Lammas (8 page)

‘Here, to make it plain to you, I have put the sum.' The doctor smiled. ‘It says you are a scholar and a true philosopher, subtle and ingenious, tending to a fault to recklessness and stubbornness, but always and essentially a searcher after truth. There, we must allow for a small degree of error. Tis possible the stubbornness is more advanced and dominant, while scholarship recedes.'

‘Now I know,' said Hew, ‘that this must be a fraud. You have made it up.'

‘I assure you, not. Tis written in the stars.' Giles rolled up the paper. ‘Later, after supper, I will show the science. For now, I have a prophecy for you.'

Hew said, ‘A prophecy! You promised you had not!'

‘It is very short, and not at all obscure. The prophecy is this: you will leave for home, and meet me on the path. We will walk together through the fields. And coming to your house, you will find your wife has made a birthday feast for you, which you will receive with wonder and delight.'

‘So much you suppose.' Hew smiled. ‘How can you be sure that it will come about? Frances knows me well. My feigning may not fool her.'

‘Then you will have to practise on the way. It must turn out, precisely, as I now predict. Or I will never hear the last of it from Meg.'

They walked together through the fields, just as Giles had said. And Hew looked out upon the shore, a wash of white and watered blues. He looked upon the fields of ripening corn, the slender stalks that shivered in a veil of green, and thought, How fragile all this is. The harvest in the last three years had failed. A sudden gust, a blast of wind, could blow the barley from its course. Even as it caught its colour from the sun, it could still be crushed, as Spanish ships could light upon an undefended coast. But when they reached the gate, and came to Kenly Green through a bank of trees, he let himself be led off by the laughing bairns, blindfold, to the house. And when the doors were closed, and they were safe inside, he did not see the corn rigs bristling in the breeze, or the rain that swept them, falling soft at first.

Glossary

ALSO AVAILABLE IN THE CALENDAR OF CRIME SERIES

Candlemas

On Candlemas eve an apprentice candle maker finds his master, John Blair dead in his workshop, and the evidence points to the surgeon Sam Sturrock. Enlisted by Sturrock's desperate apprentice, Hew Cullen, together with his friend and physician Giles Locke, finds himself drawn into the investigation to uncover the truth of the matter. At first it seems like Blair's death is the result of reckless surgical practice, but as Hew delves deeper into the life of the candle maker he discovers a web of extortion and deceit.

John Blair was a man with many enemies…

Whitsunday

When a Lord Justice is found dead within the grounds of St Leonard's College an unfortunate group of students and teachers take it upon themselves to dispose of the body. However, when the supposed corpse vanishes from its hiding place it quickly becomes apparent that not all is as it seems at the College. Rumours of corruption, blackmail, murder and witchcraft begin to circulate as an invisible power struggle between rival colleges and a group of commissioners unfolds in St Andrews.

Before long, Hew Cullan and Giles Locke are reluctantly dragged into the ensuing melee of investigation and accusation. Hew must not only protect an innocent man accused of murder, but also salvage the teetering reputation of a respected commissioner.

ALSO AVAILABLE IN THE HUW CULLEN SERIES

Hue & Cry

‘A gripping and welcome addition to the growing genre of historical crime fiction'
Waterstone's Books Quarterly

‘An elaborate, closely plotted tale that combines extensive research with high drama'
The Herald

1579, St. Andrews. A thirteen-year old boy meets his death on the streets of the university city of St. Andrews and suspicion falls upon one of the regents at the university, Nicholas Colp. Hew Cullan, a young lawyer recently returned home from Paris, uncovers a complex tale of passion and duplicity, of sexual desire and tension within the repressive atmosphere of the Protestant Kirk and the austerity of the academic cloister.

Fate & Fortune

1581: young St Andrews academic Hew Cullan is unhappy with his life and disillusioned with the law. After his father's death he is invited by the advocate Richard Cunningham to complete his legal education in Edinburgh as Richard's pupil at the bar. Among his father's things Hew finds a manuscript entitled 'In Defence of the Law', directed to the Edinburgh printer, Christian Hall. At first, he resists its influence, but when a young girl is found dead on the beach at St Andrews, he is left unsettled and confused. He resolves to take the book to press and agrees to Richard's offer. Embarking on his new life in the capital, he falls in love. His relationships are fraught with lies and secrets and lead to brutal murder on the borough muir. Hew suspects a link with the dead girl on the beach. As he begins his desperate search to find the killer, he finds that the truth lies closer to home.

Time & Tide

In the swell of a storm, a ship is wrecked in St Andrews harbour. A young Flemish sailor, the last man aboard, collapses and dies at the inn. The cargo of the ship appears a welcome windfall but soon brings devastation to the town as petty squabbling turns to rage and tragedy. Hew traces the ship to its source in Ghent, where he uncovers a strange secret. Unwilling to allow the law to take its course, he returns once more to the bitter role of advocate, to find his deepest principles are tested to the core.

Friend & Foe

St Andrews. 1583, and tensions are running high. Dissension rages between King and councillors, and between the separate factions of the Kirk. At St Mary's college, the reformer Andrew Melville is unsettled by a series of unnatural events, while the ailing Archbishop Patrick Adamson plays out his darkest fantasies, in the safe seclusion of the castle vaults. Hew is called to investigate a mysterious incident and finds suspicion falling upon him as he is ensnared in a world of superstition, subterfuge and death. This new Hew Cullan story sees the academic lawyer once again in the company of his sister Meg and her husband, physician Giles Locke, in their most challenging case yet. Alliances are formed; there are old scores to be settled; old ghosts reappear and spies are abroad. The king's escape from captivity throws all in confusion, and as Hew's loves and loyalties are put to the test, his own life and future are no longer secure.

Queen & Country

1587. After three long years, exiled from home and family, and drawn into the depths of the London underworld under the tutelage of Elizabeth's spymaster Francis Walsingham, Hew returns to Scotland with his new English wife Frances. The execution of Mary, Queen of Scots has unleashed a torrent of anti-English sentiment in the Scottish people and fear in King James VI, jeopardising Hew's now unlawful marriage. However, the king invites Hew to investigate the perplexing meaning of a death's head painting that has come into his possession. What does it symbolise, and is it a message from his dead mother? And are the local painters all that they appear? If Hew solves the mystery, his marriage to Frances will be blessed. The stakes have never been higher as he embarks on a quest for love and life.