by Ann Swinfen
‘William and Liza can also be trusted,’ I said to Adam, then I quickly repeated what he had told me of the attack on the soldiers.
William flushed with anger. ‘It is always thus,’ he said tightly, ‘if I had not had Dr Alvarez’s care and my family to come to, I too would have been starving in a gutter, or probably dead. How long will men continue to enlist, to fight for England, when we are treated so?’
Adam gave a shaky smile, and sank on to a stool.
‘As long as men are hungry and gullible enough to believe the promises of the men who rule us.’
‘Enough!’ Liza said. ‘You should be lying down, not talking of politics. Can you manage the stairs? We have a little room at the back, not much more than a storeroom, but there’s a cot and blankets. Perhaps it will serve.’
‘I thank you mistress,’ he said, and got stiffly to his feet.
‘I will come back to see you soon,’ I said, as he followed Liza through the doorway.
‘William?’ I turned to him. ‘Could young Will run with a message for me, to Seething Lane? I have information I must pass on.’
‘Of course. Here.’ He drew paper and quills out of a drawer at the back of the shop. ‘And there is ink here, and wax. I will go next door and find Will.’
By the time he returned with his nephew, I had written a quick note to Phelippes, telling him everything I had discovered about the departure of Nicholas Borecroft and the Italian puppeteers, and that I had been unable to find Poley. I said nothing of my meeting with Adam, nor that I had heard about the betrayal of the soldiers. It would be best to pretend ignorance of that for the moment.
‘Here you are, Will,’ I said, stamping my seal on the soft wax and fanning the letter in the air for a moment to harden it. ‘This must go to the house of Sir Francis Walsingham in Seething Lane. Do you know where Seething Lane is?’
‘Aye, near the Tower.’
‘That’s right. Anyone there can tell you which is the house. Go in by the stableyard and up the backstairs. The letter is for Master Thomas Phelippes. If he is not there, give it to Master Francis Mylles. Do you understand?’
‘Aye, Dr Alvarez. I can do that. I’m a very fast runner!’
‘Good.’ I smiled. ‘Here’s a groat for you, but don’t run so fast you fall.’
He took the letter and jumped out of the door. William smiled at me.
‘Don’t worry. He’s a good lad. He will see it safely delivered.’
I sat back with a sigh. ‘I can see that. I’m beholden to you and your family, William.’
‘No more than I am to you. Will you take a sup of ale?
I shook my head. ‘I thank you, but no. I must go home and change my clothes. I slept in them last night and I feel like a booby set up to scare pigeons from the young wheat. I’ll be at the Lopez house in Wood Street if I am needed.’
‘Don’t worry,’ he said again, and glanced at the ceiling, where we could hear footsteps above. ‘We’ll keep him safe.’
‘I know you will,’ I said, and shook his hand.
Chapter Eleven
By the time I reached Wood Street it was well past midday and I realised how hungry I was. The whole house seemed very quiet and instead of ringing the hand bell for one of the servants I made my way to the back of the house and the kitchen. A furry shape threw itself at me and I grabbed the doorframe to save myself from being knocked over.
‘Poor Rikki,’ I said, fending off the worst of the wet licking. ‘I’m afraid I’ve been neglecting you these last few days.’
‘Aye.’ Ned Somer, the cook, gave me a sour look. ‘He’s been under my feet the while. Master said he was to stay here, out the way, and he’s for ever in front of me, tripping me up. I nearly sent a sambocade flying across the room last night.’
‘I’m sorry.’ I was contrite. ‘I was sent off by Master Phelippes somewhere I couldn’t take the dog and only got back to Sir Francis’s house near midnight. I slept on the floor there. And all today I’ve been about his business.’
Somer sniffed, as if he did not believe me. I knew my dealings with Sir Francis’s service were a mystery to the servants, and must remain that way. Even the Lopez family had very little idea of what I did, apart from code-breaking, and no one would have expected me to be roaming the streets of London in the middle of the night if that was what I was about.
‘Is everyone out?’ I asked. ‘The house seems very quiet.’
