by David Field
Three days later, Allan gained entry into the Lower Ward, past two sets of guards, dressed in the livery of the Duke of Northumberland, by the simplest ruse he could think of.
‘Yer not one of us,’ he was told by the senior guard on the outer gate.
‘I’m a soldier, aren’t I?’ Allan replied, ‘and I’m here at the invitation of one of the kitchen girls, who I met down in the King’s Arms the other night.’
‘Which one?’ the guard demanded.
Allan feigned a look of uncertainty before replying, ‘She said her name was “Amy”, but to tell you the honest truth, we didn’t go in for a lot of talking.’
‘And where was yer plannin’ on meetin’ ’er?’
‘In the kitchen, where else?’ Allan replied. ‘But she’s got her own room near the stables, or so she assured me. Have I been misled?’
‘Prob’ly not,’ the guard replied. ‘There’s a kitchen ’and called Amy, right enough, but she looks old enough ter be yer mother. But if yer likes ’em a bit ripe, then that’s yer own business. Just tell ’er that if she likes a bit of a roll durin’ ’er off duty hours, Jack at the front gate’s always ’appy ter oblige. You’ll find the kitchen on the ground floor o’ the Curfew Tower.’
‘I’ll make sure to pass on your message,’ Allan assured him as he walked through the gate. Then it was through to the second set of guards, at the entrance to the Curfew Tower, with a new ruse unsuspectingly supplied by the Lower Ward gate guard.
‘Jack at the front gate sent me through with a message for Amy in the kitchen,’ Allan told the two men who barred his passage with crossed halberds.
One of them grinned. ‘Dirty bastard’s setting ’imself up fer a fuck, is ’e?’
‘No idea,’ Allan replied. ‘I’m new around here.’
‘That explains yer livery,’ the guard replied. ‘Northumberland, ain’t it?’
‘Yeah, but I quit that shower of pansies,’ Allan told him as he spat heartily towards the ground at his feet. ‘As soon as the armourer gets off his arse, I’ll be in Somerset colours, like the rest of you.’
‘On yer go through,’ the guard agreed as he and his companion stepped sideways to allow Allan’s passage between them.
This is too easy, Allan chuckled to himself as he made his way inside the Curfew Tower and enquired after the location of the laundry. Two minutes later he’d found a laundress called Bess and employed his most persuasive boyish charm as he enquired of her if she had any laundry for delivery to the Lady Jane.
‘I’ve got a couple of ’er shifts,’ Bess replied with a grin, ‘but I don’t reckon they’d fit you.’
‘I wasn’t seeking to wear them,’ Allan replied, ‘but I am seeking an excuse to visit her companion, or lady-in-waiting, depending on how she titles herself. Her name’s “Grace” and she and I have an arrangement.’
‘I dread ter think what about,’ Bess leered back, ‘but if yer ever get tired o’ young girls, there’s many a good time ter be ’ad wi’ older women like me. I could teach yer lots, my lad, believe me.’
‘I believe you.’ Allan grinned as he made a show of gazing down the front of her loose-fitting bodice at the mounds of freckled bosom that it housed. ‘Maybe when I get back from visiting Grace, which I can’t do without an excuse. So those shifts, if you’d be so good?’
During his hasty walk down the main hallway with two highly decorated ladies’ shifts over his arm Allan attracted a few catcalls from guards dressed in the Somerset livery and at least one wolf whistle. Finally he reached the doors to the Audience Chamber, where two more crossed halberds blocked his path and an usher enquired as to his business.
‘I’m delivering these garments to the Lady Jane,’ he announced.
‘I didn’t think they were yours,’ the usher replied sarcastically, ‘but why are you delivering them here, and why isn’t the laundress doing it?’
‘If you mean Bess, she’s still recovering from my visit,’ Allan leered, ‘and she’s late with this delivery, or so she assured me when I got off her, so instead of my usual payment I offered to deliver them personally.’
‘What’s your livery?’ the usher asked suspiciously.
‘Northumberland,’ Allan replied. ‘The Duke brought me here last summer, when he was inspecting the Tower guard who were in special training and that’s how I met Bess.’
