Andrew Swanston - The King's Return

The questioning went on for hours. The same questions over and over again, sometimes with new ones added. He asked about Joseph, about the work Thomas had done at the Post Office, about Henry Bishop, Samuel Morland and Lemuel Squire. He even asked about Josiah Mottershead. And he kept going back to the letter. She knew he was trying to catch her out and said as little as possible. He did not stop until it was getting dark. Then he told her that he would have more questions the next day, and left. Two guards came in from outside and locked her in a tiny, windowless room with only a straw mattress on the floor. In the morning one of the guards brought her food and she was locked in again.

The Dutchman did not return until the afternoon, when the questions began again. This time he threatened to give her a face like his own if she did not tell him what he wanted to know. He said that he knew she had the answers and would get them out of her sooner or later. She was expecting the torture to start, when he abruptly left again.

The fever began that night and by the morning it was raging. She could not stand and she could not eat the food she was given. She craved water, but there was none. She lay on the mattress, one minute burning, the next shivering, until the Dutchman arrived. He took one look at her and ordered the guards to give her water.

‘She’s no use to us dead until she’s talked,’ she heard him say in his strange voice. ‘Keep her alive until I say so.’

‘These marshes are full of plague, and if it’s plague nothing will keep her alive,’ grumbled a guard. ‘And if this is a plague house, I’m not staying here.’

‘We’ll move her to the other place,’ said the Dutchman. ‘Do it now.’

The guards did not want to touch her, but they were more afraid of the Dutchman. They put the sack over her head, carried her to the cottage where she had been found and left her on a narrow bed. She did not know how long she had been there when the Dutchman came in with paper and ink. He made her sit up and handed her a quill.

‘Your cousin will want to know that you are well. Write him a letter,’ he ordered.

While she was wondering what to write, the idea came to her. Her hand was shaking and it took all her concentration. What was more, she did not know for certain that they were in Dartford. It was only a guess. She was confident that Thomas would see the hidden message as long as the Dutchman did not. Fortunately, he barely glanced at it.

Madeleine had finished her story. ‘You know the rest, Thomas,’ she said. ‘Oddly enough, the sickness may have saved me. The slightest injury could have killed me and the Dutchman knew it.’

‘Yes, and rather than kill you, he demanded a ransom for you.’

‘Did he? How much?’

‘Far too much.’

‘How much?’

‘Ten thousand pounds.’

‘Pitiful. You’d have paid twenty, Thomas, would you not?’

Thomas smiled. ‘You’ll never know.’

‘Find him, Thomas. Find him and bring him to justice. I want the man dead.’

Madeleine’s eyes closed. Thomas sat and watched her sleep. A beautiful lady and a brave one. Was he really going to go back to Romsey without her? He thought of their lovemaking. The first time she had surprised him by speaking French. It was a form of intimacy. The language of love, was it not?

Language, words, meanings. Thomas had always seen mathematics as a language – a way of communicating a fact or an idea. Perhaps that was what had led him to cryptography, which called for skill with both words and numbers. Aurum and Argentum – gold and silver – and in French, or and argent . Thomas Col , Henry Evêque , Lemuel Propriétaire , John Hiver , Chandle Pierre , well, almost Pierre . What would Quicksilver be? Mercure ? No, Argent Vive , that was it. Argent Vive – named by the French alchemists for its appearance. Living silver. Argent Vive .

Thomas sat bolt upright. French alchemists. Argent Vive, which could be abbreviated to AV. AV was the enterprise Sir Montford Babb had despaired of in his journal. Quicksilver was the name of the enterprise Charles and Mary had been persuaded to invest in by Chandle Stoner. He knew there was a connection between Babb’s murder and the other three. AV was Babb’s shorthand for Quicksilver. They were one and the same. And that meant Stoner had persuaded Babb to invest. If he had lied about knowing Babb, what else had he lied about? Quicksilver? Himself? What’s more, the intercepted letter had been addressed to A. Silver Esq. Aurum and Argentum, A. Silver, AV and Quicksilver, all connected and all run by the Alchemist. And Chandle Stoner was involved. More than involved. He might be Argentum – the financier – and he might well have arranged Babb’s murder. Thomas ran down the stairs and into the sitting room. Charles was there alone. ‘Has Joseph been sent for?’ he blurted out.

‘He should be here soon,’ replied Charles, clearly alarmed. ‘Why? Is Madeleine worse?’

Thomas realized with a shock that Charles did not know that Madeleine’s fever had broken. Mary must have fallen asleep without telling him. ‘Madeleine is recovering, thank God. And I know who Argentum is.’

Before Charles could ask who, there was a loud knock on the door. Without waiting for Smythe, Thomas went to open it. It was Joseph.

‘How is she?’ he asked without preamble.

‘The fever has broken. She is asleep. Go up and see her, then come straight down. I have important news.’

Joseph was in the house only as long as it took to see for himself that Madeleine was recovering, and to hear Thomas’s explanation of how he connected AV with Quicksilver, and thus with Stoner. At first Joseph was disbelieving, then astonished, then furious. ‘I shall order the arrest of the man immediately,’ he thundered on his way out. ‘We will question him and if he is guilty, he will hang. Not only a traitor but one acting for personal gain. The vilest of creatures who will pay the price for his greed.’

‘It’s even worse knowing that I was taken in by such a man. I’d willingly draw and quarter him myself,’ said Charles when he and Thomas were alone. He, too, was exploding with anger.

‘If you do,’ replied Thomas, ‘kindly wait until he has told us who Aurum is.’

‘Who do you think he is?’

‘If there are traitors in the Post Office, one of them is likely to be in a senior position. That means Bishop, Squire or Morland. Morland is by far the most likely of the three. He was a fierce supporter of Cromwell, is permanently short of money and has the brains for it.’

‘Why does Joseph not arrest him?’

‘Lack of evidence. Morland is well connected. Remember that he was the man sent to Breda to meet the king. If his guilt were not proved, it could go badly for Joseph.’

Charles grunted. ‘It’s as well for all of them that Madeleine is recovering. If she hadn’t, I’d have taken my swords and saved the hangman the cost of three ropes.’

‘Stoner did know Babb. Matthew Smith, John Winter and Henry Copestick too, I shouldn’t be surprised.’

‘A fraudster, a traitor and a murderer. I should have listened to Mary. She never trusted him.’

‘You will have to tell her.’

‘I know. Thank God for Madeleine. Mary would never have forgiven me.’

The door opened and Mary came in. ‘Mary would never have forgiven you for what?’

Thomas stood up and made for the door. ‘I shall look in on Madeleine again. Then I believe that I shall go for a walk in St James’s Park. No doubt we shall have heard from Joseph by this evening.’

He was out of the house and on his way to the park within seconds.