Rory Clements - The Heretics

‘Think’st thou I am your executioner? I will blow you to dust, Shakespeare.’

‘Roag-’

The muzzle was pushed harder against his head. ‘You know my name?’

‘I know all about you, your grudge and your designs. I had expected to meet you.’

Roag’s hand wavered. Another hand, from somewhere else in the flickering gloom, pressed against Shakespeare’s throat with the razor-honed edge of a long blade. Roag pulled it away. ‘Wait.’

The knife disappeared.

‘You saw me in Cornwall. Mr Sloth said you described me to him. But how do you know my name?’

Shakespeare said nothing.

‘It was Warner. Your spy Warner. Was that it? He sent messages, yes? What else did he tell you?’

‘Warner? The name means nothing to me.’

‘Disarm him.’

He felt hands pulling his weapons from him: his two pistols, his sword, his poniard. There seemed to be three of them, one very short, all with pistols and swords, and one with a butcher’s knife. Shakespeare cursed himself for letting down his guard on this of all nights: if he was to die here, then he would never deliver the reprieve for Frank Mills.

The blow came like a smith’s hammer, into his temple, and knocked him senseless. The last thing he knew was the crumpling of his knees as he pitched forward to the flagstones and darkness.

Boltfoot watched until late morning. It was a gruelling wait, but finally the youth named Ariel emerged from the tenement building and wandered off into the streets of Southwark. Boltfoot followed him. Ariel went into an ordinary where he ate a breakfast of manchet bread, ale and beef pottage, then came out once more into the sunlight and ambled back towards the Bilge. His way of life may have been profitable, but it was a dangerous one: the penalty for sodomy was death.

Grinding his teeth in frustration, Boltfoot returned to the tenement where the young man had slept. He walked in without knocking at the door and mounted the steps to the first floor. The lodging room consisted of a mattress, a coffer with clothes and some books. Nothing more — and, again, no indication that Ovid Sloth had been here.

It had been a wasted night. The young man clearly had no idea where Sloth was hiding, nor any interest in finding him. Boltfoot realised that watching him had been a long shot, but sometimes such ventures paid off.

He walked back through the streets to a tavern named the Hope, where seafarers gathered. The landlord was as surly as ever, but managed to tilt his chin at him in recognition.

‘Not seen you in a year or two, Mr Cooper.’

‘Bit far south for me, landlord.’

‘Well, if you see any of your poxy old mariner friends, send them along and they’ll have a free pint of ale from me. None of them come round here any more and, to tell you the truth, I could do with their custom, mangy company of rats though they be.’

Boltfoot was dejected. Nothing was going his way. It was the old seafarers he wanted, the sort of men who knew about sail-lofts, and they weren’t here. He ordered a pint of small ale and some bacon and eggs and sat by the window that looked out on to the river. The landlord came over with his food.

‘So what brings you across the bridge this day, Mr Cooper? Want a fair view of Her Majesty’s barge on its way to Nonsuch, do you? Stay here and you’ll have no finer view.’

‘I’m looking for sail-lofts. One in particular.’

‘There’s one or two, but they are a little way downriver from here, towards Deptford and Blackwall. You after work, then?’

‘No, I’m looking for someone. A man named Regis Roag. I’m told he came from these parts; his mother was a seamstress, and she and her old man, the stepfather, ran a sail-loft here in Southwark some years ago. Want to know if they’re still here.’

‘Regis Roag, king of Southwark? He used to be well known in these parts. We’d watch him strut down to Paris Garden with his nose in the air like he was a nobleman. That afforded us all a few laughs. Now he’s gone on to better things. I saw him playing the crookback Richard of Gloucester at the Theatre.’

‘What of his mother?’

‘Yes, she had a sail-loft, a little way east of Horsey Down, behind the Shad Thames Wharf. Not heard a word of her in recent years, but why would I?’

Boltfoot drank up and ate his food, then paid and left the Hope. As he wandered along the bank downriver, he heard the sound of ceremonial gunfire and the shooting of fireworks. The great spectacle of Her Majesty’s journey from Placentia Palace at Greenwich to Nonsuch in Surrey had begun. Soon the river would be a mass of royal vessels, the most magnificent of all being the Queen’s own barge, in which she would sit in state on cushions of gold, pulled by another barge with the finest rowers in all England. Behind her would come the vessels filled with courtiers, clerics, ladies and hundreds of other members of her retinue. Boltfoot paid it no heed; he was mighty tired and he had seen the great event more times than he cared to think on. It made him feel old.

There were a couple of sail-lofts behind Shad Thames Wharf.

‘Aye,’ the chief seamster at the first one said. ‘This used to be Amy Roag’s place. The plague took her to her maker two years ago. Her husband went some years before that.’

Boltfoot looked around the loft. It was a light, airy place with an expanse of floorboards laid across the top of the wooden frames of three houses. A large canvas sail was laid out flat, having the finishing touches applied to the hems.

‘Does her son ever come here?’

‘No. Why would he?’

‘To buy needles. Sailmakers.’

The seamster gave Boltfoot an odd look. ‘Now that is a strange suggestion, friend. Last I heard, Regis Roag was a player. What would he be wanting with sailmakers?’

‘To kill people with.’ Even as he spoke the words, Boltfoot realised he had made an error.

The seamster had a pair of shears in his hand. His grip on them tightened as he eyed up Boltfoot’s weapons, estimating his chances against him. Other men in the sail-loft began to gather round.

The seamster turned to a boy. ‘Go fetch the constable, Humphrey. I think we might have a felon here.’

Boltfoot backed off, unslinging his caliver. It wasn’t loaded, but would these men know that?

He pointed the muzzle at the chief man. ‘You got me wrong. I’m not after killing anyone.’

‘We’ll let the justice decide on that.’

‘I mean you no harm, nor am I a felon. This is Queen’s business.’

‘If you’re on Queen’s business, then I’m a baked hedgehog. Now put down your fancy weapon.’

Boltfoot realised he had nothing to gain by staying here.

‘Stand back easy and no one will be harmed. .’

He turned and almost fell into the hatchway. He grabbed at the rope handrail and stumbled down the steps in a clatter of weapons. Then he ran, as fast as his club-foot would allow.

He limped and tripped into the woodland of Horsey Down, and found cover behind a clump of trees. With as much calm as he could muster, he loaded his caliver with powder and shot, and waited. The moments stretched into minutes. No one was following. He leant against the main tree trunk of an ash grove and allowed his knees to collapse as he slumped into its folds. He was exhausted.

This was the way it had been on watches without number across the great oceans of the world. If a man slept on one of Drake’s watches, he would have a dozen lashes. That was for the first offence. Caught a second time, he would face death. Boltfoot had never slept on a watch; he would not sleep now.

Painfully, he dragged himself to his feet. He left the caliver loaded and slung it across his back, its muzzle pointing at the sky, then limped slowly back into the streets of Southwark into a flood of people. They were all going in one direction — to the river bank to cheer their Queen as she was rowed past with glittering pomp.