by S. J. Parris
Chapter 9
Trying to marshall my thoughts, I emerged into the quadrangle, now lit by the first tentative glimmers of sun I had seen since leaving London. Streaks of cloud still lingered overhead, but the determined rain of the past three days seemed temporarily to have abated. The clock above the archway to the chapel and library staircase showed it to be just gone half past eight; the college felt ominously quiet.
I paused to look up at the windows of the rector’s lodgings, wondering which room might be Sophia’s and how I might find a way to see her again today, despite her father’s explicit ban, when I remembered with a sudden curse that I had half promised to go hunting with Sidney and the palatine Laski at Shotover Forest. I decided that I would walk over to Christ Church and excuse myself to Sidney in person. Sidney would be angry, I knew, and I had every sympathy for him, being saddled with the Pole from dawn till night, but I could hardly be considered an asset to any hunting party even when my attention was not so distracted by trying to catch a killer; I had no talent for gentlemen’s sports and no opportunity to learn them in my youth, as he had. Sidney could make the necessary enquiries about hunting dogs while he was there; I reasoned I could make more useful progress by staying in the town. The two people whose confidence I most wanted to gain were Thomas Allen and Doctor William Bernard; both, I suspected, would have at least some knowledge of the underground Catholic network, which in turn may have a connection with Mercer’s death, though I knew very well that if they had any such contacts they would not admit them to me easily.
Reluctantly I returned to my own chamber, where I washed thoroughly in cold water, since the scholars of Oxford seemed to possess nothing so civilised as a bathhouse, reflecting that I must ask Cobbett about seeing the college barber to have my beard trimmed and the laundress to wash my shirts, as it appeared we were destined to stay at least three more days. My stomach rumbled loudly as I dressed; hunger had crept up on me while I was at my ablutions, and I took Walsingham’s purse from my travelling bag and hung it at my belt, deciding that I would venture into the town to see if I could find any place that would sell me something to eat at this hour on a Sunday.
The courtyard was still empty when I stepped out from my staircase, and seemed unnaturally quiet; the students apparently kept to themselves on Sundays. I was about to cross to the gatehouse when Gabriel Norris emerged from his staircase in the west range carrying a leather bag slung over one shoulder. Instinctively I took a step back into the shadows, wishing to avoid further speculation with him about what may or may not be said at the inquest. He was dressed all in black, but it was clear even from a distance that his doublet and breeches were satin and expensively cut, and he wore a short cloak around his shoulders that gleamed with the sheen of velvet. He glanced briefly around the courtyard but appeared not to notice me, still half hidden, before setting off with a quick tread toward the gate. Something about his haste struck me as curious. I recalled that he had turned down his invitation to hunt with Sidney today, and wondered what prior commitment could be more attractive to a young man than that? I decided then that it might be amusing to follow him, since I had planned to go into the town anyway; after his own confession about his nocturnal expeditions, and Lawrence Weston’s report of the rumours about his preferences, I half hoped I might catch him out in some illicit tryst and prove Weston’s theory true. Then, if the right moment arose, I could make use of any such proof to dissuade Sophia away from him for good—if, indeed, he was the indifferent object of her affections.
I allowed him a few moments to gain some distance so that he would not notice me trailing behind. Waving to Cobbett through his small window, I leaned tentatively out of the main gate into St. Mildred’s Lane to see Norris already some way ahead, walking at a brisk pace north in the direction of Jesus College. I had to half skip to keep up with his long strides, staying close to the wall of Exeter College as we passed it, but not so much that I would seem to be doing anything other than taking a casual stroll if he happened to turn around and spot me.
The lane was clogged with mud after the past days’ rain, and Norris fastidiously sidestepped the worst of the ruts and puddles, stopping at one point to wipe a splatter of dirt from his fine leather boots with a gesture of irritation. Where St. Mildred’s Lane met Sommer Lane he turned right without hesitation, and after a moment’s pause I followed, keeping in the shadow of the old city wall which rose up solidly on my left like a fortress. There were few souls abroad in the street, only one or two couples in their best clothes, no doubt heading for one of the city’s many parish churches. Bells pealed from somewhere up ahead, announcing a service.
