Then Thom smirks and she realises who he is. She sits up, gasping at the sharp pain in her side.
‘Good to see you again, Sister.’
‘Brodie! Help!’ Winifred calls, attempting to stand.
Thom chuckles. ‘They’re all away. Where have they gone, Sister?’
Winifred’s gaze jerks towards the picture of her mother.
‘Something to do with this woman, is it?’
The old nun searches for a weapon but there’s nothing within reach. ‘Help!’ she gets out again, and Thom laughs. Then he takes her by the throat. ‘What does this painting mean?’
Winifred gurgles. She tries to pull back but he’s too strong and she even weaker than usual. After only a few seconds, he tires of throttling her and pushes her onto the pillows. Then he crouches to examine the painting.
‘Jacobites,’ he sneers, realising the meaning of the background streaks. He lays a hand to the mirror to reveal the image of the palace. He doesn’t recognise it.
Winifred, meantime, has recovered enough to make for the desk. She scrabbles for Eilidh’s letter opener but can’t put her hand to it. However, in the drawer, she finds the tiny, silver knife that came with Johnathan’s gift of the notebook.
‘I knew I’d pick up the trail,’ Thom says nonchalantly. ‘Where is this old house?’
‘The police are looking for you,’ Winifred says.
Thom laughs again. New-fangled magistrate’s men are no more than hired hands, and he’s confident will hardly be up to the task of tracking him in this new guise. ‘Where is it?’ herepeats. Winifred doesn’t answer. Instead, she walks unsteadily forwards. He waits for her to get close enough to strike, but she is swaying erratically, and when he lunges towards her, she slips past him. Thom is wrong-footed, stumbling against the wall. Winifred holds him in place with all her might and jabs with the tiny knife, which is sharp enough to pierce Thom’s skin, though not deeply.
‘What have you there? A darning needle? Where have they gone, Sister?’ He motions towards the painting as three small lines of blood trickle down his neck.
Then, becoming annoyed with her repeated jabbing, he grabs Winifred’s arm and bends it behind her back. Winifred drops the knife and stamps on his foot instead.
‘Your father wasn’t such a brute,’ she spits.
Thom smiles. ‘My father didn’t succeed, Sister. But I shall.’
Bored of using the walls of the McKenzie house as a weapon, or perhaps thinking it a more gentlemanly way to rid himself of Winifred, he punches her face hard, twice, with his free hand. Winifred blinks and falls to the ground. He steps over her.
The drawer of Eilidh’s old desk is open and he rifles it, pulling out the silver-backed notebook. He finds it difficult to focus on Araminta’s tidy script for his mind is racing. Blood rage, he’s heard it called. He breathes for a second so he can follow the words.
Aunt Eilidh left me a tartan kerchief.
Clue 8 led to the castle.
Yes, he was there.
Clue 9 from the castle to Heriot’s: a third point on the triangle.
Clue 10The third point was a plague pit.
Indeed, he concurs. The nuns on the Links.
Clue 11 Inverted, the point led to the Maitland house. Which led to the insignia of St Giles’ roof on a grave.
Ah. That was what was on the gravestone in Holyrood Abbey. He merely followed Araminta to the roof. His mind brightens, for now he’s coming to a clue he hasn’t yet solved. It warms his heart that perhaps Araminta will do so for him.
Clue 12 Roses in a picture frame led to Clementina revealed in a mirror.
He glances at the painting and grins.
Clue 13 Linlithgow Palace and the crown.
