Read Online Fate and Fortune by Shirley McKay - Free Book Online Page B

‘Doctor Locke!’ Giles gave a groan. ‘It is the coroner,’ he muttered to Hew. ‘No doubt you will remember him. He and I have had some dealings since you left.
    ‘Sir Michael!’ he called out, pleasantly and pointedly. ‘Are you come here to the fair? We were there ourselves, but presently, and now it is the dinner hour, we go home for our dinner.’
    ‘There is no time for that,’ the coroner said cryptically. ‘The tide is coming in.’
    Giles looked a little puzzled. ‘We are not having fish,’ he offered, as a reasonable response.
    ‘Did you not receive my order, sir? I sent word to your house.’
    ‘As I said, we have been to the fair.’
    ‘No matter, you are here now. Come quickly. And you, sir,’ he looked closely at Hew, ‘you are Hew Cullan, I remember you, and have heard of you but lately. Well then, well met. You shall come too as a witness.’
    ‘What have you heard?’ Hew demanded. The coroner was not a man whose acquaintance he had hoped to make again.
    ‘The advocate Richard Cunningham informs me that you are to be his pupil at the bar. In that you are most fortunate. He is an excellent man.’
    ‘In that you are deceived, sir,’ Hew said, rather churlishly. ‘No such arrangement was made.’
    The coroner stared at his rudeness. ‘Then I am misinformed. We will not stay here to argue the point.’ He turned again to Giles. ‘The body is in a cave on the shore, betwixt the harbour and the castle, and once the tide is in, the place becomes impassable. We must go straight away.’
    ‘Then there has been a death?’
    ‘Of course there has, man! What have I been saying?’
    ‘Ah, then, no, not I,’ protested Hew. ‘I cannot help you here.’
    ‘You can, sir, and must. Pray you, bear witness. Do not refuse the Crown.’
    ‘Aye, Hew, come along,’ Giles colluded briskly, ‘for the sooner we are gone, the sooner we are done.’
    ‘Let us keep our voices low,’ the coroner advised, as they hurried through the harbour. ‘I have no wish to cause alarm. It is difficult enough to keep order at the fair.’
    ‘I understood the fair to have its own court,’ remarked Hew.
    ‘Aye, it does. It does not extend to slaughter,’ the coroner said tersely.
    Giles pursed his lips. ‘You suspect foul play?’
    ‘Tis possible the poor lass drowned. But the harbourmaster says it’s like no drowning he has seen, which is why I sought your advice. She’s a low enough wench, of no worth. I want no hue and cry.’
    ‘Then it’s a lass?’ Hew said, moved. ‘Does anyone know who she was?’
    The coroner shrugged. ‘As I say, she is no one. Keep your voices low, we do not want a crowd. I would be obliged, sir,’ he turned again to Giles, ‘if you could hazard how and when she died, whether she were drowned, or unnaturally killed.’
    ‘Who found the body?’ wondered Giles.
    ‘One of the fishermen. They come here with their lasses, to be secret in the caves, and tease them with the danger of the tides. There’s one lad and lass that will not deal again,’ the coroner said grimly. ‘We questioned them both closely, and are well assured, they had no part in this. Now, sirs, down by the side of the pier. Be wary of the seaweed on the rocks.’
    They clambered down the wall at the far side of the harbour, hugging closely to the cliffs, for the tide had begun to come in. The rocks were clogged and brackish, wet and spongy to the touch. Hew began to sink a little as they made their way towards the castle beach. They walked across the narrow strip of shore until they came to a chasm cut into the cliff, where they saw a bare foot stretching, tangled in the weed. The girl was lying in the sand, like a restless child asleep, one arm thrown above her swollen face. She was wearing her cap still, a little adrift.
    ‘Is this how she was found?’ Giles asked.
    The coroner shook his head. ‘Her dress was found over her face, and her nether parts exposed. We lifted back her skirts. The harbourmaster