‘There must be stables near here. We need horses.’
‘No, we must go by boat, downriver, Mr Shakespeare. An island in the Thames. The estuary.’
Shakespeare could feel the man’s fear as his blood trickled through his fingers. He knew he had him, that he was a broken, terrified man. He took the poniard from Gulden’s throat, wiped the blade on the man’s sleeve, then thrust it in his own belt. He pulled him by the arm and pushed him hard out of the door. ‘Then let us find a boat, Mr Gulden.’
It was no more than a quarter of a mile to the river. Shakespeare walked at a fast pace. Gulden stumbled ahead, saying nothing but clutching his nicked throat as he was pushed along. Shakespeare estimated they were some way east of St Katherine’s Hospital, towards Thames pool. Ahead of them was a wharf. This was what he wanted. He saw a landing stage where fishermen had lanterns lit and were working on their nets. Two men were bringing their catch ashore from a moored, single-masted fishing boat, rigged fore and aft, which he guessed to be a skiff or small smack. He strode up to them.
‘A good catch?’
‘Aye master, fair enough.’ The elder of the two men eyed Shakespeare cautiously, his eyes flicking to Gulden, who was clearly under duress.
‘What will you make from it?’
‘This little lot? I reckon there’s four stone of good herring and salmon there. Got a couple of eels, too. But if you’re buying, you’re out of luck. It’s all spoken for at Billingsgate.’
‘I want to buy your services. One of you take the fish to market – the other sail us downriver. I’ll pay you twice the price of the fish you have there, in gold.’
‘We’ll get a pound for this lot.’
Shakespeare didn’t believe him, but he wasn’t going to haggle. ‘Two pounds, then. Here.’ He spilt coins from his purse into the man’s palm. ‘Take it.’
The elder fisherman looked at the money in amazement, then glared into Shakespeare’s eyes. ‘What’s this about?’
‘Queen’s business. I am in a hurry and have no time to explain. You must take us down the river … to one of the islands.’
The old fisherman hesitated, then laughed. ‘Yes, master, I’ll take your gold.’ He winked at his companion. ‘Robert, you get that fish to market and get them nets mended. I’ll sail these gentry coves wherever they want. Go to the New World for that kind of gold, if so they please.’
Within two minutes the remainder of the catch was landed and Shakespeare and Gulden were in the sailing boat with the fisher, tacking out to mid-stream, where they caught the best of the ebb tide and began the race downstream. ‘We’ll make more’n ten knots an hour with this tide, master. But then it’ll turn and we’ll be like a sea snail. Now tell me, which of the islands is it you want?’
‘Well?’ he said to Gulden.
‘I do not know its name. I wish I did. It is nothing but mudflats and creeks, beyond Gravesend, well beyond it – towards the northern shore of the river.’
‘Sounds like Canvey or Two Tree Island,’ the fisher said.
‘I’ll know it when we see it,’ said Gulden.
‘How?’ Shakespeare demanded. ‘There is nothing to be seen in this darkness.’
The only light was the lantern the fisher kept by the tiller. There were few lights from the riverbank, yet he steered a course with the confidence that only a man who has been out on this stretch of water night after night all his life could have done. ‘It will be light soon enough,’ he said, addressing Shakespeare. ‘If I’m sailing into danger, master, you might tell me what to expect.’
It occurred to Shakespeare that he might need the fisher’s assistance before this day was done, so he explained briefly.
The fisher laughed. ‘Should have asked for four pounds, not two.’
Shakespeare settled back towards the rear of the boat. The water became increasingly choppy as the river broadened. He had his sword across his lap, in case Gulden suddenly learnt courage. They travelled an hour or more in silence, all soaked through by the constant spray. The only sounds were the slapping of the waves and the occasional barking of a dog from somewhere on land, to the south or north. ‘Well, Mr Gulden,’ he said at last. ‘It’s time to hear your sorry tale.’
‘How did you know?’
‘That you were the clockmaker I sought? Instinct, Mr Gulden. Instinct is a powerful force. It is what Sir Robert Cecil pays me for. The ability to spot a deceiver. I suggest you try telling me some truths.’
