Chapter Nine
MHAIRI
Boxing Day 1930
Oban
Debussy played over the wireless, Donald’s hand clasping hers as he whirled her in sweeping circles around the room so that her skirt billowed out. She was still wearing her pinny, stained with gravy marks, and they were a little out of time, neither one of them sure if they were attempting a waltz or a foxtrot, but they didn’t care; the perfection of the moment came down to its spontaneity, heart and sense of fun.
Donald’s eyes fastened upon her and she marvelled, as she always did, at their blueness, the softness of his rough hands as he held her. These were the moments when she was reminded that life was good, that beauty lay within the small things: a shared smile, an unexpected dance...
They had been in their own feathered nest for almost two days now, and she didn’t want even to open a window and let the outside world in. Everything she needed was within these four walls. The wireless had been his Christmas gift to her; he had spent weeks saving up, putting aside whatever pennies he could, reasoning that if the wild flowers she picked from the verges and the wood behind the town could bring beauty to their spartan home, music could add another layer too.
He spun her out, making her laugh at the unexpected move and catching her easily with his strong arms. He dipped her low – and kept her there, kissing her gently before the fire, just as there came a knock at the door. It wasn’t unexpected, but Mhairi wished it could have come an hour from now. Or even a minute.
Donald sighed, pulling her back up and kissing her on the lips once more – but the tenderness of their private moment was already gone. He was nervous, she knew.
The knock came again. It had a percussive rhythm to it and, as Donald crossed the room, Mhairi, needing something to do, straightened the tablecloth. It was an old bedsheet she had washed and embroidered and she’d set a small posy of red campion in a glass. She looked around the space, trying to see it through a visitor’s eyes: she had cleaned the windows so the glass sparkled, trying to let in as much light as possible, though the days were so short now anyway. The coal fire was heaped high and crackling so that the room had a rosy warmth. And of course, the mellifluous strings of Debussy soared, tipped and swayed in the background.
Donald looked back at her, both of them holding their breath, before he opened the door.
‘David!’ he exclaimed with robust pleasure. ‘It’s a fair treat to see you again.’ Mhairi watched as the two men shook hands. ‘Come in, come in.’
‘I’m afraid I bothered your neighbours trying to find you. I ended two along by mistake,’ David said, removing his hat as he entered their home.
‘Easily done,’ Donald nodded. ‘I trust they were helpful?’
David’s eyes darted over to where Mhairi stood. ‘...Aye,’ he said.
‘How are you, David?’ she asked, greeting him with a sisterly hug. Flora’s big brother had always felt like a brother to her too, and it was only as she set eyes upon him now that she realized how much she had missed him. Her loneliness here was like a hunger gnawing away at her all the time.
‘All the better for seeing you, Mhairi...Both of you,’ he added, glancing awkwardly at Donald. He wasn’t yet accustomed to seeing them as a couple. The last time they’d all been together, Donald had been standing on the HMS Harebell with Mary and their newborn son...Mhairi knew David couldn’t possibly comprehend the earthquakes that had shifted their world for them to have fallen into this new position. There was much to discuss, clearly – but not yet. Manners had to prevail over curiosity.
David looked down at the small package he was holding, wrapped in brown paper. ‘A cake,’ he said, holding it out to her.
Mhairi’s eyes brightened.
‘From my ma,’ he added quickly, seeing her hopes rise and then fall back. ‘She thought you’d like it for Christmas.’
She swallowed. ‘...How kind!’ she said, trying to hide the disappointment that it wasn’t something from her own mother. There had been no word from them since her parents had arrived on Harris for her wedding to Alexander McLennan, only to discover she had jilted him. Her letter warning them not to come had arrived too late, and while she didn’t know exactly what Alexander had told them, there was no doubt he had painted her as the villain of the piece – a situation only compounded by Mhairi giving Donald his alibi for the night of the factor’s murder, thereby revealing their affair. She’d known word of that must have reached back to Lochaline when her letters had started coming back to Oban stamped Returned to Sender. She had tried ringing the Lochaline telephone box across the lane from the cottages, hoping she could explain, but Christina MacQueen had told her in a frosty voice that her parents were ‘out’, and she had been met with a wall of silence ever since. Her family was ashamed of her, she knew. She had become that worst of things: ‘a disgrace’. So David’s telegram saying he would be visiting had given her hope that he might bring some token of affection from them: a letter, a blanket, a cake.
