Susanna Gregory: The Westminster Poisoner

Suddenly, there was a tremendous crash, and the door flew open. The Earl stood there, Bulteel at his heels. The secretary looked terrified, and the Earl was panting hard.

‘Stop!’ the Earl bellowed. ‘I command you to stop!’

For a moment, no one moved. The train-band gaped at him, while even Haddon seemed taken aback. He recovered quickly, though.

‘Bulteel,’ he said, ignoring the Earl. ‘Your timing is impeccable. I said I would make you pay for what you did to my dogs, and I happen to have some spare poison. Fetch him, Payne. Doling can finish Thomas — we have wasted enough time on him.’

‘What about the Earl?’ asked Payne, releasing Chaloner and hurrying to do as he was told. The spy collapsed on the floor, gasping for breath. ‘Can we dispatch him, too? He is from White Hall, so he will be corrupt.’

‘He is-’ Whatever Haddon was about to say died in his throat, and an expression of astonishment filled his face. He opened his mouth to speak, but nothing emerged. Then he pitched forward. Payne rushed to catch him, gazing in horror at the knife that protruded from his master’s back.

Chaloner managed to raise his head, and saw triumph gleam in Greene’s eyes. He could not imagine how the dying clerk had mustered the strength to lob his knife, but he had done it, and Haddon was choking as blood filled his lungs.

‘You-’ Payne’s face was as black as thunder, and he dropped Haddon to take a menacing step towards the clerk. Doling interposed himself between them.

‘Enough,’ said Doling quietly. ‘It is over.’

‘Are you insane?’ snarled Payne, trying to thrust past him. ‘We must finish this — if we let these men live, we will be signing our own death warrants.’

‘So be it,’ said Doling, pushing him away. His men stood behind him, silent and obedient.

Eyes flashing with rage, Payne turned on Doling, but his hot-tempered lunges were no match for the older man’s cool, practised ripostes. His eyes bulged as Doling’s sword bit into his chest. Then he crashed to the floor, and lay still. There was a brief silence, then Chaloner heard the tap of the Earl’s tight little shoes as he moved forward tentatively.

‘London is no place for us,’ said Doling softly. ‘We thought we could stop the seeping wickedness that pervades the city, but we became as soiled as the men we sought to eradicate.’

‘I should say,’ agreed the Earl, looking around in distaste. ‘And associating with Spymaster Williamson is unlikely to lead you along the path of righteousness, either.’

‘Payne was the killer,’ said one of the soldiers. ‘He stabbed two men and a woman just for asking about us. Doling tried to stop him, but Scobel had Payne under his thumb, and it turned him mad.’

‘I would like to take my men away from the city,’ said Doling, in the same low, level voice. ‘Lead them somewhere safe. Will you try to stop me, sir?’

‘No,’ said the Earl hastily, reading a threat in the quietly spoken words. ‘However, I suspect Williamson will ensure you never reach a court if you are captured, because he will not want his role in this affair made public. So I advise you to leave the country with all possible speed.’

Doling gave him a curt nod, and strode out, his warriors streaming at his heels.

Chaloner forced himself to sit up, aware that by bursting in with only Bulteel at his side, the Earl had just committed an act of remarkable courage. ‘What are you doing here?’ he asked weakly.

The Earl raised his eyebrows. ‘That is not my idea of a heartfelt expression of gratitude, Thomas. What is wrong with you? I have just risked my life to save yours, and I am not a naturally brave man — at least, not where dangerous villains are concerned.’

‘How did you know …’ Chaloner was too tired to think of the question he wanted to ask.

‘You have Bulteel to thank for that. He happened to be near Haddon’s house in Cannon Row, when he spotted him conferring with Payne — a man who is wanted for murder in Westminster. He came to tell me, and we set off together. The palace guards should be here at any moment.’

‘Thank you,’ Chaloner managed to say.

The Earl shrugged carelessly, although he looked pleased with himself. ‘You are welcome. After all, I do not want to lose both my spies in the same day.’

Two days later

Although the Earl was eager for explanations, he appreciated his spy was in no condition to provide him with any, and took him to Fetter Lane in his own carriage. Chaloner was not sure at what point Hannah arrived, but he was aware of her stoking up the fire and soothing him as he lay in a fever of dreams. When he finally woke, stiff but refreshed, the sun was shining and the snow had melted so completely that he wondered whether he had imagined the entire episode.

‘Your Earl wants you to visit as soon as possible,’ Hannah said, as they ate the pickled ling pie she had made to celebrate his recovery. It was not very pleasant, but she was quite open about the fact that it was the only dish she knew how to prepare, so he supposed he would have to do all the cooking if he wanted a future with her. ‘He is eager to know where you have hidden the missing statue.’

Chaloner set down his spoon, appetite gone as he thought about all that had happened. ‘I was wrong about Greene, and my arrogance allowed Haddon — Scobel — to claim more victims.’

‘The Earl said you would think that, but he heard some of what was said in the Painted Chamber, and is convinced that Haddon and Payne would have devised other ways to kill, if Greene had been unavailable. And you were not wrong, anyway.’

‘How was I not wrong? Greene poisoned Chetwynd, Vine and Langston.’

‘Because he was forced to. Haddon planned everything, down to the last detail, and Greene was just his instrument.’

The difference was academic, as far as Chaloner was concerned, and he knew it would be a long time — if ever — before he forgave himself.

‘Greene confessed to the Earl before he died,’ said Hannah, when he made no reply. ‘He said Vine, Chetwynd and Langston would not have accepted wine from “Reeve”, as they called Haddon, because they did not trust him. They all knew he wore a disguise, which meant they were always wary of him. But no one thought Greene was a killer, which allowed him to do as Haddon ordered. I wonder why Haddon picked on him — and why Greene let him do it.’

‘Because of the oath he swore,’ explained Chaloner. ‘He promised to be virtuous — and he tried, by helping the Southwark prostitutes — but he compromised his principles by working for the Lady and accepting obscene books. I imagine Haddon had him marked for death, anyway, and using him to kill the others was just a convenient way of dispatching yet another man he felt had let him down.’

‘ L’Ecole des Filles is not that obscene,’ said Hannah. ‘Not like Langston’s plays.’

‘You have seen them?’ asked Chaloner, startled.

‘Buckingham took me to watch one or two.’

‘I made a lot of discoveries that had nothing to do with the murders,’ said Chaloner, not wanting to know more. ‘George Vine’s hatred for his father, his mother’s reluctance to tell me whether her husband had owned a ruby ring-’

‘George said yesterday that she thought he was the killer, and was reluctant to say to anything that might implicate him. What a family!’

‘Then there was Jones and his gold, and the fact that no one was investigating his death.’

‘It was assumed he just drowned,’ explained Hannah, ‘as people do with distressing frequency. No one thought there was any need to ask questions, not even when it became known he was a bank robber.’