by C. S. Quinn
Barebones fought, ducking and swinging. He’d brought down three guards when a high cry made him turn. A guard held Repent by his greasy hair. Barebones ran at them, bringing a punch under the captor’s ribcage. Repent fell free, gasping.
‘Go!’ shouted Barebones, placing himself between his son and the guard. ‘Give this to Bolly!’ He hurled his iron sword at his son.
Repent caught the weapon, then ran.
Barebones drew a second sword.
‘Liberty of conscience!’ he bellowed, the old soldier’s cry coming easily to him. He charged, weapon forward.
Seven guards fell on Barebones, beating and punching. He swayed for a moment, then went down.
A guard sat on his back and began lashing Barebones’s wrists together with tough rope.
‘It’s Lent,’ growled Barebones. ‘The law turns a blind eye.’
‘You silly bastard,’ said the guard, not without sympathy. ‘You think the doxy queen doesn’t have a few traps for those who mean her harm? You’ve fallen for the serpent’s trick, my friend. Mrs Jenks will see you hang.’
Chapter 48
Lily and Charlie watched as the guards closed in, passing between the large rolls of sheet metal.
‘What now?’ said Lily, eyes scouring the room. ‘There’s no way out.’
Charlie’s gaze settled on a patch of floorboards riddled with the tell-tale fungal circles of damp. Then he looked to the large abandoned coin press. It had a heavy base of thick metal, atop which was a wooden frame holding a weighty screw mechanism and a broad turning bar at the top, like the yoke of a plough.
Charlie raced towards the rotting floorboards and laid hold of the bar.
‘Help me,’ he shouted. ‘We need to tip over this press.’ He leaned back and pulled. The press was far heavier than he had anticipated.
Lily’s dark eyes darted from the press to the floor. She ran to his side.
‘Pull!’ shouted Charlie. ‘Help me! There’s water under here,’ he added, seeing her expression. ‘This part is built over the river. That’s why the planks are rotting.’
Lily understood immediately and moved to the other side of the press.
Gunfire exploded through the Mint. Shot sprayed against the metal press, ricocheting off.
They ducked instinctively. Charlie glanced up to see one of the guards pointing at the ancient ceiling, explaining something. They didn’t want to shoot again in case they brought the building down on their heads. One signalled that they should fan out and move in as a pincer.
‘These things are counterweighted at the base,’ said Lily. ‘We need a lever.’ Her eyes settled on a discarded hammer. She picked it up and fitted the flatter end under the base. ‘It’s going!’ she shouted, as their combined efforts tilted the press.
The guards were surrounding them.
Charlie dug in his feet and heaved. The press teetered, then overbalanced, falling fast towards the old floorboards. Charlie grabbed Lily’s arm and pulled her aside. The press crashed downwards, tearing a jagged hole in the rotting floor and sending up a font of fetid water from the moat below.
The guards leapt back.
‘Jump!’ said Charlie, taking Lily’s hand.
She pulled back, eyes wide. ‘I can’t. I can’t swim.’
It came back to Charlie suddenly: the drowning penalty for gypsies; Lily’s mother. He took her face with both hands.
‘I won’t let anything happen to you,’ he promised. Then he wrapped his arms full around her waist and sent them both plummeting into the water.
Chapter 49
‘Taken? The dress has been taken?’ Amesbury was striding around the large room. He reminded Mrs Jenks of a caged bear. ‘We gave you the theatres,’ he said. ‘That was your reward for loyalty. Every whore who cavorts in a Covent Garden playhouse is owned by you.’
‘It was kept for six years,’ Mrs Jenks said defensively. ‘It was never expected to be so long.’ Her belladonna-wide black eyes rested on him. ‘Tell me true now, Amesbury,’ she said. ‘No more fairy tales. We knew powerful people went missing. Who are they? Why can they not return?’
‘They will return when the time is right!’ interrupted Amesbury angrily. ‘When the King is strong. God’s blood, woman, can you imagine what any upheaval would do to him? Plague, fire, the Dutch snapping at our heels and now apprentices tearing the city apart. Those boys need only the slightest provocation and all hell will break loose.’
‘This is your doing,’ said Mrs Jenks. ‘One of your plots.’ She moved a little closer. ‘I know you, Amesbury. I think you wish Cromwell had killed those people.’
