Susanna Gregory - The Piccadilly Plot

‘We meet again,’ said Chaloner in Portuguese, while Meneses scowled.

‘Oh, dear,’ muttered Pratt. ‘You seem to have vexed him. Say something nice — such as that his coat is very becoming.’

‘You are a liar, Meneses,’ said Chaloner, still in Portuguese. ‘You told me you had never been to Tangier, but you were its governor. Dismissed for corruption, so I am told.’

Meneses was furious. ‘I resigned because it suited me, and the missing money was coincidental. Now go away. I am not obliged to tell you my business.’

‘What business? Sharing Piccadilly Company details with the Adventurers? You are playing a dangerous game, because men from both sides have died-’

‘And you will be next, if you continue in this vein,’ snarled Meneses.

‘He does not seem very happy talking about his coat,’ breathed Oliver in Chaloner’s ear. ‘Discuss London’s weather instead.’

‘You realise that Fitzgerald knows what you have done, do you not?’ asked Chaloner. ‘Pratt has been ordered to mind you, almost certainly to keep you here until an accident can be arranged. Like Turner, Lucas, Proby, Congett and God knows how many more.’

‘Now you have frightened him,’ whispered Pratt. ‘What did you say? That it rains all the time?’

‘What do you want from me?’ demanded Meneses, not bothering to deny the charge.

‘Tell him we have lovely summers,’ suggested Oliver. ‘Well, I remember a lovely one once.’

‘I know why you came,’ said Chaloner. ‘You still have connections in Tangier — the dubious kind. You have been helping the Piccadilly Company trade there, even though it is illegal under the Adventurers’ charter. But because you are a greedy man, you decided to hedge your bets and throw in your lot with the Adventurers, too.’

‘It was expedient,’ said Meneses stiffly. ‘Neither organisation is competent, and it was difficult to decide which was the better option. So I elected to support both. And everyone should be pleased with what I have done for the Piccadilly Company — my reports have given them an edge over the Dutch, a country with which England will soon be at war.’

‘You are in a desperate fix, Meneses,’ said Chaloner softly. ‘Fitzgerald will kill you for betraying him, and Leighton will not protect you now your usefulness to him is over. Moreover, Spymaster Williamson does not take kindly to men who try to harm our Queen.’

Meneses gazed at him. ‘I had nothing to do with planting those documents in her purses. I-’

‘Very few people know where those letters were found,’ pounced Chaloner. ‘Your own words have condemned you. How did you do it? Men are not supposed to have access to her wardrobe.’

Meneses swallowed hard. ‘Captain Appleby is a conscientious guard. He would stop anyone from entering the Blue Dressing Room, so I cannot be guilty of what you accuse me.’

‘You have just damned yourself a second time — only Her Majesty’s servants should know the name of that particular chamber. And Appleby guards the entrance to her apartments, but anyone can roam around once he is inside. However, I will not stop you, if you want to escape.’

Meneses was wary. ‘In return for what?’

‘The name of the Piccadilly Company’s master,’ replied Chaloner. ‘And do not say Fitzgerald.’

Meneses was alarmed. ‘But I do not know it — I know virtually no one’s name. Why do you think I turned to the Adventurers? Because I am mistrustful of men who decline to show me their faces.’

Chaloner suspected he was telling the truth, because he had seen the members’ penchant for disguise himself. ‘Then tell me about the gravel Jane will bring to London tomorrow.’

‘It will make us very wealthy, and it is coming from Africa. And do not ask why grit should turn us all into nabobs, because they did not share that particular detail with me.’

Chaloner was beginning to be exasperated. ‘If you cannot tell me why someone wants the Queen blamed for plotting to murder Pratt, I am taking you to Spymaster Williamson.’

‘What are you saying about me?’ asked Pratt immediately. ‘I am not building him a mansion, because everyone knows all the money he acquired in Tangier was confiscated by his government. He is as poor as a church mouse.’

And there was Meneses’ motive for travelling to England and playing such a deadly game, thought Chaloner: poverty. Meneses regarded Chaloner in alarm.

‘But they did not trust me with that information, either! I was only told to befriend her and leave the letters in places where she could not deny that she had received them. It was not easy, because she is distrustful of strangers, and it took me a long time to win her confidence. It was tedious work, because she is a bore, with her convent manners and lack of clever conversation.’

‘You do not deserve a chance to escape,’ said Chaloner coldly, reaching out to grab his arm. Pratt and Oliver gaped at the sudden show of force, so he said in English, ‘It is the Portuguese way of saying goodbye. Permanently.’

‘All right!’ squawked Meneses. ‘It is part of a plan to return Tangier to Portugal. If the Queen is accused of plotting to kill …’ — he glanced uneasily at Pratt — ‘someone, then diplomatic relations will be severed, and Portugal will demand the dowry back.’

‘Why should anyone here be interested in that outcome?’

‘Because then Tangier will no longer be in the hands of the Adventurers, and Jane can trade there again. It was impossible under Teviot, so he was deposed. Governor Bridge is more amenable, but he is greedy and demands too hefty a slice of the profits. However, if I am reinstated …’

Chaloner stared at him. ‘The Piccadilly Company is behind the plot? But I thought it was the Adventurers — Pratt is one of the Piccadilly Company’s own members …’

Meneses shrugged. ‘That is what anyone inclined to meddle was supposed to think. Our master — whoever he might be — is nothing if not clever. Do not underestimate him. He will stop at nothing to smash what he sees as an inconvenient monopoly.’

‘At the expense of damaging relations between two friendly countries? Perhaps permanently?’

‘He does not care about Britain, Portugal, the Dutch or anyone else. All he is interested in is making himself rich. At any cost.’

His mind a whirl of unanswered questions, Chaloner watched Meneses run towards the stables; the man was obviously intending to make his escape before his interrogator changed his mind.

‘Damn it, Chaloner,’ snapped Pratt. ‘I said to entertain him, not drive him away.’

‘We were discussing the plot to kill you tomorrow,’ said Chaloner, turning his gaze on the architect.

A flash of alarm crossed Pratt’s face, but it was only fleeting, and then he looked smug. ‘The news is all over London, and has made me England’s most celebrated artisan.’

‘ I should not like to be threatened with death,’ said Oliver, his expressive face full of gloomy foreboding. ‘I know you say your friends will protect you, but what if they prove unequal to the task? I would rather be a nonentity and alive, than dead and famous.’

‘That is because you lack greatness,’ declared Pratt haughtily. ‘Unlike me, who is awash with it. But I had better stop Meneses, or Fitzgerald will be cross.’

He hurried away, and Chaloner looked around for Thurloe. The ex-Spymaster was nowhere to be seen, and rather than waste time hunting for him — it was nearing the time when he was to meet Lester — Chaloner asked Oliver if he had a pen and paper.

‘I do, as a matter of fact,’ replied Oliver, rummaging in his bulging pockets. ‘Mr Pratt has architectural inspirations at peculiar times, so I always have writing paraphernalia to hand — he gets vexed if his flashes of genius are forgotten for the want of a scrap of paper. But how is your enquiry into the missing bricks? Have you solved the mystery yet?’