Free Lammas by Shirley McKay Page A

‘Your man, Robert Lachlan, hired me for the harvest. Wherefore I am yours, and will serve you gladly. I am strong and true.’
    Hew told him, ‘Did you not hear? You are set free. You are no man of Elspet’s, and no man of mine. Give thanks for your good fortune, that though your life was sought you did not die today. Fortune smiles on you. Go freely where you will. But let it not be here, nor ever on my land. I have no place for you.’
    He took Elspet home to the harbour inn, where he explained the terms of Walter’s will. Walter had left everything to her. Elspet listened quietly. ‘I can help you sell it, if you like,’ Hew said. He was surprised when she said that she would remain. She would run the inn herself, as Maude had done. She asked him if he could write a sign for her. The sign was to say that the inn would be closed from now until the day that Walter Bone was buried. On the day of his funeral, it would open again, in the afternoon, for those who were his friends to come and drink to him. From then on, they must ken that Elspet was in charge. ‘I will want a pot boy and a serving lass. Put that in the note. The boy must be strong and the lass must be clean.’
    When the sign was done she fixed it to the door.
    â€˜How many of the drinkers here can read?’ wondered Hew.
    â€˜None of them,’ she said. ‘But letters are a thing that they will mark and fear, who do not heed my word. If a thing is written then it is the law.’
    She asked him the cost of his fee. He said there was no charge. But Elspet insisted. He was Walter’s man of law; before that, he was Maude’s. Now he must be hers. She would not let him go until he had been paid, and so he earned a shilling as a writer’s clerk.
    Marie left at once. ‘I wis leavin’ onyway. I never cared for Walter much. And I will not work for you. Nae offence.’
    Elspet took none. She said simply, ‘Where will you go?’
    â€˜To Falkland, wi Clem, for next Thursday’s fair. And to Dundee for Lady Day.’
    Clem was the juglar, who had asked Marie to marry him. ‘Marry me, Marie.’ They had laughed at that. He said her supple fingers would be fine for sleight of hand, her pert bonny breasts would pull in the crowd. Marie thought her life with him would be an endless fair day. She would live on gingerbread, sugarloaf and plums. She would be his queen.
    â€˜Mebbe I will see you here again at Michaelmas.’
    Elspet said, ‘Mebbe you will.
    Hew left her there with Joan, and what comfort she could find in the shadows of the house. He found none for himself. Before returning home, he called on Robert Black to tell him Henry Balfour was no longer under threat. ‘I made a mistake,’ he explained. ‘I thought it was Henry Walter meant to harm. But it was someone else. Henry is quite safe, and you can let him go.’
    Robert was not settled by the news. ‘Safe! I wish he were. I know not how to keep him from the harm he does himself, never mind the harm the world may do to him. This morning, he avows he is determined to elope with some country lass; or if she refuse him, he will throw himself precipitate into the Spanish wars, for he does not care if he should live or die, if it be not with her, and so, and on, and on. And he is pale and faint, and weeping like a girl. He was sick, too, in his psalter, which I take for a very bad sign. I wish to God I had not taken him in charge.’
    â€˜Why did you, then?’ asked Hew.
    â€˜For I was vain enough to think I might have shown him, by my good example, how he should behave. I thought that he would blossom, in more gentle hands. His father is severe on him. Now I see his mind. The boy is loose and reckless, and abuses liberty. You are used to trouble, Hew, whereas I am not. You will not take him, I suppose? He is lively company.’
    Hew laughed at that. ‘Aye, no doubt. I will not take him,