Verdict of the Court (18 page)

‘What’s worrying you, just now?’ she asked gently. And then when Shona was silent, she added, ‘Would you like me to talk to your father?’

A look of alarm sprang into the girl’s eyes.

‘No, don’t do that, whatever you do. He’d kill me if he knew that I had been talking to you.’

And then, in a low voice, she added. ‘I’m scared of him; that’s the trouble. I dare not go against him. I have to do what I am told. He has threatened me. He’ll tell everyone … tell everyone something about me … I’ll be shamed in front of the world. I’ll kill myself if he does that. I have to carry out his bidding.’

Mara smiled reassuringly. ‘If you need protection against … against anyone that is threatening you, King Turlough will help. Just tell me and I’ll talk to him.’

Shona shook her head violently. ‘I can’t,’ she said. ‘My own father; I can’t betray him. I can’t do it. He would be cut down and slaughtered. I’ve seen that done. But he would shame me first and then I would be fatherless and without an honour price and then I would kill myself,’ she added with a brooding look.

Mara bit her lip. She was puzzled as to what to say next. The young are so intense, she thought and regretted that Shona, despite being in the foster care of a Brehon, had grown up with such a poor opinion of herself that her reliance was on her father, not herself.

‘Enda,’ she began tentatively and was rewarded by a quick blush that spread over Shona’s face.

Don’t worry,’ she said. ‘I can keep a secret. Tell me if you think I can help you in any way.’

But the moment, she sensed, had passed. The blush had faded. The huge dark eyes filled with tears. The girl had a brooding look on her face. She picked up Mara’s wet clothes and deposited them in a wicker basket and then went around the room, straightening objects, emptying the water from the bowl into the garderobe beyond the bedroom. Mara said no more. Shona now seemed to be distressed and anxious to speed her visitor on her way and after renewed and very sincere thanks, Mara left her.

As she descended the stairs her mind turned over the possible reasons why Shona should have used the word ‘
betray
’ and the even more revealing ‘
cut down and slaughtered
’. Why should she be guarding a secret, a secret which she held over her father’s head, and which he held over her head – a secret which she feared would alienate Enda from her.

‘
He told you about Shona then; he swore not to mention it to anyone, but I suppose he thought that he could trust your discretion …
’
These had been Donogh O’Hickey’s words.

What, she had wondered then, was Shona’s secret? Now she knew that secret, but there was another one, also. Not the matter of the pregnancy and the birth – her father knew all about that, even if he didn’t know the full truth. But what was on her mind now? What was her father forcing her to do or what was the matter that he wanted to keep secret?

Her anger grew again at the thought that a father would use that terrible event in his daughter’s life in order to buy her silence and acquiescence through fear of disclosure.

And then as she mounted the stairs to the solar, an idea suddenly occurred to her and it was so outrageous that she stopped and almost returned to Shona’s room. But then she decided to carry on up to the solar.

There was more than one source of information available to her.

(Law of children)

A child under the age of fourteen has no legal responsibility for any misdeed.

Liability for a child’s offence is borne by his father or by his foster-father if he is in fosterage.

A dependent child is classed as a ‘táid aithgena’ (thief of restitution) from the age of twelve to seventeen. If he steals something it has to be restored and no penalty need be paid.

‘I
’m sorry that I am so late seeing you all. I overslept and then had to see the captain of the guard,’ she said apologetically to her scholars when she came into the solar to find them all chatting. No one seemed to know anything about her peril-filled morning. Domhnall politely made some reference to her anxieties. She hardly listened though. Her mind was busy. And if her surmise was correct, there was no time to be lost.

‘Has anyone seen Cael and Cian this morning?’ she asked.

‘They’re not allowed out of their tower,’ said Cormac casually. ‘There’s an armed guard on the door. They came across to ask me to bring them food and drink before they starved to death.’

Mara raised her eyebrows. Though she had given orders that nobody was to be allowed to leave the castle grounds, she had no reason to suppose that there was a guard put on the whole of the south-eastern tower where the MacMahons slept. Shona had no difficulty in coming out, and she had not encountered any guards when she went up to the girl’s bedroom. She guessed that the MacMahon twins loved to dramatize.

