“I pray ye are right because I fear I will soon say whate’er they want to hear just to make it stop.” She began to softly weep, quickly covering her face with her hands.
Bethoc staggered over to sit beside her and hold her. She had wondered when the woman would break and marveled at her strength. The fact that no one came for her or spoke up for her certainly did not help. Laurel had no hope to cling to and was losing the need to hold fast to the truth. If she gave that up, she would hang for a murder she had not committed. Bethoc suddenly wondered how many other women had done so, wondered if they had broken and confessed to a crime they had not committed just to get the men to leave them be. It was horrible to consider.
After a moment Laurel sat up again and wiped the tears from her face. “I am sorry.”
“Ye have naught to be sorry for. They should be beaten within an inch of their miserable lives.”
“That would be a pleasure to see. Nay, I apologized because I failed in my promise to myself. I promised I wouldnae break down like this and add to any fear ye may have.”
“And ye did verra weel but I was still terrified. It is like something alive inside of me so dinnae hold strong for my sake. And I can do naught but marvel at the strength ye have shown. The sheriff really isnae interested in the truth, is he. He doesnae care if we did it or nay.”
“Nay, he wants us to confess. Then we hang and his laird takes our lands.” Laurel huffed out a cynical laugh. “He can have mine. I dinnae want them. Too many dark memories. Do ye ken, he ne’er offered us money for it? No one came by to e’en ask me or my husband if they could buy the property. I dinnae understand that.”
“Nay, it makes no sense.”
“’Tis almost as if he wants to be verra sure there is no one to lay claim to the land, to mayhap argue his rights to them.”
“Weel, my boys have a right to that land. And, it was my mother’s kin who gave it to Kerr. So, e’en if they can say I am nay his daughter, Kerr still had the right to pass his land o’er to whomever he wished. And, then there is Margaret. Sheishis child. Nay doubt about that.”
The moment she said it, Bethoc was hit by a wave of panic. Margaret could be considered the true heir if Kerr had written no will, had never bothered to state who would have the farm after he was gone. Yet Margaret was still just a child, she thought as she fought down the panic gripping her. A child too young to be a threat. She would not be a child forever, though, which meant, if she was not gotten rid of soon, she would become a threat to whoever was after the land.
“Bethoc!” snapped Laurel. “Margaret is safe with your mon. He willnae let anyone get to her.”
It took several slow, deep breaths before Bethoc could crawl past her fear. “Of course, Callum will care for her. I suspicion he has already seen the danger. I wish he would come. Then I could be certain of it. Or warn him.” She frowned. “Yet why would the laird, if it is the laird, do this? Doesnae he own all the land anyway?”
“Most of it. People pay a rent fee. But nay every inch. Some ancestor could have gifted the land to someone for some brave deed done or e’en sold it off when the coin was needed. The people would then have papers saying so.”
“Papers?”
“Aye, something signed by whatever laird gave it or sold it, mayhap ones e’en carrying the king’s seal.” Laurel frowned. “I dinnae ken where Robert put his. He had some and was verra proud of them. He kept them close. Some ancestor saved a laird’s son and was given the land.”
“How was Robert killed?”
“He was gutted out behind some tavern. It was an appalling wound and he suffered a lot before he died. Unfortunately, the only word he said clearly was my name. So they took me up. I was at home but no one stepped forward to say they saw me there, which was an odd thing. I was working in the garden until late, then shortly after that, I was sitting out there because it was a fine evening and cooler out there than inside. Someone should have seen me as all my neighbors have a clear view of the back of my house. Now I wonder if they e’en asked or if my neighbors e’en ken where I am.” She shook her head. “How did they gather ye in?”
“Some men told the sheriff they heard screaming and were sure murder was being done at my house. So the sheriff says. So they came out to look and found me.” Bethoc sighed. “I didnae much like Kerr and kenned he wasnae my father but I played the game for years. Mayhap that is why I couldnae abide him left tied to a chair with pieces of him scattered about his feet. I went back to bury him.”
“Ye lived with him all your life. Sometimes that is enough.”
“I suppose so but it proved to be a foolish mistake.” She shook her head. “I didnae ken what the men were after so I cannae say why they tortured him so badly. There is this boy Cathan who they took from Callum. They did ask after him. I fear I saw that much. They obviously thought Kerr kenned where he was or learned that he was the one who took the boy away from them. I only kenned who the boy was because Callum spoke of him.”
“A verra tangled mess. Whoever is doing this no doubt sees it as an easy way to get the land.” She frowned. “There is a verra greedy mon at work here and this town is corrupt, I think.”
“Weel, Callum will uncover it all. We can only pray he can do so in time to help us.”
* * *
“This must be the most corrupt village I have e’er entered,” said Sir Simon Innes as he entered the cave. “Did ye find any papers?” he asked Callum as Robbie handed him a tankard of ale.
“Aye and it appears Kerr saved everything anyone ever wrote down for him.” Callum scowled at the box he was slowly working his way through.
At Sir Simon’s instructions, they had ransacked the house searching for proof of ownership, for any official papers at all. All of them had searched, the boys proving to be invaluable. It was surprising how many small places there were in the house and they required a small, agile boy to search them. In one of them was stuffed this box. Callum assumed Kerr Matheson either had a crook to reach it and pull it out or had used one of the boys when he was too young to recall it later.
“Ah, I think I finally have something useful,” Callum muttered as he thumbed through a set of papers that had been tied together with a heavy ribbon.
Sir Simon sat down on the pallet beside him and held out his hand. Callum gave him the papers and waited tensely. The man had immediately responded to Robbie’s request for help. He was clearly a man with a strong sense of justice and a sharp curiosity about puzzles. Although he had not said so, Callum believed Sir Simon had dealt with a similar trouble for he recognized the problem and knew exactly what they needed.
“Aye, this is what ye need,” Sir Simon said. “The land was bought and paid for by Kerr Matheson’s late wife’s parents. I suppose one must give them some credit for nay just tossing the lass out into the street even if they did choose badly when they bribed Matheson into marrying her.”
