Jewels on the Move by Rennie McOwan

Author:Rennie McOwan [Rennie McOwan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: F
Publisher: SAGA Egmont
Published: 2023-05-02T00:00:00+00:00

12

River to the Rescue

It was Mot who saved them. The man did not know about Mot. He had not spied the boy.

The man bent down to examine the bundles, tearing off the flax and cloth used as padding. ‘But … these are the Scottish jewels!’ he whispered in disbelief. ‘They’re supposed to be in Dunottar Castle. That’s why we’ve laid siege to the place.’

He examined the sword hilt, crown and sceptre closely, giving little cries of astonishment. ‘Well, who’d have believed it?’ he said. ‘The jewels! The Honours of Scotland! These stones – they’re worth a fortune! I’ll be well rewarded for this. Cromwell wants this lot. I’ll be famous!’

He looked at the children slowly. They had not moved, except for Mot who had wriggled down among the rocks.

Clare had tears of frustration in her eyes. The man had treated the jewels very roughly, and some of the pearls had fallen out of their settings and were lying on the sand. The man bent down and picked them up. ‘Oh, dear … some of these stones have broken off,’ he said. ‘Well, no one will miss them, will they? Could have broken off any time. I reckon I deserve some payment for this. I can sell them later.’

To Clare’s horror he put the pearls in a pocket in his jerkin.

He looked sourly at the children, his hand back on the hilt of his sword. ‘Well, well!’ he said, with an evil smile, ‘I think I’m beginning to see it all now. We’re laying siege to the castle to get the jewels, but all the time you children have smuggled them out. Let me tell you – Cromwell won’t be pleased about your part in all this, trying to stop his plans. He wants these jewels. Yes, he wants them very much.’

Some movement caught Clare’s eye. She remained very still, but she had spied Mot crawling around the side of the rocks until he was behind the man yet still hidden.

‘Stay where you are, lass,’ the man said to Clare, sensing her sudden unease. He drew his sword and stuck it in the sand beside him. ‘You there!’ he called to Gavin, Michael and Morven. ‘Don’t try anything or I’ll split this girl like a hen.’ He pulled the sword out of the sand, pointed it menacingly at Clare and stuck it back in the sand again. He bundled the flax and the jewels back into the sack, then reached into a pocket of his jerkin and pulled out a length of twine made of horse hair. He then used the twine to tie the sack like a parcel so that the slit was securely closed.

Clare could not help herself calling out ‘Please be careful!’ as he pulled the twine tight, because she could hear the jewels grating and rubbing against one another in the sack. The flax and cloth padding had become loose with so much handling.

The man merely grinned unpleasantly. ‘A bit of bashing and a few lost stones don’t worry me,’ he said.

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