The Roots of Betrayal c-2

by James Forrester

  Kahlu, Devenish, Skinner, and Treleaven took the oars and rowed the skiff along the south bank of the Thames to Southwark. It was late morning and high tide, so they had no trouble negotiating the currents of the river beneath London Bridge. The water sparkled as they rowed, but their mood was solemn. They all knew the danger of being here. They moored at the steps not far from the bear-baiting theatre at Southwark, and Luke and Francis went ashore to ask for directions to Clarenceux’s house.

  The two men were away some time. Carew was silent and serious, checking every alley, every other boat that came near them. The crew spoke in low voices, waiting. Every so often they would catch a glimpse of one of their companions on the shore. But more than twenty minutes passed before they returned.

  “Everyone has heard of him; no one knows where he lives,” explained Luke.

  “It took us ages to find someone who knew,” added Bidder. He pointed across the river to the north bank. “That over there is Three Cranes Steps. If we go west, along past Queenhithe, Broken Wharf, Trig Lane, Boss Alley, Pole’s Wharf…” As he named each of the stopping places and wharves, he moved his finger. “Past Baynards Castle, Puddle Wharf, there, that’s the Fleet River and Bridewell beside it. North beyond that is the tower of St. Bride’s Church. That’s the parish. He lives on Fleet Street, the south side, just to the east of Hanging Sword Court. The man I spoke to suggested landing at Whitefriars and walking up from there.”

  “Good,” said Carew. “When we land, Stars, you keep the boat ready. The rest come with me to find the herald. There’s room in the skiff to bring him with us if he doesn’t talk.”

  50

  Clarenceux lay in the long grass at the edge of the field. A cloud drifted slowly across the face of the sun, plunging him into shadow. That was his life now. Things he could not control were coming between him and the light, the True Light, and he was left in shadow. Each shadow would pass after a time. But each shadow would have a successor.

  He looked down at his shirt. He stank. He needed to get home and change. But he also needed a key. His house was locked and he had lost his clothes at Mrs. Barker’s. He could wait here longer; but it was already midafternoon and it would be another six hours until dark.

  Through the tall grasses he peered toward Drury Lane. His house was less than ten minutes’ walk from here. But he dared not risk walking past Cecil House in broad daylight. He decided to walk up to Holborn and along to Holborn Bridge, and fetch the key he had hidden in the stable loft in the city.

  An hour later, having fetched the key, he came to the bottom of Shoe Lane. After checking to make sure no one was watching the door of the house, he walked across Fleet Street and down the alley to his back door. He reached over the top to unbolt the gate into the yard, but to his surprise, it was already unlocked. Cecil’s men have already been here; they might still be inside. He crept closer to the back door and inserted the key in the lock, but it would not turn. The lock had been broken.

  Clarenceux backed away. There were sounds from within. He knew that, if he entered, he would be recaptured-all for the sake of clean clothes and a sword. What is the alternative? If I can get across the river, I could walk to Chislehurst and seek refuge with Julius Fawcett. Or, if I go into London, there are friends who would shelter me, companions in the Skinners Company, or Tom Griffiths, the pelterer, or Robert Rokeby, the jeweler on London Bridge. He turned around to leave the yard-and found himself looking down the barrel of a pistol.

  Momentarily the metal of the wheel lock reflected the late afternoon sun into his eyes. A large man with a mop of thick black hair was looking at him. “Are you Clarenceux?” he demanded in a deep voice, his eyes seeming to smile.

  “Who are you who asks?” replied Clarenceux. “Do you come from Cecil? Or Walsingham? Or Lady Percy?”

  Hugh Dean jabbed the cocked pistol forward into Clarenceux’s face. “Inside, now. Or you can answer the captain’s questions with your brains spilling over your doorstep. Put your hands up.”

  Clarenceux turned slowly and put his hands up. He kicked the back door of his own house open and entered. Inside, it was cool and dark. He smelled the ale and wine casks in the buttery.

  Two men were in the kitchen, helping themselves to food.

