Free The Sting of Justice by Cora Harrison Page B

from her mind. When she first became Brehon she had resolved never to think about the past unless it held any relevance to the future and, usually, her strong will had enabled her to keep that resolution. She gave herself a mental shake. The important thing now was not to allow this situation to go on: the family at Newtown Castle was going to be forced into rebuilding this wretched place and feeding these workers properly. And it was then that she suddenly realized what she had said to Shane. Yes, of course, Anluan did have a stick.
    ‘He couldn’t have given the straw skep a poke with the stick, could he?’ asked Shane, reading her preoccupied face with his usual sharp intelligence.
    ‘I was just thinking about that stick,’ admitted Mara.
    ‘He’d never have the strength for that,’ said Moylan.
    ‘How much strength does it take to push over a straw skep, birdbrain?’ asked Enda scornfully.
    ‘And he did come in late,’ said Fachtnan. ‘I remember you saying that.’
    ‘So would you if you were as lame as that, clodhead,’ persisted Moylan.
    ‘And he would hate Sorley,’ persisted Fachtnan, ignoring the insult. ‘After all, Sorley was responsible for his injuries.’
    ‘He wouldn’t know about Sorley always swelling up after a bee sting, though, would he?’ argued Moylan who seemed to have constituted himself the defender of Anluan.
For a boy with a huge appetite, the sight of Anluan’s obvious hunger seemed to have come as a shock.
    ‘Only his family and the beekeeper and a few others would have known about that.’ Aidan came to Moylan’s aid.
    ‘Do you think this crime was planned, or was it a spur-of-the-moment thing, Brehon?’ asked Enda.
    ‘I’m not sure how it could have been planned,’ said Mara. ‘Of course, on the one hand, you could argue that the murderer might have heard about Sorley’s problem with bee stings, and perhaps was waiting for an opportunity, but on the other hand, it is such an unusual crime that I feel it was an impulse that was immediately acted upon. It may not have worked. The bees might have gone in a different direction; they might have concentrated on saving the honey from their damaged hive. No, the more I think of it the more I feel that this crime was not planned. Someone hated Sorley and seized the opportunity to either injure him or kill him.’
    ‘But it could have been Anluan.’ Enda was determined to prove his point.
    Mara nodded her head. ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘I suppose it could have been Anluan. He is a man who has not much to live for, a man who would feel he had nothing to lose.’
     
     
    As they approached the gaping hole in the side of the mountain, there was a buzz of conversation. One small dark man, who was speaking loudly to another with the shafts of a barrow held in his hands, stopped talking abruptly, turned his back on the party from the law school and rushed into the mine entrance.

    ‘Gone to get the manager, probably,’ said Enda, his face alight with interest as he looked around.
    There was a small stone cabin built into the shelter of the mountain about fifty yards away. In front of the cabin a dead heifer calf, its stomach swollen, lay spread-eagled on the ground. There were two people inside the cabin, but one was doing most of the talking. The door stood open and it was easy to hear the words. The boys looked at each other and grinned. The stream of swear words was embarrassing even to the older scholars and Shane and Hugh were wide-eyed with amazement. The small dark man hesitated before the doorway as if reluctant to enter, and then compromised by gingerly stepping over the body of the calf, reaching out and knocking on the frame of the doorway.
    ‘Someone is losing his temper,’ murmured Enda as the stream of words went on unabated.
    Then there was a final scream of obscenities and a small narrow-framed man burst out through the door. His face was dripping with sweat and was a strange shade of white, patched with red.