“Let’s see your purse” was the implacable response.
“It’s on the ship. You don’t think I’d be fool enough to go on such an errand with that kind of money on my person?” Brian demanded angrily.
“Fifteen guilders, and half now, half when we’re done,” the other man said after a minute. “You fetch the money and I’ll send for the others.”
Phoebe could hear Brian’s noisy breathing as he wrestled with this expanded demand.
“Twelve,” he said finally. “Six now, six later.”
There was a short silence, then the other man grunted again and said, “Be back here in an hour.”
Brian turned on his heel, his boot grating on the stone floor, and strode from the building.
Phoebe settled down to wait.
Brian cursed as he returned to the sloop that had brought him in pursuit of his stepfather, but the vile mutter was more for form’s sake then from genuine annoyance. Twelve guilders was more money than he’d intended to pay, but it was worth it to achieve such a coup. The ever troublesome Walter Strickland eliminated; Cato dead, his stepson’s inheritance secured; the certain accolades of the king… Oh, yes, it would be worth it.
He glanced at the White Lady as he hurried up the gangplank of his own vessel. Where was Phoebe? He’d watched her dart on board at Harwich. Had she stayed? Was she even now below decks on the graceful three-masted schooner?
He’d find out later, once he had Cato spitted on the point of a sword. It would be done before nightfall. It was as certain as the sunset.
His hard little eyes narrowed as he counted coins out of his purse and dropped them into his britches pocket.
No, all in all, for twelve guilders the job was not overpriced. He hurried back to the warehouse.
Phoebe was still crouched behind the bale of ticking when Brian returned. In his absence three other men had arrived, but they were talking incomprehensibly in Flemish. From the tone it seemed as if the discussion was on occasion acrimonious, but the language was so harsh and strange that she couldn’t be sure whether she was interpreting the tone correctly.
“Is everyone here?” Brian spoke as he crossed the floor towards the group. “Good.” He shook hands with the newcomers before saying brusquely, “Granville will have gone first to the Black Tulip to try to get news of Strickland…”
“Strickland’s there already,” one of the men said.
Brian spun around on him. “How do you know, Pieter? The man hasn’t been seen in three months.”
Pieter shrugged. “He’s come out of hiding, then. He’s shown himself at the Black Tulip, according to my source.”
“Who’s reliable?” Brian snapped the question. It was received in sardonic silence that carried its own answer.
Brian controlled his anger. His companions were hired assassins who operated according to their own rules. If they decided they didn’t like him, or the job, they’d drop both without compunction. And he needed them. He needed to be able to trust them to watch his back. Their loyalty was given in direct proportion to its financial worth, and he considered he’d paid over the odds for it, but he still couldn’t risk antagonizing them.
“So presumably Strickland has some information to impart,” Brian mused as if the previous awkwardness had not occurred. “Important enough to let himself be seen by anyone on the watch for him.”
“It’s his way,” one of the others responded. “He goes underground for weeks until he’s acquired something of interest, then he pops up like a rabbit, just shows his head. That’s how we’ve managed to grab the last two agents. Strickland comes up for air, they move towards him, we snap ‘em up.”
“This time we get both of them,” Brian declared, then he couldn’t help adding, “What I don’t understand is why, when you all know so much about Strickland’s habits, he’s constantly eluded you. The bounty for his head would be tempting enough, I would have thought.”
“The man’s slippery as an eel,” Heinrich growled. “We’ve followed him often enough, then he goes to ground just as we’re within an inch of catching him.”
“Aye, but I’ll lay odds he’s not sent any dispatches off in a while,” the first man declared. “We’ve made it too hot for him.”
“A matter for congratulation,” Brian muttered, then recollected himself. “We’ll start at the Tulip. If Strickland’s not there, Granville will be trying to track him down.”
The five men left the warehouse, and Phoebe, after she forced herself to wait a few minutes until they were clear of the building, ducked out of hiding and sped to the door in their wake.
She stood blinking in the sunshine, looking around the quay, but there was no sign of Brian or of a group of likely-looking assassins. She went over to a carrier supervising the unloading of his cart.
“The Black Tulip?”
He frowned as if he didn’t understand her, but when she repeated the words, he nodded and jerked a thumb towards a narrow alley leading off the harbor.
Phoebe thanked him and ran for the alley. It was shadowed by the overarching roofs of the houses on each side, and the kennel was thick with refuse, the cobbles on either side slimy so that she nearly slipped in her haste.
The steep alley turned a corner and she saw her quarry way up ahead, the five men striding easily, purposefully. They had the air of men on a mission and were clearly unconcerned that any of the town’s inhabitants might take exception to their rule of law.
Cato leaned against the counter in the taproom, one hand circling his pot of ale as his deceptively idle gaze roamed around the dark room. The low rafters were blackened with smoke, and blue rings of pipe smoke wreathed heavily above the heads of the taproom’s occupants. This early morning it was a dour, generally silent crowd, but Cato was aware that he was under observation by more than one man.
A tavern wench threaded her way through the room, hefting her tray of tankards aloft, deftly sidestepping the streams of tobacco spittle that arched through the air to clot in the sawdust scattered over the floor. Boiling cabbage, smoking tallow, and stale beer mingled in a noxious melange.
Cato waited. He knew he’d been noticed and he hoped that someone in contact with Walter Strickland would pass on the news of his presence. Of course, there was another side to the coin. Not just friends, but enemies also would be aware of the Englishman’s arrival in town. But to catch Strickland’s attention, he had to make himself generally visible.
It was to be hoped Strickland would find him first, Cato reflected aridly as he called for a refill, his right hand tightening instinctively over his sword hilt.
The tavern keeper, a red-faced man with a sour and harried expression, refilled Cato’s tankard at the keg. “There’s a lad just come, sir,” he murmured. “Says yer ‘onor might want a word with ’im.”
Cato raised an eyebrow. “Might I?”
The tavern keeper shrugged. “That’s fer Yer Worship to decide.”
Cato drank his ale. He glanced casually around and caught sight of a small boy in the doorway. Cato set his empty tankard on the counter, tossed a silver coin beside it, and strolled to the door. He walked past the boy and went out into the alley.
The boy darted after him and kept pace, trotting at his heels. Neither of them spoke but when they reached a side turning, the boy tugged Cato’s cloak, gesturing that he should take the turning.
Wondering whether he was walking blithely into a trap, Cato followed the child. He could see no alternative to taking the risk. They were in the street of the cobblers, and shoemakers sat in doorways plying their trade. Several glanced up as the elegant gentleman passed, and a few exchanged looks.
At a house at the very end of the street, the lad stopped. He stood in the doorway regarding Cato with hopeful eyes.
Cato dug into his pocket and gave him a coin, wryly trusting that he was not paying an assassin’s lure. The boy grabbed it and took to his heels with an alacrity that increased Cato’s unease.