She carried the little package through to their small kitchen area as David shrugged off his coat and rubbed his hands before the fire. It was sleeting outside, a bitter easterly wind shaking the tailcoat of strong storms in Europe. He seemed nervous and on edge, the easy-going David of old left somewhere in the past.
Donald handed him a dram and they toasted good health, knocking back the amber nectar and letting it burn their throats. Mhairi had made a stew with plenty to go around and she pulled it out of the oven to stir, the aroma filling their small home. And it was a home. They hadn’t much – not much more than they’d had in St Kilda – but there was heart here, comfort and quiet joys. She spent her evenings embroidering and stitching curtains and cushions from old pieces of laundry she rescued that had been tossed into the hotel bins. She saw David’s eyes fall to the open doorway of the bedroom, catching a glimpse of their non-marital bed: clean sheets, but not clean enough without a wedding ring.
‘How’s the job at the Forestry going?’ Donald asked, seeing the same.
David drew his attention back. ‘Well enough. Da’s making a good recovery from his accident.’
‘I was sorry to hear of it. That sounded bad,’ Donald frowned.
‘Aye, it was a close call. He was lucky. There were lots of ways it could have been worse. We had a good surgeon in the end.’
‘Thanks to Flora,’ Mhairi piped up, closing the oven door.
‘Aye. There were unexpected blessings for sure.’ He looked at Mhairi. ‘Have you heard from her?’
Mhairi shook her head. ‘Not for weeks. It’s my fault – we’ve been so busy these past few months. I’ve not had the energy in the evenings to sit down and write.’
‘Mhairi’s got a job in the laundry at the Regent Hotel,’ Donald said. ‘And I’m working in the fish market now.’
‘Oh,’ David nodded politely.
‘It’s not much,’ Donald mumbled. ‘But we’re getting by.’
‘Well, this is...’ David motioned awkwardly to the small apartment. ‘It’s a wonderful home.’
Mhairi heard the nerves in the silence that followed. ‘Well, it’s not the Paris Ritz, that’s for sure,’ she joked. ‘I think that’s where Flora was staying, wasn’t it?’
Donald nodded, although he could no more imagine the Paris Ritz than Buckingham Palace.
‘It’s going to make her rich, that show,’ David smiled. ‘Who’d have thought it? My sister, a star.’
‘Oh, I think we all knew that would happen, one way or another,’ Mhairi smiled. ‘Flora was never destined for a small life.’
They could all, at least, agree on that.
‘So what’s the news back home?’ Donald asked. Mhairi thought how strange it was that ‘home’ now meant Lochaline instead of Village Bay.
There was a hesitation. ‘Most are settling well. Your brothers are doing well in their jobs,’ David said, looking at Mhairi. ‘Angus is walking out with a lass called Bonnie from the village, the fishmonger’s daughter. He seems fair smitten.’
‘Surely not? I didn’t know Angus had feelings!’ she joked, but feeling a pang of sadness that she was missing out on seeing her brother’s happiness. He’d always been a restless spirit back on the isle. ‘Anyone for Fin?’
‘Not yet, that I’m aware. He seems more interested in four wheels than two legs. Most evenings after work he goes down to the mechanic’s and learns about oil changes and how to fit a new wheel. I think he’d prefer a job doing that than at the Forestry.’
‘He was always clever,’ she murmured. ‘He needed more than climbing cliffs and catching birds.’
David grinned. ‘And you’d be shocked at how big wee Rory is now. He’s crawling about so fast, your ma can scarcely catch him!’
