The Changeling Murders (The Thief Taker Series Book 4)

by C. S. Quinn

  Chapter 74

  Praise-God Barebones was sitting on a plain bench. On the other side of his prison door he heard the heavy wooden barricade lifted. Barebones stood with the instinct of a soldier. He frowned as Charlie and Lily were revealed.

  ‘You’re not guards,’ he said after a moment.

  ‘Praise-God Barebones?’ said Charlie.

  ‘It’s what men call me. My real name is overlong.’ Barebones had even features, blond hair cut in the Roundhead style and the smell of a man who scrubbed vigorously in homemade soap.

  ‘Longer than Praise-God Barebones?’ asked Lily.

  Praise-God coughed. ‘My father was a travelling preacher,’ he said. ‘My given name is Were It Not For Jesus Christ Thou Wouldst Be Damned.’ A sideways smile slid onto Barebones’s face. ‘But don’t let the name fool you. I wasn’t a Puritan during the war. We had the pick of new religions, didn’t we? I’m no fool. I was a Ranter. Drinking and singing. Naked frolics in fields. Women dressed as Eve.’ He smiled fondly. ‘I miss those times. What can I do for you?’ he added.

  ‘I’m Charlie Tuesday.’

  ‘I’ve heard of you,’ said Barebones. His eyes were unsmiling, assessing. ‘The thief taker.’

  He retreated to his prison bench and picked up a knife and a stick. Barebones tilted his head, looking up, then began to whittle rapidly.

  ‘Thought you’d be taller,’ he observed, as wood shavings began settling in drifts on his square-cut boots. ‘So, Mr Thief Taker. I assume you’re here to catch a thief. But I don’t see how I can help you. On account of folks I associate with being on the wrong side of the King’s law. If you want to know of my comrades, you’ve come to the wrong man. I’ll tell you nothing.’

  ‘After the war,’ said Charlie, ‘two people went missing. A lord and lady.’ He was watching Barebones carefully. ‘You’ve heard of them?’ he pushed.

  Barebones looked down at his stick and began cutting a deep curl of wood. ‘We all have,’ he said, without looking up. ‘The fairy king and queen. England’s last magic. Hidden away, or lost, or killed or something. Depending on who you believe, and I believe no one.’ He glanced up to give a surprisingly warm smile, revealing well-kept teeth.

  ‘Do you know a man named Tom Black?’ asked Charlie.

  Barebones’s smile dropped away. He stood a little upright, and tapped his knife against the skinned stick. ‘Tom was . . . a necessity of the Republic,’ he said. ‘Did what he was told. Honest. He’d never tell you a lie. Not even to save his own skin.’

  ‘What if I were to tell you he’d murdered a girl?’ said Charlie. ‘An actress.’

  ‘I’d tell you there’s many who think all actresses are whores,’ replied Barebones, chipping forcefully at the blunt end of the stick. ‘And you cannot murder a whore. Only send ’em back to the devil.’ Barebones straightened, clicking his neck. ‘Men like Tom and I made England a better place. We were no criminals and broke no laws. Only fought for the Cause and won. Parliament makes the rules now, do they not?’

  He glared at them, daring them to disagree, and Charlie saw a glimmer of the determination behind the men who’d smashed England’s tyrannical monarchy.

  ‘And what if Tom were threatening to kill a good Christian girl?’ demanded Charlie, feeling anger rise up. ‘What if he’d taken her and was holding her captive? Would you stand by him then?’

  Barebones seemed to retreat in on himself slightly. ‘Tom has taken a friend of yours?’ he asked quietly.

  Charlie nodded, not trusting himself to speak.

  ‘Something happened to Tom,’ said Barebones after a long moment. ‘I’ve seen it with men of his stamp before. They can swallow death and horrors easy as blinking. But he felt he’d failed Cromwell when the Lord and Lady escaped.’ Barebones frowned, searching for the right words. ‘Soon after, Tom was found in a stable block where the old court mirrors were housed. All the glass was shattered, and some men were in a bad way. It was put about Tom burned them. Cromwell turned a blind eye,’ he continued. ‘We needed people like Tom. Men to do things others couldn’t do.’

  ‘What are you saying?’ asked Charlie.

  Barebones paused. ‘Tom’s mother was murdered today,’ he said carefully. ‘I spoke to the poor guard who found her body. I don’t think he’ll ever recover from what he saw. Bridey Black was burned to death, piece by piece. I think a part of Tom became twisted. Now his darkness rises worse than before.’