My quarry walked purposefully, as if he had an appointment, but there was nothing shifty about his demeanour, nothing to suggest his destination was at all out of the ordinary or that he would prefer not to be seen, and he did not walk as if the bag he carried was heavy, large as it was. I suppressed a shudder as we passed the wall of the Divinity School on our right, and just ahead, opposite the mouth of a street whose sign read CATTE STREET, he turned toward a small postern set into the city wall beside a little chapel. Hovering in the shadows of the houses opposite, I began to feel somewhat foolish for my sneaking pursuit.
Outside the city wall stretched a broad avenue with few houses, those that stood by the road low and shabby, each surrounded by large scrubby plots of land and orchards that extended back farther than I could see. The ground was rutted by the wheels of carts and horses’ hooves, and I watched as Norris crossed the lane and set off to his right, his bag swung over his shoulder, past a row of poor-looking dwellings toward open farmland. It was harder here to find any cover, so I dropped back and allowed a greater distance to open between us, keeping myself in tight to the shadow of the city wall; even so, had he looked around I would not have been able to conceal my presence. After perhaps ten minutes Norris turned again to his left, down a wide road flanked on each side by orchards and fields, and here I almost turned back, being obliged to leave the shelter of the wall, but my curiosity was piqued. The road was almost bare of buildings; ahead the only masonry visible was the squat tower of a little church that, as I drew closer, I saw was very ancient. Norris passed around the side of the church and beyond it the pale stone wall of an impressive farmhouse, three storeys high with gabled windows set into the roof, its grounds encircled by a high wall of that same golden stone. From the corner of the little church I watched as Norris approached a gate set into this wall at the side of the house, and after a short while was admitted, though I did not see by who.
I had no choice then but to turn around and retrace my steps back to the city, reproaching myself for a wasted journey. I confess I would have been delighted to see Norris meeting with some young swain, but there was nothing eventful in the trip he had made; it was to be expected that a rich young man should have acquaintance among Oxford’s grander families, and the farmhouse looked as if it belonged to people of wealth. I had learned nothing of any use, and it was only as I walked back past the fields, taking my time now and savouring the scent of wet earth and fresh leaves that drifted to me from the orchards, that I remembered what Lawrence Weston had said about Norris keeping his own horse outside the city wall. No doubt he had been on his way off for a ride, and I felt particularly thankful that I had not been caught stalking him and been obliged to explain my own foolishness.
But I was enjoying the air after the rain and the sensation of freedom that the open countryside outside the city brought after the oppressive closeness of Lincoln College, with all its intrigues and undercurrents of malice that had somehow led to the death of poor Roger Mercer. I was not eager to return too soon to that walled-in quadrangle, with all its windows like so many hostile eyes, watching my every move, so I decided to walk back the long way around the outside of the great city wall and see what more I could discover of my surroundings while looking out for an inn that might serve me some hot food.
I was almost level with the old church of St.
Mary Magdalen, at the side of a crooked building that looked as if it might once have been a tavern but was now fallen into disrepair, when a sudden gust of wind ripped along the street, scattering the last few scraps of blossom from the nearby trees. I started at a violent creak from above and looked up to see an old painted sign swinging violently on its rusty hinges, groaning as if it might come loose at any moment. It was then that I jolted backward with a cry of shock, because the sign over my head, though its paint was faded and flaking so badly that the picture was barely visible, depicted a spoked wheel, identical to the symbol in Roger Mercer’s calendar and the astronomical diagram slipped under my door.
