Knowledge of Sins Past by Conyngham Lexie

Author:Conyngham, Lexie [Conyngham, Lexie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Historical Mystery
Published: 2011-06-19T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

Outside, the rain fell unremittingly. Inside, the castle had another occupant: lurking, feeling its way around the doorways, fingering the tapestries and carpets, lingering on the stairs, the smell of the solander goose they had had to eat for dinner was an evil presence that it seemed only exorcism would ever remove.

Mrs. Costane said that Lord Scoggie had appeared in triumph with the bird just before they had all left for Cocky’s funeral, and when she had recovered from the shock, and had suggested, with heavy sarcasm, that it would be nicely complimented by a bit of herring, Lord Scoggie had agreed with enthusiasm.

‘You’d never find either on an Edinburgh dinner table,’ she told Murray bitterly, when he came downstairs in the morning to find out what had died. ‘The man must have no sense of smell in his head.’ Hannah had a cloth tied over her face as she roasted the bird, and even Andrew, used to the exotic dishes of Kirkcaldy, was looking distinctly green.

‘Henry might like the skull for his collection,’ Murray suggested hesitantly. ‘If it’s well boiled, anyway.’

‘He’ll be lucky,’ said Hannah indistinctly. ‘As far as I’m concerned, there’s not a fragment of this bird that’s staying in the castle for longer than it takes to whisk it off the dinner table.’ Indeed, he noticed, she was flinging handfuls of white feathers into the roaring kitchen fire, where they added a sugary taste to the overwhelming fishy reek. He did not feel inclined to argue, and left.

The texture of the goose, which was the size of a reasonable turkey, left nothing much to be desired. Lord Scoggie had set to with every appearance of enjoyment, but on most of the plates the goose meat was abandoned at the first attempt, and Deborah actually excused herself from the table until it had all been taken away. The herring went down with greater ease, though it was true that Murray had not seen it on a polite table in Edinburgh for years. To object to its offensive smell seemed petty after the goose.

After dinner, Beatrix and Deborah hurried about the castle opening windows, but somehow the rain outside seemed to form an effective curtain, preventing the smell escaping. As they went they flapped at their shawls and their skirts, as if afraid that the smell would be clinging to them just as effectively – to Murray, discreetly flicking at his coat tails and catching Major Keyes doing the same, it seemed far from unreasonable. It was too wet to take a walk or a ride outside, though Lady Scoggie could not resist wrapping herself in several layers and setting off in a trap for some sickly victim, and at last in desperation the girls, Murray and his charges, and Major Keyes retreated to the gallery, as far up the castle as they could go, and dug out the carpet bowls. The rain darkened the room despite the high windows, and they lit some of the candles in the brackets along the gallery.

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