‘So how did you see the twins if they are not allowed out of the south-eastern tower?’ she asked.

‘They came across the roof,’ said Cormac with his mouth full and Mara smiled to think of the fun they were having, slipping and sliding among the slates and sheets of lead between the towers and pretending that their lives were in danger and that starvation threatened unless they could get hold of a friendly ally.

‘Do you think that you could go back that way and get them for me, tell them that I have something belonging to them?’ she asked, salving her conscience by reflecting that months ago, during holidays and the weekend in October, Cormac and the twins had been climbing all over that roof when she was far away in the Burren. If they hadn’t fallen then, they would be unlikely to fall now. She looked around at the other boys when Cormac had disappeared and Domhnall, reading her mind, said hastily: ‘We’ve just finished, Brehon. We’ll leave you in peace.’

But not in peace, thought Mara, as they went off, debating whether to help Rosta in the kitchen or to go and try out the swing that one of the stable men had made in the barn. No, she thought, I am not at peace. I am uneasy. What secret does Shona MacMahon hide and is Enda aware of it? And why did Maccon send for his daughter? Why was he so anxious to leave two days after Christmas? A suspicion had come into her mind and she would have no peace until she had found the truth. She left the solar and went to stand at the bottom of the staircase, looking up anxiously.

It seemed forever before there was a movement from above. She stood and listened. There was none of the usual jokes and laughter and play-fighting that normally went on when the twins were present. The footsteps came down quite slowly and when they arrived beneath the candle on the landing outside the solar, Mara could see that her son’s face looked puzzled.

‘Thank you, Cormac,’ she said and he took her words for the dismissal that she intended and made his way towards the kitchen where his fellow scholars were holding a shouted conversation with Rosta about the dinner menu.

‘Come into my solar,’ said Mara to the two silent MacMahon children. They followed her in and, as she had intended, their eyes went instantly to the small pile of silver that she had left conspicuously on the table.

She saw them exchange a look and had an impression that a question had been asked by Cian and answered by Cael. She hoped that it meant they were willing to give her information. They had hesitated near to the door, but then came further into the solar and perched on the edge of the hearth. She offered them a cushion each and they took them in silence, seating themselves without moving their eyes from her face. They had a cautiously, elderly expression and Mara felt sorry for them. However, if her idea proved to be true then the lives of all in the castle might depend on her ability to extract information from the pair. She seated herself at the table and turned to face them.

‘Have you had any breakfast?’ she asked and they both nodded silently. She had never known them to be so quiet and she thought that there was an air of apprehension about both of them. I’m right, she thought. Her sudden fear had been confirmed. Her heart started to beat uncomfortably. It was imperative to be careful, to proceed cautiously and cleverly; the consequences could be terrible if the information could not be obtained quickly.

‘Do you know why your father is so anxious to leave the castle?’ she asked bluntly. ‘I imagine that not much escapes you two,’ she added. Flattery was, she thought, a very valuable weapon when used judiciously with the young.

Again there was that glance between them.

‘Guess,’ said Cael after a minute.

‘Hm,’ said Mara, ‘now that’s a challenge that I never refuse. Let me see …’ She pretended to consider, went across and put some light, very well-dried birch logs on the fire. They flared up instantly and illuminated the two young faces.

‘Of course it is nonsense to imagine he just wants to do some business. I don’t believe that. At Christmastime pleasure comes before business. Why should he make an arrangement to leave a week before all of the other guests?’

There was a slight smile on Cael’s face and Cian almost nodded. Mara thought that she could proceed more quickly.

‘It was not so much because he wanted to go home, was it,’ she said trying to make her words sound impulsive, almost careless. ‘It was because he didn’t want to be here today, that’s right, isn’t it?’

There was no need for the extra light from the fire – both faces had swung around to look at her and there was a tautness and a tension about the two thin figures which told her that her guess had hit the mark.

