C Sansom - Sovereign

emong

‘It might be useful if we could find out Master Culpeper’s antecedents. Who his friends and family are. Does he have northern connections, I wonder.’

‘I’ll see.’ He frowned. ‘I feel responsible for Tamasin. Involving her in this.’

I nodded. It was the first time Barak had ever seemed really to care for a girl. ‘I fear she is involved anyhow.’

‘I pray this may all be a mare’s nest and Oldroyd’s words meant something different.’ He put his hand inside his shirt, fingering his father’s old mezuzah. ‘If this is about an affair between these two, do you think Maleverer and the King’s men even suspect it?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘Is the King impotent, I wonder?’ Barak pondered. ‘All know he has been ill with his leg for years.’

‘God knows.’

‘Perhaps his seed is thin and weak, old and ill as he is, while Culpeper’s flows thick and strong.’

I shuddered slightly. ‘I’d rather not think too much on that.’

‘Talking of illness, how is old Wrenne?’

‘Not good. He was in bed, though he insists he’ll be fit to hear the petitions tomorrow. I said I would go and see him again today. Come with me, at least his house is a place of safety.’

‘All right. Here. Look who is coming now.’

Latecomers were still heading for the church, and among them I saw Jennet Marlin, walking with a couple of ladies I did not recognize.

‘Where’s Tammy?’ Barak asked anxiously. ‘Mistress Marlin likes to keep her round her.’ He bit his lip. ‘Could you ask her? My rank forbids it.’

I stood up and bowed. Mistress Marlin, in a grey damask dress, the tails of an old-fashioned box hood streaming behind her head, signalled to the other ladies to walk on. She halted and, to my surprise, smiled at me a little nervously.

‘Master Shardlake. Are you on your way to church?’

‘Ah – no. But I wondered if I might trouble you with a query. Mistress Reedbourne is not with you?’

‘No. She is a little ill and has kept to her room.’ She gave that uncertain smile again, then took a deep breath. ‘I spoke harshly to you the other night, sir,’ she said. ‘I wish to apologize. Only, Tamasin has been a good companion to me. But -’ she looked at Barak – ‘I think perhaps she and your man do care for each other, and one should not stand in the way of love, should one?’

‘No,’ I said, a little taken aback. This was a change of mind indeed, yet not that dissimilar from my own. Perhaps Tamasin had appealed to her too, charmed her, for all that Mistress Marlin did not seem a woman susceptible to charm. She looked at me seriously with her large brown eyes. ‘I spoke bitterly to you, sir, only because my own fiancé is unjustly in the Tower.’

‘I understand.’

‘Have you heard any news, sir, of how long the King may be in York?’ She grasped her engagement ring, turning it round and round on her finger.

‘No, mistress. No one seems to know. I imagine it all depends on the Scotch King.’

She shook her head. ‘There is no word of him even being on the road. And there was talk at the manor last night of new raids by the border reivers.’ She looked around her. ‘Oh, I wish I were gone from here.’

‘I too.’

‘Bernard has still been neither accused nor released. Sir, you are a lawyer, how long can they hold him in the Tower?’

‘On the King’s authority, indefinitely. But representations can be made. What contacts do you have in London?’

‘Only Bernard’s lawyer friends. And some of them fear to get involved.’

‘Your constant spirit may save him,’ I said.

She looked at me again with those large, intense eyes. ‘I was sorry to hear how the King treated you on Friday.’

I shifted uncomfortably. ‘Thank you.’

‘I know what it is like to be mocked without just cause. The other women mock what you call my constancy.’

‘That too is cruel.’

‘I am sorry I associated you with Sir William Maleverer. He is known throughout Yorkshire as a dangerous, covetous man.’

‘He is no friend or patron to me.’

‘No. But may I ask, how did you come to be with the Progress?’

‘At the request of Archbishop Cranmer.’

‘Ah, they say he is a good man. He is your patron?’

‘In a sense.’

‘I – I am sorry I misjudged you.’ With that, she curtsied swiftly and walked away to the church, where the warden stood at the door, looking impatient. The door closed behind her. I returned to Barak.

‘What was all that about?’ he asked.

‘She apologized for her behaviour the other evening. She seems to have lost her opposition to your seeing Tamasin.’ I shook my head. ‘She is a strange woman. Under great strain, that much is clear.’

‘Did she say where Tamasin is?’

‘Tamasin told her she was ill and wished to stay in her room. Probably keeping out of the way.’ I looked at the closed door of the church. ‘If what you saw last night comes out, Jennet Marlin will be in a difficult position. Lady Rochford is her employer, Tamasin her servant.’

‘Nothing to the trouble we’ll be in.’

I nodded. ‘Let us go to Master Wrenne’s. Get us out of this damned place.’

We set off for the gate watchfully, past the empty pavilions with their guards, our eyes alert for danger.

AS WE PASSED THE FRONT of King’s Manor I saw a man in a grey furred robe with a heavy gold chain round his neck descending the steps, accompanied by a little group of clerks. It was Sir Richard Rich. He caught my eye. My heart sank as he dismissed the clerks and strode rapidly over. I bowed deeply.

‘Master Shardlake.’ Rich smiled coldly. ‘And young Barak again. He is your clerk now?’

‘Yes, Sir Richard.’

Rich flicked Barak an amused look. ‘Has he enough learning?’ He smoothed his robe with his slim hands, and smiled. ‘I have been with the King,’ he said cheerfully. ‘When the spring conspirators were attainted, their lands passed to my department. We have been discussing how they might be best disposed of.’

‘Indeed, Sir Richard.’

‘The King will be generous to those who have been loyal in Yorkshire. Although with the constant dangers of foreign invasion he needs his lands to bring in all the revenue they can.’ He smiled thinly. ‘Which brings me to the other matter. Have you passed on what I told you about the Bealknap case to the Common Council?’

I took a deep breath. ‘That you think the right judge has been chosen? I have told them those who say they have a good hand early in the game are usually bluffing.’ It was a lie; I had not yet written, though I planned to. I wondered how Rich would react; to speak thus to the Chancellor of Augmentations would normally be impertinence, but we were talking now as lawyer to lawyer. Rich gave me an uneasy look. His eyes narrowed, and I saw that I had guessed correctly, he did not have a judge yet.

‘Come over here,’ he said sharply. He grasped my arm and led me out of earshot of Barak. He gave me a hard, fixed look. ‘You know I have been having dealings with your master here, Sir William Maleverer.’ His thin face was tense with anger now. ‘He is interested in buying more lands up here, and Augmentations has lands to sell. Do not forget, Brother Shardlake, that Sir William has many powers here, and that you are alone in York but for your boorish servant. And not liked by the King, it appears. Tread carefully.’ He paused significantly. ‘And do not send that letter about the Bealknap case to London; I know you have not sent it already.’ I looked surprised, and he laughed. ‘Do you think, sir, with the political trouble there has been up here, that the posts from the Progress go unwatched?’ He looked at me with those cold grey eyes. ‘Mark well what I say, and do not trifle with me.’ He turned and walked away with sharp, rapid steps.