Scales of Retribution (15 page)

‘Eat your breakfast,’ said Mara. ‘I don’t think Cormac wants a castle just now. His needs are simple.’ Her eyes went to Eileen who had emerged from the house carrying the baby. After his meal, Eileen always carried him for a while, rocking him gently in her arms as she paced between the Brehon’s house and the law school. Then when he slept she would put him into a basket, either in Brehon’s garden, or in the law school yard, and watch him sleep. Cormac’s needs were simple, but they were being met with unremitting care and dedication. It was lucky, thought Mara, that Ciara had arrived that morning; Eileen, quiet, unobtrusive and devoted, was the perfect nursemaid for the little prince.

Turlough and his men-at-arms had just departed when Nuala came drearily into the garden. Her usually glossy hair looked untidy and dull – almost as though she had slept in the braids. Her white
léine
was crumpled and had grass stains on the back of it. She had certainly not changed it today – perhaps had even slept in it overnight. Mara looked at her sharply.

‘Nuala, in your profession as well as in mine, personal feelings have to be put aside. You must not let the world know what is wrong with you. You must hold your head high and show a brave face.’

And then, when the girl just glared at her impatiently, Mara said, ‘Shouldn’t you be over at Lissylisheen? Ardal is back and will be needing you. After all, you are his woman of the house, as he calls you. He will want to give a celebratory dinner to his men-at-arms, and, if I know Ardal, no doubt the workers will join in with the celebrations.’

Nuala shrugged sulkily. ‘He doesn’t want me. He managed without me before.’

‘He’s been far more cheerful since you were there. For a while I thought things might work out between him and his wife of a fourth degree, but Marta went back to Connemara and took little Finn with her, so you are his hostess and you must act as such. Now, go and wash your hair and have a bath. There is water heating down there in the bathhouse. Oh, and do find a clean
léine
. If you haven’t one of your own, Brigid will find you one of mine.’

‘If I’m a nuisance to you, I’ll go,’ said Nuala in a tragic manner, and Mara’s heart melted.

‘You know you are not a nuisance to me; you know you are as dear to me as my own child, but this is no place for you now. Your father’s murder must be solved and I don’t want you involved in the case.’

‘All right, I suppose I might as well go.’ Nuala got to her feet with a sulky expression and then said irritably, ‘I suppose I had better change that
léine
before Ardal sees it. He would die of shock. He keeps talking about buying me silk for a gown.’

‘Let him do that,’ said Mara serenely. ‘Men enjoy spending silver on women that they are fond of – and Ardal is very fond of you. Your mother was always his favourite member of the family. Oh, and Nuala, before you go, could you tell me something? You said that Caireen discovered your father’s body about ten in the morning. How did you know the time, or were you just guessing?’

‘Guessing, I suppose,’ replied Nuala with a shrug. ‘Not really, though. I remember now. The cows were being brought into the milking parlour. That is always at ten in the morning.’

‘I see,’ said Mara. That was reasonably good evidence, she knew. Cows were fussy creatures. She had often heard Cumhal scolding Seán for being late with the milking and telling him that the cows would hold back their milk if he didn’t keep to the same time every day.

The boys were all working so quietly when she went into the schoolhouse that for a moment she thought they were not there. Enda was sternly supervising Moylan and Aidan, who were writing down everything they remembered from their studies of
Bretha Déin Chécht
, Fachtnan was going through the regulation of the kin group from
Córus Fine
with Hugh and Shane was wrestling with a passage from the works of Horace, the Latin poet.

‘I’m sorry to interrupt you all, but I am anxious to solve this murder,’ said Mara with false concern, smiling as books were shut and six bright faces turned towards her. She laughed then. It was obvious that her scholars were eagerly awaiting her arrival.

‘Let’s plan this well,’ she said perching on the edge of her desk. ‘I can’t do much walking and certainly no riding so you must be my eyes and ears.’

‘And carry your knowledge of the law,’ said Enda with a grin.

‘And make careful notes,’ said Shane, lifting his dark eyebrows.

‘Have you found out any more information, Brehon?’ asked Hugh.

‘Well, I found out from Nuala that she thinks the body was discovered at about ten o’clock in the morning. It was just about milking time, anyway, so that’s a valuable piece of information as people tend to remember seeing cows driven along the road towards the milking parlour.’ Mara decided that she would not mention Murrough’s defiant statement for the moment. Other suspects needed to be investigated first.

