‘Ye dare, lad!’ the river watcher said in that quiet, laden, tense tone – as if he were reining in passion. ‘Ye dare fright that good woman Mary Kinnaird – ye dare set foot in the house she lives in and watches over, ye dare touch any of the treasures she keeps there! She was fair weeping when she rang!’
That was why it had taken Mary so long to come back to the Upper Reading Room after she’d chased Euan downstairs. She’d telephoned Angus Henderson to come and clear away the riff-raff.
Euan’s face, like Ellen’s, was drained of colour. He was on the balls of his feet in their worn tackety boots, poised for flight. But there were too many of us crowded at the base of the narrow, swaying bridge for him to run that way, so he was cornered.
Henderson’s staff rose and fell.
Ellen reached out – instinctively, I think – to grab hold of the person nearest in front of her, and it was me. Jamie tried to shove past us, but Ellen was digging her fingers into my forearm so fiercely they left little round black bruises there later. At the time I didn’t feel it. I’d grabbed hold of her too. It all happened so suddenly.
The cromach crashed across Euan’s shins. He stumbled, and Henderson hooked him by the ankle with his staff and hauled him back against his broad chest, so that he and Euan were nearly cheek to cheek over Euan’s shoulder. The river watcher held Euan fast.
‘Next time Mary Kinnaird tells me you’ve set foot on Inverfearnie Island I’ll throw you into prison for attempted theft.’
Euan nodded understanding, his eyes clenched shut.
Jamie managed to put me and Ellen behind him and boldly took hold of Sergeant Henderson’s staff. But he underestimated the force he’d need to wrestle it from Henderson’s grasp. The Water Bailiff lashed out to give him a warning whack across one shin as well.
‘You keep out of this, lad.’
‘Buckets of blood!’ Jamie swore, grabbing at a bridge cable and hopping on the other foot.
Henderson turned his attention back to Euan. ‘Speak so I can hear ye, ye mucky tink,’ he growled.
‘I ken. I won’t set foot on Inverfearnie! I won’t use the bridges here!’
Henderson glanced up at Ellen. ‘You see that he doesn’t, girl.’
She nodded without speaking, still clutching me.
Henderson threw his prey to his knees. I heard Euan gasp. Pinkie whined and shrank – heavens, what a useless dog. The river watcher cracked two more fearsome blows over the back of Euan’s shoulders with his cromach, and when Euan slumped forward, Henderson gave him a kick in the ribs for good measure.
‘Remember it, wee man. I’ll arrest you and I’ll knock your teeth in if I get another call from the librarian about you.’
Sergeant Angus Henderson straightened up, resurrected his bicycle and pointed it back in the direction of Brig O’Fearn village.
Ellen let go of me quickly.
I couldn’t believe how fast this had happened, and how disorganised we’d been – how helpless in the face of authority and violence.
With a grunt of effort, Euan suddenly dragged himself erect to avoid the humiliation of me, or his sister, swooping down on him in concern.
The Water Bailiff tucked his staff under one arm and did an odd little balancing act as he turned back to us and doffed his hat, the way he’d done when I’d met him with Mary.
He didn’t look at me but reproached Jamie gruffly, ‘I’ve warned you before about running wild, young Jamie, and I’ve a mind to have a word with your lady mother about the company you keep.’
Then off he went.
Ellen leaped to Euan’s side. I wanted to touch him too. I wanted to see he was all right. If Jamie had taken a beating like that he’d have let me peel off his shirt and mop his broken skin with clear burn water, but I couldn’t do that for Euan McEwen; and Ellen wouldn’t do it with us watching. I stood clenching and unclenching my fists in frustration as they inefficiently checked the damage.
‘Och, it’s nae bother,’ Euan said breathlessly. ‘I can walk. Friend of my dad’s was beaten so bad by the police he lay in a ditch for a day before anyone found him. He couldn’t work for two months. He hadn’t even done anything – just made a racket singing on his way back to camp after a night in the pub.’
‘You haven’t done anything either!’ I exclaimed.
‘I’m lucky.’ Euan winced and shrugged.
‘Come along back to Mammy,’ Ellen said to him, and Jamie and I watched them go, Ellen with a supporting arm around her brother’s waist; just as Jamie and I would have been if it had happened to us.
But of course it wouldn’t happen to us.
The Water Bailiff had told Jamie to stay out of it. He hadn’t even dared to look in my direction.
6
FINDING OUT WHAT A PRECOGNITION IS
Late in the afternoon I dived into Frank’s study, without knocking, because otherwise I’d have had to hang about in the passage and the older people would have been sure to tell me off for unchaperoned mixing with the contractor. But I had an idea for doing Euan a good turn and I thought Frank could help. My God! You have to be cunning as a vixen to get anything out of anyone. I am afraid it is going to be like this for the rest of my life; I thought I might as well continue as I’ve begun. Davie Balfour wasn’t going to get me anywhere, but the coquettishly eccentric Lady Julia might.
‘I’m so sorry to interrupt …’
He jumped up from behind his desk with a smile like sunlight breaking through cloud: winning, warm, swift and honest. He was glad to see me. He could have been annoyed, but he was obviously delighted, and made me a spontaneous bow. It was elegant and natural and made my heart leap in a perfectly embarrassing way.
But the heat rising to my cheeks also warned me to be careful. I knew I was smitten with him, and that we were already more intimate than anyone in the house was aware, and I knew I had to hide it. I really couldn’t imagine how Mother and Solange would have reacted just then if they felt I was flirting with an older man.
He remembered my public name, tentatively formal. ‘Miss Beaufort-Stuart! Can I help you?’
‘You absolutely can,’ I said. ‘At least, I think you can. Do you need any more casual labourers? Only I wondered if you’d be able to offer work to the Traveller lad who took me to the hospital. Just for a few weeks, perhaps on an hourly wage? Helping to dig the pool or something like that? He’s camped at Inchfort Field and I rather owe him a favour. And Grandad always gave the Travellers jobs when they stopped here.’
Francis Dunbar leaned against the edge of his desk. He folded his arms and considered, not looking at me. ‘There’s plenty of digging to be done on the pipeline out to the Tay. I can certainly make it happen. But I’m afraid my foreman won’t be very welcoming. Those Traveller folk don’t use clocks – just turn up when it suits them. And things have already gone missing from the building site.’
‘Yes, I know your foreman thinks the Travellers are light-fingered. But you can give Euan a chance, can’t you?’