Mhairi bit her lip, holding back her emotions. It had always fallen to her to look after the younger ones, to help her mother with the washing and cooking. ‘...And how about Da?’ she asked after a moment. She knew her father had struggled with his loss of position in their community after the evacuation. As the postmaster he’d had an important and central role in St Kildan life, but now he was just the same as everyone else.
‘Och, well...quiet. You know how he is. Never exactly a big talker.’
‘No,’ she agreed, wondering if she was the real cause of his melancholy.
‘He comes over most evenings to sit with my da, and they talk about the old days.’
They all felt the finality of that term. Their entire lives up to three months ago had been boxed away, guillotined away from the lives they were inhabiting now.
‘And Old Fin? I was worried about him all alone, being set so far up the lane.’
‘He’s not alone,’ David smiled. ‘Jayne checks in on him every morning on her way to the factory. She’s got a bike now, so she goes back at lunch to eat with him and then checks in again on her way past. He listens to the wireless in the meantime.’
‘He has a wireless too?’ Mhairi couldn’t disguise her surprise. She and Donald had scarcely been able to afford theirs on two wages.
‘Jayne bought it for him.’ David’s mouth had flattened into a line. ‘Norman’s doing very well at the Forestry. He’s been promoted to deputy manager of the yard.’
‘Already?’ Donald said, surprised. ‘That’s fast.’
David sighed. ‘Aye, I know, but the men seem to respect him, so...’ His voice trailed off, and Mhairi watched him. His and Norman’s relationship, never exactly close, had deteriorated sharply after Molly’s death. They seemed so distant for two men who had once been on course – if Molly had only had her way – to become brothers.
‘And how are things with you?’ she asked gently. ‘Are you...are you courting?’
He looked up sharply, as if the suggestion was offensive. ‘Of course not.’ He recognized his brusqueness and checked himself, taking a steadying breath, his fingers gripping the whisky glass more tightly. ‘...What I mean to say is, that’s it for me. There’ll not be anyone else.’
Mhairi stared at him, taken aback. ‘You mustn’t say that, David.’
‘Why not? It’s how I feel.’
‘It’s only been just over a year. We all miss her – but you’ve got your whole life ahead of you. Molly wouldn’t want you to be alone.’
‘With respect, Mhairi, you don’t know that. You don’t know how it was with me and her. No one knows how it really was between us – the love we had...What we had together, we had to keep hidden.’
She watched him. ‘And you don’t think we, me and Donald of all people, could understand that?’
From the corner of her eye she saw Donald stiffen as she addressed what they were all dancing around.
David’s head whipped up. ‘It’s not the same.’
‘Because Donald was married, so our love couldn’t possibly be... true , is that what you mean?’
David swallowed, but there was a flash of anger in his eyes too. ‘...Aye.’
‘Things aren’t always what they seem, David,’ Donald said uneasily. He wasn’t a man who found it easy to discuss emotions; like most of the St Kildan men, he preferred action over thought. ‘Marriage is sometimes just a coat, putting a respectable face on something.’
‘It wasn’t how it looks,’ Mhairi said. ‘We tried everything to resist it – and it was never our intention to hurt anyone.’
‘But you did! Innocent people were hurt—’
‘Neither of them was innocent,’ she said hotly.
David looked from her to Donald. Was he not going to defend his wife?
‘Alexander McLennan is a pig and a brute,’ Mhairi went on. ‘You’ve no idea what he was really like. No one did. Only Donald.’
She saw the look of confusion cross David’s face at her words.
‘Then why didn’t you say anything? Your brothers would have—’
‘No. Some things can’t be said.’ She looked away, not wanting to say too much. ‘And I didn’t need them, anyway. Donald protected me from him.’
‘But it wasn’t his place. He should never have got involved. He was a married man.’
‘Only in name,’ Donald said flatly. ‘The marriage had been dead for years, and if you were to ask her, Mary would admit it was as much a torment for her as it was for me. With or without Mhairi, it would have had to end. We couldn’t have carried on as we were.’
‘But you made vows before God. Y’ canna ignore that!’