Gulden was desperate to tell his tale. He had been at Antwerp in ’85, had helped the clockmaker who set the timing device for the Hope. ‘When Parma captured the city I fled, thinking the Spanish would hear of my part in the deaths of so many of their soldiers. My wife and children remained and I told them I would send for them. I had thought they would be safe, for Parma had pledged free passage to all Protestants. That was a terrible error on my part, for I fell into the hands of two English soldiers – soldiers who had already sold their honour to Spain.’
Shakespeare could see, even in this poor lantern light, that tears were streaming down the Dutchman’s face. ‘My wife and children were taken hostage and I was told to seek refuge in England. I would have to perform certain tasks for the Spanish and my family would be safe. If I did as I was told, I would, in time, be reunited with them. And so I came here and met up again with Signor Giambelli and worked with him on the English hellburners plan, all the while giving details of our progress to the Spanish. I must say that Giambelli knew nothing of my double-dealing. I kept begging the Spanish to let my wife and children join me, but to no avail. And now … now I have destroyed your family, Mr Shakespeare, with my infernal clocks, and I fear I will soon have aided and abetted in a plan to kill many, many more. I would take my life, hurl myself into this river. I have thought of such a course of action often enough, but I do nothing. I am a coward.’
‘You spoke of two English soldiers?’
‘Yes.’
‘What became of them?’
‘They are here in England. They were my contacts. They are the ones who gave me my orders and made me work for Laveroke and Curl.’
‘Their names?’
‘William Sarjent and Jeremiah Quincesmith. In the Low Countries, they were armourers and gunpowder men with Captain-General Norris and the Earl of Leicester. But they dealt treacherously, communicating secrets to Parma and others on the Spanish side. I always believed their motive was gold, not religion.’
‘Did you say Sarjent?’
Gulden nodded grimly and wiped a sleeve across his bloody, tear-stained face. In the distance, directly ahead of them, Shakespeare caught the first glint of the rising sun. He felt a cold knotting in his entrails. Sarjent – the man the Cecils believed to be their intelligencer. Boltfoot had been handed to him, like a tethered sacrifice in an arena of lions.
Chapter 34
A FLOCK OF seabirds, waking with the dawn, drifted across the bows. The dirty, off-white canvas of the sail billowed in the following breeze. The cloud had gone, and it was becoming a bright, sun-filled morning.
The river narrowed as they passed the ferry port and shipyard of Gravesend, bustling with dozens of great vessels. Tall cranes of oak and elm reached out their arms across the wharves. Dominating it all were the battlements of Gravesend fort, built earlier in the century by Elizabeth’s father, to deter any enemy who might think of attacking London from the Thames. Then the river broadened out again and the signs of humanity ashore diminished, though the waterway was still decorated by the slow-changing scape of dozens of sails. On another day, a man might have found himself captivated by the raw beauty of this wild stretch.
Shakespeare saw none of it and wished to hear no more of Peter Gulden’s treachery. He turned to the fisher. ‘How far have we come?’
‘Twenty-five miles, but the tide is turning.’
‘Do you recognise any landmarks, Mr Gulden?’
‘Only the Gravesend docks. I have been this way twice before. I would say there is an h
our to go if this current holds, perhaps less.’
‘No, we have had the best of the tide,’ the fisher said. ‘It’ll be slow going now.’
The Thames began to curve northwards in the last great bend of the river before its gaping mouth opened into the North Sea. The waters were becoming rougher as the tide turned. A swell of waves pushed hard against the bows of the fishing boat. The turbulence and the stench of fish began to turn Shakespeare’s stomach, but he refused to submit to nausea, unlike Gulden, who puked over the side. The fisher had to use all his experience and knowledge of the wind to keep the craft on its downriver course.
‘There will be islands soon,’ the fisher said. ‘Canvey, Two Tree and Incular to the north, in Essex. A few others, too. Then Grain and Sheppey to the south, in Kent. Bleak, inhospitable places all of them, fit for nothing but sheep and outlaws.’
A high-masted square-rigger rode the tide past them, on its way upriver. From the poor state of its sails and rigging, a man might have deduced it was returning from a voyage halfway around the world.
‘There,’ Gulden said tersely, pointing northwards as the vessel finally straightened out eastward once more. ‘The tree.’
