Free Eye of the Law by Cora Harrison

she thought. It united the men, gave each a feeling of ownership in the O’Lochlainn land and it meant that farming matters could be discussed and work allocated for the morrow in an efficient way.
    ‘So we took the opportunity, while they were all there, to write down where every man was and whom he saw during yesterday morning.’ Ardal unrolled the scroll of vellum, columns carefully ruled and all the relevant information written in Liam’s small neat hand. He flattened it on the table, placing the inkhorn and a heavy iron ruler on top of two corners and quickly fetching a couple of law tomes for the others. Mara bent over it.
    ‘Of course,’ said Ardal delicately, ‘you may wish to question these men in private, but we thought this might save you a certain amount of time.’
    ‘This is wonderfully helpful, Ardal.’ Mara rapidly scanned the list. She was very sincere in her thanks, but a slight doubt did come into her mind about the value of the testimony of those who asserted that their master and taoiseach , the O’Lochlainn, was occupied on the Ballymahony lands, to the west of Lissylisheen, between daybreak and noon. Still, it would be hard for all three men who were with him to have testified to a lie and there would have been little chance that they would not have noticed his absence. His horses and foals were of huge importance to Ardal and the men would have been consulting him every few minutes.
    ‘But nobody saw Iarla after he left the kitchen house, soon after daybreak,’ she said in an exasperated tone. ‘You’re sure that everyone was telling the truth, Ardal? It wasn’t that they were holding something back, unsure as to how it might affect someone else.’
    This was the problem of not investigating herself, she thought. Over the years she had developed the skill to hear the hesitation behind a statement, to notice how a voice might falter, or how a pair of eyes could glance away from her gaze. Ardal could give her the facts, but not the impressions. Still, it was valuable evidence that he was bringing to her in this neatly collated form.
    ‘I was thinking about that,’ said Ardal, taking out another piece of vellum and leaning over her. ‘Look, I got Liam to make a little sketch here of the townlands around Lissylisheen and, of course, Lissylisheen itself. You can see that we’ve put in names of those who were there on Thursday morning.’
    ‘So Fiachra was ploughing on this side of the road to get the land ready for oats.’ Mara pointed. The townland of Lissylisheen lay on the north as well as the south side of the road to Kilcorney.
    ‘That’s right, and his father was ploughing on the south side of the road.’ Ardal indicated the sweep of the townland border, obviously established before the road to Kilcorney was built. ‘They were having a bit of a competition to see who would make the best job of it.’
    Ardal’s voice was amused, easy-going, the voice of a man who has nothing to fear and for whom life is good. ‘And here, at Craigaroon,’ he continued, pointing to the townland south of Lissylisheen, ‘I had five men on this large field forking dung from the carts and spreading it over the land here. These are my best grasslands so we always get the winter dung out on them as soon as we get a good wind and some dry weather in March.’
    ‘And, of course, if Iarla was going towards Balor’s Cave, he would either have had to go by the road or else cross the field at Craigaroon.’ Mara looked at the little sketch with puzzlement.
    ‘Not a chance of him not being seen,’ said Ardal emphatically. ‘The men were spread right across the field in a line so as to make sure to cover everything. And then there were the carts coming and going and with the dry weather a couple of men were clearing the ditches on the road between . . .’
    ‘And there were four men working in the courtyard with Liam.’
    ‘That’s right. At this time of year we always get out the storage barrels