‘Aye – and I made those vows with the best of intentions, but it was still a terrible match. Sometimes conceding defeat is the only way, David.’
‘I disagree.’
‘It was a bad marriage,’ Donald insisted. ‘There was no love there, and we each had good cause to leave. Whatever y’ might have heard, I’d ask y’ to remember that she was the one who left me. There’s a good reason for that.’
‘Such as?’
Donald looked across at Mhairi, frustrated. He could tell, but not without revealing other people’s secrets too.
‘David, surely you of all people can see that sometimes a marriage shouldn’t be saved at any cost?’ Mhairi said instead.
David frowned. ‘Me? Why me?’
‘Well, because of Norman and Jayne. You see how it is between them. Y’ know the truth there. How is that a Christian marriage?’
David squinted back at her in confusion. ‘Mhairi, what are you talking about?’
‘Surely you...?’ Mhairi faltered as she saw the look of bewilderment on his face. ‘...Did Molly never say anything?’
‘About what?’
Donald and Mhairi swapped looks again.
‘About what?’ David pressed, as a silence billowed in the small room.
‘Norman beats Jayne,’ Mhairi said quietly.
David flinched. ‘ What? ’ A disbelieving scoff escaped him. ‘No...I would know. I see her all the time. She’s my friend. I would have seen—’
‘He hits her where her bruises can be hidden,’ Mhairi said in a low voice. ‘Flora told me.’
David didn’t reply. He looked ashen, and Mhairi could see he was replaying moments in his head, belatedly recognizing signs he might have missed. He and Jayne had grown close after Molly’s passing – but not that close.
‘Mary and I weren’t the only ones with a bad marriage,’ Donald said quietly. ‘But the difference was, we both wanted out. Jayne can’t, or won’t, leave Norman.’
David got up from his seat and walked the few paces across the width of the room. He turned back and did the same again, his breathing coming heavily.
‘Another drink?’ Donald asked, seeing his disturbance.
David nodded, and there was a silence as Donald poured. He handed over the glass and David downed it, seeming to savour the burn. ‘...Is he still doing it?’
‘You’re better placed to know that than us,’ Mhairi replied. ‘Flora tried to support her back home, but after your da’s accident, when your family needed the money for his bills, she couldn’t stay – not even for Jayne.’
He blinked, and Mhairi could see his eyes were watery. ‘Who else knows?’
‘I’m not sure. I think some might suspect.’
‘Does Effie know?’
She shrugged. ‘She went away to Ayrshire so quick after the evacuation. Flora told me Jayne made her promise not to tell anyone, but I think she needed to unburden herself. She only told me once she knew I was leaving for Harris; I suppose me going away too made it safer to confess the secret. Flora said she tried to get Jayne to leave him, but she couldn’t get through to her.’
David dropped his face into his hand. ‘How the hell didn’t I know?’ he whispered.
‘David, you mustn’t blame yourself,’ Mhairi said, putting a hand on his arm. ‘You couldn’t have known.’
‘Couldn’t I?’ he cried. ‘I’m her friend. I should have seen it!’
‘Not if Jayne was determined to hide it from you. You know how private she is. Her gift makes her...hide away. She can conceal herself in a room full of people.’
‘Not from me!’ he said. ‘I can always see her!’
Mhairi didn’t reply as he walked back to his chair and sank into it, clutching at his hair as he stared down at the floor. No one spoke for a long time.
‘I’m sorry. We thought y’ knew,’ she murmured at last, glancing at Donald. ‘We wouldn’t have said anything otherwise.’
‘Of course you should have! Do you know what he could do to her? He’s twice her size!’ David cried, looking back at them both. He had always been a mild-mannered sort, but Mhairi remembered that as a child he’d had his sister’s temper when pushed.
‘...David, I know it’s hard to hear, but it’s not for any of us to intervene. Flora tried and failed. And the truth is, if Jayne had wanted you to know, she’d have told you,’ she said as kindly as she could. ‘We have to respect her wishes. She’s a grown woman – she’ll do what she thinks is best.’