  “Go on,” ordered the tall man behind him. “Up the stairs.” Clarenceux continued with his hands raised. He passed a man on the landing, who had brilliant green eyes. He entered the hall to see three more men-a fat bald man, a powerfully built Negro, and a shorter man with bright blue eyes and cropped fair hair. The smell of unwashed skin and the sea was on their clothes, noticeable even above the stench of his own latrine-smeared garments.

  The shorter man walked toward him with a swagger, holding one of Clarenceux’s silver-rimmed mazers. He lifted it to his mouth, watching him. As the man drank, Clarenceux noticed a heraldic design of yellow and black on an enameled ring.

  “You are the herald Clarenceux?” said Carew.

  “Why do you want to know?” asked Clarenceux, lowering his arms to his sides.

  “Why? Because if I set about extracting some information from a man, I do prefer…”

  Clarenceux suddenly felt his right arm grabbed from behind and his legs kicked from beneath him. He fell to the floor heavily, able only to break his fall with his left arm. The shock winded him. He struggled to regain his breath while Carew continued: “I do prefer to have the right man to begin with.” He lifted the mazer to his lips again. “There are two ways to speak to me, Mr. Clarenceux. Humbly or with a gun. Since you lack any weapon-as far as I can see-I suggest you adopt the penitential position.”

  Clarenceux got to his knees slowly.

  “Do you know who I am?” Carew asked him.

  Clarenceux swallowed. “You are a member of the Carew family-originally of the manor of Mohun’s Ottery in Devon.”

  Carew smiled. “Very good. You noticed my ring. So, again, I ask you: who am I then?”

  Clarenceux looked up, aware that this was no agent of Cecil’s or Walsingham. “The baseborn son of the late Sir George Carew,” he muttered.

  “Indeed. My name is Ralph Carew, but men call me Raw as a result of an incident in my youth. I have come here to find out where Nicholas Denisot is. Tell me that and we will leave you now in peace.”

  “I have never knowingly met anyone called Nicholas Denisot.”

  “A bad start. Let us try again. Where is he? Under what name is he hiding?”

  Clarenceux shook his head. “I cannot tell you, for I do not know. No amount of pressure will serve your cause because I do not know the answer.”

  A heavy blow from a large wooden stick to the side of his head sent him sprawling sideways across the floor. He passed out momentarily. When he opened his eyes, the room was swirling, and tiny lights were turning like flies in summer. He could hear a sound like metal vibrating on stone.

  Carew walked over and put his foot on his neck. “I do not have time to play games, Mr. Clarenceux. I need that information. As soon as you give it to me, we will be gone. Otherwise we will take you with us. We will question you at sea and if you do not tell us, we will cut your throat and throw your body overboard, and come back to seek out the next person of your acquaintance for a similar treatment. Your wife, perhaps? Or maybe you have a brother or sister? Now, talk.”

  Clarenceux gasped and retched. Bitter bile filled his mouth, his stomach being empty. Carew pushed harder on his neck, causing him to choke, then took the weight off. “I am kind to my friends, ruthless to my enemies. Do you understand? Tell me where Denisot is now.”

  “What…makes you think that…I know?”

  Carew heard footsteps and glanced through the door. He saw Skinner coming up the stairs. “He was followed,” he said. “Two men in livery. Hugh Dean is holding them in the yard. Want them brought up?”

  “Yes,” said Carew, not taking his eyes off Clarenceux. “You ask me why I know. A woman told me. Or rather she told the captain of the ship I now command, before I c
ut his throat.”

  “What woman?”

  “I cannot remember her name,” said Carew, pushing down harder on Clarenceux’s throat with his foot. Clarenceux beat at Carew’s leg with his hand, and after a moment Carew reduced the pressure.

  “Did she…have a mole…on the side of her face?”

  Carew remembered seeing the woman brought from the Davy on the quay at Southampton. “Yes, now I think of it, she did.”

  Clarenceux retched again and coughed. “Where is she?”

  Carew pressed down harder, forcing Clarenceux’s throat against the floorboards. “I am asking the questions, herald. And I am asking where Denisot is. You know. She told Captain Gray that you know.”

  Clarenceux could not answer. He coughed and gagged. Carew lifted his foot slightly. “She lied,” he gasped.

  Carew’s attention was drawn to the two men being led up the stairs. Hugh Dean walked behind them, a pistol in each hand. Both men had empty scabbards hanging from their belts.

