Josephine Tey - The Daughter of Time

‘Yes. Wouldn’t you think that there was something she could have done? When she found that she was being prevented from getting news of the boys.’

‘She may never have known that they were missing. He may just have said: “It is my wish that you should not see them. I think you are a bad influence on them: you who came out of sanctuary and let your daughters go to that man’s parties!”’

‘Yes, that’s so, of course. He didn’t have to wait until she actually became suspicious. The whole thing might have been one move. “You’re a bad woman, and a bad mother; I am sending you into a convent to save your soul and your children from the contamination of your presence”.’

‘Yes. And where the rest of England were concerned, he was as safe as any murderer ever could be. After his happy thought about the “treason” accusation, no one was going to stick his neck out by inquiring particularly about the boys’ health. Everyone must have been walking on eggs as it was. No one knowing what Henry might think of next to make into a retrospective offence that would send their lives into limbo and their estates into Henry’s kitty. No, it was no time to be over-curious about anything that didn’t directly concern oneself. Not that it would be easy, in any case, to satisfy one’s curiosity.’

‘With the boys living at the Tower, you mean.’

‘With the boys living in a Tower officialled by Henry’s men. There was none of Richard’s get-together live-and-let-live attitude about Henry. No York-Lancaster alliance for Henry. The people at the Tower would be Henry’s men.’

‘Yes. Of course they would. Did you know that Henry was the first English King to have a bodyguard? I wonder what he told his wife about her brothers.’

‘Yes. That would be interesting to know. He may even have told her the truth.’

‘ Henry! Never! It would cost Henry a spiritual struggle, Mr Grant, to acknowledge that two and two were four. I tell you, he was a crab; he never went straight at anything.’

‘If he were sadist he could tell her with impunity, you know. There was practically nothing she could do about it. Even if she wanted to. She mightn’t have wanted to all that much. She had just produced an heir to the throne of England and was getting ready to produce another. She might not have the spare interest for a crusade; especially a crusade that would knock the ground from under her own feet.’

‘He wasn’t a sadist, Henry,’ young Carradine said sadly. Sad at having to grant Henry even a negative virtue. ‘In a way he was just the opposite. He didn’t enjoy murder at all. He had to pretty it before he could bear the thought of it. Dress it up in legal ribbons. If you think that Henry got a kick out of boasting to Elizabeth in bed about what he had done with her brothers, I think you’re wrong.’

‘Yes, probably,’ Grant said. And lay thinking about Henry. ‘I’ve just thought of the right adjective for Henry,’ he said presently. ‘Shabby. He was a shabby creature.’

‘Yes. Even his hair was thin and scanty.’

‘I didn’t mean it physically.’

‘I know you didn’t.’

‘Everything that he did was shabby. Come to think of it, “Morton’s Fork” is the shabbiest piece of revenue-raising in history. But it wasn’t only his greed for money. Everything about him is shabby, isn’t it?’

‘Yes. Dr Gairdner wouldn’t have any trouble in making his actions fit his character. How did you get on with the Doctor?’

‘A fascinating study. But for the grace of God I think the worthy Doctor might have made a living as a criminal.’

‘Because he cheated?’

‘Because he didn’t cheat. He was as honest as the day. He just couldn’t reason from B to C.’

‘All right, I’ll buy.’

‘Everyone can reason from A to B – even a child. And most adults can reason from B to C. But a lot can’t. Most criminals can’t. You may not believe it – I know it’s an awful come-down from the popular conception of the criminal as a dashing and cute character – but the criminal mind is an essentially silly one. You can’t imagine how silly sometimes. You’d have to experience it to believe their lack of reasoning powers. They arrive at B, but they’re quite incapable of making the jump to C. They’ll lay two completely incompatible things side by side and contemplate them with the most unquestioning content. You can’t make them see that they can’t have both, any more than you can make a man of no taste see that bits of plywood nailed on to a gable to simulate Tudor beams are impossible. Have you started your own book?’

‘Well – I’ve made a sort of tentative beginning. I know the way I want to write it. I mean the form. I hope you won’t mind.’

‘Why should I mind?’

‘I want to write it the way it happened. You know; about my coming to see you, and our starting the Richard thing quite casually and not knowing what we were getting into, and how we stuck to things that actually happened and not what someone reported afterwards about it, and how we looked for the break in the normal pattern that would indicate where the mischief was, like bubbles coming up from a diver way below, and that sort of thing.’

‘I think it’s a grand idea.’

‘You do?’

‘I do indeed.’

‘Well, that’s fine, then. I’ll get on with it. I’m going to do some research on Henry, just as garnish. I’d like to be able to put their actual records side by side, you see. So that people can compare them for themselves. Did you know that Henry invented the Star Chamber?’

‘Was it Henry? I’d forgotten that. Morton’s Fork and the Star Chamber. The classic sample of sharp practice, and the classic sample of tyranny. You’re not going to have any difficulty in differentiating the rival portraits, are you! Morton’s Fork and the Star Chamber make a nice contrast to the granting of the right to bail, and the prevention of the intimidation of juries.’

‘Was that Richard’s Parliament? Golly, what a lot of reading I have to do. Atlanta’s not speaking to me. She hates your marrow. She says I’m about as much use to a girl as a last year’s Vogue . But honestly, Mr Grant, this is the first time in my life that anything exciting has happened to me. Important, I mean. Not exciting meaning exciting. Atlanta’s exciting. She’s all the excitement I ever want. But neither of us is important, the way I mean important – if you can understand what I mean.’

‘Yes, I understand. You’ve found something worth doing.’

‘That’s it. I’ve found something worth doing. And it’s me that’s going to do it; that’s what’s wonderful about it. Me. Mrs Carradine’s little boy. I come over here with Atlanta, with no idea about anything but using that research gag as an alibi. I walk into the B.M. to get me some dope to keep Pop quiet, and I walk out with a mission. Doesn’t that shake you!’ He eyed Grant in a considering way. ‘You’re quite sure, Mr Grant, that you don’t want to write this book yourself? After all, it’s quite a thing to do.’

‘I shall never write a book,’ Grant said firmly. ‘Not even My Twenty Years at the Yard. ’

‘What! Not even your autobiography?’

‘Not even my autobiography. It is my considered opinion that far too many books are written as it is.’

‘But this is one that must be written,’ Carradine said, looking slightly hurt.

‘Of course it is. This one must be written. Tell me: there’s something I forgot to ask you. How soon after that double pardon did Tyrrel get that appointment in France? How soon after his supposed service to Henry in July 1486 did he become Constable of the Castle of Guisnes?’

Carradine stopped looking hurt and looked as malicious as it was possible for his kind woolly-lamb face to look.