‘And what is that? Staying with him till one day he hits her that bit too hard and kills her?’
‘You think she should leave him?’ Donald asked him.
‘Of course she should.’
‘So then, you see now that sometimes a marriage isn’t godly? It can hide fouler sins?’
David stared back at him with blazing eyes as he realized the argument had come full circle. His elbows were splayed on his thighs, his head hanging heavy on his neck. He looked like a boxer in the corner of the ring. ‘And what could have been so bad in your marriage to compare to a woman being beaten till her bones break, Donald? What could have been worth giving up your child?’ David shook his head disgustedly. ‘You let Mary go to Canada! She’s taken your son halfway round the world. What kind of father would allow such a thing?’
Donald looked over at Mhairi again, their eyes locking. Everything came back to this. They couldn’t tell David their truth without revealing Flora’s. Their fates had been intertwined from the start, but with Mary – and Lorna – now gone to Canada, it was only a matter of time before the secrets became known.
Mhairi nodded at him reluctantly.
‘The baby isn’t mine, David.’
David blinked at him. ‘... What? ’
Donald sighed, a low, whistling sound that carried suffering and pain, as he came to sit in the chair opposite. ‘There’s something you should know...’
‘There’s really no need,’ David said, as Mhairi pulled on her coat.
‘I’m in need of some fresh air anyway,’ she said. ‘I’ve been indoors all day.’
‘Wishing you a merry Christmas,’ Donald said solemnly as he shook David’s hand. ‘Thank y’ for coming to see us. Tell the others we miss them.’
David nodded but struggled to find words back. What he had just heard – learned – would take some time to absorb and settle.
The door closed behind them, and neither David nor Mhairi spoke as they wound their way down the staircase. She instinctively moved in silence now, her ears straining for the click of latches; it was impossible to enter or exit the building without being observed, although God knew she had tried. She could only guess at the comments that would be trailing her tomorrow after they’d seen her walking out with another man.
It was still sleeting outside and they pulled their coats tighter at their necks as they walked along the narrow street towards the bus station. Coal smoke hung heavily in the air, every chimney puffing, the sandstone buildings blackened by soot.
‘I’m sorry you had to hear all this from us,’ Mhairi said, seeing how David had fallen into his thoughts. ‘I know Flora would have wanted to tell you herself, but with Mary and Lorna taking off for Canada like that, and then the newspaper headlines on Flora leaving the show...I don’t know if she’s been in touch, but if your parents were to hear...’
‘Aye, you’re right. They’d have heard soon enough and they’d be fair worried.’
‘Will you tell them?’
‘I’m not sure.’ He glanced at her. ‘They’ve been through so much lately. Da’s only just getting stronger and Ma’s been on her last nerve for weeks. To tell them all this...’ His voice broke. ‘How would I begin to explain it to them? Flora secretly had a baby that Mary and Lorna then stole?’
‘I know.’ If Mhairi hadn’t been there herself, she would have struggled to believe it. She put a hand on his arm. ‘Flora had to make some terrible choices, David. It was difficult enough trying to hide her pregnancy until James could come back and make an honest woman of her. But when she heard he was dead...When her circumstances changed, she gave up her boy for his sake, so that he could take the McKinnons’ name and grow up in respectability.’
David flinched, shaking his head in disbelief. ‘And you? If...if what happened hadn’t happened, would you really have given Mary your child?’
Mhairi closed her eyes, remembering the moment she had held her daughter in her arms, pink and perfect – her red hair, Donald’s nose. Could she have done it? All her life, she had cared about being good, doing good, her good name. But if her daughter had only breathed, would she have followed through?
‘Flora’s stronger than me,’ she said finally. ‘I don’t know if I could have been that selfless. But I do know I would have had comfort from knowing she would have been with her father.’
‘Do your parents know? Is that why...?’
She shook her head. ‘No. It’s bad enough with them thinking I jilted Alexander to take up with Donald.’
‘They are fair upset about that,’ he confessed.
‘Aye. You can imagine how they’d feel about this.’
