“The household. I said we were coming for a visit. I thought it might look worse if we went into hiding.”
He nodded. “You were right. But I am wondering if you should leave London.”
“All of us?”
“Just you. D’you have family somewhere outside the City? Somewhere you can go until this panic is over?”
She shook her head. “John said I was to go to Oatlands if I was in danger. He still has his house there. He is still gardener there.”
The housekeeper put her head around the door. “Dinner is on the table,” she said.
“I’m starving!” Johnnie exclaimed, and he and Frances, who had been sitting in the windowseat looking at the street below, went to the dining room. Alexander took Hester’s cold hand.
“Come and have something to eat,” he said. “Nothing is going to happen in the next ten minutes. And I will send one of my clerks to Westminster to see what is happening.”
Hester ate nothing at dinner, and every time a cart went by in the street outside she found she was listening, waiting for the knock at the door.
“What is the matter, Mother?” Frances asked. “I can tell that something is wrong.”
Hester looked at Alexander.
“You should tell them,” he said. “They have a right to know.”
“A royalist spy came in the night and took Father’s mare,” Hester said.
Frances and Johnnie looked stunned at the news.
“A royalist spy?” Johnnie demanded.
“What was he wearing?” Frances asked.
“Oh, why didn’t you wake me?” Johnnie cried. “And I could have helped him!”
“He was wearing a cape and…” Hester’s voice quavered on a reluctant laugh. “And an absurd hat with feathers.”
“Oh!” Frances breathed. “What colors?”
“What does that matter!” Johnnie exclaimed. “Oh, Mother! Why didn’t you tell me? I could have guided him! I could have gone with him and been his page!”
“I expect that’s why she didn’t tell you,” Alexander said gently. “Your place is at home, guarding your mother and the Ark.”
“I know,” Johnnie said. “But I could have gone with him for a battle or two and then come home again. I am a Tradescant! It is my duty to serve the king!”
“It is your duty to protect your mother,” Alexander said, suddenly grim. “So be silent, Johnnie.”
“But why have we come here?” Frances asked, abandoning interest in the color of the royalist’s hat feathers. “What is happening? Is Parliament after us?”
“Not after you,” Hester said quietly. “But if they know that he came to the Ark for help then I may be in trouble.”
Frances turned at once to Alexander Norman and put her hands out to him. “You’ll look after us, won’t you?” she demanded. “You won’t let them take Mother away?”
He took her hands, and Hester saw that he had to stop himself from drawing her close. “Of course I will,” he said. “And if she’s in any danger at all I shall find somewhere safe for her, and for you all.”
Frances, still hand-clasped with Alexander, turned to her stepmother and Hester saw them, for the first time, as a couple; saw the tilt of his head toward her, saw her trust in him.
“Should you go into hiding?” Frances asked her.
“I’ll go to the Tower now,” Alexander decided, “and see what news there is. You keep the door locked until I return. They can hardly have found your name and traced you here so soon. We must be a day ahead at least.”
Hester found that her mouth was dry and reached for a glass of small ale. Alexander gave her a quick, encouraging smile. “Be of stout heart,” he said. “I will be back within the hour.”
The little family went back into the parlor and Frances and Johnnie took up their posts in the windowseat again, but this time they were not commenting on the passersby, they were on lookout. Hester sat, in uneasy idleness, by the fireside. The housekeeper coming in with fresh coal made them jump. “I’d have thought you would want to go out and walk around.”
“Perhaps later,” Hester said.
Inside the hour, true to his word, Alexander Norman came strolling down the street, stopping for a chat with his neighbor, who had a small goldsmith’s shop, and then opened his front door and stepped inside. At once his air of leisured cheerfulness deserted him.
“It’s bad news,” he said, checking that the parlor door was closed behind him. “Lady d’Aubigny took sanctuary in the French embassy under the pretext that her husband’s family is French. But Parliament has ordered that the French hand her over and they have done so. She’ll be tried for treason, she was carrying the king’s Commission of Array. She was trying to raise an army in the very City itself.”
“The French ambassador handed over an English lady of the king’s party to Parliament?” Hester demanded, incredulously.
“Yes,” Alexander said, looking grave. “Perhaps His Majesty has fewer friends in Paris than he thinks. Perhaps the French are preparing to deal with Parliament direct.”
Hester found she was standing by her chair, as if ready to run. She forced herself to sit down and to start breathing normally. “And what else?”
“Edmund Waller, who passes for the brains behind this brainless scheme, was taken up and is singing like a blinded thrush,” Alexander said. “He is naming everyone he spoke to, in the hopes of escaping Tower Hill and the block.”
“Would he have my name?” Hester asked quietly. She found her lips were numb and she could not speak clearly.
“I can’t tell,” Alexander said. “I didn’t want to ask too detailed questions for fear of attracting attention. We can hope that your man got clear away, and that he was too small a link in the chain to connect you to the plot.”
“As long as he was not captured on Father’s horse,” Frances pointed out.
“If I said it was me who gave him the horse…” Johnnie suggested. “I could say that it was me and that I was a royalist. They wouldn’t execute me, would they? I’m not ten yet. They’d give me a whipping and I don’t mind that. I’d get the blame and you’d be all right.”
Hester drew him toward her and kissed his smooth fair head. “I don’t want you involved in this, whatever the risks.” She looked up at Alexander Norman. “Should I stay? Or go?”
He bit his upper lip with his teeth. “It’s the devil’s own decision,” he said. “I think you should go. We gain nothing from you being here and we risk everything. If your man is captured and he follows the example of his betters he will volunteer information and he is bound to name you. Even if he goes free the king’s men are so indiscreet that your name might still be mentioned. Go to Oatlands and stay in John’s house in the garden for a week. I’ll send you a message if it’s all clear and you can come home again.”
“Oatlands?” Johnnie demanded. “With Prince Rupert?”
“Yes, he’s said to be quartered there,” Alexander Norman said. “At least you’ll be safe from Parliament while he is there.”
“Oatlands!” Johnnie exulted. “Prince Rupert! I’ll have to go with you. To defend you.”
Frances was about to say “I’ll come too,” but she hesitated and looked toward Alexander Norman. “Should I?”
“You’ll all go,” he said. “You’re safer there than anywhere if Rupert is still there. Parliament can’t arrest you there, you’ll be under royalist protection; and when you come home we can say you were only doing John’s work on the gardens.”
Frances was about to argue, but then she held her peace.
“You could go now,” Alexander said. He led the way out of the room to the narrow hall.
Hester hung back and looked at her beautiful stepdaughter. “Did you not want the risk of being with me?” she asked. “I would understand if you didn’t want to come to Oatlands. You can go to your grandparents if you wish, Frances.”
“Oh no!” Frances cried out, and suddenly she was a girl again. “Mother! Oh no! Whatever risks you were taking I should want to be with you. I’d never leave you alone to face danger! I was just thinking that perhaps Uncle Norman could come with us. I’d feel so much safer if he was with us.”