Read Online The Gowrie Conspiracy by Alanna Knight - Free Book Online

and who had already written a learned treatise on the subject.
    Tam guessed shrewdly the need to take great care and walk warily. Suspecting that through the king’s evident infatuation he had made a powerful enemy in the Duke of Lennox, he was certain there would be others who had witnessed the incident of the runaway horse and his rescue of the king.
    Certain that no stone would be left unturned in their efforts to poison the king against him, he was in little doubt about the result and what would be his fate. To be dismissed as a sorcerer, thrown into prison – or burnt as a warlock.
    His immediate plan after Tansy departed was to set off in search of the man Mistress Agnew had visited in the village. However, as he walked across the courtyard darkness was falling, the heavy dusk of a hot summer’s day had settled across lawns white with dew, and trees heavily burdened with summer leaves seemed ready to droop into exhausted sleep.
    Not everyone slept. From the king’s apartment came raucous sounds of merriment, laughter mixed with the sound of music inexpertly performed. Candles were lit in the windows and he could well picture the scene within.
    It was peaceful in the gardens. Time for the wild creatureswho lurked in woods nearby to live out their short lives. Night-time insects too were on the move. Bats fluttered before his face and large moths danced in his path to the tune of an owl’s melancholy hoot from a branch above his head.
    Such peace. But twilight was fast fading into the dark side of the moon lying like a cloak enveloping the huddle of thatched roofs that made up the royal burgh of Falkland.
    A watchman on his rounds called out the hour. ‘Nine o’ the clock and all is well.’
    Was it really, thought Tam? He would hazard a guess that he had lost his opportunity and it was already too late to call on the unknown man who had been brother – or lover – to the murdered woman. Most probably the latter, which accounted for her embarrassment at meeting Tansy outside his door.
    Ordinary folk who had only rush-lights to see by and who never knew the luxury of wax candles retired with the dark and arose with the dawn. Mistress Agnew’s lover would doubtless have long been abed.
    With a sigh, for it would need daylight for him to identify the house he sought, Tam reluctantly decided that his visit must wait until morning, despite the gnawing sense of urgency that time was not on his side.
    The sooner he made contact and warned the man of Mistress Agnew’s death the better. He could not shake off an ominous feeling that if, as he suspected, her murder had been premeditated, then he might already be too late and the man himself in dire peril.
    He reached his room in Tansy’s lodging only seconds before he heard Will ascending the turnpike stair. Relieved that he had been spared the encounter, as always Tam slept without dreaming and awoke refreshed to birdsong early next morning.
    Hearing the murmur of voices from Tansy’s parlour and Will’s deep voice, he decided that the only way to avoid a meeting was to remain where he was until Will departed.
    Turning on his side, he slept again and awoke to silence tofind himself alone in the lodging. Breaking his fast on bread, cheese and ale which had been left out for him, Tam reflected that Will would be heading for Edinburgh and Tansy, no doubt, about the queen’s business.
    As it was a fine morning with the promise of another pleasant summer day, Tam decided to take the short cut across the gardens. As he strolled he began to recognise again the sense of antiquity that stretched well beyond the palace; the sense of a land settled by an ancient race long-forgotten, nestling at the base of the Lomond Hill. On the distant horizon, bluehazed to the west of the prehistoric hill fort of East Lomond, with the Pictish slab Tansy had pointed out to him on one of their walks to the Maiden Castle, stood another hill fort with cup and ring marks whose interpretation was