He was quiet for a moment, for they both knew there were no platitudes he could offer. ‘It must have been so hard, having to hide everything.’
‘Aye, it was. And I wish I could say it’s better here and that we’ve got our happy ending, but...even though we’re together, we’re caught in limbo. We can’t marry because Mary has fled without granting Donald a divorce. And of course, to the outside world, I’m the scarlet woman who forced out a mother and her newborn baby.’
‘Ah,’ he nodded. ‘That certainly explains your neighbour’s choice words earlier when I knocked on the wrong door. She has a vicious tongue.’
‘They all do,’ she groaned, reaching for his arm and looping hers through it as they walked. ‘Thanks for not saying anything about that. I don’t want Donald to worry.’
‘He doesn’t know?’ he asked, surprised.
She shook her head. ‘But I can manage. I know what they’re saying isn’t true, and that’s all that really matters. Although sometimes I want so badly to tell them the truth about their sainted Mary! They think they’re defending a good woman.’
David scoffed at the thought too. ‘So why don’t you just leave here? Leave them behind you and go somewhere new?’
‘Because we can’t. Donald may be out on bail, but he remains a person of interest. As long as there isn’t another suspect with a strong motive for killing Mathieson, the suspicion is still on him. My alibi is the only thing keeping him a free man, and I think the police sergeant is convinced he can still build a case showing I’m a woman of disreputable character.’
‘You? Mhairi MacKinnon? Does he have the first idea who he’s dealing with?’ David teased, but with sad eyes.
‘Clearly not,’ she shrugged. ‘Either way, Donald’s bail conditions mean he can’t leave here, so we’re stuck. Our fate is entirely bound up in Mary’s actions.’
David stared at her. ‘You’ve been through so much. You and my sister.’
‘We’ve no one to blame but ourselves for our mistakes. Flora and I gave in to temptation, and we’ve both paid the price.’
‘But it was a far higher price than anyone should have to pay,’ he said, shaking his head. They rounded the corner, passing under a street lamp, and she saw that he was wearing a haunted look that hadn’t been there when he’d arrived earlier. ‘...Who else knew?’
‘You mean besides Donald, Lorna and Mary?’ Mhairi sighed. ‘Well, we had to tell Effie...and unfortunately Frank Mathieson found out.’
David stopped in his tracks. ‘Oh, no.’
‘Aye. Of all the people...He thought he could threaten us with it – till Donald put him in his place. But of course it was still a risk, him knowing.’
David looked alarmed. ‘Enough of a risk that...?’
‘No!’ She shook her head quickly, knowing exactly what he was thinking. ‘Donald didn’t kill him, David. The police said he had motive, but it was Frank who attacked Donald on Boreray for daring to challenge him on the prices he was paying us. Frank was the one raging when Donald bypassed him with the sale of the ambergris. It was Frank who wanted his blood.’
But David looked unconvinced. ‘So then, was it self-defence? It would be understandable, if Mathieson was harassing him one last time or threatening to go public about you—’
‘Donald has alibis for the whole night now. I was with him after midnight. And Mary said in her statements that Donald was in the cottage with her all evening, during the birth. Which he was. If the story was going to work, the two of them had to be holed up in there together until Lorna could get back over with the baby.’
They crossed the wide town square. A Christmas tree had been erected in the centre and the lights twinkled, reflecting in the puddles. A sparrow was perched on the back of a bench; twists of red tinsel glinted in the windows of the hat shop.
‘So then that means Lorna must have lied about her whereabouts to the police? She said she was in the cottage, when really she was over in Glen Bay with you.’ He glanced at her. ‘She’s a nurse, an official figure, and yet she misled the police like that?’
‘As we know now, she had plenty of her own secrets. This was her and Mary’s chance to have a family and they took it. She wasn’t going to let little white lies stand in the way of that.’
‘And you really think they’re...lovers?’ he faltered.