Shakespeare scanned the northern bank. He saw a few squat trees dotted along the land a mile or so up ahead, but none that stood out in any way. ‘Mr Gulden?’
‘The dead tree. It has the shape of a bull’s head. The two branches stick up like horns. I noted it before. That is the island.’
‘Canvey,’ the fisher said.
‘There is a series of creeks on its northern shore. The hellburner is moored in one of them. At low tide it will be stranded in the mud; but with this tide coming in it won’t be long before she floats.’
‘When were you last here?’
‘Two days since. It was not fully prepared; they were still loading the powder. They had men working on it, Scottish men. Carting aboard bricks and slabs of stone and rusted iron tools. It must be near completion. My work on the clock is finished. It is my best work … I was told its success would bring my family to me. Now I pray you will destroy it before more harm is done.’
‘What are they planning for it?’
Gulden seemed about to speak, but then shook his head. ‘I do not know.’
‘You were about to say something, Mr Gulden. I suggest you say it before I spill your blood in the Thames.’
‘I did hear something … something I do not think I was meant to hear.’
‘Yes?’
‘Laveroke was with Sarjent. I heard them talk of a bridge. That is all. I straightway thought of the great London bridge …’
London Bridge. What better target for an enemy of England. Shakespeare shuddered. If a hellburner had killed a thousand men aboard a boom of wooden ships across the Scheldt, what might one of similar size do to this bridge, the greatest such structure in the world? Countless numbers would die and it would blow London in two, cutting the city off from Southwark for months or years to come. If true, it was a plot of nightmares.
London Bridge. The glory of England, a spectacle that men and women travelled from the far corners of the globe to set eyes on. Less a bridge than a small town. Many of the city’s greatest houses, some seven storeys high, were supported by its nineteen stone arches. More than a hundred and thirty of the finest shops lined its nine-hundred-foot span. It had once even had its own church, the chapel of St Thomas Becket, standing atop the central section, but the Protestants had closed it and turned it into a fine dwelling for a merchant. And at the southern end, the gatehouse with its piked heads of traitors, a symbol of unforgiving power to all who harboured treasonous thoughts about their monarch. The irony of that was not lost on Shakespeare.
London Bridge. Above all, it was a thoroughfare that carried the lifeblood of the city, the beating heart of England. Constantly in use, throughout the day. At its busiest times, it might bear the weight of two to three thousand people, along with their wagons, horses and driven farm beasts. How many men, women and children would die if a hellburner wrought its malign work there, blowing them to pieces or sweeping them into the river’s flood? It was enough to make any man quake with fear and anger.
As they tacked into an inlet to the east of the island, Shakespeare was thinking fast. He had little idea what to expect at this place. Gulden said there had been men here when last he came. But who would be here this day, and how would they be armed? He had two wheel-lock pistols and a pouch of a dozen balls and a horn of powder. Apart from that, he had his sword and poniard. It was little enough.
‘See that tower over there?’ said Gulden, pointing to a ruin. ‘We are not far off now.’
‘Moor here, Master fisher,’ Shakespeare said.
‘This place is naught but mud and sheep, master.’
‘I would dearly wish it so.’
The fisher brought the boat in close to shore. Shakespeare jumped out and found himself sinking in thick clay up to his ankles. The incoming waves lapped around his legs. He pulled Gulden out after him, by his collar. Stumbling, Gulden toppled headlong into the turbid surf. Shakespeare left him to struggle to his feet and turned to the fisher. ‘I would ask you to stay here. You already have my gold …’
‘I’ll be here, master. I have ears. I heard what was said.’
‘Good man. I need one more thing from you – rope.’
The fisher gave Shakespeare a coil of mooring cord, which he curled around his shoulder. Then he primed and loaded a pistol and pushed its muzzle into Gulden’s dripping face. ‘Which direction?’
‘We follow the shoreline a little north, then westward, in the lea of this hillock. I sailed there before. That castle –’ he nodded towards the ruined tower, at the top of the incline – ‘that was used by them as a storage space and shelter.’
‘Walk.’