‘Lucky bastard,’ the usher replied. ‘Put in a good word for me, would you? It would improve my standing around here to go to it with a laundress.’
‘Let me in there, so that I can deliver this laundry and I’ll see what I can arrange,’ Allan lied and two seconds later the doors were opened for him, revealing a group of three seated at the far end of the chamber.
Grace uttered a light scream of delight and rushed down the chamber to throw herself at Allan, who swung her round and round as she peppered his face with kisses.
‘Never was a laundry hand so welcomed into the royal presence,’ Edward chuckled.
Allan handed the shifts to Grace, explaining that they were Jane’s, then continued down the chamber and bowed, before dropping one knee to the floor. ‘Your Majesty,’ he said in acknowledgment before Edward gestured for him to rise.
‘In the present company I’m Edward,’ he told Allan. ‘I assume that Grace and yourself are no strangers to each other?’
‘Indeed not — Edward,’ Allan replied self-consciously, ‘but I am here to enquire as to whether or not you require to be rescued.’
‘How did you get past my gaolers?’ Edward asked.
Allan smiled. ‘I was obliged to tell a few lies, regrettably. The guards on Lower Ward duty believe that I am going to it with a kitchen wench called “Amy”, while your usher outside believes that the object of my lust is the lady who supplied me with that laundry.’
‘Excellent!’ Edward enthused with a light clap of the hands.
‘I hope they were lies,’ Grace muttered.
‘And I hope that you are here to advise us that we shall soon be free to leave here,’ Edward added with a smile.
Allan nodded. ‘My master simply needed confirmation that you were indeed being held against your will by Somerset and that if he approached Windsor with a large host he could not be accused of a treasonous threat against your life.’
‘Your master being Northumberland?’ Edward asked. ‘If so, then he must have many armed men at his command. But you have my authority to bring the Yeoman Warders from the Tower as well. And before they venture west, they may secure the person of the alleged Lord Protector Somerset and place him in irons.’
‘It shall be done, Your ... Edward,’ Allan confirmed as he rose from his seat, bowed and began to walk down the chamber towards the door. Just before he reached it, Edward smiled at Grace by his side and nodded towards the retreating figure of their rescuer. ‘The least you can do is to wish him God speed, Grace.’
Grace needed no further persuasion and raced down the carpet towards the door, calling for Allan to wait for her. As the doors closed behind them and they stood facing each other in the hallway, Grace made a grab for him and she kissed him passionately.
‘Who needs a laundry woman, when that’s on offer?’ the usher muttered to himself.
XXI
Two evenings later, as the sun began setting over distant Reading, the lookout on the main gate recently constructed by the late King Henry shouted down that a large host was approaching. The maximum available guard was called out, including those officially off duty and as Sir John Dudley and his son Guildford commanded their mounts to a halt before the closed gates, over a hundred of Somerset’s force glared down at them from the south walls.
‘I come on the authority of His Majesty the King!’ Dudley bellowed up at them. ‘Open the gates, by royal command!’
‘We take our orders from the Lord Protector!’ came the reply from the Captain of the Guard.
‘There is no Lord Protector, since the early hours of this morning!’ Dudley yelled back. ‘He is
currently in the Tower, accused of treason, as my son here can confirm, since it was he who conducted him thither. If you do not believe me, address yourself to the Constable of the Tower, who rides immediately behind me with his own force and with instructions to arrest all who resist our entry. There are three thousand of us in total, whereas you can probably field no more than two hundred. Yield now and be adjudged loyal, or resist our entry and be hung, drawn and quartered as traitors. The choice is yours, but I am impatient for my supper.’
After only the briefest of delays, the gates ground open and Dudley led the first few ranks of his horse-drawn force into the Lower Ward, then turned in the saddle and called for Allan Bestwick. ‘Where to now?’ he asked.
‘The Curfew Tower, up ahead,’ Allan nodded. ‘The first floor hallway contains the Audience Chamber.’