‘What would you like each of us to do, Brehon?’ asked Fachtnan.

‘I was thinking, Fachtnan, that you could go over to Caherconnell. See Caireen. Be very polite and respectful – I don’t need to tell you how to behave. You are very good at this sort of thing – probably better than me! Try to find out whether she was alone in the house – except for the servants, of course. I really want to know whether Ronan was present – the other boys are spending the summer in Galway with Caireen’s sister, but, in any case, Ronan is the one that I am interested in. Fachtnan, you will have to be very tactful about your questioning . . .’ she broke off, wondering whether she was expecting too much, but he gave a grin.

‘I know what to do,’ he said. ‘I’ve watched you do it again and again – just slip in an extra question. I’ll do my best – I won’t be as good as you at it, though.’

‘You might be better, Fachtnan,’ said Mara. ‘Most people like you, and I’m certain that Caireen loathes and detests me. You’ll do well, I’m sure.’

‘What about us?’ asked Moylan and Aidan, speaking in unison as usual.

‘Well, I was thinking that you, Moylan, and Hugh worked very well as a team during the last case that we dealt with, so perhaps you two could work together again and talk to the people around Caherconnell – find out what they were doing around the time that the cows were being taken for milking. Find out whether they noticed any stranger, or any acquaintance – anyone, in fact, who was around Caherconnell at that time. Could you do that?’

Moylan gave a crisp nod and Hugh looked pleased.

‘And then Aidan and Shane could investigate the farms to see who bought wolfsbane from Malachy. That’s a huge task, of course, so start off looking at the farms near to Caherconnell and then spread out if you have time. Of course, you could always drop a question about whether anything is known of someone who did buy the stuff – or who definitely didn’t – and that could save you quite a bit of journeying. You understand what I mean.’

‘Yes, of course,’ said Aidan with a lordly nod. ‘And I’ll explain it to Shane.’

Mara smiled her thanks, though inwardly she was quite certain that eleven-year-old Shane was far more intelligent and alert than fifteen-year-old Aidan.

‘What would you like me to do, Brehon?’ asked Enda respectfully.

‘Well, Enda, I wondered whether you would take a note of thanks over to Blár O’Connor, the wheelwright. I want to tell him how much the king admired the cradle . . .’ She stopped because Enda was regarding her with a sceptical smile. He knew quite well that a note like this could easily be sent by one of the lads that worked under Cumhal’s direction, or else by young Nessa.

Mara returned his smile. ‘Yes,’ she said, ‘there’s more than that to it, of course. You see, Blár O’Connor is in my mind as a likely suspect. Not only was he cheated by Malachy, who deliberately kept a wound in his arm from healing so that he could extract more and more silver for more and more useless jars of that salve made from comfrey, but also, because of his inhumanity in refusing to come to treat Blár’s son who had been gored by a bull, Malachy was responsible for the boy’s death. You yourselves told me that Blár used wolfsbane to get rid of the wolves at Binne Roe, so that would mean he had the means for the murder close to hand.’

‘So you want me to nose about and to find out what he was doing on that morning at about ten o’clock,’ said Enda.

‘That’s right,’ said Mara. ‘Though, in fact, I’m not sure exactly what I want you to do – probe a bit, I think, go by your instinct, see what he is willing to talk about. It might help if you had a few conversation topics in your head – questions to ask him about types of wood, that sort of thing. He and my son-in-law were deep in a discussion about that yesterday evening. You see, I think that he had the strongest motive really of all of our suspects.’ Her thoughts went to little Cormac. Would she kill someone who killed her son? At the moment, she thought, the answer might be ‘yes’.

‘I’ll do my best,’ said Enda.

‘And your best is always worth having, Enda,’ returned Mara. ‘Fachtnan, would you have a word with Cumhal about the ponies. You will all definitely need to ride as you have a lot of work ahead of you. Moylan and Aidan, will you ask Brigid to put together some food and something to drink for you all to carry with you. I think Eileen is over there so she will help Brigid to do that. Hugh and Shane, would you collect the satchels from the scholars’ house and bring them over to the kitchen house. You four can help with the food, then, also. I’m sure that Brigid will need all the assistance that she can get. She had a busy day yesterday with all of the excitement. She must be tired. Enda, you and I will sort out the pieces of vellum and the ink horns for everyone to carry with them. My father used to say that a note straight after an interview is worth a hundred notes made two hours later.’

