An Ensuing Evil and Others Read Online Free PDF

for you were deep in sleep and… and snoring with a sound fit to wake the dead.” She grinned provocatively at him.
    “How long was it before Garban came to our chamber?” he snapped.
    “I went back to bed but could not sleep. Perhaps he came within the hour. I cannot be sure, only that it was not very long.”
    The brehon looked troubled. “The Lady Gruoch told you that she could confirm you were by her side all night. Yet now we find that she left the bed, and who is to provide her with an alibi? We must send for her again.”
    Lady Gruoch stood before them shortly afterward. She looked guilty but not alarmed. “Yes. I left the chamber. I have already told you that I do not sleep well. That was the reason why I asked the maid Margreg to fetch me mulled wine.”
    “But you were seen going down the corridor,” pointed out the brehon. “Where did you go, lady?”
    The Lady Gruoch raised her chin defiantly. “If you must know, I came to see my brother.”
    MacBeth looked unhappy. He glanced at Cothromanach, who was gazing thoughtfully at her. “This is a sensitive matter, lady. You know of what you might be accused? You know why I need to clarify the matter?”
    “I know it well enough, my lord. But I came here for a purpose that I would keep between myself and his soul. All you need to know is that my brother was well and alive when I came here. Furthermore, when I left him, he was still alive and well.”
    “That is not all I need to know, madam!” MacBeth almost shouted.
    “Softly, noble lord,” intervened the brehon. Then he turned to Lady Gruoch. “But in truth, the noble lord is right, madam. We need to know the reason that you came here like a thief in the night. What intercourse could you have with your brother that needed such secrecy as to be conducted in the blackness of the night, that needed to be kept secret from your own husband?”
    The Lady Gruoch was flushed and unhappy. She gazed at MacBeth for several moments and turned back to the brehon. “Very well. You will already have the evidence, so I will confess to you.”
    MacBeth groaned helplessly. “Evidence? What are you saying, lady?”
    “It is common knowledge that my brother, Malcolm, was going to claim the High Kingship when my husband’s grandfather dies or abdicates the throne at Sgain. It is well known that MacBeths cousin, Duncan, is favored to succeed. Yet he is not the choice of the people, even in Atholl. My brother planned to raise the clans of Moray against Sgain. For that he needed money. I was given many jewels by my husband as wedding gifts when I married him. Much that I owned perished in Gillecomgains castle. So I decided that my brother could make better use of the gifts from MacBeth.”
    “You say that you brought these jewels to your brother in the middle of the night?” asked MacBeth doubtfully.
    “It was just after midnight, an appointment that I had arranged with my brother last evening so that no one would know of the gift.”
    “Was his door secured?”
    “Yes. It was bolted, but he opened when he heard my voice call to him.”
    “You say that you left him alive?”
    “I did so. He secured the door after me.”
    “And you went straightaway back to your bedchamber?”
    “I did. And that was, as I say, just after midnight.”
    “The trouble is that you have no witness that he was alive when you left here,” the brehon sighed.
    “I did not think I needed a witness. I understood from Margreg that the servant Segan disturbed the killer and was knocked unconscious by him some hours after I left my brother. That shows that I am innocent of the deed.”
    As she had been speaking, the elderly brehon had been examining the room very carefully.
    “What is it?” demanded MacBeth curiously. “What do you seek?”
    Cothromanach looked at him and smiled thinly. “Why, a bag of jewels, what else?”
    Lady Gruoch stared at him in disbelief. “You found no jewels? But that was the evidence that I thought you had