P. Chisholm - A Murder of Crows

“He used yer money to get his Court duds out o’ pawn, my lady,” said Dodd, coming up with the only piece of evidence that would have convinced Janet. “And he left me a letter wi’ Senhor Gomes.” There was a thoughtful pause.

“Explain why I should believe a word of this considering I think that you are the most likely man to have betrayed him.”

“It’s the truth!” shouted Dodd, outraged to have his word doubted. The match glowed brighter as she blew on it and settled the dag on her forearm to aim better. “Ah, if ye let me on yer boat wi’out my weapons, my lady, ye can kill me wi’ a dagger if ye’re not convinced. Which will save ye the recoil on the pistol.”

The pistol was still steady. After a very long time, she simply nodded. The boatman rowed carefully up to the tall wooden side of the ship. Dodd unbelted his sword, looked at the ropeladder, and climbed it as fast as he could so he wouldn’t have time to think about it. At the top as he climbed puffing over the rail, Captain Trevasker steadied him, a long carved stick in his left fist, and then walked him up some steps to the rearcastle where Lady Hunsdon was waiting. She looked magnificent and was wearing a steel gorget as the Queen had been rumoured to do when the Armada came. Captain Trevasker drew his long knife.

Dodd ignored this and pulled the crumpled sheet of Carey’s letter to him out of his pouch, gave it to Lady Hunsdon. Some of the lines of fury on Lady Hunsdon’s face relaxed as she read in the light of her lantern. “Well, Sergeant?” she said and so he told her what had been going on. After a little more time, she pinched out the dag’s match with her gloved fingers and laid it down. As the tale went on she began to get angry again.

“Is the man completely without commonsense?” she asked haughtily at the news of Heneage’s raid on Laurence Pickering, “What a wittol, eh Captain?”

Dodd added the facts on James Enys’ true nature, expecting surprise, and found that Lady Hunsdon simply shook her head.

“Of course I knew that, Sergeant, I knew they were twins and there was no spare brother. I also could see for myself that Enys had no adam’s apple and walked like a woman when she wasn’t concentrating. I didn’t see any need to talk about it.”

Bitterly Dodd wondered if he was the only one to be taken in.

“Well Heneage has got her and he’s got Mr. Briscoe’s wife forbye to use for anither hostage.”

There was a moment’s silence. Lady Hunsdon had her chin on her chest in thought.

“And Laurence Pickering’s got some plans, but he didnae tell me what they were,” added Dodd. “He said he’d find out where they were keeping her.”

“Who else is in the boat with you?” Lady Hunsdon asked.

“Tim Briscoe, Pickering’s man and…er…Bald Will,” said Dodd.

“Any idea who he’s working for now?”

“Ay milady, he told me he stole the survey Letty had and giv it tae Sir Robert Cecil.”

Her very bright eyes glittered slightly at this, but all she said was “At least that’s an improvement. Why did you come to the Judith ?”

“Ah had a mind tae speak wi’ this Vent, who I think is the real James Enys. He disappeared in the last two or three weeks which makes me wonder what he’s been at. Heneage arrested Enys for helping the escape of a state prisoner.”

“If he hasn’t jumped off, he’s on board now. The bo’sun’s a cousin of his.”

Dodd nodded at the sense this made. Naturally if you were on the run in a foreign city like London, you’d take refuge on a ship from your own county so you could get back there eventually. Also they might be less likely to betray you. He’d do the same. In fact it might be worth finding out if there were any Newcastle coasters in the Pool since it was a long way by sea to Carlisle.

There was a clattering. First Shakespeare’s head appeared and he climbed over the rail to be followed by Briscoe, who had evidently been pushing him.

Dodd realised he had scuffed his knuckles and made a hole in his hose which thoroughly annoyed him. Still, what could you expect from fancy, expensive, but delicate duds? How the devil did the elderly and stout Lady Hunsdon get aboard?

Briscoe and Shakespeare were looking around themselves nervously at the short, mostly red-headed men bustling about in the lantern light with ropes and barrels.

A man was brought up from below through a hatch, dressed in workman’s clothes, but with soft hands and a pocky face that might have been good-looking once. It was definitely Vent the card-player. Dodd squinted at him in the flickering light and there was indeed a resemblance to Enys the lawyer. He was a little taller and broader in the shoulder, but the hair-colour was the same and the general cast of the features very similar. His voice was deeper and rougher though.

Lady Hunsdon sat herself down on a cushioned seachest with Trevasker beside her, and rested her hands on the top of a silver and ebony cane and her chin on her hands. Bright beady eyes raked Enys like gunfire.

“Well, James Enys, I want a full accounting of yourself.”

The man bowed nervously. “My lady, I asked for refuge on your ship being a Cornishman because I am a little entangled in gambling debts and I…”

“Pfui. You are on the run and your sister has taken your place as a man of law. Heneage arrested her in place of you not an hour ago for assisting the escape of a state prisoner. Well?”

The man paused carefully. “I don’t understand…” He sounded as if his breath was short with shock.

“Och, my lady, this canna be the man,” said Dodd sourly. “I heard fra his sister while I thought her to be a man that she had sae loving a brother he came and nursed her while she was sick of the smallpox and her husband and children had died, and then caught it himself.”

“Who are you?” said the man.

“Sergeant Dodd, Sir Robert Carey’s man. I saw the woman calling herself James Enys taken by Heneage. He slapped her about a bit, mind, but what he and Topcliffe will do to her when they find she’s a woman, I darenae think.” He paused. “And they’ll find it oot as soon as they strip her for the rack.”

The man swallowed convulsively.

There was a pause broken by shouts and an occasional long creak as the ship swayed at her mooring.

“My lady, I…perhaps I should speak in private…”

“You can speak here, now. This is all tangled up with the coney-catching practice about Cornish lands, isn’t it?”

Enys nodded.

“And the killing of Fr. Jackson,” added Dodd, since he thought he might as well. “It was ye killed him, was it no’?”

Suddenly Enys sat down on a coil of rope and put his face in his hands. “I couldn’t think what else to do…”

“Shh,” said Lady Hunsdon kindly. “Nobody minds you killing a Papist priest. We haven’t much time. Oh, while I remember…Mr. Shakespeare!” The bellow could have cut through a full gale. After a moment, Shakespeare appeared at the top of the companionway to the rear castle, looking frightened.

“Go and find your master Sir Robert Cecil immediately and tell him I want to speak to him here on the Judith .”

Shakespeare’s mouth opened. “But milady…”

“Don’t argue. Go and fetch him immediately.”

“But what if he won’t come.”

Lady Hunsdon’s eyes narrowed. “He’ll come.” Shakespeare bowed.

A man came running up to Trevasker and whispered in his ear. Dodd noticed the ship moving and creaking more and seeming to move at its anchorage. Lady Hunsdon nodded. “Good, the tide will turn in an hour,” she said to Trevasker. “Will you have the men get ready for a cutting-out expedition?”

The imperturbable Trevasker’s jaw dropped slightly and he stared. “Where’d that be to, milady?”