‘And why didn’t he want to be here today?’ she said thoughtfully. ‘It couldn’t be anything to do with the murder of Brehon MacClancy, could it? Did he want to escape my investigation? But that would have been stupid,’ she said in a friendly, chatty manner and was pleased to see grins on their faces. ‘Your father would have been very brainless to have virtually declared his guilt by a hasty flight,’ she declared. ‘After all, he is one of the King’s tenants, someone sworn to loyalty. If anything was discovered which pinned the guilt on him the King would send an armed guard for him. Unless, of course, that he had changed his alliance and found another, just as powerful as the King … another protector …’

They looked at each other again, but did not contradict her. There was a flash of interest in Cael’s eyes and Cian just gazed straight ahead of him. Neither showed much affection for their father, Mara thought, but then, perhaps he had never given them much affection. They may have been fostered from babyhood, may, in fact, as often was the custom, have had two or three foster homes.

‘He knew something was going to happen and he didn’t want it to happen while he was here, something that would be unpleasant to him, something dangerous, perhaps,’ she said gazing into the fire. And then, quite suddenly, she swung around to face them. ‘There’s going to be an attack on the castle today, isn’t there? Isn’t that why he wanted to be out of the way, and wanted his children to be out of the way?’

Again there was a look between them. She waited, concealing her tension under a show of cheerful enquiry. They communicated almost like animals, she thought. A gleam of eye and slight movement of the head, a sudden restless crossing of a pair of skinny legs, a glance at her from Cael, the leader of the two, and then the girl nodded at her brother. Suddenly the tension had gone from the room and the twins were grinning widely at each other and then looking avariciously at the pile of silver.

‘We’ve been helping him,’ said Cian.

‘But we’ve decided to change allegiance,’ declared Cael. ‘We wanted to stay and open the gates to the intruder, but he wouldn’t let us – and he hit me, a foul blow.’ She rubbed her ear cautiously. Mara could see that the cheek was swollen and a purple bruise showed under the eye. ‘So now we’re on the side of the King and against him,’ she finished.

‘Strange he wouldn’t trust you to do a simple thing like that when you were already in his plans and when you had already undertaken a task for him,’ said Mara sympathetically. Under the shelter of the table she clenched her fists with impatience at the slow pace. It was important, though, to get all the information. Another couple of minutes would change little. ‘Though I suppose that was just an easy task that he gave you originally, wasn’t it?’ she added, trying to make her voice sound dismissive.

‘What! Disabling King Turlough’s cannon!’ exclaimed Cian angrily. ‘I can tell you that was no easy matter.’

‘No, I don’t suppose that it was,’ said Mara soothingly. ‘In fact, I wouldn’t have the slightest idea about how to do a thing like that.’ She clenched the seat of the chair to stop herself jumping up and summoning Turlough.

‘Though it was his idea, originally,’ admitted Cian. ‘He thought nobody would notice a couple of kids. We just had to get up very early so that Cormac and the others didn’t see what we were doing. We pretended that they were the enemy.’ He grinned. ‘We got filthy.’

‘We stuffed the barrel and the thing that you put the gun powder into, the touch hole, we stuffed both of them with soaking wet clay from the marshes and then we poured a bucket of water down into the touch hole as well.’

‘Clever,’ said Mara admiringly. And then in an offhand way, she said thoughtfully, ‘I don’t suppose he trusted you with the name of the people who are supposed to attack the castle.’ She took some sweetmeats from the table by the window that Rosta had mended and offered them to the twins.

‘We got it out of Shona,’ said Cael with her mouth full. ‘At least we think that it is something to do with her, and with
him
, of course.
Him
,’ she repeated with emphasis,

‘She hasn’t even seen him, but he’s handsome, so she’s heard,’ said Cian.

‘And she’s not too bad herself,’ conceded Shona’s younger sister.

‘It’s the Black Knight’s son,’ said Cian.

‘So what we reckon is that it’s going to be a marriage contract. If he gets to attack Bunratty Castle and seize it, or to demolish it, then the marriage will go ahead.’

‘I see,’ said Mara doing her best to make her voice sound light and unconcerned. She did see now. The Black Knight was the Knight of Glin, who lived on the Cork and Limerick side of the River Shannon. He was first cousin to Turlough’s deadly enemy, the Earl of Desmond. She got to her feet and pushed the pile of silver towards the twins.