by Neal Roberts
As Bacon and his men emerge from the building, Noah can hear Essex’s men shouting to each other and taking up positions at various points on the way up to Bacon’s apartment. Noah finds this vaguely frightening. That is no doubt its intended effect.
A footman wearing Essex’s livery dismounts and holds his horse’s reins in one hand while opening the carriage door with the other. Essex emerges resplendently attired, followed by Southampton, who wears a gold chain around his neck, a sign of his own livery. Essex exchanges a few words with Anthony Bacon, nods to his brother, and removes his gloves, an item of clothing that seems more than a bit impractical to Noah in light of the warm day.
While the barristers talk among themselves, Essex himself silently peers up toward Noah’s window with a curious expression. At first, Noah feels sure he’s standing far enough back to avoid being seen, but, as Essex continues to look in his window, eventually he is overcome by the eerie feeling that Essex is actually staring him in the face. He considers whether, on the off chance that he really can be seen, he ought to nod to the earl, but feels insolently disinclined to do so. No, Essex does not appear to expect any acknowledgment, and will not get one.
Essex follows the Bacon brothers up the external staircase, and can be heard tromping into the inn proper, followed by several of his men. Perhaps two minutes later, Essex and the Bacons lumber down the stairs and outside again, getting into the carriage. With one more military shout, Essex’s men abandon their posts in the building and depart at once, remounting quickly and following the coach south toward High Holborn, then west past Marie’s house toward Westminster.
It seems strange that Essex would make such a grand show of stopping by to pick up Anthony and Francis Bacon, but apparently he’s making a point about just how important the Bacons are to his future intentions.
Whatever Essex’s purposes, Noah has no doubt that his horses were those signified by the dream, and that, peering out at Noah through Essex’s unseeing eyes was the very malignity that gave form to the robed figure.
While he will not heed the entreaties of the dead by running away, he will certainly stand on heightened guard from now on.
Late that afternoon, after the day cools down, Noah has nearly decided to visit Marie on the pretext of accepting Jessica’s secondhand invitation when Henry shouts up from downstairs.
“Master Ames, care for a walk?”
This is a surprise. Henry’s gout must have improved a great deal for him to suggest a walk. Noah sits up and shouts a reply.
“Certainly, Master Neville. Give me a moment!”
He dresses as quickly as he can and goes downstairs. Henry is smiling, dressed in light colors for the warm weather. He looks … different, somehow. “You’re looking well, sir!” Noah says.
“I’m feeling well, thank you.”
Noah looks at him incredulously. “You didn’t!”
Henry smiles smugly. “Didn’t what?”
“You took Lopez’s advice?” Noah takes a step back and looks closely at his friend’s form. “Yes, you did! You’ve lost significant weight, and in less than a fortnight. And I’ll warrant you’ve cut down your drinking, as well.”
Henry puts his finger to his lips. “Shhhh. Don’t let it get around. I have a reputation to uphold.”
“Your secret is safe with me. Come. Let us walk in the sunshine together.”
Although Henry still moves a good deal more slowly and carefully than Noah, he appears not to be suffering at all. They walk along the front of the inn.
Henry breathes deeply in the warm sun. “Well, I’ve discovered little about the incident at the Boar’s Head. One thing I did find — ”
“Wait!” Noah whispers hoarsely. “We’re nearly underneath Bacon’s windows,” he points up discreetly, “and they’re open.” Even though the Bacons left with Essex, it’s possible that the room remains occupied. Henry takes the point at once and shrugs, looking as mousy as anyone can while being so big and naturally outgoing.
Something occurs to Noah, another thing he’s long thought of doing, but has never quite got around to. It occurs to him that if he looks to his left and walks from here to the oak on the square, he can detect whatever it was Bacon’s man was watching this past winter. As he now stands directly beneath Bacon’s window, the object of surveillance should come into view as he walks to the oak where the man was standing for all those hours.