  Carew gestured for them to enter the room and stand in the corner. “Why were you following this man?”

  The men looked at one another, uncertain as to who should speak. “He escaped from Cecil House this morning,” said one warily. “Sir William Cecil ordered us to watch out for him. We saw him cross the road.”

  Carew looked down at Clarenceux. “Why was he locked up? Is he a felon? A traitor?”

  “I don’t know,” replied one of the men.

  “What are you?” Carew asked Clarenceux.

  “Damn you, I am a herald! Not a felon, nor traitor, and I do not know where…” He paused. “Oh, for the love of man, let me up.”

  Carew removed his foot. “Speak truthfully now.”

  Clarenceux wiped his mouth on his sleeve, which still stank of rank urine. “I was attacked and tortured at the house of a Catholic gentlewoman in Little Trinity Lane. That house was raided by agents of Francis Walsingham, a Member of Parliament and an enforcer working under the auspices of Sir William Cecil, her majesty’s Secretary. Yesterday I was taken to Cecil House where I was imprisoned again. I escaped by climbing down a latrine chute. That is why you see me in this stinking state.”

  There was a moment of silence. A few men started laughing. “You don’t need to be clean where I am taking you,” said Carew. “I want to know where Denisot is. If you do not tell me, the next clean linen on your back will be your shroud.” He glanced at Cecil’s guards. “Luke, tie those two up. We will leave them. As for this herald, we will question him on the ship. I don’t want to stay here if the queen’s men are spying on this house. Kahlu, John-you two bring him. Hugh, you cover our backs.”

  They took Clarenceux to the skiff at Whitefriars steps and downriver to the Davy. Once on board, Carew ordered John Devenish to put Clarenceux in the hold. Devenish grabbed the herald’s arm and led him across the upper deck, stepping over the ropes and pulleys, directing him down through a trapdoor near the sterncastle. On the ladder, the smell of the living quarters rose to greet them. The humid darkness was most unpleasant, like that of a stagnant ditch in the height of summer, except that many urinals had spilled on the deck floor over the years, so that the smell immediately reminded Clarenceux of his escape from Cecil House. Four arched windows-two on either side-provided a little natural light. The beams were too low for him to stand up straight. He had had some experience of ships from his frequent crossings of the Channel, but most had been more orderly than the Davy. As he passed the main mast to another hatch, he saw belongings strewn around in an untidy fashion: pots, lanterns, blankets, clothes, knives, flagons, and other paraphernalia less easily identifiable in the gloom. A shirt lay draped across one of the cannon. A ceramic urinal lay on its sides where it had been knocked over.

  Devenish directed him to go down. Below, on the orlop deck, Clarenceux could hardly see a thing. There were no windows, only two small hanging lanterns that between them gave off very little light. As his eyes adjusted, he saw barrels and crates down here, and baskets, chests, discarded clothes, and a few straw mattresses. There was a rack of muskets and about twenty large crates of cannonballs. As Devenish led him forward again to another hatch, he saw the piles of spare canvas and rope. Devenish lifted the hatch to the hold and held it open. He gestured for Clarenceux to descend. The opening of cold blackness looked ominous. There was no ladder. Devenish saw Clarenceux’s hesitation, grabbed his shoulder, and pushed him down. He then closed the hatch and bolted it.

  The hold was damp. It smelled of seawater. Every creak of the ship sounded loud in the darkness. Like the decks above, it was not quite high enough for Clarenceux to stand. The curved bottom of the boat was covered with a sort of wet gravel as ballast. He groped his way along to what he reckoned was the rear of the ship and came up against a brick wall. This was slightly warm; it housed the ovens in the inaccessible rear part of the hold. He sank down with his back against the brick, and felt the frustration and desperation welling up inside him.

  The ship gently swayed from side to side and forward and back; this movement, made greater by the darkness and the lack of other sensation, soon gave rise to a nauseous feeling that overtook his self-pity. He could hear the faint sound of the water and shouts from the decks above, and the scurrying of rats nearby. Occasionally one brushed against his ankle or his sleeve and he would recoil, hating the things, kicking at them as filth and sin made animate.

