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Back The Darkest Shore Save as PDF
Chapters (76)
  1. Cover
  2. About the Author
  3. Also by Karen Brooks
  4. Title Page
  5. Dedication
  6. EXPLANATORY NOTE
  7. PART ONE
  8. One
  9. Two
  10. Three
  11. Four
  12. Five
  13. Six
  14. Seven
  15. Eight
  16. Nine
  17. Ten
  18. Eleven
  19. Twelve
  20. Thirteen
  21. Fourteen
  22. Fifteen
  23. Sixteen
  24. Seventeen
  25. Eighteen
  26. Nineteen
  27. Twenty
  28. Twenty-One
  29. Twenty-Two
  30. Twenty-Three
  31. Twenty-Four
  32. Twenty-Five
  33. Twenty-Six
  34. Twenty-Seven
  35. Twenty-Eight
  36. PART TWO
  37. Twenty-Nine
  38. Thirty
  39. Thirty-One
  40. Thirty-Two
  41. Thirty-Three
  42. Thirty-Four
  43. Thirty-Five
  44. PART THREE
  45. Thirty-Six
  46. Thirty-Seven
  47. Thirty-Eight
  48. Thirty-Nine
  49. Forty
  50. Forty-One
  51. Forty-Two
  52. Forty-Three
  53. Forty-Four
  54. Forty-Five
  55. Forty-Six
  56. Forty-Seven
  57. Forty-Eight
  58. Forty-Nine
  59. Fifty
  60. Fifty-One
  61. Fifty-Two
  62. PART FOUR
  63. Fifty-Three
  64. Fifty-Four
  65. Fifty-Five
  66. Fifty-Six
  67. Fifty-Seven
  68. Fifty-Eight
  69. Fifty-Nine
  70. Sixty
  71. Sixty-One
  72. Epilogue: Autumn 1706
  73. AUTHOR’S NOTE
  74. GLOSSARY
  75. LIST OF CHARACTERS
  76. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Twenty-Five

TWENTY-FIVE

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One Thomas Brown, the only man accused by [Peter] Morton, imprisoned by the minister and bailies, after a great deal of hunger and hardship, died in prison…

— An Answer of a Letter From a Gentleman of Fife, 1705

God damn. God damn them all. Thomas Brown was dead. Found in his cell this June morning, lifeless, cold, bloodied and bruised and fucking well dead.

If only he hadn’t ordered the guards to ignore the pleas for sustenance and medick the women imprisoned with the old man had made. If only he hadn’t made that sappie-headed fool Camron MacGille Tolbooth keeper after Alick’s dismissal. If only the guards hadn’t been so precise in fulfilling their duties…

This wasn’t his fault.

Patrick Cowper paced back and forth in his drawing room, trying to think through the ramifications of this news, delivered by a breathless constable whom the reverend then demanded accompany him back to the Tolbooth so he could see Brown’s body for himself. Ordering Angus Stuart and the Tolbooth guards to remove the hysterical women first, he’d waited until he was quite alone before examining the corpse. Staring at the pale underweight body covered in cuts, bruises and scars, it was evident he was as dead as a fishwife’s herring. He certainly smelled like one.

Squatting beside the cadaver, Patrick shut his eyes. If anyone blundered in, it would look as though he was praying. His mind worked swiftly. How could he turn this disaster to his and thus the town’s advantage? Thomas Brown had lasted over two months in the Tolbooth only to drop dead now. Instructing Angus and Cameron to take the body upstairs to the council room, he’d waited until the doctor examined the cadaver and had given his verdict, then returned home.

Patrick thumped his fist against the mantlepiece in rage.

Pain shot through his hand and up his arm. Inhaling sharply, he cradled his fist in his other hand, feeling the heat rush into it. He breathed heavily to calm himself. Think, he remonstrated. Think! What to do? How to explain this catastrophe. He rubbed his injured hand absent-mindedly. The fucking witch wasn’t meant to keel over. He was meant to be put to the flame before the town so folk could see that justice was served; that demons had been excised. That he, Patrick Cowper, had kept them safe.

What was he to do now?

Brown was the only man identified by Peter Morton. Worried the lad had misstepped, it wasn’t until the Laing woman also named Brown as one of those who had made a pact with the devil that the decision to imprison him was validated. If she hadn’t, then they’d be in more trouble than a Jacobite at Whitehall.