‘It is extremely distasteful having Kelyng in my Tower,’ said Robinson, before Chaloner could reply. ‘But the King wants him here, so that is that. I gave him the worst room I could get away with, but he simply redecorated it and seems determined to stay. What did he want with you?’
‘He asked about that story you told me a few days ago – the Seven.’
Robinson raised his eyebrows. ‘Why should he think you know anything about that?’
The sudden pallor of Dalton’s face had not escaped Chaloner’s attention. ‘He thought I might have heard rumours about its membership, so I made up a few names to confuse him. I told him yours. I hope you do not mind.’
‘Mine?’ asked Robinson, laughing. ‘Good! That will give the nosy little ferret something on which to waste his time, because he will find no treachery in my past. But, I see you are in no danger, so I shall return to my poor daughter. She has had some shocking news, and is prostrate with grief.’
‘You do not mean my name as well, do you?’ asked Dalton in a horrified whisper when Robinson had gone. ‘You told Kelyng I was one of the Seven?’
‘What can it matter, if you are innocent?’
‘But I am not innocent!’ said Dalton in the same strangled voice. ‘I am one of the Seven, and so is Thurloe. How could you chatter to Kelyng about matters you do not understand?’
Chaloner was sorry to learn he had been right. ‘Thurloe plotted to prevent Charles’s return?’
‘It was not in our interests to see the monarchy restored – not in our nation’s interests. And we were right. Look at the mess we are in: the King and his blood-sucking courtiers squander money we do not have, and the men who run the country should not have control of a barnyard.’
Chaloner was deeply disappointed in his old patron. ‘I thought Thurloe had more sense than to embroil himself in that sort of thing. It is treason.’
‘It would be treason now, but it was patriotic then. Cromwell was in charge, and we were fighting to keep the Commonwealth in place. Our actions were designed to support that government, and make it stable and secure.’ Dalton’s voice cracked. ‘You have killed me, Heyden.’
‘I did give Kelyng some names,’ said Chaloner softly. ‘But yours was not one of them, and neither was Thurloe’s. I told him to look at Hewson and Downing.’
‘Truly?’ Dalton dared to look relieved. ‘Thank God! Downing has nothing to do with the Seven. Hewson did, but he is beyond Kelyng’s spiteful vengeance. So, Kelyng does not suspect me at all?’
‘He suspects Barkstead, Livesay and Thurloe – and has now added Downing and Hewson to his list. Three of these are dead–’
‘Livesay is not dead,’ interrupted Dalton. ‘I do not know why everyone insists he is. I saw him. He was in disguise, having created a new existence for himself, but I recognised him nonetheless.’
‘What kind of disguise?’ Chaloner did not know whether to believe him.
‘He was dressed as a Nonconformist minister – all shabby black clothes and well-thumbed Bible – but he was wringing his hands in that odd way he has. He looked right at me and smiled. Why would anyone do that, if he were not Livesay?’
Chaloner shrugged. ‘Nonconformists probably smile at everyone these days, in the hope that it will make people less inclined to harm them. The community near me is always being attacked.’
‘I am afraid Livesay has told … There is a secret, which he may have let slip to our enemies …’
‘What secret?’ asked Chaloner, watching him struggle with his emotions.
‘I will never reveal it,’ whispered Dalton. ‘But he may have done – to men who would see us hanged. Perhaps it was Livesay’s ghost I saw, come to haunt me, because of the wicked thing …’
‘You mean your murder of Mother Pinchon?’ asked Chaloner bluntly.
Dalton regarded him in horror. ‘How do you know that was me?’
‘Why did you kill her? She was no threat. She knew nothing about the Seven – only about some treasure Barkstead told her he was going to hide, but that he never did.’
Dalton was ashen. ‘She told Wade where to find seven thousand pounds. How long do you think it will be before Kelyng realises that Barkstead’s moveable wealth was worth almost twice that, and the sum Pinchon was urging Wade to locate has another significance?’
‘Barkstead’s godly golden goose,’ mused Chaloner. ‘Did he mean the seven bars of gold paid to Swanson, one for each of the Seven?’
Dalton nodded miserably. ‘I imagine so. Before she died, Pinchon told me how Barkstead had ordered her to take the message to Thurloe, but she was too frightened. The godly golden goose must have been his discreet way of referring to the blood money.’
‘How did Barkstead come to have it?’
‘I do not know he did have it – only that he was trying to pass a message to Thurloe about it.’
‘Then who is Swanson?’
Dalton shook his head. ‘I do not know the answer to that, either, although I can tell you he never passed the Seven’s names to the King, or I would not be standing here now.’
‘You, Thurloe, Barkstead, Livesay and Hewson,’ said Chaloner. ‘Who are the remaining two?’
‘You know too much already,’ said Dalton, edging away. ‘Downing was right: you are overly inquisitive. Stop prying into affairs that are none of your concern before you land us all in trouble.’
He turned and stalked towards the Lieutenant’s Lodgings. Chaloner watched him go, and wondered yet again whether it had been Dalton who had tried to kill him outside Ingoldsby’s house. If so, then there were two possible motives. The obvious one was that Dalton wanted to prevent him from drawing attention to the Seven with his questions. But another was that Dalton had not wanted him to talk to Ingoldsby. Was Ingoldsby one of the Seven? He was a regicide, after all, regardless of his current affiliations. Or was Ingoldsby actually Swanson, and had kept his own neck from the noose by offering to betray the Seven to the King?
There were far too many loose ends trailing in Chaloner’s head, and he desperately needed to sit somewhere quiet and consider them all. He looked around him, and his gaze fell on the chapel of St Peter ad Vincula. The Tower was no place to linger, but he did not feel safe anywhere any more.
He opened the door and approached the chapel’s altar, staring at the ornate cross and its golden candlesticks without really seeing them. He placed his hands together and dropped to his knees when the door clanked and Snow walked in. The lout faltered when he saw what his quarry was doing, and withdrew for a muttered conversation with someone else. Then he returned to sit on a bench near the back, obviously under orders to keep watch. Chaloner saw no reason to allow Snow to distract him from his deliberations, especially since the man seemed loath to make a hostile move while his target was in a church. He ignored the shuffling, bored presence behind him, and began to think about what he had learned.
First, the treasure that Barkstead – with Mother Pinchon’s help – had packed into butter firkins had been worth thirteen thousand pounds, not seven. Seven thousand pounds was the sum promised to Swanson for unveiling the Seven, of which Barkstead was one. Chaloner thought about the message Barkstead had asked Pinchon to deliver to Thurloe, and the more he considered the ‘godly golden goose’, the more he became certain that it referred to the bars, and that the butter-firkin wealth had never been part of the story.
Second, there had been a traitor in Cromwell’s court. The man had called himself Swanson, but Kelyng believed – and Chaloner concurred – that it was probably a false identity. Spymaster Thurloe’s monitoring of letters entering and leaving England had been thorough, and it was unlikely the traitor would have risked using his own name – unless Swanson was Thurloe himself, of course. Robinson claimed to have seen ‘Swanson’ once – ‘a young fellow with the voice of an angel’ – but Thurloe had tended to use spies as messengers, and was unlikely to have visited the King himself with an offer to expose his fellow plotters. Simon Lane had sung, so perhaps it was he who Robinson had seen. And then what? Thurloe had accepted the gold, but declined to reveal the names? Kelyng, Dalton and Robinson were all certain the King had never been told the identities of the Seven.