Edward Marston - The Bawdy Basket

‘I’ll not wait until that long,’ said Nicholas. ‘Nor will Frank. He’ll meet me as soon as the performance is over. We mean to call the first of the villains to account this very afternoon. We’ll attack Sir Eliard at his weakest point.’

‘And where is that?’

‘Bevis Millburne.’

Edmund Hoode was in a state of ambivalence. Exhilarated by the performance that afternoon, he was having regrets about the way that he had altered his play. There was no doubting its success. Time and again, the target had been hit with unerring accuracy. If his contribution helped to salvage the future of Westfield’s Men, he would be happy. Yet an act of betrayal was involved and that left him feeling pangs of guilt. In order to aid his fellows, he had disobeyed Avice Radley’s decree and done so without forewarning her. It was a double blow for her since she would have been there to watch her favourite play. Expecting to take pleasure in it, she would have been jolted by the changes made and shocked to see Hoode impersonating a man whom she had expressly banned from appearing as a character in the play. Conflicting emotions troubled Hoode as he arrived at her house. When he knocked the door, it was with great trepidation.

The maidservant invited him in and conducted him to the parlour. Avice Radley was seated at the table, composing a letter. She did not even look up as he entered. Hoode studied her in profile, admiring once again the sculptured beauty and the natural poise. He was overwhelmed with remorse at having upset her and wanted to fling himself abjectly at her feet. But something held him back. When he cleared his throat, she put her quill aside and turned to look at him.

‘So, Edmund,’ she said, her voice icily calm. ‘It is you.’

‘I told you that I would come as soon as I could.’

‘The wonder is that you dared to come at all.’

‘Avice!’ he protested. ‘You promised that I could treat this house as my own.’

‘I am glad that you raise the subject of promises,’ she rejoined. ‘Was it not in this very room that you promised to abide by my wishes? I asked you to let Westfield’s Men fight their own battles, you agreed. You gave me your solemn word.’

‘I know.’

‘Yet the promise carried no weight.’

‘It did, it did.’

‘I see none.’

‘Permit me to explain,’ he begged.

‘I saw your explanation at the Queen’s Head this afternoon,’ she said. ‘You dragged me there to enforce my discomfiture.’

‘No, Avice!’

‘It was degrading. You did not even have the courtesy to warn me in advance.’

‘Had I done that, you would have talked me out of it.’

‘I thought that I already had done so, Edmund.’

‘So did I,’ he admitted.

‘What, then, changed your mind?’

‘I do not know.’

‘Was it sheer malice? Or rebellion against me?’

‘Neither of those things, Avice.’

‘Were you telling me that your love had gone away?’ she pressed. ‘Is that the reason you turned on me so? I did not think you could be so fickle, Edmund.’

‘But I am not fickle. I remain as constant as ever.’

She raised an eyebrow. ‘As constant as you were this afternoon?’

‘Forgive me. It was not intended as an insult to you.’

‘That is how it was received.’

‘I shower you with my apologies, Avice,’ he said effusively, ‘and I will do anything to get myself into your good graces again.’

‘Then do so by leaving me.’

He shuddered. ‘Leaving you? Am I to be given no right of appeal?’

‘You gave me none, Edmund. Had I known what mischief you planned upon that stage today, I would have appealed with all my might. I did not take you for a vengeful man but I see that I was mistaken.’

‘The only vengeance was directed at Sir Eliard Slaney.’

‘It is time to bid farewell,’ she said levelly.

‘No,’ he cried, moving across to her. ‘You do not understand. At least, let me tell you how it came about. For the sake of the love you once bore me, hear me out.’

She took a deep breath. ‘Very well, sir. Be brief.’

‘I did bow to your wishes, Avice, it is true. When I saw your strength of purpose, I sent Nick Bracewell away from here with a cracked heart. He, of all, men had the right to call on my friendship yet I turned my back on him. It made me sad to do so.’

‘There was no sadness when you consented to quit the company.’

‘No, there was only joy and relief.’

‘Did it so quickly vanish?’

‘It is still there,’ he insisted. ‘My feelings for you have not altered in any degree. But you must allow for other claims upon my time. Westfield’s Men nurtured me, taught me, made me what I am. Those long years could not so easily be forgotten, Avice. When I left here on Sunday, I was fired with the notion of penning another sonnet in praise of you. My mind was filled with sweet phrases and pretty conceits.’

‘I heard neither at the Queen’s Head today.’

‘That is because an older loyalty dictated my hand,’ he said. ‘I tried to write for you but found myself composing a new prologue to The Merchant of Calais. ’Tis all done now, Avice. My debt to the company has been discharged. I am yours alone.’

‘For how long, Edmund?’

‘For all eternity.’

‘And how long will that last?’ she asked scornfully. ‘Until the company next call upon you? Until you feel the need again to disregard my orders? You swore to love and honour me for all eternity once before. Its span was a matter of days.’

‘Only because of circumstance.’

‘I fondly imagined that I was the only circumstance in your life.’

‘You were, you are, and ever more will be.’

‘Leave off your protestations, sir. They are too hollow.’

‘I acted with the best of intentions, Avice.’

‘Yet you achieved the worst of results,’ she said coldly. ‘You rebuffed me, treated my wishes with open contempt and showed yourself unworthy of my love.’

‘Is there no way that I can earn it back again?’ he pleaded.

‘None, sir.’

‘Avice!’

‘The damage is done, Edmund. It cannot be repaired.’

‘Would you rather I had let Westfield’s Men fade out of existence?’

‘Yes,’ she said angrily. ‘The first time I made trial of your love, it failed. And there is nothing I abhor so much as failure, unless it be rank disobedience. You were guilty of both, Edmund, and are no longer welcome in my house.’

Hoode’s dreams suddenly went up in smoke and all that he was left with was an acrid smell in his nostrils. Still mouthing his apologies, he backed his way out and opened the front door. He walked away from Avice Radley in a daze. Hoode did not blame her for what she had done. He had brought her ire down on himself. When he was offered the one chance of marital bliss that he was ever likely to get, he had deliberately cast it away. Westfield’s Men had been given priority — if only fleetingly — over Avice Radley and she would not endure it. Love had cooled, vows of fidelity were discarded. He was completely numbed by the interview with her. It was several minutes before he realised that his feet were taking him towards the Queen’s Head. One love had perished but another remained. Rejected by Avice Radley, he would be given a hero’s welcome by Lawrence Firethorn and Barnaby Gill. They did not expect perfection. They and the others loved him for his weaknesses as much as for his strengths. He began to smile. There was a world elsewhere and it was one in which he could be himself.

When Nicholas Bracewell met up with his friend, Francis Quilter had a familiar figure with him. Armed and eager, Owen Elias did not wish to miss out on what he suspected would be some violent action.