  Charlie felt his stomach tighten. Maria was in the clutches of a torturer and a murderer. And time was running out.

  ‘Was Tom tasked with burning the Lord and Lady?’ asked Charlie.

  The stick in Barebones’s hand jerked and went clattering to the floor. He bent and picked it up. ‘The time for talking is over,’ said Barebones. ‘I’ll say no more.’ He studied the stick in his hands, then looked to the door. Beyond, the roar of rioters could be heard.

  ‘Your apprentices will fail without you,’ said Charlie. ‘They need a leader and without one they run wild. They’ll hang, if the rioting continues. The King will make an example.’

  Barebones looked up at Charlie, an expression of deep pain in his blue eyes.

  ‘I can get you out,’ said Charlie. ‘Or you can stay here and leave them to be executed as traitors.’

  Lily looked at Charlie in horror.

  Barebones raised a blond eyebrow. ‘If you free me,’ he said, ‘I will kill the Lord and Lady. Your girl who Tom Black has taken,’ he added, watching Charlie’s face and snapping his fingers, ‘dead.’

  Charlie felt a shiver of fear at the mention of Maria. Could Barebones know where she was being held?

  ‘You’ll have to find the Lord and Lady before me,’ said Charlie, his heart beating faster. ‘And I know you’ll tell me true. Men like you don’t lie.’

  ‘Reckless, like the Royalists,’ said Barebones thoughtfully. ‘But are you as lucky, I wonder?’ The old soldier considered for a moment. ‘Very well,’ he said. ‘We’ll strike a bargain. You’re right to think you can trust my word. I’m no liar. I’ll tell you what I know. But you’re not going to like it.’

  Chapter 75

  The mob had reached the top of Drury Lane. A giant maypole marked the start of London’s most notorious party district.

  Repent brandished his sword of garters. They slowed as one and then Repent took up the charge. ‘To the theatres!’ he bellowed.

  A young apprentice began shinning up the maypole. ‘Make a rope!’ he called down. ‘We’ll pull it down, the King’s big pole!’

  There was a moment of industry as a huddle of boys joined belts in earnest. Then the result was thrown up to the apprentice atop the maypole. He slipped it around the top and tightened the nearest buckle. The climber jumped free, the leather rope dropped into the waiting hands below and the boys pulled.

  A great cheer went up as the maypole began to lean. For a moment it held, the heavy ballast at the bottom keeping it in place.

  ‘Heave!’ cried Repent.

  A great crack sounded. The thick maypole was splitting. It fell slowly at first, then faster. A drunk apprentice dodged as the maypole headed towards him at full force. He tripped, and it felled him in a single blow.

  Repent stood over him as he lay unconscious and twitching. ‘Broken back,’ he said without remorse. ‘No help for him.’ He knelt and made a quick slash across the dying boy’s neck.

  A river of blood poured from near the stump of the maypole, now little more than a broken-toothed mess of splinters.

  Repent mounted the broken shaft. ‘We stand before the harlot’s heartland!’ he announced. ‘Covent Garden. A thousand little chickies are within. Actors. Link boys. Shall we show them the price of their sin?’

  ‘Aye!’ the mob bellowed as one.

  ‘The King promised to rebuild and has he?’

  ‘No!’ screamed the mob.

  ‘And where does he spend his money?’

  ‘The theatres!’ bellowed a boy.

  The cr
y was taken up. Repent beckoned with his sword and the mob poured past into the dark streets of Covent Garden and towards Drury Lane.

  Chapter 76

  In the Bedlam lockup, Barebones had stopped whittling his stick.

  ‘To my mind,’ he was saying, ‘everything began to unravel after the Lord and Lady were captured. Cromwell went peculiar. Wasn’t sure he’d done God’s will. Old Ironsides was a man to win battles. But once it was won, well’ – he spread his hands – ‘keeping a country is more difficult than winning it, isn’t it? Paranoia was rife. Our most loyal followers began to desert.’ Barebones regarded his whittled stick. ‘Tom was in charge of disappearances,’ he said. ‘People who needed to vanish, for the stability of the country. I should have been put on guard, to watch the Lord and Lady. But in the end, Cromwell only trusted Tom.’ Barebones made a little wince of betrayal. ‘It was thought they could seduce any normal man into saving them. Then even Tom couldn’t keep ’em locked away and I’ve never seen old Ironsides look so afraid.’

  ‘You never saw them for yourself?’ asked Charlie.

