Looking along and across this gallery I see there seem to be small round cylinders like tins of beans, positioned like the spotlights below but I can’t make out what they are and vertigo stops me going out to examine them. I feel as if I’ve been climbing up the chapel wall for hours. I know my luck is about to run out and I’ll be spotted at the last minute. The way down seems more perilous than the climb up and my legs are decidedly shaky by the time I reach the bottom. For a minute I lean against the wall risking discovery, vulnerable on the ground now, in the open.
The campus is deserted again.
I reach the bike shed without challenge and feel a surge of relief when I’m back on the Crusader heading towards London. No stopping for a cosy chat with Galton today. I put it all out of my mind and concentrate on the traffic. As I weave in and out my confidence is gradually restored by the sense of being in control again, exercising a skill I enjoy.
As soon as the office door shuts of course the questions start. What’s really going on at Wessex? Is some holy floor show planned for Sunday? That must be what the screen’s for. An inspirational video to encourage the troops. If I could get in there I might find out. But it’s clear their security is going to be tight with Molders on the door vetting everyone who tries to get in. Only the elect allowed. Not even the ordinary theologs.
The only way to find out would be to hide in one of the upper rooms off the staircase. You’d be trapped. Unless you had some other way down into the chapel. Wait until the Gathering was all over and hope one at least of the doors wasn’t locked. You might have to wait a long time in the dark. You’d need a torch and a rope at least. Today has shown me I’ve no head for heights but I might have to face it.
There are safety ladders I’ve seen advertised that can hook on to a windowsill in case of fire. You could do it in stages from one gallery to the next. Don’t be wet, Jade. Each climb wouldn’t be so far. You wouldn’t need a very long ladder. Just something light and strong like mountaineers have. I’m mad even to think of it but how else can I find out what’s going on? A pity there wasn’t a key for any of the doors. There were locks as well as the ring handles and latches. Probably Molders keeps them hanging from her belt like a wardress. You might be able to stuff up the locks with chewing gum or putty so that the keys wouldn’t go in. I’m going round and round on this hamster wheel. I have to get off and try to sleep.
But the phone rings. It’s Joel. ‘You OK? Long time no see.’ His familiar voice stops the wheel.
‘Let’s have a drink one evening next week. I’m sorry I’ve been so out of touch. I’ll explain everything when I see you.’
‘Lust or work?’
‘Work. Look I have to do something on Sunday that could be dangerous. I need you to know where I am so that if something goes wrong you can tell the police. I can’t explain it all now. There isn’t time and anyway I couldn’t do it on the phone. I’ll ring you on Monday. If I don’t, ring the fuzz and tell them to go to Wessex University. I’ll send you an email with a complete address.’
‘Hey, Jade, do you have to do this whatever it is?’
‘I do, Joel. I really think I do.’
‘Take care.’
‘I will, I promise.’
I pour myself a drink, whiz off the email to Joel and settle down to watch a TV cop solve an improbable murder. The other channels are all offering hospital dramas or sport. For a moment I consider playing a little Rosenkavalier. But that was another country and besides the wench is dead. Just as I’m yawning over the convoluted improbability of the sleuth’s intuitions the phone rings again.
‘Jade?’
‘Charlie!’
‘My friend says that something will happen on Sunday.’
‘I know, Charlie. That’s the Eastern Pentecost they were told to expect.’
‘He says the elect are even more hyped up. They’re called to the chapel at eight o’clock in the evening.’
‘I’m going to find a way to be there.’
‘Where?’
‘In the chapel, to see what’s going on.’
‘How will you do that, Jade?’
‘There’s a back way in to the galleries up an outside iron ladder like a sort of fire escape.’
‘Suppose you’re seen.’
‘I’ll take care not to be.’
‘I don’t think you should do this alone. It’s too dangerous. My friend and I will come with you.’
I’m both nervous that three people are harder to conceal than one but relieved to have backup. ‘We’ll need a torch and some sort of rope ladder in case we have to climb down into the chapel because the doors to the staircase have been locked behind us.’ I don’t mention the chewing gum. That seems too much like the boy detectives. But this is little old England where traditionally we prefer to murder by stealth according to the rules of fair play.
After many hours the jolting of the cart stopped again. I was lifted out in the sack and as I judged thrown over a shoulder as if I were a bag of com, carried inside and put down on a cold floor that smelt of earth. I cried out for them to untie the sack so that I could breathe more easily.
‘This is some witch’s stratagem to work upon us to free her so that she may charm us with a spell and make her escape.’
‘I desire only to breathe and for a drink of water.’
‘It were a pity if she should suffocate before we have the money Master Avery.’
‘True Woodman.’ Twere a pity indeed. I will undo the mouth of the sack so that she may put out her head.’
I felt him pulling at the cord above my head and in a moment it was freed and I could breathe again yet still lay on my side doubled up as I had been forced by the shortness of the sack so that now all my limbs were numb and I could not stand up of my own will even if I had dared to attempt it.
