Martin Stephen - The Desperate remedy

The houses crowding in on each other in London's streets meant that the roofs of even the finest properties often nearly touched each other. For the brave and the foolhardy, and for many thieves, there were roads across the roofs and into the houses more clearly laid out than the roadways beneath.

Gresham turned to Mannion.

'Bring this new man to me, in a half-hour. Send him to the dressing room, off the back balcony.' 'Do you want me there?' Jane asked.

'I think we're best left to do the business alone,' said Gresham. This time Jane took no offence.

They moved to the rear of the house, facing the river. Gresham's father had built a second great Hall at the back, with one of the finest balconies in London overlooking the Thames. A 'cut' from the main river allowed boats to dock at the House's own jetty. The room they chose to interview the new servant was just off the balcony, small and framed in brick and timber.

There was a clumping up the stairs, and Mannion ushered in the new man. He was tall, well-built and powerful, some thirty-five years old with a mop of reddish hair. There was no change in Gresham's expression as he greeted him.

'Good morning. Welcome to the House. You're pleased with your new post?'

If the man, Sam Fogarty as he had given his name, felt any surprise at this affable expression of interest from his master, he did not show it. He spoke confidently, looking Gresham in the eye. The accent was thick as sewage, but comprehensible.

'I'm well pleased, sir, to be in your Worship's service. It's the envy of London among serving-men to work in such a place.'

Gresham nodded to Mannion, who drew silently closer.

'Tell me, Sam, how long have you worked for my Lord Cecil?'

'Cecil, sir?' To his credit, Sam's face hardly blanched. 'I've never worked for Lord Cecil. I came here from the north…'

He did not hear the blow coming from Mannion, but merely saw his world explode into stars and an instantaneous moment of blinding pain.

When he came to, minutes later, his feet were tightly trussed with stout cord, and his arms loosely tied behind his back. The top half of his body was extended over the opened trap door, a black hole from which a foul smell blew into the room.

'One push from Mannion,' said Gresham carefully, coming round from behind the table at which he had sat with a goblet of wine in his hand, 'and you'll descend that chute head-first. It's brick-lined. It descends the height of the House, with enough curves in it to break your head to pulp. At the bottom is an old well. It's been spoilt by foul water from the river creeping in. We no longer use it for water. As far as we know there's no exit to the river. Or to anywhere else. Those who survive the descent splash around for as long as they have breath and then drown. We've heard them for a day or more, but they always fall silent. Now tell me, how long have you worked for Lord Cecil?'

Sam's head was aflame, his gut sick with the foul stench of rotting flesh that swept up from the black depths of the trap door.

'I know of no work for Lord Cecil…'

Mannion pushed his body an inch or two closer to the drop.

Sam screamed.

'You see,' Gresham responded conversationally, 'I remember faces. I remember being ushered out through the servants' hall of his Lordship's house some two… or was it three?… years ago. And you were there, Master Sam, with your red mop, holding court to most of the kitchen wenches. I recognised you as you walked through the door. Your voice, as much as your hair and face. You were shouting to the wenches, back then, telling them a bad joke as I recollect…'

Gresham grabbed the man's hair and pulled his head back, looking into his fear-crazed eyes. 'Now tell me, Sam Redmop, for the last time. How long have you worked for Lord Cecil?'

'Sir… my Lord…' Suddenly, the man's whole body sagged. 'Spare me. Spare me. Four years. No more. Four years only.'

'Break his leg. The left one.'

The body writhed in protest. The crack was sickening as Mannion's club smashed the bone into a clean break. Sam screamed again.

Mannion pulled the body back from the abyss and flung the trap door shut, bolting it securely. He turned then to the writhing and gasping body, cut loose the cord around its legs and with a practised efficiency set splints around the twisted limb.

Sam's body could only flutter now, on the edge of unconsciousness. Gresham yanked his head round, more gently this time.

'We'll pay for a surgeon to look to your wound. You'll walk again, and walk as good as ever you did if you're careful. The pain you'll suffer is your payment for daring to seek to spy on Henry Gresham. No one spies on Henry Gresham. No one enters his household as a spy.

'You'll be held, in a secret place, until you can walk. You'll be given money, enough to get you back to Northumberland, and a little more. After that, it's up to you. Your Lord Cecil will be told that you came to visit the House, and that you suffered an accident in which you were most "unfortunately drowned. As far as Cecil is concerned you'll be dead. If he hears of your existence, he'll assume you've deceived him and turned to my service, and he'll kill you. I suggest a new name and a new livelihood. The old one is truly dead.'

Gresham let the head drop, and turned away. He stopped by the door. 'It's not good to seek to betray Henry Gresham. Remember my mercy in sparing your life and sending you on your way.'

He left, closing the door quietly behind him. Two porters entered and carried out the groaning, semi-conscious figure. Mannion growled a sentence of instruction at them. They nodded.

Mannion found Gresham in the Minstrels' Gallery of the Great Hall.

'Is it wise to declare war on Cecil?' he asked bluntly. 'Do you intend to send such a message to him?' 'Old friend, do you think I'm a fool?' 'Sometimes.'

'Well, rest assured. Master Sam believes his death has been announced to Cecil. That makes him truly a dead man if he seeks to return to Cecil's service. As for me, I'll send no message to Lord Cecil. Far better that he should wait and wonder what's happened to his spy, see his man vanish into silence. Let's keep his Lordship guessing, old man. And whilst we're so doing, let's find out what's truly happening out there. And why Lord Cecil wants a spy in my house. He keeps me guessing about Bacon. Now I shall keep him guessing about his spy.'

Mannion pondered this for a moment. 'Who'll tell your mistress that we hired a Judas?'

'I'll tell her. It wasn't her fault. It's only by chance I was able to spot him as what he was. Just as important, will you help me to tell Cook and your mistress why I ordered two rotting sides of beef?'

The trap door over which Sam had been suspended led to no well. It was a service chute, a straight drop to the ground floor where goods delivered from the river could be hoisted up to the top storeys of the House. A shutter at the bottom deprived it of light when closed. Two decaying sides of beef suspended on a shelf feet below the trap door provided the stench of the charnel house that so fixed the minds of those suspended above it.

A short distance away down the Strand, Robert Catesby's party was also breaking up, Thomas Percy still bleating to whoever would listen how hard done by he was.

Catesby marvelled at his own sense of relaxation, seeing and almost tasting the fear on the skin of the others. Even the delay in convening Parliament — it would not assemble now until

November 5th — could be handled. The cursed powder would be subject to its interminable decay. The risk of a chance discovery in the cellar, or drink or pillow talk from one of the conspirators revealing more than was wise, was ever-present and grew with each extra day. Yet they had come this far. They would prepare as well for November 5th as they had for October 3rd. God would protect them.