William Napier - Blood Red Sea

She laughed, a harsh, magnificent laugh. ‘You know nothing of me, fool and liar.’

‘You are a young widow, your name is Maria de l’Adoracion, your man died fighting in the revolt of the Moriscos in the mountains, and you have a son of four or five.’

She looked surprised, a faint smile. ‘You remember that?’

‘Of course. As well as your loveliness. Now you need another man.’

‘Indeed I do not! Or if I did, it would be a decent man, not a drunken fool who is always in trouble.’

‘Marry me. I need a good Catholic wife and there are few now in England.’

‘England! I might as well go and live at the pole with the perpetual snow and the white bears.’

‘It is a little colder in England than Andalusia,’ he admitted. ‘And they do not like or trust Spaniards. It is a Protestant country, life is hard for Catholics and getting harder.’

‘It sounds very desirable. I cannot think why I have not married a drunken English fool before.’

‘Also the food is foul, there is very little wine, it is expensive, and oranges too. It can rain on any day of the year. It used to be warmer, some say, two or three hundred years ago, but now it is very cold in the winter. Animals freeze to death standing in the fields, sheep on the wolds are frozen to the ground, and the rivers turn to ice, even the London Thames. Ice so thick they roast oxen on them at the fairs. In midwinter there is barely eight hours of daylight.’

‘Tell me the disadvantages now.’

‘Hm. You’d have to be my wife. I am a penniless and un-propertied vagabond and soldier who has not seen his homeland for six years. On my return I may be arrested and tortured at any moment.’

‘So nothing new there. You are how old now?’

‘Twenty-two.’

She tossed her head. ‘I am but twenty. You look far older.’

‘The Mediterranean sun has played havoc with my fair English complexion, once so fine and lily white. And all my scars. .’

‘Scars on a man are not all bad. So long as he fought on the side of God, and with honour. But your face and arms are burned so badly by the sun you will be a wrinkled old man in another five years. You are badged with powder burns like a German mercenary, you are an Englishman and so the enemy of Spain, you are penniless-’

‘Though rightful heir to great estates in the County of Shropshire.’

Hodge abruptly woke up. ‘I wouldn’t say great estates. .’

‘Thank you, Hodge.’

‘More lies,’ said Maria de l’Adoracion. ‘You look like any other feckless vagabond, wandering this Mediterranean Sea between two worlds, picking off the scraps from this endless war of Christendom and the Turks. And now you presume to take me home as your wife, to your Protestant island of which I know nothing, nor any word of the barbarous language except “goddam”. The usual curse of your pious and God-fearing sailors when in my tavern. What a cultivated and intelligent people you English must be!’

‘Goddam,’ murmured Hodge, gazing up at her, ‘isn’t she magnificent?’

Then she said, ‘In truth, though I do not love the Moors, who killed my man in the mountains — yet it was your intervening, so foolishly but bravely, when those poor Moors were being driven out of Cadiz — and ending up in jail for your pains — it was that which first made me think you were not all bad.’

Nicholas waited.

She said, in a softer voice, her hard tavern mask dropped away, ‘Get you to England, Englishmen. Perhaps you will find kind English brides there, who will tame your hearts.’

They sailed on a merchantman two days later, and came to London in the bleak days of January. They shivered like aspen leaves in the chilling east wind.

‘I had forgotten. .’ stammered Hodge, nose blue.

They bought woollen cloaks. People stared at them in the streets, one man barged them and called them Gypsies. They tossed back their cloaks and showed their swords and were left alone.

They lodged in Cheapside and requested audience at the Palace.

Stanley had not lied to them, about some mysterious higher influence.

Three days later, they were to attend Her Majesty at Greenwich.

‘ Her Majesty ,’ whispered Hodge. ‘After all I’ve seen, this is still the most. .’ He could find no more words.

In an outer chamber they were first addressed by an elegantly bearded chamberlain in a black fur robe. Told to kneel before her, not to look directly at her. Only to answer questions, to ask none.

‘And it is known that you are Catholics still, and loyal to Rome. You will, of course, leave off your swords.’

They unbuckled, Nicholas saying, ‘Yet I am loyal to my Queen also, and would die to defend her.’

The chamberlain smiled a thin smile. ‘She will judge your loyalty for herself. She is a very fine judge of men indeed.’

Hodge could not have looked directly at her if he had tried. He would have been blinded. Her dress was white satin, there were many pearls in her hair, she was as a white of countenance as an angel, though her hair was flame red. A woman still only in her thirties, yet it was wrong to think of her as a mere woman. A queen , radiant, from another world.

They knelt and waited for a long time. At last she spoke, her voice feminine yet commanding.

‘There is a trusted confidant of ours, a wealthy merchant in Constantinople, who has done us some service in the past. He has no great liking for the Catholic princes of Europe, and in that at least we have a common interest. Now he sends us a letter. A request, in return for the many good deeds he has done us in the past. He says that you are of a party of four Englishmen — the other two being Knights of St John, and Englishmen disavowed.’ Her voice was crisp with contempt. ‘He says the four of you did brave service to his people, in the city of Nicosia in Cyprus.’

Joseph Nassi. It was Joseph Nassi behind it all.

‘Speak,’ she said.

‘Your Majesty,’ stammered Nicholas, head still bowed, ‘we did a small thing, to protect some citizens, albeit Jews, from cruel treatment. Families who were to be driven out in front of the Turkish guns. We protested, and the decision was revoked. Not a sword was drawn, nor a drop of blood spilled.’

‘Bloodshed is no sure sign of bravery. If you stand firm, peace will often come rather than war. Stand.’

They stood, knees aching.

Her blue eyes were hard upon them.

‘Your words are to our liking,’ she said. ‘Claiming only small courage for yourself, and therefore more credible. You would hardly credit the extravagant tales we hear from our more. . heroical sea captains.’

The chamberlain and others tittered.

Nicholas could not help a slight smile. She saw it and smiled frostily too.

‘Now, to this request. It is requested that we admit you once more into our kingdom, as free men, to go untroubled.’

There was a pause. A very long pause. Nicholas’s heart sank. She could not admit to this. Some other reward would suffice instead, before they were sent on their way once more, into exile.

She seemed to hold her breath, and then breathed out a little. ‘We grant this request.’

They were home. In England. With no need to wander more.

Beside him, Hodge began sobbing.

‘Come, Master Hodge,’ said the Queen. ‘It is Hodge, is it not? More manly. You have seen worse things than this in your travels, I am sure.’

‘Worse, yes, Majesty,’ sobbed Hodge. ‘But none better. To be back in England.’

Few things moved the Queen so deeply as an Englishman’s simple love of England.

‘There’s an honest Englishman,’ she said. ‘Even if he is burned black as the devil’s own heart.’