‘Master is off to the Privy Council again. Master Ambrose has gone back to his grandfather. The ladies have taken the children to visit Mistress Nuñez and will not be back until this evening.’
Trust the servants, I thought, to know everyone’s business. In fact, Somer probably knew exactly what I had been doing for the last few days.
It was time to assert myself. ‘I’ll take some cold pie and ale in the small parlour,’ I said, ‘and some of those early apples.’ I pointed to a bowl on a hanging shelf. There was a small orchard at the bottom of the garden and one of the trees, of an unknown variety, produced small apples the size and almost the colour of plums very early in the year. I ignored Somer’s offended look and called Rikki to follow me.
Upstairs in my small room I found water and towels, which had probably been put out for me last night, when I had failed to come home. The water was cold now, but I washed with it anyway, stripping off my stale clothes and washing all over. Once I was dressed in clean clothes and had dragged a comb through the tangles in my hair, I felt almost human again.
Rikki followed me down to the parlour and we shared the pie and the slab of bread. From the way he wolfed it down I suspected Somer had not been feeding him. I ate one of the small apples and pocketed three more, in case I had the chance to look in on Hector in the stables. When I was finished, I went in search of Camster, the steward, who had oversight of all the servants and could be relied on to deliver a message accurately.
‘I have to go back to Seething Lane, Camster,’ I said. ‘I will take the dog with me. Please tell Mistress Lopez that I am not sure whether I shall be back tonight. I may need to stay there overnight again.’
‘Certainly, Dr Alvarez,’ he said with a slight bow. Camster was always one to observe the formalities. ‘Are you sure you wish to take the dog?’
‘Aye, it will do him good to go outside. Beside, I think he is not popular in the kitchen.’
Camster permitted himself a small smile. ‘Very good, Dr Alvarez. Your cloak?’
He reached it down from a peg in the hall panelling and placed round my shoulders. I thanked him, picked up my satchel from the table where I had left it when I came in, and fastened Rikki’s lead to his collar.
We headed down Wood Street and turned left along Cheapside, walking briskly. Rikki seemed glad to be out of doors, though I had to restrain him from investigating every pile of rubbish in the road. By now, I hoped, Phelippes would have read my note and also found out from the Common Council just what was happening about the soldiers. What Adam reported was almost certainly true, I thought cynically. It did not surprise me that the authorities should pretend at first to negotiate, then afterwards break their word, imprisoning the soldiers’ leaders and attacking the remaining men. I wondered whether the other soldiers who had been encamped at Finsbury Fields had also been carried off to prison, or had simply been frightened and beaten so severely that they would flee for their lives and abandon their demands. The outcome looked black for their leaders. A man on trial for treason may not defend himself. It would be a case of summary justice and a hanging at Tyburn.
The city suddenly looked a terrible place, dirty and dangerous. How could any man hope for justice here? Even in Walsingham’s service I knew that tricks were played, false evidence manufactured, witnesses suborned. It was all done with the highest of motives, to maintain the safety of the country and the Queen, but that did not mean that it lacked its darker side. I reached Walsingham’s house in a state of some melancholy.
I took Rikki with me up the backstairs to P
helippes’s office. He was used to coming with me and ran ahead to the familiar door, which stood open. I could hear voices from inside.
‘Ah, Kit,’ Phelippes said as I entered, ‘I was about to send someone to fetch you.’
‘You had my message?’
‘Aye. And a pretty mess it all seems. The Italians and this toy seller both gone in the night. Poley – if it was Poley – not seen again.’
‘Good day to you, Kit.’ The other man in the room was Nicholas Berden, one of the most trusted agents, with whom I had worked before, in the Low Countries.
‘And to you, Nick.’ I bowed. ‘I thought you were leaving Sir Francis’s service and moving to the country.’ Like Titus Allanby, the agent I had helped to escape from Coruña, Berden had begun to say that he had had a surfeit of intelligencing.
He shrugged and raised his eyebrows. ‘Master Phelippes is very persuasive.’
