Andrew Swanston - The King's Spy

‘There, now we can talk man to man. How is your head?’ Thomas said nothing. ‘Very well. I recall from my visit to the prison that you are prone to spells of sullen silence. I shall continue. Assuming that my rooms have been searched, we will no longer be using the codes and keywords that may have been found there. Monsieur Vigenère has served us well for over a year, but he too will now have to go. How clever you were, Thomas, and how fortunate, to discover his secrets, and ours.’

‘Why did you kill Erasmus Pole?’

‘Ah. He speaks. A question, though not a very interesting one. Pole had become a liability. After the affair at Alton, we had to decide whether to keep him. We decided not to. He was an old man and had outlived his usefulness.’

‘Why did you take a blind man’s eyes?’

‘Now that is more interesting. They were no use to Master Fletcher, of course, but that is not quite all. I find a certain satis faction in the neat removal of an eye. I imagine a surgeon feels the same way when he cleanly removes a musket ball. A neat incision and out it pops. A good job, performed by an expert. Does that answer your question?’

‘Did you order the murder of Jane Romilly?’

‘I thought we would come to that. Lady Romilly disobeyed me. She persuaded the queen to authorize your release from gaol. That could not be tolerated.’

‘Why was she raped?’

‘That I put down to the exuberance of youth. They doubtless allowed themselves to be carried away by the moment.’

‘Fayne was one. Who were the others?’

‘How do you know about Fayne?’ Rush’s eyes narrowed and his voice was suspicious.

‘He told me before he was executed.’

‘Fayne’s dead? Excellent. That saves me the trouble.’

‘Who were the others?’

‘They were the same men who inconvenienced you on the way back from Newbury. I had hoped that they would find what I was looking for.’

‘They killed both coachmen.’

‘Yes. Necessary casualties. They would have killed you, too, had I not instructed them most clearly not to.’

‘Why?’

‘Is that not obvious, Thomas? If you were dead, I would not have known what you had done with the message or whether you had decrypted it. Our plan would have had to be abandoned. As, I fear, it has been.’

‘Jane bled to death.’

‘Such a pity. A lovely lady. But she betrayed me.’

‘Did you instruct Fayne to search my room?’

‘Fayne? Good God, no. I would never entrust a stupid soldier with any task requiring discretion or intelligence. His clumsy efforts earlier, however, gave me the idea of instructing Lady Romilly to do so. You naturally suspected Fayne again. And I must thank you for alerting me to his liking for dice. It gave me a most useful argument when I did have need of him.’

‘Round Hill was your doing, wasn’t it?’

‘It was, and I’m proud of it. Essex’s men should never have gained the high ground. If the king had held it, Newbury might have turned out very differently. A brilliant deception.’

‘You’ll burn in hell, Rush.’

‘Very probably. And you’ll be able to tell them to expect me.’

‘You’re a vicious murderer, a traitor and a coward.’

A shadow passed over Rush’s face. ‘A coward? No, Master Hill. I have no time for soldiers or soldiering, but a coward I am not.’ He shoved the shirt back into Thomas’s mouth and secured it. ‘Now we shall see who’s a coward.’ He ripped Thomas’s shirt down the front, and dragged the point of the blade diagonally across his chest. Thomas’s back arched against the pain, and blood from the wound dripped down his stomach. Again the blade sliced his flesh, its line forming a cross with the first cut. Rush rose and fetched a pail of water from the washstand. He threw it over Thomas’s chest. ‘There. We don’t want you bleeding to death quite yet, do we? The water will help to keep you going.’ Thomas closed his eyes and bit down on the shirt in his mouth. The cuts had been finely judged. Deep enough to cause pain, not so deep as to kill.

Rush sat back on the chair and admired his work. ‘Not a bad start, although the smaller cuts are more difficult to make precisely. How fortunate that we have all night. A man’s pleasures should always be taken slowly. Speaking of which, I found an excellent bottle in your cupboard. Are you thirsty? No? Well, I am.’ The bottle produced, Rush poured himself a glass and sipped it appreciatively. ‘The college cellars are one of the few good things about this city. I daresay that’s why the king chose to come here. This is a splendid claret. Are you sure you wouldn’t care for a glass?’ Unable to speak, Thomas forced himself to keep his eyes open, willing Rush to see the contempt in them. At the same time, he wished he could close his nostrils. The stench of the man was overpowering. If witches carried the smell of evil, Rush reeked of the devil himself. Thomas gagged on the shirt in his mouth, and swallowed the bile in his throat.

‘Your sister, I’m told, is a handsome woman,’ went on Rush, ‘and your nieces very pretty little things. I have not yet had the pleasure of meeting them myself, although I hope that will not be long delayed. Ah, you’re wondering how I know. I have friends in Hampshire. One of them has been keeping a close eye on your sister and her daughters.’ The threatening letters. Rush’s doing. ‘We did think you might hurry home when you heard news of them. Alas, you chose to stay in Oxford. Most unwise.’

Rush poured himself more wine and took his glass to the window. ‘A lovely city, Oxford, as is Cambridge, which I know better. I was there myself, you know. I studied law at Peterhouse. Nothing like as grand as Christ Church, of course, but a charming college. Do you know the most unusual thing about both places? People listen. They learn by listening. Everywhere else, I find people do not listen, they merely wait for their turn to speak. Sometimes, they don’t even do that. They interrupt. I learned to listen at Peterhouse, and the habit has never left me. In gathering information, I find it an invaluable skill.’ Taking up the sword, Rush pressed the point under Thomas’s ear and drew it down his neck and across his throat. Thomas felt a trickle of blood.

‘I do hope you’re listening, Thomas. You would be foolish not to. I’m going to give you another chance to speak, but do remember what I said. A shout or a scream will cost you an eye.’ The shirt was removed, and Thomas swallowed hard, the taste of bile still in his mouth. Rush continued his monologue. ‘The best thing about this war is that it has brought with it opportunities for a man clever and daring enough to take them. Opportunities to become rich, opportunities to become powerful. Military men are so splendidly stupid. They hack each other to death while others are quietly seizing these opportunities. When they realize what has happened, it will be too late.’

‘Hell will be too good for you, Rush.’ Thomas’s voice rasped in his throat.

‘So you have made clear,’ laughed Rush. ‘Fortunately, I don’t believe in hell. Or heaven, for that matter. Believing in either makes life so much more difficult. Nor do I care much whether the country is ruled by king or commoner, Catholic or Puritan. Charles Stuart, John Pym, Oliver Cromwell, the Vicar of Rome, it’s all the same to me. There will be rich and poor, clever and stupid. Happily, there will always be more poor and stupid.’ He took another sip of wine. ‘Which are you, Thomas? I wonder. Clever or stupid?’

Thomas turned his head and spat out a mouthful of bile.

‘If that is an answer, I fear I do not understand it,’ continued Rush. ‘Let me put the question another way. There is a place on my staff for a man as skilled as you. In view of recent developments, I shall be returning to London, where John Pym, as you will know, is dying. There I shall take up a new position under his successor, working to spread fear and discontent among the soldiers of the king. I shall need clever men around me, and I shall need one who can ensure that our communications go undetected by the enemy. A chief cryptographer. For the right man, the rewards will be great.’ Deceit, treachery, subversion — Rush’s weapons, and every bit as lethal as his blade. ‘Have you nothing to say to my generous offer?’ Thomas remained silent. ‘In that case, I will try a little persuasion.’ Holding Thomas’s head still, Rush drew a neat circle of blood around his right eye with the point of the blade. ‘There, just right if I should happen to need a target. And if you persist in this stubborn silence, I shall indeed need one.’