Andrew Swanston - The King's Spy

‘I think not, Thomas, thank you. I have enough to remember for one day. And I have something important to tell you.’

‘Then perhaps we should clothe ourselves. Simon has seen my naked form before but not, I trust, yours. He might be laid low with guilt.’

‘Simon is not alone in bearing the burden of guilt. Sit down beside me, please, Thomas,’ replied Jane, clothed again. ‘This is not going to be easy, and whatever your reaction to what I am going to tell you, I shall understand. If you wish it, I shall leave and you will never see me again.’

‘Good God, Jane, after what we’ve just shared?’

‘Especially after what we’ve just shared. Had I told you earlier, it might never have happened.’

‘I’m listening, Jane.’

Jane reached into her habit and produced a key. She held it up. ‘The key to your room, Thomas.’

‘Where in the name of God did you get it?’

‘Tobias Rush gave it to me.’

Thomas stared at the key, then at Jane. Her face was expression less. He pushed himself off the bed and went to the far corner of the room. He stood with his back to the wall and looked at her. His voice was icy. ‘You had best explain.’

‘Very well. As you know, I left my parents in York to accompany the queen to Oxford. My loyalties were divided, but I decided that service to her majesty must come first.’ She laughed lightly. ‘Now I’m not so sure.’ Thomas said nothing; he was watching her eyes. ‘Tobias Rush first approached me in the summer. He said that he knew about my parents and would ensure that they were safe as long as I carried out some simple tasks for him.’

‘Simple tasks?’

‘That was what he said. And remember, the king trusted him, so I had no reason not to. I was to keep him informed of the queen’s plans and of anything she said about the king. It seemed a small price to pay for my parents’ safety. I told him whenever the queen was planning to leave Oxford and what she said about the king’s mood and his intentions. He knows she is expecting a child.’

‘So you knew that Rush was a traitor.’

‘At first, I persuaded myself that he just gathered information because it increased his power. It was only when he gave me the key and told me to look for a coded message hidden in your room that I could deceive myself no longer.’

Thomas recalled seeing Rush at Merton the day he had walked in the meadow with Jane. ‘Yet you still did as you were told.’

‘Yes. I was frightened.’

‘Why did you leave the room in such a state?’

‘He told me to.’

A thought occurred. ‘Were you wearing a new perfume that day?’

‘I was. The queen gave it to me. Sandalwood.’

Thomas nodded. ‘And how did you know that my room would be empty that morning?’

‘I didn’t. But the gatehouse was deserted when I arrived, so I took a chance. When you didn’t answer my knock, I let myself in.’

‘And looked for the message.’

‘Not very hard, and I didn’t find it. I wanted to get away. Luckily, the gatehouse was still deserted when I left. Rush was furious.’

‘You told me that you had no knowledge of a particular message, yet you had.’

Jane nodded. ‘I lied because I feared losing you.’

‘Did you lie about Abraham?’

‘Thomas, I swear I did not. I had no idea that Rush intended to murder Master Fletcher, or that that was where you were when I came to Pembroke.’

‘And he took the old man’s eyes first. Eyes that could not see.’

Jane looked away. ‘The man’s a monster. When I heard about it, I confronted him. He laughed and told me that in time of war such things are necessary, and worse happens on the battlefield. He told me to keep quiet or it would go badly for me and my family.’

‘And did he tell you to befriend me and to keep him informed of anything I said?’

‘After he saw us at the masque, yes. You had been watched from the moment you rode into the city with Simon. Rush saw me as a way of getting even closer to you. He told me that you were not to be trusted. It did not take me long to realize that it was he who could not be trusted.’

Thomas thought about it. Tobias Rush had kept a close watch on him, had him knocked over in the street, had stolen his key, had tortured and murdered poor Abraham, and had him thrown into the gaol. Jane Romilly had deceived him, searched his room and played him for a fool. But she had visited him in the gaol and persuaded the queen to authorize his release. Why?

‘And what, may I ask, has prompted you to tell me this now?’

‘Thomas, please believe me. I was horrified at Abraham’s death, and could not bear the thought of your dying in that awful place. I daren’t tell the queen about Rush for fear of his influence with the king, but with Simon’s help I was able to persuade her of your innocence.’

‘Does Simon know everything?’

‘He does. He heard my confession and told me to come here and to tell you the truth.’

‘And did he tell you to seduce me first?’ Thomas’s voice was bitter.

‘Oh Thomas, of course not.’

‘Rush told me he had his suspicions about you. Why would he do that?’

‘To divert attention from himself, and perhaps to find out if I had kept anything from him. Deceit and subterfuge are as natural to that man as breathing. He told me to keep your key. He didn’t want to be found with it himself, and would cheerfully have sacrificed me if necessary.’

‘I don’t doubt it.’

There was a knock on the door. Thomas unlocked it and Simon entered. He looked quizzically at Jane, who nodded.

‘The king wishes to see Thomas immediately,’ he said. ‘We must leave at once. There are horses waiting.’

‘What does he make of the decryption?’ asked Thomas.

‘He fears for the queen. Other than that, he said little.’

‘What about Rush?’

‘I did not see Rush.’

‘Shall we tell the king what we know about Rush?’

‘No. We still do not have proof. It would be too dangerous.’

Thomas gathered up his papers, carefully rolling up the original message, his copy of it and his copy of the decryption, and tucked them inside his shirt. Within two minutes they had left the abbey and were on their way.

They rode in silence to Merton, where Simon escorted Jane, still in her friar’s habit, to her rooms, and returned at once to take Thomas to Christ Church, where the king awaited them. They were shown into a receiving room in the Deanery, where they waited for the king to appear from his private apartments. ‘I take it Jane has told you everything, Thomas?’ enquired Simon quietly.

‘She says that she has.’

‘Then she has.’

When the king entered, they bowed their heads. Thomas looked up and flinched. An unmistakable figure, all in black — his face hidden in shadow — stood behind the king.

‘So, Master Hill,’ his majesty said quietly. Thomas had noticed that the king’s voice was never raised. Perhaps it had to do with his stammer. ‘And where have you been hiding, since I returned from seeing loyal friends die in a just cause? We have been most exercised by your disappearance, and the good Master Rush has had to make other arrangements for the security of our messages.’

Thomas glanced at Simon. ‘I have been at the abbey near Botley, your majesty. Father de Pointz ensured that neither the abbot nor the monks knew who I am or why I was there.’

‘And why, pray, did you choose to hide in an abbey?’

Before Thomas could reply, Simon spoke for him. ‘If I may, your majesty, Master Hill was near death when he left the gaol, and had to be nursed back to health. The monks have a number of excellent remedies, which proved efficacious. He also needed solitude in order to work on the intercepted message. Happily, in that, too, he was successful.’