‘Well, obviously Flora had told me her suspicions on the telephone the night James came back, but when I told Donald, he was certain of it. He had put two and two together when the neighbours told him Lorna had been living here while he was in prison. She had told all of us she was returning to her family in Shetland. Of course, they all thought Lorna was just a friend helping her out with the baby, but...for him it all made sense. Little things he had seen before that he hadn’t given much thought to at the time. Like seeing them holding hands, which might have been innocent enough. But when Lorna stayed over while he had his head injury, he heard sounds coming from the other room.’
‘What sort of sounds?’
Mhairi arched an eyebrow and David immediately blushed. ‘Oh.’
‘Aye. He asked Lorna what they’d been doing but she told him he was delirious. Imagining things.’
‘I see.’ He looked ahead with a disconsolate expression, falling into his thoughts.
‘What is it?’
‘Nothing. It just makes you wonder, doesn’t it, how well we ever really know our friends and neighbours. All those years we lived cheek by jowl, and yet I never once suspected any of these secrets. Not Mary and Lorna’s. Not yours and Donald’s. Not Jayne and Norman’s...Am I such a fool?’
‘David, you see the best in people. There’s nothing wrong with that.’
‘No? Not even when people are getting hurt? Norman beats Jayne! Someone murdered Mathieson. They stabbed him repeatedly in the chest, over and over.’ He shook his head. ‘The rage they must have had...! Frank was a powerful man.’
‘Aye, but he was tied up, remember. Or at least, he was when Flora and I saw him.’
He looked back at her. ‘When did you see him?’ he frowned.
‘In the middle of the night, when we were coming back from the other side, after the birth...Flora could scarce walk. It took us hours.’
‘Oh!’ David flinched at the thought of his sister’s suffering. ‘Yes.’
‘Lorna had gone ahead with the baby to take it to Mary while it was still dark, so she could get the neighbours over as witnesses...’ Mhairi faltered as she thought back, remembering the horror of that night, Flora’s pitiful cries as she had staggered over the moor. ‘When we saw Frank, he was on the ground and tied up, just as Effie had left him. He was conscious, but barely. He’d got through most of a bottle of whisky.’
‘Whisky? Where did he get that from?’ They both knew the minister had been intolerant of any alcohol on the isle.
‘Captain McGregor brought it over for Eff, with the money she’d earned guiding...It was all planned. She needed to keep Mathieson incapacitated until she could get off the island. She’d tied him up, but she’d left a knife nearby for him to free himself, and some water and oatcakes. It was enough to keep him going till the Harebell dropped anchor a few days after. Frank was out of it when we passed by, but definitely alive.’
‘My God,’ he muttered. ‘All this was happening that last night.’
‘I know. I keep wondering if we were the last people to see him alive. Well, I mean – apart from the murderer.’
They had arrived at the bus stop now. A few people were lingering, and several heads turned at her last word.
David stood in silence for a few moments and she could see he was thinking hard.
‘What?’ she asked, seeing his concern grow.
He lowered his voice to little more than a whisper. ‘In the photos the police showed us, the ropes had been cut. Mathieson had got himself free.’
Mhairi shuddered at the thought of what the factor might have done to Effie if he hadn’t been attacked. ‘Okay.’ She wasn’t sure where he was leading with this.
‘That suggests to me it had to have been a man who did it.’ A dark look came into his eyes. ‘A strong man – with a strong propensity for violence.’
Mhairi stared at him, sensing a hypothesis quickly taking root in his mind. ‘Norman?’
‘He’s probably one of the few men who would have been able to go toe to toe with Mathieson physically.’
She blinked rapidly. She had never particularly liked Norman, but to see him as a murderer...? ‘He and Frank were friends, though. They were always together.’
‘Precisely. And it’s almost impossible for anyone to spend time with either one of them for more than ten minutes and not have some sort of disagreement break out. They’re both bullies and they both like to be top dog. It would have been Frank on St Kilda, given his position with MacLeod. But once we were evacuated...I wouldn’t be surprised if Norman began to overstep, would you?’
Mhairi remembered only too well Norman’s grandiose ambitions. He had denied his own sister her happiness because he wanted her to ‘marry up’ like Flora and wed a rich man from the mainland.
