The Gowrie Conspiracy Read Online Free PDF Page A

‘It is the year 1600, the end of July and you are in the grounds of Falkland Palace in Fife.’
    As she led him up the turnpike stair into her lodging, Tam was relieved that he had found someone well prepared for his unexpected arrival. Especially a young woman as attractive as Tansy Scott. Tall and slender, with red-gold hair and sparkling blue eyes. As he tried in vain to recall her grandmother , a Janet Beaton whom he had obviously encountered some years ago, Tansy asked,
    ‘Can you tell me anything – about yourself, where you came from?’
    Tam shook his head. How could he begin to tell her that therules for time-travellers were inviolate. Access to memories relating to earlier quests or any memory of the present that he had temporarily abandoned was forbidden to him.
    ‘My granddam hinted that you were from the future, oh – hundreds of years hence,’ Tansy said helpfully, ‘when machines and men flew in the air like birds and carriages moved without horses. When men, by the turn of a switch, could see what was happening in other lands and planets. See and talk to people across time and space through a tiny box held in the palm of their hand –’
    She paused as if waiting for confirmation and, when there was none, she added triumphantly, ‘Even your name – Tam Eildor – by rearranging the letters Janet Beaton worked out that it spelt “a time lord”.’
    Tam could not tell her a great deal more than that. How to explain that he did indeed come from a future where men had not only conquered space travel but also time itself?
    There were no longer any unsolved mysteries except those of ancient history, but once on a mission a time-detective was bound by the laws and methods available in the Earth-time of his chosen period. In effect Tam had only his own wits and resources with no more facilities than were available to the persons and criminals he was investigating. Nor could any action of his change the course of recorded history.

    Since Tam was similarly cut off from the present he had just left, he was unable to provide Tansy with any useful information . His only certainty was that he was on the threshold of some momentous event that had baffled historians. An event about which he was in total ignorance – as much as those living in Falkland Palace at the end of July 1600. He must wait and see, be vigilant, and patient.

    Before the episode of the runaway horse and his first meeting with King James, Tam had a chance to familiarise himself with his surroundings and get to know Tansy Scott and,through her, become acquainted with Queen Anne and the trying conditions of her royal marriage.
    He found favour immediately in the Queen’s eyes as an agreeable young man who was kin to her broiderer Mistress Tansy Scott, the latter having quickly invented a cousin from the Borders to explain his presence there.
    The queen, never one to be curious about those who served her, accepted this fiction and merely agreed that there was indeed a strong family resemblance. ‘Cousins, indeed,’ she said. ‘You could be brother and sister – twins even.’
    Out of Her Grace’s presence, Tansy laughed and standing with Tam before a looking-glass they could see sense in the royal observation.
    Apart from one having red hair and the other black, their features were undoubtedly alike. The same bone structure, firm chin and wide eyes, the same mouth, especially as Tam was beardless unlike the court fashion of the time.
    They were also of a similar age. Tam, regardless of his travels , remained in his mid-thirties. Tansy born in December 1567 was eighteen months years younger than the king and had been married at fifteen, a dynastic marriage to a Ruthven neighbour.
    Walter Murray of Tullibardine had been twice Tansy’s age. Childless, she had rebelled against his cruelty and the privations of her life, relieved when estate interests took him across the Borders. There he found a mistress who presented him with a son and heir