  Barebones shook his head. ‘I knew enough. They are the last of the power of kings. I followed the trail to the King’s Company, but there was not hide nor hair of them. We put it about that we’d executed the Lord and Lady with the others. But it wasn’t the truth. We found only mortal men in that company, no fairies. They got away somehow and their powers grew. I still feel it. See it in the King’s court. Then not so long ago Tom Black comes to me. Tells me there is a dress hidden in a brothel. And with it, perhaps a way to find the Lord and Lady.’ Barebones touched the sword at his side. ‘I mean to save this country. To drive cold iron through their hearts.’

  ‘Then why not help Tom Black to find them?’

  Barebones gritted his teeth. ‘Because he has no plans to kill them,’ he said, settling his gaze on Charlie. ‘He means to use their powers.’ He twirled his stick. ‘But now you and I have a problem. You don’t live as long as I have without reading people. I saw the look your woman gave you, when you suggested setting me free. And I think I know the way she leans.’ Barebones smiled, nodding at Lily’s clothes. ‘Let’s just say I have a nose for Royalist women.’

  He took a step towards Lily. Charlie moved a little in front of her.

  Barebones raised his blond eyebrows. ‘You’d let her take you to hell?’ he said. ‘I have a feeling you are not for tyranny.’

  Charlie held his ground.

  ‘I cannot let her free,’ said Barebones. ‘Knowing what she knows. It would do none of us any good. But you could join me. We’d find them together.’ He waited, eyeing Charlie. ‘Very well,’ said Barebones. ‘Both of you then.’

  He stood, his knife in one hand and the sharpened stick in the other. Charlie spread his feet slightly, waiting for the attack. Behind him, he heard Lily slip a knife into each hand.

  Barebones moved fast, and Charlie dodged and punched upwards. But the blow never connected. Barebones had dodged. Instead of going on the offensive, he stepped neatly out of the cell and threw the door shut behind him.

  Charlie ran at the door in time to hear the heavy wooden bar being heaved back into place. Lily threw herself at the door as well, but the thick closure repelled her back.

  ‘I mean to find the Lord and Lady and kill them,’ called Barebones from the other side of the door. ‘Anyone trying to deliver them to Tom Black is my sworn enemy and, believe me, my enemies don’t fair too well.’

  Chapter 77

  Mrs Jenks was inside the King’s Theatre, her silken dress swishing back and forth as she paced. ‘They’re coming,’ she muttered, her red mouth drawn tight. ‘Forty thousand. People are saying there are forty thousand. It’s not just apprentices now. It’s a mob. People from all over the city are joining. We’ve no guard. The only soldiers left to be got are the King’s. And they won’t fall to my employ. Not for any sum.’

  ‘What of Mother Mitchell?’ asked Millicent hopefully. ‘Will she come defend us?’

  Mrs Jenks shook her head, her eyes a studied blank. Several faces fell.

  Viola stepped forward, moving a strand of glossy dark hair from her eyes. ‘If I may,’ she said, her Italian accent causing her to falter slightly. ‘I’ve met with them, Mrs Jenks. I think I can help.’ Viola was thinking of the men who’d chased her and Clancy from Damaris’s Wapping brothel.

  ‘Then out with it, girl,’ snapped Mrs Jenks. ‘It’s all of us will suffer at their hands.’

  Viola stood a little taller. She was thinking what Clancy would do. ‘With respect, Mrs Jenks,’ she began, ‘it is you who stands to lose most.’ She waved a hand. ‘Your stock of dresses, furnishings. It’s my understanding wealth of that kind makes the boys angry.’

  ‘You’ll be first in line when they come,’ said Mrs Jenks. ‘Pretty girl like you. Best tell me what you know.’

  ‘No,’ said Viola carefully. ‘I ’ave enough of threats, of being frightened. We all have.’ She took in a few of the assembled girls and drew courage from their expressions. ‘If they catch me, then what?’ She shrugged. ‘Bruises heal. They won’t do nothing twenty men a day don’t already do. Why should I care?’

  ‘What do you want?’ Mrs Jenks’s shark eyes were trained hard on Viola. ‘Money?’

  ‘A new silk dress,’ said Viola, ‘and a part on the stage. A lead part,’ she added.

  Mrs Jenks eyed her with something approaching respect. ‘Very well,’ she agreed.

  ‘If Barebones is gone,’ said Viola, ‘I think his son will assume leadership. His name is Repent. He’s young. Vicious.’ Something passed over Viola’s face. ‘He is searching for some fairy thing,’ she said. ‘Magic. And do we not have the means to make magic? Our theatre things are the very latest. And we can act. I think we should stand up to him.’