“Come with me,” he says. “Just two friends, walking and talking.” Henry arches an eyebrow, but follows his lead nonetheless.
Together, they stroll toward the oak. While, to any casual observer, Noah would appear to be looking at Henry, in fact he’s looking past him. And there it is. There’s no doubt. The only thing that cannot be seen from Bacon’s window but can be seen from the oak tree is … the servant’s entrance to Mountjoy’s Inn. He keeps walking, and Henry strides to keep up.
Noah frowns as he begins to factor this new information into the small quantity already known, forming and rejecting one hypothesis after another.
“What are you thinking?” asks Henry.
Noah looks at him gravely. “I’m thinking Doctor Lopez is in deep, deep trouble. Remember the man in brown riding clothes who was once standing by the oak we just passed?”
Henry searches his memory. “Oh, yes. Bacon’s man.”
“Well, it took me until now to realize what he was spying on. Please continue to look at me as I tell you.”
Henry huffs along. “All right. What was he watching?”
“Mountjoy’s Inn, servant’s entrance.”
Henry ponders a moment. “Lopez?”
“More precisely, the entrance that would be used by someone wishing to come and go unseen from Lopez’s residence. Essex, or at least Bacon, appears to be investigating comings and goings at the good doctor’s residence.” He makes a mental note to examine this information more closely a bit later on. “What were you about to tell me?”
“Oh, not much. But I think I know who the drunkard Bob was. His name is, or at least I think it is, Robert Poley.”
“Have you seen him?”
“Oh, yes. A few days ago. His face was still badly bruised from the beating, although the contusions were all mottled and yellowish, as though fading. Essex’s attendant Gelly Meyrick was deriding him mercilessly. Kept saying he looked like a pig with rings around his eyes.”
“How did Poley reply?”
Henry snorts. “I thought the barnyard reference ironic, as one might actually mistake Meyrick for a pig. But Poley avoided replying in kind. He did say one thing that might be of interest, though.”
“What’s that?”
“He asked Meyrick how he’d like to have a poker stuck in his eye, and said he could arrange it.”
Noah stops, and so does Henry.
“This is the quality of conversation one hears at Essex House? Why on earth would you spend time there?”
Henry waves off the question. “Oh, please! They’re lackeys, those two! There are lackeys everywhere! Besides, one can hear some of the most intelligent conversation in all England there. Philip Sydney … ”
“He’s been dead six years!”
“… Southampton, every poet and notable you can imagine!”
Noah shakes his head. “I must be lacking in imagination. In any event, what do you make of Poley’s threat?”
Henry shrugs. “If he wasn’t just blustering, I expect he knows who murdered Rodriguez.”
Noah nods thoughtfully.
A cheerful expression comes over Henry. “Essex is having a party at the end of May. I’ve received an invitation.”
“Oh?” Noah sniffs. “I haven’t received mine, as yet. But I shan’t hold my breath until it arrives.”
“Don’t be so sure you won’t receive one. If Essex holds true to form, he may well invite you.”
“You’re joking.”
“Oh, but I assure you I am not! As I’ve told you, alliances at court are almost exclusively made for advan
tages. It would be much cheaper and easier for Essex to make you his friend than his adversary.”
Having walked a circle around the square, they come once again to the building where Noah lives.
“If you saw the way he stared at my window on his brief visit to the inn this morning,” says Noah, “you would know that his mind is quite made up as to which side I’m on, and it’s certainly not his.”
“You drew such a conclusion from a look through a window?”
“I did.”
“Then you must have far better intuition into such matters than I, Master Ames.”
“Perhaps, Master Neville.”
Someone inside the inn knocks on a window as they pass. It’s Master Treasurer, who signals them excitedly through the window to wait. He’s not as spry as he once was. In a long minute, he appears at the front door and opens it, a bit winded.
“Good afternoon, Master Neville!” he shouts down.
