‘Er... yes.’
‘I didna like him neither,’ Mary pronounced. ‘Is he no’ in heaven now?’
‘I... expect so,’ said Carey cautiously, who doubted it.
‘Well, then, it’s no’ sad, is it? Because we dinna have to be sae quiet when he’s about wi’ a sore head and there’s no sore heads in heaven. That’s happy, is that.’ Her face clouded and threatened rain. ‘It’s me mam I’m sad for,’ she whispered.
‘Do you think you can remember such a long time ago as the day before yesterday?’ Carey prompted hurriedly.
Mary paused, thought for a moment. ‘I can so,’ she said complacently. ‘Will ye gi’ me the pennies now?’
‘No. Prove it to me. What happened on Monday? Start with when you got up.’
She took a deep breath, frowned, closed her eyes and began. She had come downstairs when her mother called with her kirtle and petticoat already on, but her mother had to do up her laces because she couldn’t do bows yet. Did the Deputy Warden think bows were pretty? He did; Her Majesty had a kirtle all covered over with them made in blue satin. What happened next? Well, the boys came down in a hurry and ran off to school with the reverend and she ate her porridge and Julia came in late and she went hurrying up the stairs to find a ribbon she lost and then she came down again and her mother told her to start making the butter before the day got too hot and where had she been and Julia said nowhere and her mother was kneading bread and she said oh ay, then ye’d best be at the butter. So Julia said humph and went to the dairy for the yesterday’s cream to pour it in the churn and her mam said...
‘What colour was Julia’s ribbon?’ asked Carey inanely.
‘Oh,’ said Mary, frowning. ‘I dinna remember.’
‘Never mind. What happened after you ate your porridge?’
Mary had got out her sewing and started making some stitches and her mam had promised to show her a new one when she came down from taking her dad’s porridge and beer up to him and she went up with a full tray.
Mary paused here and frowned. ‘She was up a long time,’ she said. ‘And she came down and she’d forgot all about my sewing and wouldnae teach me the stitch but she sent me with a Message to fetch Andy Nixon.’
Carey nodded. ‘What was she wearing?’
‘Och, what she allus wears, her blue kirtle and petticoat, with the black bodice, nothing fine.’
‘What about her apron.’
‘Ay, she allus has her apron?’
‘Was it... was there anything different about her when she came down the stairs?’
Mary frowned again and shook her head. ‘Nay, only her voice was soft, like a whisper.’
Off went Mary in her memory to fetch Mr Nixon, with a long digression on Susan Talyer and how fine she thought herself because she had black velvet trim on her everyday kirtle, found him in the street with his arm in a sling and brought him back and he almost forgot to give her a penny, but then he did, and he went up the stairs to see her dad.
‘What did he say about your dad?’
‘Och,’ said Mary, frowning again. ‘He said he didnae want to see him at all and me mam said it didna matter, he’d see anyway and up he went and I had the buttermilk from Julia in the kitchen while she washed the butter and she asked what was happening and I said I didnae ken. I like Mr Nixon,’ she added.
‘And then what happened?’
Andy Nixon had come running down the stairs and out the door.
‘Ahah,’ said Carey grimly. ‘What did he look like? Was he dirty?’
Mary gave him a sidelong look of pity. ‘A bit. He was in his working clothes, but he doesnae labour, he’s a rent collector.’
‘Was there anything on them? Like mud or... er... blood?’
Mary shook her head.
‘Did you hear anything, a shout or a call?’
‘Nay, they was talking quietly.’
‘Can you remember seeing blood anywhere around?’
‘Oh ay,’ said Mary seriously. ‘There was blood all over the sheets to me mam’s bed, for she said she’d lost a wean in the night, and she was in a state about washing them before it could set worse.’
Carey frowned at this. ‘Was the blood dry?’
‘Ay, mostly.’
‘When did she strip the bed?’
‘While I wis running for Mr Nixon, see, she had them in the basket by the door when I come back with him. It took all day to wash them sheets, ye should have seen them, all stiff they were...’ The ghoulish child sighed at the thought. ‘Me mam gave me a penny for grating the soap for it.’
‘And then what happened?’
The day was overwhelmed with sheet and blanket washing and Mary was sent out to play with Susan Talyer which she didn’t want to do but went because her mother gave her another penny and they skipped and played at Queens and Princesses and then Susan Talyer wanted to be the mam and have Mary as the child and Mary wanted to be the mam and when Susan Talyer pinched her she only tapped her a very little with her hand, hardly at all, and accidentally pulled a little of her hair and is wisnae fair...
‘When did you go to bed?’
She had eaten her bread and milk with the boys when they came back from school and then they had all gone up to bed though it was still light and they had seen Andy Nixon coming out the back wynd from Clover’s byre with a handcart with a whole lot of hay on it. And their mam had come in and told them a long story about Tam Lin and how the Queen of the Elves had taken him and Janet and gone to fetch him back—not Janet Dodd, another Janet—and how he changed into all different things by magic... Did the Deputy Warden know the Queen of the Elves too?