‘We didn’t know what kind of king he would be.’ Amesbury sat heavily. ‘You’ve done well from how things are, Emily. Why should you complain?’
‘Have I?’ She looked at him. ‘Have you any idea the things I’ve had to do?’
‘You were bred to ruthlessness,’ said Amesbury. ‘Same as I. Middle-gentry confers such necessities on its children, does it not?’
Mrs Jenks opened her mouth to reply, then seemed to reconsider. ‘Barebones,’ she said. ‘He knows something. He is looking for them.’
‘Barebones thinks them fairies,’ said Amesbury. ‘But a fool with a zeal for righteousness is a dangerous combination. He thinks them evil. Wants them killed.’
Mrs Jenks nodded. ‘He riled up a pack of apprentices to sufficient courage to storm my house.’ There was a slight admiration to her tone.
Amesbury nodded. ‘I heard. You had him arrested. I’m not sure it will bring the outcome you want.’
‘Without their ringleader, they’re just a pack of motley boys,’ said Mrs Jenks.
‘The rioting captures public feeling,’ said Amesbury. ‘The people are tired of paying for a party they’re not invited to. They might attack the whores, but make no mistake, it’s the King they truly despise. The apprentices could storm Whitehall.’
Chapter 50
Charlie’s arms were tight around Lily as they fell through the broken floor of the Mint. She flailed as they plunged into the dark waters and he almost lost his grip on her. Then he kicked them both upwards and they surfaced, gasping. Above them, the floor of the Mint showed a jagged hole where they’d fallen from. A guard appeared holding a gun.
‘I see them,’ he shouted, angling his weapon.
Charlie pumped his feet madly to take them downstream. A spray of shot threw up deep splashes in the water. He manoeuvred them to the edge of the waterway and they floated out into the wider moat that surrounded the Tower.
A few surprised Beefeaters looked down on them. Behind them, Lady Castlemaine’s men had burst free of the Mint and were scouring the waters. Keeping hold of Lily’s dress, Charlie aimed for a narrow sewage sluice leading out to the River Thames. As they entered the arch of the tunnel, blackness encircled them. Lily went strangely limp as they were propelled fast along and out into the Thames with a heavy splash. Behind them was St Katherine Dock, with its thick consignment of merchant and navy ships.
‘We’re safe,’ gasped Charlie, keeping a tight grip on Lily and kicking towards the dock. ‘We can vanish amongst the sailors and merchants.’
Lily said nothing as Charlie towed them to a jetty and they climbed up a seaweed-covered ladder. She shrugged him free when they made it to the top, then punched him in the stomach.
‘Never push me in water again,’ she said.
‘Ow!’ said Charlie, doubling over. ‘I saved your life.’
‘I’m grateful for that part,’ said Lily, adjusting her wet hair. ‘Come on,’ she added, ‘I’ll buy you a cup of ale whilst we dry off.’
If the landlady at the Hoop and Grapes tavern thought two dripping-wet customers strange, she didn’t remark on it. After logging their request for ale, she took their tankards without comment and shrieked a command down to the cellar.
A boy who seemed to be made entirely of limbs clambered up the steep ladder, took the drinking vessels and vanished back down again.
Lily sat near the smal
l fire, where a pot of puddings boiled away for hungry drinkers, and fanned out her sodden skirts. A few groups of drunk sailors leaned over to look at her.
Charlie took the mourning ring off his finger and handed it to her. ‘Your payment,’ he said, ‘for getting me into the Mint.’
She slowly took the ring. Her clothing steamed gently. ‘You realise I’ll be helping you find the Lord and Lady?’ she said.
Charlie’s brown eyes widened slightly.
‘I owe it to Lady Castlemaine,’ said Lily with a slight smile, pushing the ring on her finger. ‘I swore I’d pay her in kind for taking my privateer’s licence. And if she’s trying to get to the Lord and Lady, it seems to me they must be worth something.’
‘You’re concerned for Maria too, aren’t you?’ said Charlie, seeing something in her expression. ‘You liked her.’
‘The foreman was talking of a group of people burned alive, in secret,’ said Lily, ignoring the suggestion. ‘You could choose many better places than the Mint to commit such an atrocity. More private places with fewer witnesses. And why choose burning as a method of execution?’
