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“Yes. Even if the gallows takes her, I feel as if the gallows is not to blame. Nor the police. Nor the lawyers. Just Annis herself, some demon inside her.” He finally looks over, his nose wrinkling. “I should be careful how I word that, or someone may think I blame demonic possession.”
“I know what you mean. There’s a shadow inside her, and while it’s still part of her, it’s not the whole of her. That makes all this so much harder to accept.”
“It does.”
I take another tentative step closer. When I am near him, he puts an arm around my shoulders, and I let myself lean against him, and we stand like that, taking shelter together in the darkness before the day begins.
By seven, McCreadie has come to escort us to the prison. He’s obviously been up all night, and it’s the most rumpled I’ve seen him, which is to say that he looks like the average person at seven in the morning. The strain shows on his face, though, and in the endless worried glances he shoots Isla’s way.
While I prepare to serve breakfast, I leave the three of them alone, knowing Isla needs to talk to McCreadie… and both McCreadie and Gray need to hear what Crichton said last night about Isla.
I join them for breakfast to discuss that. It turns out that McCreadie’s only professional sin is that of omission. I say “only,” but for a cop it’s still a serious one. He can’t decide not to pursue an uncomfortable lead. While Gray and Isla are quick to absolve him, I can tell McCreadie realizes what he did and regrets it. Not, I think, that he wishes he’d set Crichton on Isla, but that he’d raised the possibility and then done the work to absolve her.He’ll have to do that now, and he vows to make sure she is both investigated and absolved as expediently as possible.
As for the case, McCreadie has little more to give us. In digging through Burns’s papers, he found two more money-transfer notes, and he’s confirmed that the money for the scheme wasn’t coming from the business. It was financed from Annis’s personal accounts—money stolen by her husband. With that, I finally see a satisfactory motive for Annis.
Lord Leslie was stealing his wife’s money. That would be horrible enough in my day, but here it would be so much worse. Having her own money put Annis in a rare position, with rare freedom. Her husband stole that from her… after she saved him financially.
Annis had spent her adult life earning money that Leslie spent on hunting trips and mistresses, and still that wasn’t enough. He started draining her personal accounts. I can imagine the rage and impotence that might lead Annis to murder.
I could even understand it… if she weren’t framing her lover and closest friend.
Is this why Annis let Sarah back into her life? Was it all a setup? The idea makes me feel sick, but the timing cannot be denied. How did the reunion come about? Did Annis reach out first? Did Sarah joyfully return, thinking she’d finally been allowed back into her old lover’s life? This is a question we need answered, as soon as possible.
We take the coach to the jail. It’s below Calton Hill. In my time, it’s gone—except for the Governor’s House—but in its day, it was considered the worst prison in Scotland. In this period, it’s also where executions are held, after the public hangings ended. The jail looks like a small city itself—or a castle keep, castellated towers soaring above a high stone wall.
McCreadie is hoping to get us all in, but the chances of that are slight. Gray will be permitted, as a gentleman and Annis’s brother. I might, as his assistant. Men of privilege are afforded extra accommodations, and if their “assistant” is a young woman, well, the rich are different.
In Isla’s case, though, the fact that she is a gentlewomanacts against her. A sister of lower class might be permitted in. Someone like Isla? Heavens, no.
And that is exactly the reception we get. Yes, Gray can go in. Isla,absolutely not. Me? Well, the guard in charge of visitors is considering that, having already accepted Gray’s healthy bribe.
McCreadie is arguing for Isla, while she whispers for him to let it go, not to upset the guard and impedemychances. As McCreadie is dialing back his protests, a man strides in. He’s about fifty and florid faced, and his gaze goes straight to Gray.
“You,” he says.
The look Gray turns on him is perfectly placid, even as the rest of us bristle at the man’s tone.
“Yes?” Gray says.
“You’re a medical man, aren’t you?”
When Gray hesitates, McCreadie cuts in. “Dr. Gray is fully trained in both medicine and surgery, though he does not currently follow either profession.”
“Can you set an arm?” the man says. “Stitch a gash?”
“Certainly,” Gray says. “I will do that if you will—”
“Yes, yes,” the man says. “I heard what you want. Your sister and your assistant can go in with Detective McCreadie here. I need you to patch up one of my guards. There was a fight this morning, and I’ll not have that butcher of a prison doctor treating my men. You can do better, I’ve heard?”
“I believe I can. Thank you.”
Isla opens her mouth, likely to protest Gray being commandeered when he wanted to see Annis, but he shakes his head.
“Show me to your man, sir,” he says. “Hugh, would you escort Isla and Mallory to my sister? I will meet you there when I am finished.”
We’re moving along a narrow corridor when we pass a constable heading the other way. He greets McCreadie and nods to us. Then he stops, boots squeaking.
“You’re the ladies that wanted to speak to Mrs. Young, aren’t you?”