David dropped his head lower towards her as he leaned against the wall. ‘There’s a theory that Mathieson was stealing from MacLeod, isn’t there?’ he asked. ‘Effie said the police arrested the steward at Sholto’s estate, and he confessed there were three of them in it. Him, Frank, and another.’
‘Something like that...’ Mhairi said slowly. ‘Although I’m not sure if it’s proven.’
‘Well – what if the third man was Norman?’
‘As far as I know, there’s only this steward’s word for that, and I wouldn’t put much credence by what he had to say. Effie told me he even tried to implicate her in the thefts.’
‘But just say it was Norman,’ David pressed, a dog with a bone now. ‘There’s no honour among thieves; it would have been each man for himself. What if one of them double-crossed the others? They had a disagreement, it became a fight...We were only hours away from leaving the isle at that point. Norman would have known he had a good chance of getting away.’
‘That’s pure speculation David. We have no proof of any of it. Not that they were in cahoots together, nor that they fought...’
But David was looking at her with newfound conviction. ‘It was him, Mhairi. I know it was. And I’m going to go to the police and tell them.’
‘David, stop,’ she said, catching him by the arm. ‘You mustn’t be rash. Until you can be sure.’
‘Why are you so resistant?’ He frowned. ‘This would get Donald off the hook!’
‘I know – and that’s all I want. But if you make an accusation that can’t be supported, who knows what Norman might do? If he doesn’t come for you, he could...he could take it out on Jayne.’
For the first time, David slackened.
Mhairi went on. ‘If there’s anything Donald’s experience with the police has shown me, it’s that you need to have proof. And Norman must have an alibi or else they’d be looking at him too.’ She shrugged.
David’s eyes began to shine, a small smile growing on his lips. ‘No, he doesn’t.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘I don’t know where he was the night of the murder, but I do know Jayne wasn’t at home with him.’
‘How do you know?’
‘Because she was with me.’
‘ What? ’
‘Aye. Jayne and I spent that last night in the burial ground together, sleeping beside Molly’s grave. We didn’t want her to be alone.’
Mhairi’s mouth fell open. For a moment, she had thought perhaps there was more to David’s friendship with Jayne than anyone had realized. He was clearly protective of her...
‘Don’t you see, Mhairi? Even if he was at home that night, he can’t prove it. Norman doesn’t have an alibi!’ He nodded. She could see that he was agreeing with the internal dialogue in his head, his instincts growing bolder.
‘David—’
‘I’m going to the police as soon as I get back.’
‘David, no.’
‘Aye. It’ll kill two birds with one stone: clear Donald from the investigation, and protect Jayne. You know as well as I do that for as long as she’s under the same roof as him, she’s not safe. She’s living not just with a monster, but a murderer.’
‘You don’t know that! For all you know, he was at home all night, even if she was out with you. You’ve got to check with Jayne before you do anything. She’ll know what Norman told the police.’
‘It doesn’t matter what he said,’ he argued. ‘Jayne can’t possibly be his alibi if she was with me. And if he can’t prove he was at home that night – then that, along with his reputation for violence, has to make him a person of interest or whatever it’s called.’
Mhairi stared at him, seeing his desire – his need – for revenge. It was, after all, a dish best served cold. He wanted to point the police towards Norman for a crime he might not have committed, to punish him for one that he had.
‘...Did you tell the police you were with Jayne that night?’ she asked.
For the first time, David faltered.
‘...Well? Did you?’
‘No.’
‘Why not?’
‘Because she asked me not to. She said it could be awkward to explain. That people might...’
‘So then, you lied to the police too?’
‘...I was protecting Jayne, Mhairi. I was protecting her then and I’m protecting her now.’
Was he? Or was this vengeance for being kept apart from Molly in her final few months of life? Mhairi stared back at David, seeing for the first time how much he hated Norman – enough to put him in the frame for murder. She had always loved him like a brother, and he felt like blood to her, but he had been right earlier. How well do we ever really know our friends and neighbours?