Dudley smiled. ‘You have waited over-long for your knighthood, Allan, but now by way of reward you may lead the force that liberates the King from his bondage. You have earned that, at least.’
Ten minutes later, Edward, Grace and Jane looked up in eager anticipation as the Audience Chamber door was kicked in and in strolled Allan Bestwick at the head of a group of serious looking men-at-arms wielding large swords. The rest of the company held back as Allan strolled the full length of the chamber, then bowed and knelt.
‘You are no longer detained, Your Majesty, and my men and I await your further instruction.’
‘You have led this army yourself?’ Edward asked. ‘Where is Northumberland?’
‘Behind me, sire, with his son and the rest of the force. It was his command that I lead this final party into the Curfew Tower. They are below, I believe.’
‘Guildford!’ Jane called as she left her seat and raced past Allan and out of the chamber.
As Allan turned to follow with his eyes her somewhat unorthodox departure from the royal presence, Edward turned to Grace with a smile. ‘Time to welcome back your hero.’
A few moments later the group of armed men in the chamber doorway parted to reveal the entry of Sir John Dudley, Guildford by his side and Jane hanging on Guildford’s arm as if determined never to release it.
Sir John smiled at the sight of Grace wrapped around Allan, before executing a bow towards Edward. ‘I believe that our arrival is neither unexpected nor unwelcome.’
Edward leapt to his feet. ‘Indeed not, and my undying thanks for your timely arrival. We tired of Windsor some weeks ago and now, if we may, we’d like to return to Greenwich.’
‘With your permission,’ Dudley replied, ‘I believe that Grace will wish to return to Durham House, where her father awaits our safe return. It was he who alerted us to your plight and no doubt he will wish to take her back to the comfort of his estate in Leicestershire.’
‘Tell me more about him,’ Edward requested as he waved his hand in Grace’s direction. ‘He has clearly raised a most resourceful daughter.’
‘He is Sir Richard Ashton, Your Majesty, and he was formerly in the service of Master Secretary Thomas Cromwell, until Cromwell was executed for reasons that still remain obscure and Sir Richard fell under threat from Norfolk. But since the latter is still in the Tower, along now with Seymour, Sir Richard felt emboldened to return to London in order to secure your release.’
‘But he did not ride here as one of your company?’
‘No, Your Majesty, since he is no soldier.’
‘Talking of the Tower, may I instruct you to collect Wriothesley from wherever he is currently skulking and convey him there also?’ Edward asked. ‘Despite being told that his commission was at an end, he took it upon himself to ask impertinent questions of the Lady Jane.’
‘You will not have heard,’ Dudley replied with a smile, ‘since you have been kept isolated here these past few weeks. Wriothesley died two weeks past — some say of a broken heart, that he was unable to fulfil his mission, but others speak of poison.’
‘Perhaps he swallowed one of his own reports,’ Edward said, ‘but we are well rid of him, whatever the cause of his demise. We shall perhaps never know who was behind Baron Seymour’s plot against my life.’
‘There is a popular belief that whoever put him up to it was intent on bringing him down,’ Dudley observed. ‘Given recent events, perhaps he was ill advised by his older brother.’
Edward seemed lost in thought for a moment, then he looked directly up at Dudley. ‘Since that older brother is now my guest in the Tower, it would seem that my Council is in need of a new leader. You would seem to be Somerset’s most likely successor as Lord Protector, if you would accept the role.’
Dudley bowed in appreciation. ‘I would gladly be of further service to in the matter of convening the Council, Your Majesty, but if you would accept my respectful counsel in the spirit in which it is intended, you should now take the leadership of it yourself. You are less than four years from taking the entire burdens of State upon your own shoulders and in that limited time it would be of inestimable assistance to you were you to guide the Council in those policies that you deem appropriate.’
‘You wish me to govern the country alone?’ Edward asked with a look of horror. ‘I have neither the knowledge nor the experience. You must help me in this, Dudley.’