‘What news from the Common Council?’ I turned to Phelippes. I would not mention yet that I had news from another quarter.
Phelippes pulled a face. ‘The Common Council referred the matter of the soldiers’ demands to the Privy Council, and the Privy Council decided that an example must be made of them – coming armed, as they did, and making threats of violence and disorder.’
‘Threats only,’ I said, without much hope.
‘The leaders are to be tried for treason. The rest of the soldiers were rounded up and driven away from the city. Told if they were caught within fifty miles of London after tomorrow, they would be on a charge of treason as well.’
‘I think this is a mistake,’ I said, hoping that my face did not betray what I already knew. If Adam could be identified as one of the soldiers, he was in serious danger. I prayed William would keep him out of sight.
‘Perhaps. But even you must understand their reasons, Kit. If the authorities once yield to the demands of an armed mob, where will it end? It will only encourage others to take the road to violence.’
‘I do see that. None of this would have happened if the men had but been treated as they should have been from the start, when they first came ashore at Plymouth. I fear it will be found difficult to recruit men willingly to serve in the future, if there is the threat of another invasion.’
‘Well, there is nothing we can do about it. It is out of our hands.’ Phelippes waved dismissively. ‘We need to turn our minds to what we can do. This supposed conspiracy. I have been telling Berden everything you have discovered. He, and some of the men he works with, are going to start a discreet search for these missing fellows.’
‘Good,’ I said. ‘There is a woman too. Gaudily dressed. Something like the gypsies we used to see in Portugal. Am I to go with Nick?’
‘Nay, I have another task for you. I received a letter from Sir Francis today. He is out of bed, sitting up now and doing some work.’
I shook my head. The man was incorrigible.
‘I want you to ride over to Barn Elms first thing tomorrow and report all this to him in person. He can decide what he wants you to do and send any instructions for me back with you. If we just send him a letter, he will be here before we know it.’
‘Shall I take a horse from the stables?’
Phelippes allowed himself a small smile.
‘Aye. You can take that horse you are fond of. Horace.’
‘Hector.’
He smiled more broadly. He knew very well the horse was called Hector.
‘I will leave Rikki with the stable lads. He is somewhat unpopular in the Lopez household.’
‘Do that.’ He gave me a shrewd look. ‘Do not become too close to Ruy Lopez, Kit. He is out of favour.’
‘I know that. It is Sara Lopez who has long been a friend to my father and me, from the time I was a young child.’
‘That is all very well, but take care.’ He shuffled some papers on his desk. ‘I will send some reports with you to Sir Francis. In the meantime, I need you to tell Berden everything you can about these people from the Fair.’
‘Are you sure I should not go with Nick?’ I said, although the thought of a country ride on Hector was very appealing. ‘I will be able to recognise them.’
‘Aye, and they will be able to recognise you. I do not want them to know that we are watching them, which they would soon realise if they saw you following them.’
‘Of course,’ I said, ‘you are right.’
I spent some time describing to Nick Berden everything I could remember about the puppeteers and the toy man.
‘Unfortunately,’ I said, ‘I only saw two of the puppeteers. The others never came out from the back of the stage, where they manipulated the manikins. There was the woman and a dark man, swarthy, with thick eyebrows that almost met over his nose.’
I did my best to describe these two, while Berden listened intently. He was very good at his job. If anyone could find these two, he would.
‘I saw a good deal more of the toy seller, Borecroft,’ I said. Indeed, I found I could describe him in fair detail, not only his appearances but his speech and mannerisms.
‘Do you think he is a London man?’
I considered. ‘There might have been something northern in his speech,’ I said, aware of it for the first time, ‘but I would say that was left over from his childhood, perhaps. Not recent. I’d guess he has lived in London a long time.’
‘I do not think there is any particular quarter in town for the shops of toy men,’ he said. ‘Not like some trades.’
I shook my head. ‘Nay. They are often street vendors, aren’t they? With a tray round their neck, hawking one kind of toy – bird whistles or spinning tops. Most would be too poor to have a regular shop. Yet this fellow was not poor. And he had an immense stock, every kind of toy and cheap musical instrument you can imagine.’