I HAD NOT expected the door even to work, the place looked so derelict from the front, but when I turned the handle it groaned open to allow me a glimpse of one low-ceilinged room smelling of must and damp and furnished with a few rickety tables and benches. A pervasive chill hung in the air; the hearth that filled one wall was piled with cold ashes and the handful of customers conversed in muted tones, hunched over their pots of beer as if they were half ashamed to be found in such a place. It was not an inn to welcome passersby. Blood pounding in my chest, I closed the door gently behind me and took a seat at a table in a dingy corner next to the serving hatch, aware that my entrance had attracted the attention of the other guests. With a stab of surprise I recognised, in a group of four men across the room who were staring and whispering behind their hands, the pock-faced man with no ears who I had seen outside the Divinity School before the disputation—the man I was certain James Coverdale had also recognised. “No one of significance,” Coverdale had said. The earless man did not join in with the muttering of his companions but merely regarded me, unblinking, over their heads with that same cool, insolent gaze, as if he knew me. I met his look for a moment before looking quickly away, noticing that his eyes were as striking as his face; a blue so pale and translucent they seemed almost lit from within, the way sunlight shines through water in the Bay of Naples.
His stare was so disconcerting that I lowered my own eyes, anxious not to provoke any confrontation, but it was clear that this was not a place where a stranger could take a quiet drink without his presence arousing an unspoken but palpable reaction. When I looked up again, a sturdy woman of perhaps forty in a stained apron was standing in front of me, her arms folded. She had stringy greying hair scraped back from her square-jawed face and her brown eyes were sceptical.
“What’ll you have, sir?”
“A pot of ale?”
She nodded curtly, but continued to stand there appraising me. “You are not a familiar face, sir. What brings you to the Catherine Wheel?”
“I was hungry, I saw your sign and thought to stop for dinner.”
Her eyes narrowed further. “You are not from hereabouts, I think.”
“I was born in Italy,” I said, meeting her stare as frankly as I could.
She pursed her lips and nodded. “Friend to the pope?”
“Not personally,” I said, and finally her face softened a little and she almost smiled.
“You understand my meaning, sir.”
“Will my answer determine whether or not you bring me the beer?”
“Just like to be sure we have the right kind of people here, sir.”
I looked around the taproom; a less salubrious crowd it would be hard to picture. I was reminded of the roadside inns I had been forced to make use of during my flight from San Domenico.
“I was raised in the church of Rome,” I said, evenly. “I don’t know if that makes me the right kind of person, but I promise it does not affect the coins in my purse.”
She seemed to concede then, and half turned as if to go. “What do you call yourself?” she asked, as an afterthought.
“Filippo,” I said, surprised at the ease with which the name slipped out; it had come almost as a reflex. Perhaps it was the memory of those years as a fugitive, when I had travelled under my birth name, knowing that to own my identity could be fatal. Here, in this gloomy tavern among the sidelong glances and murmurs, instinct had prompted the same need for caution. “Filippo il Nolano.”
The landlady seemed satisfied. She nodded, unfolded her arms, and made a slight dipping movement which might almost have been a curtsey. “Joan Kenney, widow, at your service. Will you eat, sir?”
“What have you?”
“Pottage,” she said firmly.
I had by that time been in England long enough to know that pottage was a sludgy concoction produced by mixing oatmeal with the juice left over from stewing meat, something that should rightly be served to livestock but which the English seemed to find an indispensable addition to any table.
“No meat?” I asked hopefully. “It is Sunday.”
“We have pottage, sir. You may take it or leave it.”
Reluctantly, I said that I would take it.
“Humphrey!” she called, and a door opened beside the serving hatch to admit a young man with fair curly hair holding a dirty dishcloth in his hands. Though he was at least six feet tall and probably in his twenties, he looked first at the landlady and then at me with the blank, open face of a child eager to please, and I guessed he was probably slow-witted.
“Fetch Master Nerlarno some pottage and a pot of ale quick as you can, and don’t even think of imposing on him with your idle chatter,” she snapped, and Humphrey nodded furiously, with exaggerated up-and-down movements of his head as a child might, twisting the cloth in his hands as he looked at her. “He’s Welsh,” the landlady added darkly, as if this explained much.
