Brodie worries that the men are not doing a thorough enough job whatever Mr Neill believes. Where are they looking for Mrs Moore, if not questioning the staff here, where Mr Thom has resided?
‘I wondered about the gentleman who’s caused the trouble. What do you know of him?’
‘Sir, I don’t go upstairs.’
‘Come now,’ Brodie coddles her. ‘My guess is you know more about this man you never met than the man’s own sister does.’ He flashes his most charming smile. Cook tips the meat back into the jelly.
‘Fetch the small beer from the shelf, Senga,’ she says.
Brodie sits at the table and lets the kitchen maid serve him. ‘I wonder if Bella might join us,’ he suggests. ‘I’m interested in everything about the fellow.’
They make an odd assortment at the table, for the staff at North St David Street don’t wear livery. Brodie naturally takes charge, at first answering the servants’ questions for nobody has fully explained to them what’s happened.
‘Lucifer himself,’ Cook declares. She’s a woman, it seems, who is all opinion. ‘Your poor mistress. The fellow wanting his way with her and she a married lady. And Mistress Campbell’s poor friend, attacked anaw and she in holy orders.’
‘I suspect it’s Mrs Moore’s inheritance the man is after,’ Brodie says. This is as close as he can get to what Mr Thom wants. It’ll serve as an explanation anyway and keep Mrs Moore’s virtue safe.
Bella has gone quiet, the girl’s eyes honed on a soft oat-and-honey biscuit that has been placed before her along with an untouched glass of milk.
‘You must’ve met the gentleman a few times,’ Brodie opens the conversation.
Bella nods. ‘Aye, sir. I told the mistress. I think he’s a mason; a lodge man, that is. He has a fancy sash and some tokens.’
Brodie raises an eyebrow but before he can speak, Cook bursts out.
‘Well, them’s devils. Secret meetings. A nod and a shake. I wouldnae join such an undertaking if they paid me.’
Brodie does not point out that Cook would most certainly not be invited.
‘Did the gentleman attend a meeting that you know of?’ he asks Bella. ‘Here, I mean. In Edinburgh?’
‘I dinna ken, sir.’
Brodie wonders if Mr Neill might be a member at the lodge. He’s certain that several of the policemen will have taken the sash. It is, as he judges it, that kind of profession. He feels justified in not entirely trusting them.
‘He hired his horse at the inn at the far end of York Place,’ Bella adds. ‘It’s handy stabling. The boy there said he drove a hard bargain.’
‘That’s helpful, Bella. Thank you,’ Brodie says.
‘I hope you find him, sir. He hurt the lady and she has taken orders. He’ll no get to heaven.’
‘He will not,’ Mr Brodie agrees, and after a little more questioning, he bids the women goodbye and heads back into the cold and dark.
*
Upstairs at North St David Street, unbeknownst to Brodie, Cook or indeed Bella, Eleanor and Araminta have arrived. Spirited inside by Grizel Campbell, the women are closeted in Sister Winifred’s room where, after a brief recap of events, Araminta tries to explain to her great aunt the nature of the twelfth clue, a representation of which she draws on a piece of paper. She runs through the clues in her mind, thinking she will add what she has found to her notebook soon enough.
Aunt Eilidh left me a tartan kerchief.
Clue 8 led to the castle.
Clue 9 from the castle to Heriot’s: a third point on the triangle.
Clue 10The third point was a plague pit.
Clue 11 Inverted, the point led to the Maitland house. Which led to the insignia of St Giles’ roof on a grave.
Clue 12 Roses in a picture frame.