‘The Mint has a large forge,’ said Charlie. ‘Witches have been burned there. Perhaps something about those people was magical. Cromwell certainly wanted to be sure they were dead. Did you hear what Lady Castlemaine was saying?’ asked Charlie as the boy returned with two foaming tankards. ‘Someone stole a dress from the Golden Apple. Why should she be interested in that? What are the odds it’s the same one Maria was looking for? The same dress that summons the Lady.’
He must have let his thoughts show on his face, because Lily unexpectedly took his hand.
‘Maria’s kidnapping was not your fault,’ said Lily, with uncharacteristic gentleness. ‘And if anyone can find her, you can.’
‘I can’t help but imagine how she must be feeling,’ said Charlie. ‘She must be so frightened, Lily. What if he’s hurting her . . . ?’
‘You can’t think like that,’ interrupted Lily. ‘If you want to help her, solve the riddle.’
Charlie swallowed, turning the apple seal in his hand. ‘Lady Castlemaine thought you might learn something from this,’ he said, weighing the seal in his hand. ‘The Golden Apple is important. Most likely it was a safe house during the war,’ he added. ‘Royalists used this seal as an invitation to get inside.’
‘A clever trick,’ said Lily approvingly. ‘Possessing a whorehouse invitation is no evidence of treason. Finally these Royalists have realised how to cover their tracks.’
‘What if the lost dress was put deliberately in the Golden Apple?’ suggested Charlie. ‘A Royalist clue in a Royalist safe house.’
‘Hardly matters if it was,’ Lily pointed out. ‘Lady Castlemaine said the dress was stolen. The thief escaped into the Temple Bar stews. And a whore in the stews,’ she concluded, taking a sip of deeply tannic beer and wincing, ‘is a needle in a haystack.’
‘I’m a thief taker,’ said Charlie. ‘I make my living finding people.’
‘You think you can find her?’ Lily was torn between disbelief and admiration.
Charlie nodded. ‘Lady Castlemaine said the girl was from Wapping. So for my money, she fled the destruction there.’
‘And went to the safety of Covent Garden,’ said Lily. ‘The apprentices don’t attack the theatre district. Mrs Jenks operates under Royal sanction.’
‘So she’s no fool,’ said Charlie. ‘But she immediately stole a dress. Which makes her short-sighted.’
Lily nodded. ‘Mrs Jenks will hunt her from Covent Garden. She loses the only safe part of the city.’
‘And why flee to Temple Bar?’ continued Charlie. ‘If she wanted to escape the law, she might have gone to Alsatia. It’s right next to Temple and offers criminals sanctuary.’
‘She might have gone to sell the dress,’ suggested Lily.
‘Cheapside, London Bridge, all would give a better price,’ said Charlie. ‘But what they don’t have is a gin shop.’
‘You think she was a drunk?’
‘It would best explain why she turned to thieving at exactly the time she needed to earn a good reputation and fled to a place serving the strongest drink in London. And,’ he added, ‘the Temple Gin House buys clothes at knock-down prices from desperate drunks.’
‘Those stews are ugly places,’ said Lily. ‘You go to ground there you don’t come out. She’s just as likely dead as alive.’ Lily helped herself to a pudding from the cauldron, lifting it free with a poker and peeling away the cheesecloth wrapping.
‘True,’ said Charlie. ‘But there’s a good chance she sold the stolen dress before someone stuck a knife in her.’
He pinched a piece of hot pudding from Lily’s hand, put it in his mouth and chewed. It was sweet, with a hint of spice. Contraband cinnamon, he guessed, since they were so near to the docks.
‘Charlie,’ said Lily suddenly, ‘can you be sure Maria is not already dead? Tom Black sounds like a madman.’
‘I just know it.’
‘How? It would be far easier for him . . .’
‘Lily,’ said Charlie, his voice tight, ‘I can’t let myself think that way. If I imagine something has happened to her’ – he pressed a hand to his head – ‘it tightens up in here. Nothing works.’ His brown eyes settled on hers. ‘Trust me, she’s alive.’
Lily had a peculiar expression on her face. ‘It sounds like you should have married her,’ she said lightly, ‘before this Percy came along.’
Charlie shook his head.
‘But you don’t think Maria should marry Percy?’ said Lily.
‘I never said that.’