‘Then if he has a shop it’s likely in Cheapside.’
‘Aye.’
‘That’s the place to start, then.’
He got up from his stool.
‘I’ll be off, Master Phelippes. I need to find the lads I’ll take with me, and we have a few hours left of the day.’
Phelippes nodded. ‘If you have anything to report tonight, come back. Otherwise be here by seven o’ the clock tomorrow morning.’
He turned to me. ‘You as well, Kit. I’ll have these reports ready for you by then and you can make an early start for Barn Elms.’
Berden and I left together, Rikki following at our heels. When we reached the yard, the stable lad Harry greeted Rikki as an old friend.
‘May I leave the dog with you tomorrow, Harry?’ I said. ‘I’ve to ride over to Barn Elms early.’
‘Of course, Dr Alvarez. And you’ll need Hector saddled.’
‘Aye, thank you.’
Berden and I parted at the gate. He headed towards the taverns around the docks, where no doubt he would pick up the men he needed, those nameless fellows who slipped in and out of Walsingham’s service, but who knew the streets of London better than any City or crown official.
There was still some time to go before sunset, so I decided to return to William Baker’s shop and see how my patient fared. I called Rikki, fastened his lead, and we set off.
On the whole, Adam Batecorte was better than I had expected. Although he still favoured his twisted ankle it was clearly not as troublesome as it had been earlier, and the sword slashes across his back looked no worse, but the great gash in the side of his head was still oozing blood mixed with some yellowish puss. As always I carried with me my physician’s satchel, though its contents had not been replenished since my return to England. I had several of the things I needed to make a drying salve to hasten the healing of the wound, but I sent young Will to a nearby apothecary to fetch fresh woundwort and powdered lavender. From Mistress Liza I borrowed a pestle and mortar, and also honey, which is sovereign for healing.
When I had dressed the injury again, I decided to leave off the bandage.
‘We will let the air reach it,’ I said to Adam, sitting
down across the kitchen table from him, and gratefully accepting a wooden cup of ale and a slice of seed cake from Liza.
‘The air as well as the salve will help to dry it,’ I explained, ‘but you must be careful not to knock it, or allow any dirt in it. Leave off your cap.’
He nodded. ‘It is feeling better already, Dr Alvarez.’
I doubted it, but I smiled anyway and took a large bite of my cake. Mistress Liza, it seemed, was a good cook. William had done well for himself. Both he and Liza had returned to the shop, where several customers had come in for fittings. Rikki settled down under the table with a bone Liza had found for him.
‘Adam,’ I said, ‘there was an Italian puppet show at the Fair. Did you happen to see it?’
‘Aye, but I had no chinks for a ticket.’ He smiled grimly. ‘Even if I had, I would have spent them on food, not on such foolery.’
‘It was not exactly foolery.’ I studied him seriously. I did not know him well, but everything I did know inclined me to trust him. ‘Their performance was more than a little subversive, treasonous even.’
I saw that I had caught his interest.
‘Papists, were they?’
‘Aye. Certainly.’
‘But not those ill begotten Spaniards.’
‘Nay. Italians.’
‘The Pope lives in Italy,’ he said, ‘like a spider at the centre of his web.’
‘He does.’
He looked at me shrewdly. ‘Another of these papist plots against the Queen, are you saying?’
‘It may be. Certainly some of the performance was intended to encourage any Catholics in the audience to rebellious thoughts. But there were other strands to the story. It attacked the all leaders of the Portuguese expedition, and Lord Burghley.’ I hesitated. How far should I go? ‘And it defamed the Queen herself.’
He gave a low whistle and looked worried. ‘Dangerous, then.’
‘Aye. Dangerous indeed. There is something else.’ I sipped my ale, and made up my mind to tell him everything, or almost everything. ‘At the first performance, on the first day of the Fair, there was a mixed audience – families, groups of friends, but also a number of your fellow soldiers. Clearly they had coin enough to buy tickets.’
