C Sansom - Sovereign

I looked around the stacked piles of books. It had occurred to me that if I could find a map of Kent somewhere I could confirm where Blaybourne village was. I did not know where that would get me but it was something and my determination to discover what was happening had grown. It was a counterweight to the shame and anger I felt over what had passed at Fulford Cross.

Madge returned and said Master Wrenne would see me. I followed her up to a small but well-appointed bedroom. Giles lay on a good feather bed. I was shocked at the change in him: his strong square face was white and it seemed to me some of the flesh had fallen away from it since yesterday. To my surprise, Dr Jibson was there talking to him. He smiled at my entrance.

‘Master Shardlake, good morning.’

Giles reached out a hand. ‘Dr Jibson tells me you are acquainted. He will not say how, professional discretion. But I hope you are not ill too?’

I took his hand, glad the old man’s voice at least seemed strong and clear as ever. His grip, too, remained firm. ‘No,’ I said. ‘But you…’

‘Oh, I had a bad moment, but I am recovering. I shall be ready for work on Monday. We have to hear the first petitions then, down at the castle.’

‘I will leave you now, sir,’ Dr Jibson said. ‘I will instruct your housekeeper how to make up that powder.’

The physician left. ‘Draw up a chair, Matthew,’ Giles said. I brought a stool to the bed. He looked at me seriously, then sighed. ‘What the King said yesterday must have caused you grievous hurt. And for me to have been made part of his evil jest gives me sorrow.’

‘ ’Tis not the first such jest I have had to endure, though never from a King nor in front of such a concourse. But what of you, sir, I heard you were taken ill just after?’

‘Ay. That was the worst attack I have had so far. I was quite composed until the King looked into my eyes and spoke to me. Then-’ He broke off with a visible shudder.

‘What?’

‘You will think me an old fool.’

‘No.’

‘I felt a sudden horror, that is all I can call it. For a second I did not know where or who I was. When the King turned away I stumbled away into the crowd and almost fell. Fortunately I know the townsmen and they helped me back to York without anyone seeing my piteous state.’ He reached for a mug by his bed and took a draught. I caught the spicy smell of an ale posset. He shook his head. ‘When I looked at the King’s eyes it was as though all the power drained out of me.’

‘His eyes are cruel.’

Giles gave a sudden bark of laughter, yet I caught fear in the sound. ‘It made me think of that old legend of the commotion time.’

‘That the King is the Mouldwarp?’

‘Ay.’ He raised his eyebrows. ‘You know of it?’

‘I have heard.’

He shook his head. ‘It is dangerous to speak of such things, such foolish superstitions. I had been working too hard, the strain was too much. But still – well, I have often wondered what the King was really like. Now I know.’ He shook his head. ‘And the Queen, she is so young.’

‘I feel sorry for her.’

‘A buxom little thing. Yet not regal.’

‘She has Howard blood.’

‘The Howards. Their lineage is not as old as they make out.’ He sighed. ‘Perhaps all those trappings of power, all we are told of the ordained power of royalty, perhaps they addle the mind so that when we see the reality it is a shock.’

‘The reality. Ugly and sordid.’

Giles looked at me. ‘Yet we must have royalty, it is the peak of the social order, without it everything would collapse into chaos.’

‘It has already done that in York, has it not? Five years ago, and nearly this spring too?’

‘Ay, there is a great grudge here. Tell me, how did the city receive the King?’

‘Barak said the cheers were ragged.’

‘How different it was for Richard III.’

‘Richard Crouchback,’ I said softly. ‘I remember…’

‘Yes?’

‘Once when I was small, I was playing in the parlour. My father and some of his friends were talking round the table. Someone mentioned something that had happened in Richard’s time. Richard Crouchback’s time was what they said, forgetting I was there. My father looked at me. I can still see the look on his face. Pity. Disappointment.’

‘You had a hard time of it,’ Giles said gently.

I shrugged. ‘Mayhap.’

He sighed. ‘That was propaganda, anyway. You forget I saw King Richard. His back was straight. He had a hard face, serious. But not cruel.’ He leaned back on his pillows. ‘I was a boy then, so long ago.’ He looked up at me. ‘Matthew, I had hoped to keep my strength a little longer. But this attack of pain and weakness has been bad. If it goes with me as with my father, there will be spells of better health but more of these attacks. I may not be an easy companion on the road back to London.’

‘Do not fear. You will have any aid that Barak and I can give.’

‘You are kind.’ He looked at me, and I saw his eyes were wet with tears in the second before he turned away, that I might not see them.

I thought, all my life I never saw tears in my father’s eyes, even when my mother died. There was silence in the room for a moment. Then I said, lightly, ‘I came to ask a small favour as well as to see you.’

‘Of course. Anything.’

‘I need to check something on a map of southern England. In connection with a matter I have on in London. Are there any maps in your collection?’

His eyes lit up with interest. ‘Why yes, I have some. They are mostly old monkish things but you are welcome to look. Most are of the north but I have one or two of the southern counties, I think. I wanted to show you my collection, it is in two rooms at the back of the house. Tell Madge to give you the keys. The maps and plans are on the third shelf on the south wall in the first room. I must stay in bed, I fear.’

‘Of course.’ I rose, for I could see he was tired. ‘I shall send word tomorrow, see how you are. If you are still poorly I will speak to Maleverer about getting someone else to deal with the petitions. Maleverer will not allow me to chair the arbitrations.’

He smiled and shook his head vigorously. ‘I will be better by tomorrow.’ He hesitated, then said, ‘Do not take what the King said too hard, Matthew. It was part of a political game. It was not personal.’

‘A chance to praise a Yorker at my expense. That point has been made. No, the worst thing was that I could see the King enjoyed what he did.’

Giles looked at me seriously. ‘Politics is a hard and cruel game.’

‘I know.’

I left him and descended the stairs. In the hall Dr Jibson was talking to Madge. ‘Master Wrenne says I may check something in his archive,’ I told her.

She hesitated a moment, then said, ‘I will get the keys.’

She left me with the doctor. ‘How is he?’ I asked.

Jibson shook his head. ‘He has a wasting sickness.’

‘He told me his father died of the same thing. Is there nothing to be done?’

‘No. These cruel growths eat away at a man. One can only pray for a miracle.’

‘And without a miracle? How long does he have?’

‘It is hard to say. I have felt that lump in his stomach, it is not too large yet, but it will grow. A few months at most, I would guess. He says he plans to go to London. I must say I think that foolish.’

‘Perhaps. But it is important to him. I have said I will take care of him.’

‘That may not be easy.’

‘Then I will deal with that.’ I paused. ‘Have you seen Broderick again?’

‘Ay. He has thrown off the effects of whatever poisoned him. He is young and strong, for all his ill-treatment.’