They had heard it all before, even the quotation from her father, their smiles assured her, but she was not repentant. Things repeated over and over again in youth tended to stay in the memory. These boys had to retain a huge amount of information and almost every hour of her days during the terms of Michaelmas, Hilary and Trinity was devoted to ensuring that this information was fed to them in all ways possible.

‘Enda,’ said Mara when the other five had departed, ‘I wanted to make an opportunity to talk to you. It has always been the custom at this law school to have a party to celebrate the success of a scholar, or scholars, who have passed the examination to qualify as an
aigne
(lawyer). You deserve to have this celebration. You are still only sixteen and so you are my youngest pupil ever to become a qualified lawyer. I would love to have a celebration, but I feel bad about Fachtnan. Last year was different. Fachtnan, on my advice, did not take the examination. This year, I was fairly confident that he would pass – but you know what happened. It can’t be helped now, but . . .’ She stopped and looked at him appealingly.

Enda’s tanned cheeks flushed a deeper shade of rose. ‘The last thing that I want is one of those parties. I remember Colman’s and I thought it was a bore, and an opportunity for him to show off. I wouldn’t do that, but I’d have to listen to people saying things about me . . .’ he fidgeted for a moment and then said, ‘But if you could spare me, Brehon, for an hour or so, perhaps on Saturday, I’d like to ride across to Glenslade and tell Mairéad O’Lochlainn about my good news.’

‘Of course,’ said Mara heartily. She busied herself sorting out some scraps of vellum from the cupboard in order to hide her smile. Enda and Mairéad O’Lochlainn, daughter of Donogh O’Lochlainn, Ardal’s brother, had appeared passionately in love last winter, but Enda had taken Mara’s advice and allowed the relationship to cool while he studied hard in order to pass his final examinations. Let him have a little fun, now, she thought. He deserves it. She turned around with a smile.

‘I’ve got a good idea,’ she said impulsively. ‘Tomorrow is the twenty-third of June. Why don’t we have a little party here to celebrate midsummer’s eve and then you can all go on to the bonfire at Noughaval? This can be your celebration – but no speeches or fuss. I’ll write a note to invite all of the young O’Lochlainns. Shane and Aidan can deliver it – Glenslade would be a good farm to start their enquiries about wolfsbane. Donogh O’Lochlainn always knows what’s going on in the farms around his land. Who else would you like to ask, Enda?’

‘Nuala, of course, for Fachtnan,’ said Enda. ‘And Saoirse O’Brien and her brother, young Gilla, the O’Heynes and then there are the two O’Connors.’

‘What about Cuan from Newtown Castle? I don’t think he gets much fun – always tied to his mother’s apron strings. Would that be all right, Enda?’ As she spoke Mara was rapidly penning notes to the young people from farm, castle, dun and lios in the surrounding countryside of the Burren.

‘This is wonderful,’ she said with satisfaction. ‘Shane and Aidan can deliver these and ask their questions at the same time. Then there will be no fuss and no unease. This is the way that I like to do things.’

Enda looked at her for a moment and then said awkwardly, ‘I would like to say now how much I have learned from you. I think that if I went to another law school – down to Cork, for instance, I might have learned the same laws, but I don’t think I would have learned as much of how to be a good Brehon, how to keep the peace in the kingdom . . . I think I will always be grateful to you and remember what you taught me.’ He tailed off, his cheeks now bright red. Neatly, he gathered up the pieces of vellum, quills and ink horns on to a tray and, without looking at her, went outside with them.

How lucky that Mairéad O’Lochlainn was, thought Mara, looking after him affectionately as he crossed the yard to the kitchen house. He was tall and so handsome with his blue eyes, tanned skin, very white teeth and corn-gold hair. She would miss Enda, she thought with a sigh as she penned the last of her notes and then rapidly sorted them according to district.

Aidan and Shane were going to have to ride fast in order to be able to deliver all of these and it would mean spending very little time in each place, but that was good. If they did it tactfully, people would remember the invitation and forget the question. Enda was right. Keeping the peace in the kingdom was probably the most important facet of her position as Brehon of the Burren and she hoped that this was something that her scholars had learned from her.