‘There, see our kindness to the witch,’ the one I judged to be Avery said. ‘She shall have some water to drink lest she curse us.’ And he put a bottle to my lips for me to suck on. ‘Now we must to the doctor for our pay.’ He picked up the torch he had lodged in a jar by the door whose flame threw the men’s shadows hugely on the walls of the round shed where I lay. I could see no window by its light but only the thatch of the roof above. I judged it some kind of store place. They opened a low door and taking the torch went outside. I heard a bolt being shot and I was alone in a blackness so complete I seemed to have lost the sense of sight.
As soon as they were gone I rolled in the sack until I fetched up against a wall and was at last able to sit up, wriggling the upper part of my body free of the folds of cloth that restrained me. By pressing my back against the wall I was able to raise myself to stand but when I tried to walk my bound feet made me fall down so that I was forced to begin again. Nevertheless I persevered to get against the wall. Sitting there in the darkness I began to work on the bonds that tied my hands before me and after much twisting I felt one hand loosen a little and working at it harder although it chafed my wrist, I finally got it free. Then feeling in the dark I was able to free my feet to stand and walk about until the numbness had gone from my legs.
Next I felt round the rough walls until I came to the door. I pushed against it but it was bolted fast from the outside and although it gave a little in its frame I knew I did not have the strength to push it open. A dozen plans for escape went through my head but I had no means to put them into execution. I had gained freedom from my bonds but was still a fast prisoner. I sat down again beside the door and a strange drowsiness compounded of fear and exhaustion overcame me. I fell into a kind of slumber under the blanket of darkness that enshrouded me.
Voices from beyond the door aroused me. The bolt was being drawn back and the light of a torch was so bright that my eyes that had been so long in the dark were dazzled.
‘If you have snatched the wrong one your pay is forfeit,’ a voice said, the voice of Dr Adrian Gilbert. ‘You were to take a man not a girl.’
‘And indeed sir we thought we had. But see the
witch has loosed her bonds, by witchcraft, no doubt with the help of the devil for we had her tied tight.’
‘Hold up the torch. This is Master Boston certainly.’
‘Yet see sir.’ One of them stepped into the hut, reached forward before I could move away, and tore open my shirt. ‘See a witch’s teats.’
‘You are right. She or he whichever must be brought at once before the justice, not to escape with honeyed words. Perhaps this is a shapechanger. This time the charge will not be practising without a licence but seeking the life of the Lady Anne by witchcraft. And others too perhaps. By what name will you be charged?’
‘That I shall tell only to the justice.’
‘Tie her hands again and bring her out.’
Now indeed I saw that I was in danger of my life for all know that bringing about a death by witchcraft carries death for the witch in turn. My hope was that the Lady Anne still lived however sick and might yet recover if only for a time enough to save my life, for however desperate my condition I did not want to die.
Again I was pushed stumbling along, this time weakened by want of food and sleep. I saw that we were passing under the garden wall of a house. A stinking hand was put over my mouth to stop me from crying for help and I was hurried towards a cart, picked up bodily by the two men and thrown down on the floor which was dirty and smelling of stable litter. At once the cart moved off with one of the men up on the driving board while the other walked behind. Dr Gilbert rode beside me on a horse I had myself often ridden accompanying my lady. The change in my state brought salty drops of weakness to my eyes yet I resolved they should not see me weep to give them greater power over me and so I swallowed hard to keep back those tears that threatened to unman me quite.
Through the slats in the cart I saw that we had passed beyond Wilton and were now in the country between that town and Salisbury which we reached all too soon although our pace was slower until the cart began to go faster down the hill into the city so that the man beside it was forced to run along holding on to the cart tail. Now I was jostled and bruised over cobbles as we approached the city.
‘Where to doctor?’
‘The house of Justice Ludlow where he lodges beside the gaol in Fisherton Street.’
So we were not to go into the city proper but stop short before the bridge and St Thomas’ church, where I had sometimes gone with my father in another life. I was lifted out and stood upon my feet while one of the men knocked and bellowed at the door of a house whose lineaments I could not discern in the dark.
At length someone came, the door was opened and Dr Gilbert stepped forward to speak to a servant. Then there was silence apart from the blowing and stamping of the horses and the jingling of their bridles. Once again there were low voices. Then Dr Gilbert nodded at the men who held me and I was pushed forward into what I saw at once was a panelled hall whose ceiling was lost in the gloom above. A gentleman all in black sat in an armchair by the stone fireplace. Dr Gilbert took off his hat and bowed.
‘We are sorry to disturb you sir at such a late hour but I judged the matter could not wait.’
‘Not even until the morning?’
‘I feared she might contrive an escape sir.’
‘You say “she” yet I see a young man. What charge do you lay that is so urgent?’
‘Witchcraft sir.’
‘You must go further than that.’
‘The bewitching of the Lady Anne Herbert who lies close to death.’
‘Your evidence?’
‘In the witch herself who has gone about in male attire pretending to be a physician and cure the sick by her potions, so that she is known as the young wizard.’
‘What gossips say is not evidence.’