‘Charlie,’ said Lily, ‘we’re headed to Temple Bar, the lawyer’s district. Percy works there. He could help us, but you’ve never once suggested we visit him. Are you certain you’re thinking from your head? Or is it your heart making decisions?’
‘Percy can’t help us,’ said Charlie with more force than was necessary. ‘What good is a lawyer? Would he write some clever words asking Tom Black not to murder Maria? Wag his finger at the apprentices whilst they tear him to pieces?’
Lily hesitated. She looked as though she meant to say more, then thought better of it. ‘So we’re back to hunting a dress,’ she said after a moment, turning the gold rings on her fingers thoughtfully. ‘A dress to summon a lord and lady.’
Charlie nodded. ‘Then to Temple Bar,’ he said, downing the thick dregs of his beer. ‘The cheapest place to buy a woman in London.’
Lily looked at the window. It was dark outside and the moon was up. The fire was warm against their dripping clothes. ‘My skirts are nearly dry,’ she said with a yawn. ‘It’s late. Tomorrow is Maundy Thursday.’
Chapter 51
Lynette was sitting on the dressing room table. The cream ribbons holding up her red stockings had unravelled and slipped down to below her knees.
‘I must thank Lady Castlemaine,’ said Lynette. ‘I’m told she taught you everythin’ you know.’
Charles’s dark eyebrows raised. ‘Perhaps not everything. There were one or two women before Barbara.’
‘One or two?’
He smiled and stood to face her. ‘We were at war. I lose count.’
‘You rogue!’ She looked at him, sliding her hands around his waist and pulling him close. ‘I’m to be on stage in a few moments,’ she said.
‘Why do you think I cleared the dressing room?’ asked the King. ‘I’ll have the pleasure of watching you act, knowing what I’ve just done.’ He pulled her close. ‘And what I’m about to do.’
Lynette kicked her stocking feet against the table. ‘Charles,’ she said, chewing on a fingernail, ‘are you sure you should stay to watch the play? The riots . . . People will say you are weak if you ignore them.’
He toyed with a strand of her hair. ‘My father did much showing of power,’ said Charles. ‘They took his head for it. I am not fool enough to do the same.’
Lynette put her hands on his shoulders. ‘Listen to me,
I know London. I’ve heard things. This ain’t no ordinary riot. They’ve gone as far as Chiswell Street. Mrs Jenks has paid a guard to arrest the ringleaders.’
‘The old madam who dresses like a young girl?’ Charles was picturing the thickly made-up face and the low-cut dress.
‘Mrs Jenks is the theatre bawd,’ explained Lynette patiently. ‘Every whore ’oo plies the Covent Garden playhouses is employed by her. Mrs Jenks is clever. She’s ruthless. But she’s fine bred. Don’t understand common folk.’
‘But you do.’ Charles was gazing at her.
‘Her clever trick arresting the leaders ’as only made ’em angrier. Shown ’em the whores hold the power in London. What d’yer think they’ll do with that?’
‘Tell me.’
‘I hear someone’s riling ’em up to break into Finsbury Gaol,’ said Lynette.
Charles hesitated. ‘Where all the dispossessed people are? The ones we couldn’t rehome after the fire?’
‘Don’t look so sad.’ She stroked his face. ‘You tried. I know you did.’
‘Everyone thinks I spent the rebuild money on the new theatre.’
‘Stop feelin’ sorry for yerself,’ said Lynette. ‘It’s a ready-made mob. If they get a taste of blood, all hell breaks loose.’
There was a roar of applause from outside the dressing room. He leaned in closer and kissed her. ‘But I am forgetting myself,’ he said, putting a hand on her bare thigh and carefully moving her skirts aside. ‘A great slight on my reputation has been made. I must amend it.’
‘Oh?’ She was smiling, despite herself.
‘I need to show you some things that Lady Castlemaine didn’t teach me.’
Chapter 52
‘I’ve never seen the Temple Bar Gin House,’ said Lily, as they entered the dark and malodorous buildings behind the lawyers’ district, ‘only heard of it.’
‘You don’t see the Gin House,’ said Charlie. ‘You smell it.’ There was a roar from down the street. He took off his coat. ‘Put this on,’ he said to Lily, eyeing her low-cut red dress. ‘You can’t walk into the middle of a riot dressed like that.’