she was working to bury him. They took her up for his murder. They have put her in a cell and I mean to get her out.”
“Bethoc?” Colin said. “They think Bethoc killed our father? That is . . . that is,” he stuttered, “bollocks. ’Tis nonsense.”
“Weel, aye, ’tis,” Callum agreed. “I begin to think there is something else going on here.”
“What? What could they possibly want with her? What does she have?”
Callum grimaced. “I have to wonder if someone wants the land. Seems they all ken none of ye are his own children, that he brought ye in from the streets.”
“Or was given us by our mothers,” Colin said. “Me and Bean were naught but bairns. Either we were abandoned or orphaned. Only he kenned and he ne’er told us.”
Giving Margaret a kiss, he set her down, and then stood up. “The men who broke my leg were the ones who told the sheriff to go to your house. Sheriff spoke of five men and the leader with a scar on his face. Sounds too much like the ones who attacked me to be a coincidence.”
Bean frowned. “The matters are nay connected.”
“I ken it but I am thinking the rogues took on a new job. They were nay sure they had killed me and they had lost the boy. So they needed to stay near until they were certain and got the boy back. Suspicion they got a chance to do some other work while they did that. They would have been fools to say nay.”
Colin nodded. “Aye, true enough. What is your plan?”
“Weel, as ye can see, I have donned my best so I am obviously the laird I claim to be.”
“Ye are a laird?”
“Aye.” He waved a hand as if to brush aside further questions. “It might help to bestir the sheriff to reconsider. If not, I am taking the smaller boys with me so that he has further visual proof of the ridiculousness of his charges against Bethoc. Robbie has ridden to fetch a mon who can help if need be, a mon who was called the King’s Hound once because he was so skilled at solving such crimes. I have others I can call on if it proves necessary. I but ask that ye all be patient.”
When all the boys nodded, Callum turned to Simon. “I would like ye to stay with the lads left behind.” He stared hard at the man, who nodded, letting Callum know he understood he was to make certain the older boys remained hidden. “And Uven, if ye could drive the wee cart that the lads told us is at the house, it would help. I ken it is a sorry vehicle for ye, but it will hold the lads. We can collect it from the house as we go.”
Uven nodded. “We will get started now. Come along, lads.” He scooped up Margaret. “And ye, my bonnie wee lass.”
Callum started to say they should not take Margaret and then shook his head, smiling faintly. “Aye, her too.”
They hurried out of the cave and Callum followed only to have Colin grab his hand and ask, “Have they hurt her?”
“I dinnae ken.”
“But ye think they have.”