‘You have only to consider sir that first she has denied her sex and assumed man’s clothing. Second that as she is not a man she cannot be a physician for they must be licensed, as you know, and therefore she is a cunning woman such as the common people resort to which is a kind of witch. Yet she has deceived persons of quality into accepting her into their houses with her feigning to treat them in the guise of a man. As the Dowager Countess of Pembroke.’
‘I see the drift of your argument. Is the noble lady herself prepared to be called to give evidence?’
‘That I cannot say sir. She has been so cozened by this impostor. But there are others who can be called to testify who have worked and lived under the same roof. As well as the Lady Anne if she be fit.’
‘Has exorcism been tried upon her to counter the curse?’
‘No sir.’
‘Sir there is no cure,’ I said, ‘only a phthisis which the lady suffers.’
‘You are not asked to speak. There will be a time for you to defend yourself. Let this person be remanded to the gaol. And the midwives be summoned to search whether it be a he or a she. And if it be indeed a she, given female attire against her trial. You have witnesses, you say. Let them stand ready to testify.’
‘Sir I can surely produce witnesses.’
‘And you the alleged witch. What do you say? Are you man or maid?’
Then I saw that I was trapped whichever way I answered for if a maid as they would soon discover I was a witch. So I said only: ‘I am my father’s child sir who was a physician of this city.’
‘A saucy answer. You must do better than that.’
‘I must tell you sir,’ the doctor said, ‘that he was a noted alchemist and necromancer. These things often run in families. Where there is a witch mother often there is a witch son or daughter.’
‘Was your father an alchemist or necromancer?’
‘He was no necromancer sir. Some might call him alchemist for that he sought for the truth at the root of all things.’
‘To turn base metal into gold for gain.’
‘No sir, to understand the mystery at the heart of creation.’
‘To search out God’s ways and know good and evil as our first mother did, for which we all suffer. Such matters are best left to priests but now any man who can measure quantity, presume to read the leaves and blow the bellows thinks to unpick creation. Did you assist him in this?’
‘I was too young sir. He did not permit it.’
‘And did he not invoke the demons of Satan or Satan himself to assist him?’
‘No sir. He said that he tried only to understand Nature and natural causes.’
‘There can be no natural cause for a divine creation.’
‘Do you not think sir the creator may use whatever means he wills to achieve his design and that if he use natural means because he has given us dominion over the earth and the apprehension to understand nature’s workings then nothing is forbidden to us to seek out the truth of?’
‘You speak like an atheist which may be worse than a witch and too saucily for a maid if such you are. Summon the constable and take this philosopher to the gaol until the midwives can make their search. Then let the he-she be brought before me again. Prepare your witnesses sir but with care for this is a cunning tongue that would argue with the lord justice or the archbishop himself.’
Then my captors took me away out of that house leaving the doctor and Justice Ludlow together and through an arch, across a yard and knocked at a low postern. When their knocking had no result they looked about for a bell pull and we heard the note from it jangling away inside a high wall.
‘Justice Ludlow orders that the constable take this person in charge and lodge them in the gaol until summoned.’
The constable lifted up a lantern so that the light fell on my face. ‘A pretty boy. What’s the charge? Some wench got with child?’
‘Witchcraft. And none knows if it be a he or a she. You are to employ the midwives to search.’
‘Witchcraft? But if it be a he we had best have a doctor on hand. It is not proper for midwives to search a man.’
‘That is your business. We have discharged the witch into your care to keep safe against the trial.’
‘If it be a witch, it m
ust be lodged separately for fear it should bewitch the other felons to assist an escape.’
‘Keep it bound until you have turned the key. It has a tongue of honey whatever it be. Perhaps a eunuch of nature or by the knife for I have heard of such among the Egyptians and the Turk. Goodnight to you constable.’
They left us then and the warder pushed me inside and locked the postern. ‘Now will you be quiet witch or must I bind you more?’
‘I will be quiet sir if you will lodge me apart from the other felons for I have done no wrong.’
‘None comes here that has done no wrong, for we are all sinners. But you do not have the mien of someone troublesome and if you will promise to be quiet you shall lodge apart, but if you give me any disquiet I shall throw you among them as young Daniel was thrown among the lions and then we shall see if you sink or swim.’
So he led me deeper into the building, passing a barred cell from where came groans and cries. One looked through the bars and pointed a crooked finger at me. ‘There goes a gentleman to lie soft while we sleep here without straw.’ Then he began to sing some street ballad and I saw that he was drunk.
At last the gaoler turned a key and opened a door into a narrow room. ‘Here is the royal quarters with a mattress and even a pisspot.’
‘Sir how may I use it with my hands tied? I have a little money in my pocket. If you will untie me and bring me something to eat and drink I will pay you.’
‘You will get nothing without, except water. That I am obliged by the law to give you.’
‘On my oath I will be quiet and make no attempt to escape. If I can come at my money I will pay you what you ask.’
He stared at me hard for a moment weighing the matter. ‘What would you? White bread and wine? Stand still while I cut your bonds. Remember I have the knife in my hand and will use it.’
Alchemy Page 34