  ‘Are you suggesting we fight them? You girls?’ Mrs Jenks scoffed.

  ‘I saw a play in Italy,’ said Viola, ‘about a war. We have the advantage. The territory is ours. We know it. We have access to the buildings. The high places. I have a plan. I think it could work.’

  Viola told them. Mrs Jenks’s small red mouth drew up into a smile.

  Chapter 78

  Inside the prison, Lily hammered on the door.

  ‘No lock to pick,’ said Charlie, eyeing the thick entrance. ‘That’s the problem with old prisons. The simplest methods are often the most effective.’

  ‘Barebones can go wherever he wants with his apprentices,’ said Lily, frustrated. ‘We’re stuck in here . . .’ She stopped herself, but Charlie knew what she was thinking. Somewhere in the city was Maria. Time was slipping away.

  ‘Barebones is so certain they’re alive,’ Charlie said. ‘A fairy king and queen. How can that be?’ He paced the cell, examining the walls and the barred window.

  ‘What could Tom Black want with the Lord and Lady?’ asked Lily. ‘If they aren’t relations of his.’ She turned to Charlie. ‘Perhaps he thinks you have some personal connection to the Lord and Lady. What if they are your relations? Or relations of your brother’s child?’ suggested Lily. ‘The nephew you keep.’

  Charlie hesitated. Lily’s face widened in understanding.

  ‘You haven’t seen your nephew?’ said Lily incredulously. ‘Have you? You’ve only sent money.’

  Charlie toyed with his key uncomfortably. ‘My brother did some dark things, in the end,’ he said. ‘I didn’t know if the mother would want me to come.’

  ‘That isn’t true,’ said Lily. ‘What are you really afraid of?’ She was staring at him now. ‘Charlie,’ she said, ‘I’ve nearly gotten myself killed for this lord and lady. If you think them relatives of yours, if there’s something you know, you must tell me.’

  ‘I . . .’ Charlie hesitated. ‘I’m afraid of where I might have come from,’ he admitted.

  Lily considered this. ‘There’s dark in everyone,’ she said finally. ‘You needn’t fear it. If you don’t choose to use it then it needn’t come to define you.’


  Charlie closed his eyes and tried to think. ‘I find people,’ he said, ‘it’s what I do. This doesn’t feel right. But this lord and lady . . . It’s like there’s nothing to them at all. It’s too clean.’

  ‘Perhaps they really did die,’ suggested Lily. ‘Someone covered it up. Barebones has become obsessed after years of searching. Cannot accept they’re gone.’

  Charlie was shaking his head, trying to unthread the confusing tangle of information surrounding the Lord and Lady. ‘There’s no . . . feeling for them. For all the talk, no one is angry or sad or even indifferent. There’s an emptiness, do you not think? A coldness.’

  ‘Fairies then,’ said Lily. ‘Fairies are drawn to theatres.’

  ‘Everything has led to a theatre,’ agreed Charlie, ‘and everything about Tom Black is theatrical. He worked in theatre. He went there for his victim. The girl we found hanging.’ Charlie thought of Maria and her enjoyment of acting. Something she’d once said to him drifted to mind. ‘The monarchy is all theatre,’ said Charlie slowly. ‘That is what Maria used to say. The King must be the most accomplished actor of all, to hold his crown. Because royalty is made by performance, ceremonies and public spectacles.’ Charlie had an image of King Charles, his triumphant return to London after the long exile. Something occurred to him. ‘The Lord and Lady,’ said Charlie, thinking aloud, ‘what if they aren’t people? Or fairies. What if they’re objects?’

  ‘What kind of objects?’ asked Lily.

  ‘Priceless objects,’ said Charlie, ideas coming together now. ‘Magical, holy things from a time before kings. But objects nonetheless.’ And then it all came together at once. ‘I know how they did it,’ said Charlie, speaking fast. ‘I know how the King’s Company hid the Lord and Lady and I know why they’ve stayed lost all these years.’

  ‘You’re not making any sense,’ said Lily.

  ‘The Lord and Lady were hidden amongst the King’s Company,’ said Charlie. ‘We had that part right. But we didn’t know what they were. Neither does Barebones.’ He was shaking his head at how simple it all now seemed. ‘They have been hiding in plain sight,’ said Charlie, ‘and in the last place Tom Black would look. His own theatre company. A thousand people have seen them and not known them for what they are.’