Read Online A MASS FOR THE DEAD by Susan McDuffie - Free Book Online Page B

large head on her lap.
    “A fine big dog you have here,” she observed, as she scratched at his ears. Somerled responded to this gesture by trying to climb into her lap.
    “How is it you have a deerhound?” Mariota asked, as we tried to convince Somerled to get out of her lap. It was an understandable question, for usually none but the Lords owned deerhounds.
    “My uncle was giving him to me. The dog took a liking to me and he is a bad hunter.”
    “So what were you finding at the Priory?” she asked, after Somerled had finally settled back down at Mariota’s feet, leaning his bulk against her skirts.
    I scowled. “Brother Gillecristus, the sub-prior, swears that no canon could have committed such as act, for all that I am knowing they are as great a bunch of prideful fools as ever walked the earth.
    “A young mason fell from a scaffold the day before the murder, and I suppose someone could have held my father to account for it, as Gillecristus and my father argued over the construction shortly before that happened. But Calum Glas, the master mason, says it was an accident only, and no cause for suspicion. No one admits to knowing anything of any use, at all, at all,” I finished, in frustration, “but I am not sure I have been asking the right questions.
    “Brother Columbanus insists he was in the dormitory, asleep, when the Prior left, but it is clear he has no love for my father. And he is Sheena’s brother. I think Columbanus could easily have left, met the Prior when he was returning, and killed him then. Brother Donal said he heard someone leave the dormitory that night.”
    “Why? For his sister’s sake?”
    “Indeed, that is the way of it, I am thinking. It was clear he was not liking the Prior, from the little he did say.”
    “That is possible. And if he cares for his sister, it is plain that the Prior did not treat her well.”
    “What did you find at Sheena’s?”
    Mariota settled her skirts about her for a moment before she answered me
    “She is not an easy woman to talk to, Muirteach, but after awhile she opened up a bit to me. The wee bairn was peevish with the teething, and so I made a remedy for that, and gave her some wormwood for the bruising, and—”
    “Was she saying how she got the bruise?” I interrupted.
    “Aye, she was, but you must be waiting for me to tell you. You are not patient, are you Muirteach?” she asked, smiling a wee bit, but then she herself did not wait for my answer. “She told me the Prior hit her, that last night he came.”
    Well, that was as I had expected, really. “Did she say aught of Columbanus?” I asked.
    Mariota laughed. “Muirteach, she knows I am trying to help you. I do not think she would be saying much about Columbanus, even if she did know he had killed your father. He is her baby brother, for all that he is a grown man and a canon.”
    “And what of herself? She is a strong woman, after all.”
    Mariota shook her head. “She is truly grieving for him. And his death will mean nothing but trouble for herself and the bairns.”
    “She could have killed him,” I insisted stubbornly, “after he beat her.”
    “But why at the Strand?”
    “So they would not be finding the body back at her cottage, amadain .”
    “Perhaps,” said Mariota, but I could tell by the look around her mouth that she was not believing me. “Whoever hit him was tall, and struck him from behind,” she added.
    “Sheena is tall,” I replied, but Mariota did not answer that. “And there are her brothers as well. Perhaps they came, and found him beating her, and then they murdered him. They could have lied about the deer.”
    Mariota shook her head stubbornly, and I gave it up and tried a different tack. “Why was my father giving her that bruise? You were forgetting to tell me.”
    “You were not giving me the chance, Muirteach.”
    “Well, I am giving you the chance now,” I said sourly, then wished I could take my words back.
    “Did he need a reason? He