‘Oh, for God’s sake, John, every family has some knavery to hide.’
I looked down at the moonlit river, swollen by the downpour and not far below the bridge timbers.
‘He was not a thief. He was a proud man. And he paid for the best education I could’ve had. I wish I’d been able to earn enough money to ease his old age. But he died. And now I don’t earn enough to support my mother in the way she once was used to.’
‘You’ve not done badly under the circumstances. Given that he doesn’t seem to have left you any money… or even a house.’
‘He left me an education.’
‘Which you spend all your life expanding. Is that life? Come on, let’s get back. See how this looks in daylight.’
Dudley began to walk back up the street, quieter now, fewer lights.
‘I no longer feel happy to pass the night in my cousin’s inn,’ I said.
‘We’ll we’re not spending it in a fucking field. Besides, another word with the smarmy innkeeper might not go amiss, methinks.’
‘Why would he lie?’
‘It’s what innkeepers do when you’re paying for meals and a bedchamber. But it would be worth finding out if Meredith’s been blackening your name all over town.’
Only two of the judge’s guards stood, with their pikes, outside the sheriff’s house. No one troubling them. The pitch-torches were burned low, the ropes of pennants gathering into loops and thrown over the wall.
Near the top of the street a man walked past us and sniggered. Dudley lurched towards him, and I seized his arm.
‘No—’
‘You want a reputation as a fucking Betsy by morning, John?’
‘Must needs think.’
‘Or will we even still be here by morning? Think? Well, of course. Why don’t you consult one of your books on how best to respond to an insult to your family?’
Never going to let this go, was he? But I was thinking of something else.
‘He said Abbot Smart had not been seen here in years. That he was probably in France.’
‘Would indeed have been useful to know that before we came.’
‘It’s not the impression I had from the Bishop of Hereford.’
I recalled John Scory’s words exactly: I don’t know where Smart is, though I do hear word of him from time to time.
‘You think Meredith was lying?’
‘Scory was spare with actual facts, but more generous with hints. He implied that my cousin might have things to hide. He said Presteigne, despite its appearance, was… a place of dark alleys.’
‘I told you there was something wrong here. You lose religion and let a town become ruled by commerce and greed…’
‘Dr Dee…’
A man drew level with us at the corner of the street. Dudley’s elbows bent, one hand forming a fist.
‘This one,’ he said, ‘I’ll deal with now.’
‘If I may have a word, Dr Dee?’
The moon showed me a man who, though shortish, was yet built like a brick privy.
‘Make it very quick, fellow,’ Dudley said.
The man didn’t move, as though the word quick had little meaning for him.
‘Only I overheard your cousin’s tirade, see.’
Dudley starting forward, but the man was standing his ground, like a bull in a meadow.
‘And was surprised,’ he said, ‘at how he spoke. Seein’ as when I was in London, I heard naught but good words of you. And knew of your father when he was at Nant-y-groes and I was a child down the valley. He was ever merry and, as you said, generous – especially with apples, as I recall.’
‘Thank you,’ I said. ‘Thank you, Master…’
‘Stephen Price.’
‘Then you…’
‘Lease Nant-y-groes from Nicholas Meredith, and I wondered… Well, it would seem a pity if you’d come all this way without seeing your father’s birthplace.’
Found myself nodding, grasping at a friendly hand.
‘And as I’ll be riding back there at dawn… no wish to watch all the paid-for glee at the arrival of the Welshie in chains. So if you wanted to ride back with me, I’d deem it an honour to show you around the place. And your companion, of course.’
‘He wants something,’ Dudley said in darkness.
The shutters were up at the window but left open. Dudley had the four-poster. I’d taken – by choice – the truckle pulled from under it, though he’d tossed me an extra pillow in a bere.
‘I doubt Price means us ill,’ I said. ‘And I would like to see the house and its situation. Maybe the only chance I’ll ever have if it’s owned by my cousin. Don’t mind riding out with him alone. It’s but a few miles. Could be back soon after noon.’
‘I was about to suggest it. Let Meredith think he’s driven you away. Would give me chance to ask a few questions while the town’s in holiday mood over the trial. Be a pity to leave empty-handed.’
‘You’re yet determined to have the stone?’
‘I’ve faith in your learning, John. And if France’s poisonous prophet’s making use of scrying, it’s our duty. I’ll let it be known I’m an antiquary collecting gemstones and prepared to pay good money for intelligence about Smart.’
‘Well, keep away from my cousin.’
‘I could deal with the likes of your cousin in my sleep. It’s interesting, though, John. What’s behind it? Why’s he want you out of here? What’s he not want you to find out? Is there money here you’re entitled to? Property?’
‘Don’t raise my hopes. Money and the Dees—’
‘His approach to you seemed a little too conspicuously aggressive. As if he sought to draw you into public conflict.’
‘I should call him out?’
‘Big books at dawn?’ Dudley said. ‘Goodnight, John.’
I lay in the truckle bed next to the door. A haloed moon was visible where the shutters had been left open so I’d awaken at first light, and I looked for known stars. Wondering why we were here, what the future might hold for Dudley. If he’d ever find out how Amy died and at whose hands and if that would free him or expose him to more threat. On the rim of sleep, I found myself considering if it might even be true that the Queen carried Dudley’s child. So many months had passed since she’d summoned me. How many others had seen her in that time?
Among the stars, I saw images of Elizabeth walking alone in the private gardens of Richmond, all big of belly, gazing out to the fabricated island where Robert Dudley had lain his head betwixt her feet.
If he’d stopped at her feet. I saw him as he was an hour ago, when first he’d seen the ripe-bosomed young woman who had shown us to our chamber and turned out to be the innkeeper’s wife. A movement in his jaw, a tightening of wires.
I shut my eyes on the stars, wrapping the sheets twice round me because of the cold. Knowing not that I’d slept until I awoke to Dudley’s scream.
XXIV
All Heavy with Old Death
THERE WERE TWO families of ducks on the good-sized pond in front of Nant-y-groes. Sheep grazed the land down to the river and more sheep were on the opposite bank until the valley floor was lost into woodland.
Beyond which was the hill, a pale and almost luminous green under the heavy sky.
The hill of ghosts.
‘Be glad when I don’t have to see it every morning,’ Stephen Price said. ‘Or watch it under the last lights.’
‘And when will that be?’
‘One year, mabbe two. Fair bit of work to be done on the new place yet.’