  He shivered, holding his legs beneath his chin for warmth. But after a moment, the movement of the ship made him feel ill, and he had to move. He retched. Nothing came up. He was famished, miserable, and tearful. The only way he could make sense of his situation was through God’s will. The wheel of fortune that had lifted him up to a position of great happiness had turned, and he was now at the low point, because God wished to punish him for his pride. What other sins were there? He could think of none he had committed-none but his affectionate thoughts for Rebecca Machyn, the uncommitted sin in his heart. But how could his resistance to that temptation merit such a treatment as this? In what way had his sins deserved being repeatedly beaten and interrogated, starved and forced into the dank hold of a ship?

  51

  Monday, May 15

  Clarenceux had bad dreams in the twelve hours he was in the hold. He dreamed that he was trapped below decks as the ship started sinking. Wet ballast was tumbling around him and he had no way of understanding which way was up, let alone the way out. There was only a sinking blackness, and he had no knowledge of how deep he was beneath the surface until the wall burst in and unseen water swallowed his drowned frame.

  The first he knew of the new day was when he heard sounds on the floorboards of the orlop deck directly above his head. The bolt was shot and the hatch opened. Lantern light flooded in. A bearded face looked down at him. Clarenceux saw several rats scurrying away across the ballast as he got to his feet. His legs were cold, his befouled clothes sodden. He reached up and put his hand on the hatch opening; the bearded man grabbed his arm and pulled him up with as much care as if he were a sack of oats. “Up,” he said, nodding at the ladder to the main deck. “Captain Carew wants to see you.”

  Clarenceux ached. He felt dizzy with hunger. But he could see light coming from the main deck and light seemed precious at that moment. It also meant clean air, and that was even more important. Only now he was out of the hold did he fully realize how oppressive it had been. He breathed deeply. Even the fetid air here on the orlop deck was better than down there.

  It was daylight, about two hours after dawn. Clarenceux stepped gratefully and yet warily onto the deck. Gulls were calling above the ship and the coast was a mile away. The open sea. A number of men were in the rigging: all five square sails were full, the lateen sail also, and the ship was probably sailing at her maximum speed. He felt the wind in his hair. The brightness of the light almost burnt his eyes, a painful yet welcome glare. The sea air was purifying.

  Carew was on top of the sterncastle with his hand on the whipstaff, shifting h
is attention between the direction in which he was steering the ship and the angle of the lateen sail above. He called out over the noise of the birds and the surf, “Are you going to tell me yet where Denisot is?”

  “I do not know, as I told you.”

  Carew said nothing for a moment. Then he addressed the men around him. “Tie him up. We’ll put him over the side and drag him around for an hour or so.”

  Clarenceux looked at the faces. “How can I get through to you? I have never even heard of this Denisot!”

  “Maybe, maybe not. You’ll be happier to talk after a good soaking, either way.”

  Luke Treleaven and James Miller-the bearded man who had brought Clarenceux up from the hold-then bound Clarenceux’s hands and tied him to the end of a long rope. They directed him to the back of the sterncastle, more than thirty feet above the sea. Clarenceux looked at the water so far below in fear. They thought nothing of pushing him off. He fell, smacked against the water, went under, and came up gasping for air, finding it difficult to swim with his hands tied. Soon he was being pulled through the water by the fast-moving ship. The sunlight glistened in the crests of the white water as the waves went over his head. He had to catch his gulps of air when he could, hoping that when he was breathing the waves would not fill his mouth. Many times he took in a large gulp of salt water and had to swallow it, so that soon his empty stomach was full of salt water and he was retching at the same time as he was trying to inhale. Only after about a quarter of an hour did he realize that he would find it easier if he was on his back. Even then, one mouthful of air in ten was accompanied by a wave crashing over his face and mouth.

  After what seemed like a very long hour, the ship started to turn. Several faces appeared above him, looking down over the wooden railing at the back of the sterncastle. Clarenceux spat out some water. Carew was not going anywhere but only sailing as fast as he could, drawing him through the water. The rope went tight and the men above started to haul him in, pulling him up by his hands. He could do nothing but allow them to hoist him up the outside of the vessel. They dragged him over the edge of the boat, bruising his ribs. He coughed and lay his head on the deck.