C Sansom - Sovereign

‘There’s hundreds of great Suffolk horses in the far fields,’ Barak said. ‘I’ve never seen so many.’

‘I saw. Master Craike took me to the belltower. The officials have an eyrie there to watch the camp. In case the men make trouble.’

He grinned. ‘A nightmare, eh?’

‘Ay, a nightmare!’ I laughed.

‘I’m sorry for losing my temper earlier. Being with those arseholes Maleverer and Rich unnerved me.’

‘You had a point. But I do not feel I can abandon this case, not when it seems there may be even a slim chance of winning. Can you understand that?’

‘Yes, I suppose so.’ He was silent a moment, then changed the subject. ‘I was talking to one of the clerks earlier, who was at Fulford.’

I looked at him sharply. ‘Oh, yes?’

‘He said Master Wrenne was taken ill, just after he met the King.’

‘What?’

‘He collapsed in the midst of the city councillors, had to be taken home in a cart.’

‘So that was why he disappeared. I thought he’d run out on me. How is he?’

‘I only know he was taken home to rest. He can’t have been too bad, or they’d have fetched a physician.’

‘I will visit him tomorrow. Did you and Tamasin see the King when he entered York?’

‘Ay. Jesu, he’s a big fellow. The Queen looked tiny next to him, a mouse beside a lion. He smiled and waved merrily, but there were hostile faces in the crowd, and a line of soldiers between him and them.’

‘Yes.’ The cooking-fire was blazing now. I wondered how the four sweating men who turned the handles of the spit could bear the heat. ‘Let’s walk on,’ I said, ‘before we roast like that ox.’

WE WANDERED ROUND the camp. It was quite dark now, though the many cooking-fires and lamps set before the tents gave enough light to see by. A cool breeze had risen, sending smoke drifting into our faces and making us cough.

‘I should tell you,’ I said. ‘I had a fight with Radwinter this afternoon.’

‘A fight? You?’ Barak looked at me incredulously.

I told him what had happened. He whistled. ‘I wanted to fly at him myself after what he said about the York Jews. Jesu, he knows how to provoke.’ He gave me a shrewd look. ‘Do you think that was what he was after, making you lose control?’

‘I’m sure of it. He means to hold it over me. No word among the clerks on the Scotch King’s arrival, I suppose?’

‘No. I’ve been talking to some of the men in the camp. They’re happy to sit it out here for a few days so long as it doesn’t rain and the countryside can bring in enough supplies. They ran out at Pontefract they were there so long, and were put on short rations.’

‘It’s harvest-time. I imagine the farmers will be making money out of the Progress.’

‘They get paid over the purveyance rate, I hear. Part of the plan to win the Yorkers over.’

I looked at the men walking to and fro or sitting by their tents with their bowls, waiting as more cooking-fires were lit around the camp.

‘They’re tired,’ Barak said. ‘They’ve had near three months on the road.’ I nodded, envying the ease with which Barak could strike up conversation with common folk.

We had arrived at a cockfighting ring. Men stood cheering as two black cocks, feathers slick with blood, circled in a clear space next to the fire, slashing at each other with the fierce hooks fixed to their claws.

‘Your bird is losing again,’ I heard a cultivated drawl. ‘You may strive till you stink, Master Dereham, but you will never beat me in a cockfight wager.’ Looking round, I saw the louche handsome face of the courtier Lady Rochford had referred to as Culpeper. A little group of male courtiers stood at the front of the crowd. The rest of the audience, out of respect, had left space around them. Culpeper’s face was lit redly by the flames, as was that of secretary Dereham, who stood next to him, a saturnine smile on his face.

‘No, sir,’ Dereham replied. ‘I took a wager on your bird as well as mine. For two marks.’

Culpeper looked puzzled. ‘But then…’ He still looked puzzled as Dereham laughed in his face. For all his charm with the ladies, young Culpeper had little intelligence.

Then Dereham saw me. He frowned and stepped forward with a bullying swagger. ‘Hey, you!’ he said sharply. ‘You’re Lawyer Shardlake, ain’t you?’

‘I am, sir.’

‘I’ve had Sir William Maleverer asking me questions about seeing you carrying some decorated casket at King’s Manor a few days ago. What have you been bandying my name about for, you stinking knave?’

‘I have not, sir,’ I said evenly. ‘Sir William wished to enquire of everyone who had seen me with the casket, and I remembered you and Lady Rochford looked over at me. I had some plaster on my cloak,’ I added.

‘What’s so important about the box, hey?’ Dereham demanded. ‘Maleverer wouldn’t say, only that it had been stolen.’

I looked around uneasily; several people had turned at the sound of Dereham’s loud braying voice. Maleverer would be furious if he knew Dereham was broadcasting the news like this.

‘It was lost, sir,’ I said quietly. ‘Sir William has the matter in hand.’

‘Don’t answer me back, you baseborn slug.’ Dereham’s face reddened. ‘Do you know who I am?’

‘You are Master Dereham, the Queen’s secretary.’

‘Then have respect.’ Dereham frowned, then smiled cruelly. ‘You’re the hunchback the King made mock of, aren’t you?’

‘I am,’ I said wearily. With one of Dereham’s rank, as with Rich and Maleverer, there was nothing one could do but take it.

‘It’s all round the town.’ He laughed and turned away.

Barak took my arm and walked me off. ‘Parasites,’ he said. ‘Tamasin says that Culpeper made a pass at her, he tries it on with every woman he likes the look of. He’s one of the King’s bodyservants, he can do as he likes.’

‘I am going to have to develop the hide of a crocodile.’

‘It’ll be a two days’ wonder. There’s to be a big bear-baiting at the manor tomorrow, all the York gentry invited, and half the camp will straggle along to watch. That’ll be the talk tomorrow night.’

I nodded. ‘Will you take Tamasin?’

‘She doesn’t like the bear-baiting. Another one with a weak stomach.’

I smiled. ‘When we return to London, will you see her there? Or is she just another of your dalliances?’

‘I thought you didn’t like her?’

‘Maybe I was too harsh. Anyway, ’tis your business.’

‘Well,’ he said. ‘We’ll have to see.’ He smiled enigmatically. ‘I can’t think that far ahead. I feel like we’ve been here for ever.’

‘So do I. Come, this walking is making me hungry. Are they serving food in the refectory?’

‘Should be.’

We started walking back to St Mary’s. I saw young Leacon standing with a group of soldiers by the tents; he bowed to me and I nodded in reply. Then I espied another figure, standing with arms folded at the edge of a crowd, cheering on a bloody dogfight between two great mastiffs. He nodded approvingly as one dog tore open the other’s stomach, spilling a mess of guts and blood.

‘Radwinter,’ I said. ‘Come, this way, I don’t want to see him.’ The wretch, though, had seen me. He smiled at me sardonically as we slipped away into the darkness.

‘What’s he doing here?’ Barak said. ‘I thought he was guarding Broderick.’

‘I suppose Maleverer must allow him time to exercise. Damn him. Beware, it’s muddy here.’

We had come to the edge of the camp, beyond the tents, where the ground sloped down to some trees. Beyond I saw the Ouse gleaming in the moonlight. We turned and walked back.