Free A Secret and Unlawful Killing by Cora Harrison Page A

unattractive man, she thought, despite his fine English-style clothing, and yet, he was reputed to have married well. Slaney, his wife, came from one of the most important families in Galway and bore the reputation of being a magnificent specimen of womanhood.
    ‘Balor?’ he queried.
    She nodded. ‘Yes, the bastard son of Aengus the miller, Niall’s younger brother,’ she said calmly. ‘I classified him myself. I can assure you that the law is quite clear on this point. Ragnall had no right to remove those candlesticks without the permission of their rightful owner. I think that the easiest thing would be just to give them back quietly, don’t you?’
    Eventually he nodded reluctantly.
    ‘Good,’ she said. ‘I’ll tell Fintan that he may have them back.’ She had no notion of revealing that Fintan had possibly already removed the candlesticks. She waited for a moment to see whether Niall had told his taoiseach about the missing candlesticks, but he made no answer, just nodded his head again. It was good that Niall had kept that matter to himself, she thought. There was going to be trouble enough over this secret and unlawful killing; she did not want any
more. She moved towards her traditional place, just beside one of the huge upright stones of the dolmen. Fachtnan, the eldest scholar at the law school, handed her a scroll and she raised it. Instantly silence fell.
    ‘Dia’s Muire agat,’ she said in the traditional greeting and back came the answer: ‘God and Mary and Patrick be with you.’
    ‘I, Mara, Brehon of the Burren, announce to you that a killing took place of the steward, Ragnall MacNamara, at Noughaval on the evening of the feast of Michaelmas.’ She paused; a little ripple ran around the crowd with those nearest repeating her words so that those on the outside of the crowd could hear.
    ‘I now call on the person who killed the steward, Ragnall, to acknowledge the crime and to pay the fine. Ragnall’s honour price as a steward is half the honour price of his lord, Garrett MacNamara, so it is the sum of seven séts or three and a half ounces of silver. The éraic, or body fine, for an unlawful killing is forty-two séts, or twenty-one ounces of silver. The whole fine, then, is forty-nine séts, twenty-five ounces of silver, or twenty-five milch cows.’
    There was no sound; no one moved and no one spoke.
    ‘For the second time, I call on the person who killed the steward, Ragnall, to acknowledge the crime and to pay the fine of forty-nine séts,’ said Mara. She waited, surveying the crowd, but no one stirred.
    ‘For the third time, I call on the person who killed the steward, Ragnall, to acknowledge the crime and to pay the fine of forty-nine séts,’ said Mara, but she knew by now that no one would reply.
    ‘As soon as forty-eight hours have passed since this
killing took place,’ she continued, ‘I will declare it to be a case of duinetháide, a secret and unlawful killing. The éraic will then be doubled to eighty-four séts. Add to that the victim’s honour price of seven sets and the fine will then be ninety-one séts, forty-five ounces of silver, or forty-five milch cows.’ She waited for a moment, now she could hear a low murmur of conversation. Heads were turned, one to the other. This was a huge amount of cows for any single individual to be able to afford. The whole fine (family group) would have to come to the rescue of the murderer. She held up her scroll again, and again silence fell.
    ‘I will now take evidence about this case,’ she said. ‘First, I call upon my two scholars, Aidan and Moylan, to give evidence as to how they found the body.’
    The two boys managed a more coherent account than usual, she thought. They even managed not to interrupt each other. While she kept a respectful face turned towards them, her eyes were busy scanning the crowd. The O‘Lochlainn’s clan was there in almost full strength, she thought, as she saw them grouped around the tall