It was one with her mood, that wind, wildly unsettled. The gulls sought to ride it in high, soaring circles, but even they wobbled and gave up the effort and aimed their flight over the sea. And however the sun might be trying to shine, the wind chased clouds in front of it so that the sky was a blanket of grey, dull and surly.
Matthew told her, “You’re quiet, the day. Not yourself.”
“Am I not?”
“No,” he said. “Something’s happened.”
Lily realized he was only prying from concern. She said, “The Bass surrendered.”
Matthew’s face relaxed. “Aye. But I reckon they had only reached a stalemate in their play, as I was taught by a wise strategist. They have but lost one battle,” he said, looking down at Lily, “and their king yet lives.”
That made her feel irrationally better. “You should tell the same to Walter. It might cheer him.”
“Walter needs to sit a few days with his melancholy before he’ll be ready to be cheered. I ken the nature of my brothers.”
“Just as Archie kens our weak sides?” Lily teased him.
“In a way. Though weak sides are not hard to see in people, once you learn the way of it,” said Matthew. “Take Henry, now. Henry would like to believe we’re an ordinary family. He wishes for that more than anything, and he’ll do anything if it will help him to keep that illusion. Our Walter, he’s hopeful that Archie will send him beyond seas to study. To Amsterdam, maybe. Or Paris. Won’t happen, but Walter keeps hoping if he does good work, maybe next year. The year after.” His voice held the same tone it had on the day they had talked of the women who lived in the house in the Paunchmarket. “Simon’s more difficult, but I think he feels he somehow owes Archie.”
Lily said, “He does owe Archie.” She told him about the day Simon had beaten the man half to death in their house. “It cost Archie a great deal of money to settle that so Mr. Fearne wouldn’t bring charges. We were all terrified Simon would hang, or be transported off to the plantations in one of Mr. Fearne’s ships, for at first he refused Archie’s money, but Barbara persuaded him.”
Lily stopped then, having realized that Matthew was no longer walking beside her. A few paces back, he had planted his feet. Now he turned from her, looking out over the water that stretched out this morning as grey as a blade to the opposite shore of the firth.
Retracing her steps, she came close to him. “I didn’t ken that nobody had telt ye.”
“How bad was the beating?”
She said, “Mr. Fearne nearly died. Simon said he deserved it.” She stood there a moment and looked at the water, too, thinking, then asked him, “What’s Archie’s weak side?”
Matthew’s half smile was grim. “Greed.”
“As simple as that?”
“Aye. There’s nothing and no one he’ll not sell for silver. Just mind that.”
She promised she would. Lily paused. “And what’s mine?”
Matthew’s head turned, and the look he angled down at her was warm. “You always wish to see the best in people.” In his quiet voice, it sounded like an accusation.
Lily knew he spoke the truth, for Jean had told her the same thing when she was younger, but it made her feel exposed to think that Matthew had seen with such keen eyes to her heart.
She said, “Ye ken nothing about me.”
He did not back down, but held her gaze. In truth it seemed he came a little nearer. “I ken everything about you.”
Lily looked at him and could not breathe.
And then the sky tore open and the rain came, in a sudden, unrelenting downpour. Everywhere around them people scattered from the Links and sought the shelter of the town, and Matthew laughed and grabbed her hand and Lily ran with him.
There was nobody else at home at Riddell’s Close. He came with her upstairs and said, “You’ll catch your death unless you get dry clothes on.”
His own coat was soaked, but once he’d shrugged it off, the shirt and waistcoat underneath were not much more than damp, and his broad hat had better caught the water and deflected it than her poor straw one.
Matthew opened up the box beneath the window. There was some discussion over what clothes she would need, but in the end he passed her towels, and said, “Here, take these. And this. And this.” A shift was added to the pile, together with a petticoat and bodice in a print of orange flowers and green vines. “You can take these to the closet. I’ll wait here, in case the searchers come.”