Henry shouts his reply, as Master Treasurer’s hearing is also not what it was. “Good afternoon, Master Treasurer!”
“Excuse me, sir,” says Master Treasurer, who turns to Noah. “Master Ames, Lord Essex has sent the inn a list of invitees to his upcoming gathering.” He waves the invitation energetically. “Your name appears on it.” He smiles.
Noah glances aside at Henry, and shouts back to the old man. “Thank you, Master Treasurer!”
Master Treasurer smiles as though he’s just delivered the most wonderful news of the season. He squints down at the paper in his hand. “Oh, and your youthful friend, Master Arthur, has also been invited.” He closes the door and disappears from view.
Henry laughs derisively. “What an intuitive fellow you are, Master Ames!”
“We shall see, Henry,” says Noah, his heart filled with portent. “Would you accompany me to the stables? I need to check on something.”
“Certainly.”
As they enter the stable, they spot Tom blissfully asleep on a bale of hay. Noah holds his finger to his lips, and they pass in silence. The horses remain quiet as they approach the stall where Noah’s mount is kept. He opens his saddlebag.
It’s empty.
“Let me repeat, Master Neville. Essex knows my mind, and shall soon learn that I know his black heart.”
Chapter 16
THE LEGAL YEAR is divided into four terms, between which court is in recess, and its personnel and barristers are expected to take their holidays. The two chilliest terms are also the longest, Michaelmas Term running from October to Christmas, and Hilary from January to a date in April.
Noah strives to complete as many of his cases as possible during the beautiful spring days of Easter Term, ending in May, to avoid the need to revisit them during Trinity Term in June and July, when courtrooms can swelter and the term itself can be truncated by plague.
Courthouses are places of public assembly not unlike theaters, which are commonly suspected of being prime sites for the spread of deadly infection. No solicitor wishes to prepare a case in the summer, knowing that his witnesses might be forced to flee the city prior to trial. No barrister relishes the thought of occupying close quarters with a client who might be coming down with plague. A lawyer having any choice in the matter will flee both London and Westminster at the first sign of an outbreak, for an epidemic, once begun, can spread like wildfire through the town, sometimes overtaking even a rapid exodus.
Because Noah’s caseload is extensive and his work often interrupted, he never manages to steal a visit to Marie on the pretext of accepting an invitation to her bon voyage supper. All he can do is send her a note accepting the invitation, and his daughter a letter notifying her of his acceptance.
While Noah looks forward to the supper, where his family and Marie’s will unite around the table for the first time, he dreads the indeterminate weeks without her that will follow.
“When will you return?” he would ask repeatedly.
“When God and the seas allow,” she’d reply, mimicking a commercial disclaimer oft used in the shipping business. As she would always follow this discomfiting answer with a passionate kiss, he would inquire often.
When the day of the supper at last arrives, it dawns bright and clear. All morning long, work that Noah ordinarily would find enjoyable seems unbearably tedious. His thoughts drift repeatedly, and he finds himself gazing out of the window, his heart yearning for an early sunset. While he tries to keep up his spirits about his upcoming separation from Marie, the lingering loss of Rachel many years earlier fills him with anxiety bordering on despair.
If the weather is good, as it clearly is, the plan is for Jessica to meet him at Gray’s Inn, and for the two of them to walk together to Marie’s house.
Supper is scheduled for six. At five-thirty, Noah waits outdoors for Jessica’s arrival. She pulls up in a closed coach. Noah opens the door for her, and pays the driver.
“Oh, papa, that really is not necessary.”
“Nonsense. My pleasure, dear.”
Jessica steps out of the carriage looking very elegant and very young in a simple full-length satin dress of jade green that brings out the color in her eyes. She thanks her father and kisses him on the cheek.
“So, young lady,” says Noah, as they start off for Holborn, “just how serious is this business between you and Master Rodriguez?”
“Oh, not so serious at all,” she says dismissively. “At least not for now.”