Sir John smiled. ‘Gladly, sire, but not in the manner that led Somerset to his downfall. He grew arrogant under the temptation of his almost absolute power. No man should ever be placed in that position again, so with your gracious leave I will accept the role of “Lord President of Council”, in which capacity I will assist in the selection of other Council members, but will only be empowered to act upon the decision of the majority, countersigned with your consent. There is much work to be done in the restoration of this troubled realm and it is paramount that you be seen to be in the forefront of improvements in trade, commerce, foreign policy and of course our national religion.’
‘So I must spend more time in Council and less time with Lady Jane? What say you to this, Jane?’
Jane blushed slightly and her eyes fell to the carpet as she mumbled: ‘You are the King, Edward, and Sir John is right to request that you lend your wisdom to the governance of your kingdom until such time as the Council is no longer required. But, should you so desire, I will make my residence in London and will attend upon you whenever you summon me.’
‘I would seem to have no choice,’ Edward conceded with a smile. ‘But will your father not require you on his estate?’
‘I have two sisters, Edward, and my father has ever been more attentive to the next oldest, Catherine. My absences from his estate have grown so frequent and so lengthy, of late, that I do not believe he would grieve unduly were I to transfer my residence to the city.’
‘You were previously resident with the Dudleys, were you not?’
‘Indeed I was, and happily so.’
‘Dudley?’ Edward asked in a tone of voice that was both a prompt and a command.
Dudley bowed. ‘It would be both a privilege and a pleasure to welcome her back into my extensive household, sire.’
‘What about me?’ Grace piped up without thinking, then placed an instinctive hand over her mouth as she realised her presumption. It was Jane who saved her from further embarrassment.
‘Indeed, Edward. Grace has ever been my companion and I would that she be allowed to remain with me. If Sir John would graciously consent...’
‘Of course he would,’ Edward insisted, adding, ‘Wouldn’t you, my Lord President of Council?’
‘Naturally, Your Majesty,’ Dudley conceded with another bow. ‘Apart from any other consideration, the presence of Grace Ashton in my household will guarantee the continued presence of a squire who might otherwise seek another master in his incessant ambition for a knightly title.’
‘But we must of course obtain your father’s consent to your transfer down here,’ Edward insisted.
Grace grinned. ‘You may leave my father to me, Edward.’
Edward was led back in regal splendour to his favoured
Greenwich Palace, with much blowing of horns and the cheering of crowds that had been whipped up to line the streets in advance by a company of men led by Guildford and Allan. Then Dudley took his leave and returned to Durham House with the small group of Guildford, Allan, Jane and Grace, in order to reassure the waiting Richard Ashton that their mission had been accomplished without loss of blood, and that King Edward had asked that his grateful thanks be passed on to his loyal subject, Sir Richard.
While Richard was still glowing with this recognition, Dudley took his opportunity.
‘His Majesty is much taken with young Grace and has requested that she be allowed to remain here at Durham House, as the companion to Jane that she has ever been. It is a wonderful opportunity for her to meet likely marriage partners among the many ennobled visitors who grace this establishment, as well as those who frequent the Court.’
Richard smiled politely, but looked unconvinced. ‘It was ever my ambition to preserve Grace from the intrigue, back-stabbing and betrayal that besmirched the Court during my day, and indeed led to the demise of her birth mother. She no doubt willingly agreed to remain, since she finds life at Knighton too restrictive of her inquisitive nature, but she is a mere thirteen years old and lacks judgment. Before I give my consent, I would wish to speak, not only with her, but also with that excellent young man who seems to have engaged her heart.’
‘Allan Bestwick?’ Dudley asked disparagingly. ‘He is a mere squire in my service.’
‘I was once lower even than that,’ Richard replied with a smile, ‘until Cromwell found me on the country estate in which I would have withered and died in obscurity.’
‘But he lifted you high at Court, did he not? And are the rumours true that among your ancestors may be listed former members of the royal House of York?’
Richard paled and reached out to touch Dudley’s sleeve. ‘No more on that, I beg you. It proved to be more of a curse than a blessing, and it is one of the reasons why I would not wish my daughter’s true heritage to be generally known. Norfolk may be in the Tower, but he still commands powerful followers.’