They trudged for quarter of an hour across the flat, desolate land. Even in this dry summer, the earth was boggy and the two men walked around dark pools, seeing nothing but seabirds. Gulden walked ahead, his back arched, knowing all the while that Shakespeare’s wheel-lock was pointed at him. To their right, the tower of the castle loomed. There was no sign of any human life. Suddenly Gulden stopped and pointed. ‘There.’
Shakespeare followed Gulden’s finger. He could see the tip of a mast about two furlongs off. He thrust the pistol into his belt. ‘Lie down, on your face. Hands behind you.’
Without ceremony, he uncurled the rope and bound Gulden, hands and feet. He wrenched the rope tight, painfully tight, then knelt beside him in the marshy grass. ‘If I survive, so might you. If I die, then you will waste and perish here. And no one will mourn you, Mr Gulden. The wind will blow through your bones for evermore, and no one will know that you are here, nor care. Not a soul on earth, nor God in heaven for what you have done …’
‘Forgive me, Mr Shakespeare.’
Shakespeare said nothing. He could no more forgive Gulden than he could forgive the man who had taken the casks of powder to the Dutch market. For a moment, he thought of gagging Gulden, but that would have been a cruelty too far and would have likely brought death. Anyway, he wasn’t going to cry out.
Shakespeare moved forward more cautiously. A little way off, to the left of the castle, he saw a copse of stunted trees and, from within it, a thin trail of smoke drifting skyward. Moving at a crouch now, he ran towards the thicket, a wheel-lock once again in his hand. From here he had a better view of the landscape. He could see the ship clearly. There were men moving about its decks. One or two others were ashore. The vessel was almost afloat with the rising of the tide.
He found the ashes of a fire in a clearing in the middle of the spinney. The earth was greatly disturbed. He shuddered at the sight of an empty, mud-thick coffin and a hole that looked like a grave. What in God’s name had been happening here? There was more evidence that someone had been here recently: a hunk of bread, an empty flagon, tatters of charred clothing, sticks of burnt wood.
Coming out of the woods, he made his
way to the ruin of the castle, keeping behind the brow of the hill as far as possible so that he would not be observed from below. He approached the ruins at a crouch. There was an old flagon. A rat was gnawing at some discarded food and ignored his approach.
Shakespeare gasped involuntarily. Boltfoot Cooper’s caliver and cutlass were there. So Boltfoot had been here. He would not have left of his own accord without these weapons. Shakespeare picked them up. He had to do something, and fast.
He descended the incline towards the ship. If anyone looked up, he must be visible now. Close to the creek, he dropped to his belly, crawling forward to the raised bank of the creek. Looking over the grassy lip, he could see the mudflats sloping away down to the dark channel of water where the vessel rode. The ship was larger than he had expected. The Hope at Antwerp had been seventy tons, but from his knowledge he guessed this ship to be a bark displacing perhaps a hundred and twenty tons. Small enough at about sixty feet to negotiate these narrow waters, but large enough to carry many tons of gunpowder. It was afloat, but its painters were still secured. One plank from the gangway stretched down to a makeshift quay of old wooden struts driven into the mud.
Two men stood on the decking at the landward end of the plank. They were deep in conversation. From this distance, perhaps a hundred yards, he could make out their features clearly but did not recognise either of them. One was tall with a black beard, thin eyes and a military bearing. He had a scabbed nose. Shakespeare had heard of Sarjent suffering such an injury at the hands of Boltfoot. The other man was larger of body, with an enormous barrel chest, though not as tall as his companion. Shakespeare stared at them a few moments, buried as well as he could be in the tufts of grass. From the descriptions given him by Peter Gulden, it seemed entirely possible that the men were Sarjent and Quincesmith. His gaze drifted to the ship. Emblazoned on its prow was the word Sieve. Amidships he saw shapes, figures moving about. Eight or nine men, strangely attired in black. What could he do against such a band?
The creek was swelling rapidly with the incoming tide and the mooring lines were tightening as the ship rose. Soon, very soon, there would be enough depth to allow the vessel to bear room from this place. The shrouds were flapping in the wind. Would it sail this morning? Was this the day of reckoning? Surely, this was why these men were here. There was no loading, no construction. Their dread weapon was ready.
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