“Are you sure he feels the same way?”
She cocks her head coquettishly. “That I cannot say. What I can say is that I have given him no reason to feel otherwise. A young lady cannot be too careful in treating every suitor according to his tenor.” Noah nods sagely, having no idea what she means. “But we shall see if he writes while he is away — and what he writes.”
“Keeping one’s options open, I see. You were ever the careful girl, my sweet.”
“How is your work, Father? It has been rumored that there was some bad business a few weeks ago involving a colleague of yours at Gray’s Inn.”
“Oh? What have you heard?”
“Nothing, other than what I have said. Is this person known to you?”
“He is. In fact, I am quite fond of him. An excellent barrister in the making. Unfortunately, he lost a good old friend, and was very distraught. And how is your Aunt Beth?”
“She is well … but lonely, I fear. She has no one to grow old with. I mean, it’s not that she cries herself to sleep every night. Not at all. She goes about her business, and seems content to live within her means. I have been helping her a bit in that regard, making sure to bear my own freight, and a bit more.”
“‘Bear your own freight?’ That’s shipping talk. I perceive you have been spending more time with this Rodriguez fellow than you’ve let on.”
“No,” she laughs, “but it is very contagious, the patois of commerce. One must ever be on guard against its incursion into genteel speech.”
“Indeed, one must,” he jibes.
She looks at him askance. “Oh, Daddy,” she says, and pokes him in the shoulder.
“Well, it looks as though we’ve arrived.”
They climb the steps to Marie’s house, and knock. There’s some giggling and scrapping on the other side of the door. In a moment, Marie’s younger son opens it, standing more formally erect than usual, and seems about to speak when he’s playfully struck from behind by his little sister. He turns as she bolts up the interior staircase, following in hard pursuit, abandoning the door and leaving it wide open.
Noah and Jessica share a smile. He motions for her to enter first. “Please go in. I’m fairly certain we’re expected.”
She hesitates. “I shall, but only if I have your utmost assurance that you shall not strike me from behind.”
“I extend to you my gravest assurance as a barrister.”
She makes a show of weighing his words, and harboring some continuing reservations, despite which she deigns to enter first.
The meal is wonderf
ully prepared and served (by what must be at least five servants), and the hours fly by. Each time Noah looks at Marie, he is again surprised by her beauty, as though he’s never looked upon her before. And each time he contemplates her upcoming absence, his heart leaps into his throat, depriving him of both the desire and the ability to speak.
Jessica and Stephen chat as though they’re old friends. It’s in moments such as this, when Noah can spy Jessica in unguarded conversation, that he most loves his daughter. He thinks how lucky Stephen is to have her attention, and how heartbroken he would be if she were to turn away.
And then he thinks how foolish his own thoughts are. She simply cannot marry every young man he likes. No, she needs to be governed by the rules of womanhood, rules he only dimly understands, that seem to slip beneath his awareness until such times as he’s rigorously reminded of them, having committed some infraction or other.
When time comes for the toast, he rises, at something of a loss for words to express the depth of his feelings. As the assemblage rises, he clears his throat. Twice.
“I must confess I do not recall sharing a more enjoyable meal in my life. I love you all so dearly that I shall count the hours until your return. Madam,” he says, turning to Marie, “I trust you shall not forget your humble servant, and that, during your absence, you shall nurture his place in your heart, as he shall do yours in his own. I trust you shall write me — you, too, Stephen, although I think you have found a lovelier correspondent than I” — this is met by general mirth — “and that you shall all return to me safe and sound, ‘as soon as God and the seas allow,’ as you have assured me so often.”
Marie, deviating from convention, rises with her glass and smiles. “And we are confident, sir, that during our absence you shall acquit yourself in conformity with the highest standards of professionalism, as well as general tomfoolery.” The youngest two think this hilarious.
Before the hubbub dies down, Noah adds: “God bless us all.”