While the boy disappeared to the kitchen, the woman crossed the room and leaned over the table to whisper something to the earless man, who inclined his head and nodded sagely without taking his eyes off me.
The boy, Humphrey, returned promptly with a bowl of tepid grey slurry which he slopped half across the table, and a wooden cup of beer topped with a film of grease, and stood by the table smiling energetically down at me.
“Thank you,” I said, eventually, and when he still didn’t leave, I wondered if I was supposed to tip him.
“Are you from Italy?” he asked, in a lilting voice, crouching so that he was at my eye level and considering me with his head tilted to one side.
“That’s right,” I said, poking the contents of my bowl with a piece of bread. They seemed to have congealed already.
“Say something in Italian then,” Humphrey said, as if challenging me to impress him, the way a child might challenge a street conjuror. I thought for a moment.
“Non darei questo cibo nemmeno al mio cane,” I said, smiling pleasantly but keeping my voice low, just in case. His eyes lit up with as much wonder as if I had produced a coin from the air and his broad face creased into a smile.
“What does it mean?”
“Oh—it is hard to translate directly. It was a compliment on your delicious food.”
He leaned in very close, so that his breath was tickling my ear. He smelled overwhelmingly of onions. “I don’t know Italian,” he whispered, “but I do know Latin.”
“Good for you,” I said indulgently, expecting a string of nonsense, for it was impossible that a simple-minded potboy could truly have been educated in Latin. He nodded hard, his face serious.
“Ora pro nobis,” he hissed into my ear, then drew back to look at me expectantly, proud of himself, awaiting my approval.
I felt my own eyes widen then, and fought to keep my face steady; a faint light of understanding was beginning to spread over the questions that jostled in my mind.
“That is very good, Humphrey. Do you know any more?” I whispered back. He beamed and leaned in again, but at that moment the landlady’s shrill voice broke in.
“Humphrey Pritchard! Did I not tell you to leave the poor gentleman alone? Ha’n’t you got work to do? He don’t want to listen to your foolishness—let him enjoy his meal in peace.” With this misplaced optimism, she appeared suddenly at Humphrey’s shoulder, cuffed him lightly around the back of
the head, and shoved him toward the kitchen; though he was twice her size, his face crumpled with guilt and he scurried away, his big body hunched miserably.
The landlady wiped her hands on her apron and forced a smile. “He wasn’t saying anything, ah …offensive, I hope?” she asked, but I thought I caught a note of anxiety in her voice.
“Not at all,” I said. “He was only asking if the food was all right.”
Her eyes narrowed. “And is it?”
“Mm. Thank you.”
She looked at me for a moment as if she wanted to add something, then nodded curtly and disappeared into the kitchen, where I heard the sound of muffled voices, hers berating poor Humphrey and his raised in protest.
Dinner was an uncomfortable affair; I forced as little of the grim stew as possible through my clenched teeth, conscious all the while of the level stare of the earless man and his cronies in the corner. I half hoped he would at least come across and confront me, perhaps explain why he looked at me with such interest or familiarity, but he remained in his seat, stirring only occasionally to lean across and murmur something to one of his companions.
I kept my eyes on my plate, my mind chasing after fragments of conversation. Ora pro nobis. Pray for us. The words written in code in the back of Roger Mercer’s almanac. A prayer of intercession, a fragment of the Ave Maria or the Litaniae Sanctorum, for where else would an uneducated man like Humphrey learn Latin except from the responses of the Mass? So young Humphrey Pritchard had either overheard or taken part in Catholic liturgies. Had he heard those words through association with people he knew from the tavern? That would explain why his employer was so keen to keep him from talking to strangers. And why had Roger written out that same phrase in code? A password, perhaps, or a sign to be recognised among co-conspirators. Was the Catherine Wheel some kind of meeting place or safe house for secret Catholics—was that what my enigmatic correspondent at Lincoln College was trying to steer me toward?