Edward Marston - The Fair Maid of Bohemia

‘What did he say to you?’

‘He told me how to cure the plague.’

‘How?’ she asked. ‘We all wish to know that.’

‘The good doctor advised me to sail out of London in the company of a beautiful woman,’ he said with a fond smile. ‘So here am I-and there she stands before me.’

Anne smiled. ‘Is that all that he said to you?’

‘It is all that is of consequence.’

He slipped an arm around her and stared out over the bulwark. London was receding into the gloom. He wondered how long it would be before he returned to the City and how many of the discarded hired men would still be there. Theatre could be a cruel master at times.

When they reached Deptford, they disembarked to the sound of hammering in the shipyards and to the plaintive cries of sea-gulls. Nicholas took a moment to look nostalgically across at the Golden Hind , the ship on which he had once sailed around the world with Francis Drake. Moored in perpetuity, it was now an object of veneration and he was hurt to see how much of its timbers had been chipped away by those eager for souvenirs. It now seemed far too small for the interminable voyage it had survived and the large crew it had carried. As unhappy memories flooded his mind, Nicholas turned his attention to getting the company aboard the other vessel.

The Peppercorn was a three-masted craft with a reputation for safety, but this was a relative term at sea. When they left the protection of the Thames estuary, Nicholas knew that they would encounter high winds and surging waves. Many of his fellows would feel both queasy and frightened when they lost all sight of land. Moving amongst them again, he warned them of what was to come and suggested precautions they might take. As Anne watched him striding confidently around the deck, she was struck by the consideration he was showing to the others and she was forcibly reminded that she would not be able to call upon that consideration herself for much longer.

‘Is all well, Mistress Hendrik?’ asked a voice.

‘Yes, Adrian,’ she said with a weary smile.

‘Nicholas asked me to keep an eye on you.’

‘That is very kind.’

‘He is trying to instil some courage into us,’ said Adrian Smallwood. ‘We are poor sailors and need all the help we can get. My stomach is already telling me that I should have stayed behind in London.’

‘Where do you hail from?’

‘York.’

‘That is not so far from the sea.’

‘It never tempted me,’ he confessed. ‘I prefer to have dry land beneath my feet and not this tilting deck.’

Anne chatted happily with him. Though Smallwood had only been with the company a short time, he was a gregarious man who got to know everyone very quickly. She liked him. On the few occasions they had met, he had always been polite but effusive. Adrian Smallwood had the same bubbling vitality which she admired in Owen Elias, and even more in Lawrence Firethorn.

As Anne was talking, two men brushed past her and stood a yard or so away. Her brief glance told her that they looked like foreign merchants but she paid them no further attention. It was only when Smallwood excused himself to go below that she was able to take a closer interest in the men. There was a sinister air to them. They were studying the members of the theatre company with great curiosity, as if trying to identify someone.

A throaty chuckle from one man somehow alerted her. Anne moved an involuntary step closer so that she could overhear what they were saying. They were talking in German and she needed a moment to translate the snatches that she picked up. When she edged closer still, only one more sentence was spoken but she was able to understand it at once. The smaller of them, a short, stocky individual with a gruff voice, indicated Westfield’s Men with a hand.

‘Which one must I kill?’ he asked.

The relish in his tone made her blood run cold.

The first betrayal came from the sea itself. It offered one thing to their faces while plotting another behind their backs. When the estuary broadened out, the Peppercorn came round the headland and sailed out into open water. The wind freshened to beat noisily at the canvas and the waves made the vessel twist and undulate, but most of the passengers felt no real discomfort. To the bolder souls who remained on deck, the spray was invigorating and the creaking rhythm of the ship was oddly reassuring.

Standing fearlessly in the prow, Lawrence Firethorn scanned the empty horizon ahead like a Viking warrior in search of new lands to plunder. So exhilarated was he by the dipping motion of the vessel that he began to quote speeches extempore from his favourite plays, hurling iambic pentameters into the white foam with joyous prodigality. Owen Elias was also excited by his first sea voyage and talked volubly to James Ingram about the delights that lay ahead for them on the Continent.

While some were thrilled by the experience, others were simply relieved that it was not the ordeal they had feared. Edmund Hoode found a quiet corner in which he could meditate on the problem how The Chaste Maid of Wapping could arrive in Prague in Bohemian disguise. Barnaby Gill tucked himself against the bulwark and used his pomander to keep out the salty tang of the sea, inhaling dramatically through flared nostrils to attract what attention he could. Adrian Smallwood grew accustomed to the swell so quickly that he was even able to instruct Richard Honeydew, the youngest of the apprentices, in how to accompany himself on the lute.

Nicholas Bracewell was unable to enjoy the ambiguous pleasures of being at sea again. Anne Hendrik’s report had been highly unsettling.

‘Are you sure that is what you heard?’ he asked.

‘Yes, Nick.’

‘There could be no mistake in the translation?’

‘Jacob taught me well. My German is not perfect but it was more than adequate for this.’

‘And the two men were looking at us?’

‘They were studying you,’ she said. ‘They were keeping the whole company under surveillance.’

‘I wish that you had kept them under surveillance a little longer, Anne, instead of running straight to me. You might have seen their faces and marked their apparel so that I was able to identify them. As it was, you only viewed them from behind, and that leaves me short of necessary detail.’

‘I was frightened, Nick!’

‘I know, I know,’ he soothed.

‘That man talked of murder,’ she recalled with a shudder, ‘with such evil pleasure in his voice. I could not bear to stand beside him a moment longer. That is why I rushed directly to you.’

He put a comforting arm around her. ‘You did right and I am very grateful to you. What you chanced to overhear may save a life. Forewarned is forearmed. I will spread the word.’ He heaved a sigh. ‘But we take precautions against an invisible foe. You and I have been twice around the ship together to search high and low, but you did not recognise those men.’

‘I thought I saw one of them, Nick. But I cannot be sure.’

‘Remain vigilant.’

‘I will, I will.’

‘And stay close to me at all times.’

‘You do not have to give me that advice,’ she said with a smile. ‘I will not let you out of my sight. That man terrified me. Why could anyone wish to harm a member of the company?’

‘I do not know, Anne.’

‘He was ready to kill someone.’

‘He will have to get past me first.’

‘What if you yourself are the victim?’

She buried her head in his chest and he held her tight. It was minutes before she was able to speak again. Controlling her fear, Anne looked up at him.

‘I am ready to search the vessel again with you, if that would help,’ she offered. ‘They are aboard somewhere.’