Chapter 49
GUSTS OF WIND PULL HER hair loose from her coif as Elspet turns to face the biting cold. Pulling her cloak closer around her shoulders, she can’t help smiling. It feels like an Orkneyjar wind.
It’s several days after Schoner interrupted Primrose’s accusations, a bright, icy morning.
The crags of Arthur’s Seat called to her; she could resist them no longer.
So she set off, striding up towards the grey rocks, feeling relief at moving her body and the exertion of walking.
Her breath quickens and her limbs warm as the tangles of gorse catch on her long skirts.
As she climbs the steep hill, she thinks of nothing but putting one foot in front of the other. Her heart pounds in her chest and her concentration is taken up with the physical exertion until she reaches the top.
The summit is a craggy outcrop of rock; she turns into the wind to look out over the city.
It appears smaller from up here – less frightening, less overwhelming.
The great thoroughfare of Canongate leading from Holyrood into the walled city of Edinburgh looks no wider than a length of wool, spooling from the distaff of a woman spinning by the fire.
Her eyes go slack, the criss-crossing wynds and closes swim in her vision like a cloth weaving itself.
She has almost succeeded in the first part of her task, to keep the bairn well until their birth.
But the second, much more terrifying part is still to come.
How can they do this audacious thing under the scrutiny of the King’s physician?
The Queen is afraid, Elspet can tell. And Margaret has been even more spiky than usual, frustrated that they’re committed to doing something so foolhardy without a complete plan.
Only Beatrix remains optimistic, but Elspet knows they all look to her to find the way forward. Just as the Orkneyjar folk do.
So she’s come up here, into the open space and wild wind to clear her head and think, something she can’t do in the confines of Holyrood or the busy streets of the city.
Here, with the wind harsh against her skin, she feels the answer in the air.
She’s known it all along, she realises. There is no other way.
While she can’t know how he’ll react, she wants to trust the man.
He is arrogant, he is ambitious, and he is a snob.
But she also recognises in him someone who wants to do the best for those in his care.
She recognises this because it’s a trait they both have.
He knows how cruel the King can be, and he knows how the Queen suffers at the thought of being separated from her child.
And now he’s been named her personal physician, her Master Medicinar, elevated to this lofty station above all others who care for her, his responsibility is even greater.
More than this, she feels comforted that he’ll become her confidant.
She’s come to respect him; she wants him on their side, wants his help to perform this final task.
They must tell Martin Schoner the truth about the plan to switch the bairns. The thought frightens her but she trusts God is guiding her in this insight – as he has guided her through this fraught situation so far.
Relieved to have finally seen what they must do, she stands a while, allowing the wind and the wild air on the crags to comfort her, before heading back towards the city.
‘I don’t want to threaten you with the revocation of your title and salary,’ the Queen says, her hands closed over her muckle round belly, her voice hard as stone, ‘but if I must, I will.’
Martin Schoner stares at her – he looks as shocked as if she had slapped him.
‘Believe me,’ the Queen continues, ‘this plan will be carried out, with or without your assistance. Your only decision here is whether you wish to maintain your position.’
They have decided to do this together – hoping the combined influence of the Queen of Scotland, ladies of the eminent Ruthven and Gordon families, and one of the wealthiest women in Scotland will be enough to convince Schoner to join them.
Queen Anna decided she must be the one to ask him. ‘Coming from anyone else, he might be tempted to go to the King. From me, he’ll have to agree – surely,’ she’d said when they came to the decision. It had seemed like a good plan.
But now, looking at the physician’s expression of pure disbelief, Elspet is beginning to regret her advice. Have they made a dreadful mistake?
‘And you know nobody would believe you,’ the Queen goes on, ‘so don’t even think about telling anyone what I have just told you.’
Schoner holds up his hands in surrender. ‘You don’t need to threaten me.’
‘What then?’ the Queen demands. ‘What is your response?’
‘My response—’ Schoner says.
‘Yes,’ Margaret says impatiently. ‘Will you help us or not?’
Schoner looks around the room with the eyes of an animal caught in a trap. ‘You put me in an impossible position – you must see that this is treason.’
‘We’re not stupid,’ Margaret snaps. ‘This is not news to us.’
‘It’s not treason if nobody finds out,’ Beatrix says, ‘and they won’t.’
‘I don’t see that you have a choice,’ the Queen says authoritatively. ‘I’ll see to it that your reputation will be in tatters if you refuse.’
Schoner shakes his head sadly. ‘The brutality towards the King in this country is a terrible thing. I know you feel it too, Your Majesty, coming from a country where royalty is revered. I can see why you think it would be a terrible fate for a child to follow in the footsteps of King James.’
‘Then you’ll help us?’ Beatrix asks.
Schoner meets her gaze. ‘I’ve been caring for the Queen since the first days of this pregnancy. I remember her desperation, her dreadful sadness that this baby would be taken from her. I have wondered, you know . . .’
‘What?’ Elspet prompts gently.
‘Why the Queen feels so much happier. I see you’ve continued to maintain a show of anger against the King because of his determination to send the child to Stirling – and I understand why, he must not guess you have a plan to defy his will – but I can see you no longer suffer as you did.’
‘You suspected something?’ the Queen says.
He shakes his head. ‘I would never have believed this if you hadn’t told me yourself. You are only four women . . .’ He trails off.
‘And you wouldn’t have believed women capable of a plan like this?’ Margaret finishes for him.
‘In all honesty, no.’
‘Well, I suppose that works in our favour,’ the Queen says with some amusement. Elspet thinks once more of Jean’s words at Dunrobin. In the light we smile and acquiesce. What we do in the shadows is our own business.
Schoner takes a deep breath. ‘My fate is tied to yours. You secured that when I became Master Medicinar. The cruelty King James has been subjected to all his life has made him cruel in return: his threats to me prove that. I can’t pretend I would choose this course, but if you have decided upon it, I will walk it with you. ’
‘But can we trust you?’ Margaret says, pinning him to his chair with the strength of her gaze.
‘Yes,’ Schoner says with a determined nod.
Elspet examines his face closely, lets her thoughts flow freely as she reads his expression. She can’t be certain, of course, but she believes he speaks the truth. Relief floods her body, and she claps her hands together. ‘We have much planning to do.’