He owed her ladyship a debt of gratitude that could never be fully repaid. She had taken a chance when she took him into her employ as manager of her business affairs.
She had stated at the time that she wanted a Scot for herenterprise, as she called it, in the north of Scotland at Old Lodge. A verra lucrative enterprise that had earned him compensation that he’d never known before.
Old Lodge was a whisky distillery, and a fine one at that. Other responsibilities had followed, including overseeing properties that she owned.
“I can afford to be generous,”she once told him.“I am wealthier than the Queen, thanks to a line of enterprising ancestors, and I will not live forever.”
Privately, he had laughed at that last comment. He was convinced she would live forever.
She was not like others of title that he had encountered. She was intelligent, clever, inventive when it came to getting what she wanted, and not above telling someone to pour sand down a rat’s hole when she’d had enough of them. And he respected her.
That was hard-won, as he was a man who respected and trusted only a handful. The others could...go pour sand.
When her ladyship learned that Lily had taken herself off to Edinburgh, there was that ‘look’ in the expression on her face that he knew well.
“She is a fine young woman. I do hope that she will be safe.”
Nothing more was needed.
“Aye,”he had replied and left on the next train north.
Munro shook his head, pushing back old memories. There was no need for Sir McQuarrie to provide a room at the Caledonian.
“’Tis not necessary. There are people I know.” He then added, “She will want to see the body.”
“The request, or I should say thedemand, has already been put before Inspector Landry, as ye might assume,” McQuarrie replied with a slightly bemused expression. “I will see that arrangements are made. I believe ye know Inspector Landry.”
Munro nodded. From other times and other dealings.
“Wot of Miss Montgomery? Do ye perhaps know where she is staying over while here?” he inquired. Surely not the room where her friend was found murdered.
“Inspector Landry has seen to it that she has a place to stay and is safe enough with his widowed sister on Albany Street.
“I will make a telephone call to the station house first thing in the morning and make certain everything is in order for her visit to the morgue,” the lawyer assured him. “I assume ye will be there as well.”
“Aye.”
With that, Munro took his leave.
He discovered the coach and driver that he’d held over was gone when he left the lawyer’s office. He smiled to himself. He would have been surprised if it was still there.
As her ladyship had reminded him, Lily Montgomery was not some foolish chit. She was intelligent as well as headstrong andresourceful. She had once lived in a situation not unlike his own, where she learned to take care of herself.
She was a survivor. She had a deep mistrust of most everyone because of it. Not unlike himself. Yet that trust included someone from her old life. Now that person was dead.
For himself, he knew exactly what he would do if it was his friend. She had called him on that one.
Yet he would not leave her on her own to see the matter done. He had made a promise to her ladyship.
4
‘Wake up.’
The words slipped through the darkness in the room.
I didn’t want to wake up. I wanted to stay beneath the warm blankets. But that voice persisted. Just as it had dozens of times in the dark and cold of that tiny room under the eaves ofThe Church.
‘Ye must wake up, ye young noddy!’
