Tombland

She took a deep breath. ‘We have some of George’s and Matty’s old baby clothes, I will send them on to you. Jack has told me how all of you were captured by the rebels and made to work for them. He says he owes much to you.’ Behind her back, Barak winked at me. I felt guilty, for if he had not accompanied me to Wymondham that day he would not have been taken. And yet, I realized, given his mood when the uprising happened, he would almost certainly have joined the rebels anyway.

‘Tamasin,’ I said gently, ‘I have always understood why you did not wish to speak to me, after I was responsible for Jack losing his hand. But if you could forgive me, if we could be friends again, I should be the happiest man in London.’

She looked at me directly with her cornflower-blue eyes. ‘I do.’ She swallowed. ‘It is when you fear you might have lost people that you realize how much they mean to you.’ And then she came forward and embraced me. I saw the happiness on Guy’s face.

Liz, who naturally did not understand any of this, said quietly, ‘Well, if you will excuse me, it is time for Mousy’s feed.’

Chapter Eighty-six

The silver tableware glinted in the light of the beeswax candles set in their sconces on the table. A fine dinner was again in progress at my friend Philip Coleswyn’s house, a seasonal platter of grouse in the centre, and fresh fruit and vegetables, the best of the poor harvest. Unlike my last dinner there, in June, the shutters were closed against the night, and a fire blazed in the grate. It was late October, a month and a half since our return from Norwich.

Those present, however, were the same people as before; myself, Philip, his wife Ethelreda and his crotchety old mother; our fellow barrister Edward Kenzy and his snobbish wife Laura; their daughter Beatrice, and Nicholas.

It was to bring these two young people together that the dinner had been organized. A week before, Philip had come to visit me in chambers, where I was trying to catch up with my cases, at the same time pondering where to find new work, for the regular flow of conveyancing from Elizabeth had, after that last encounter with her, abruptly dried up. I resolved to ask Barak to try, in his work as a jobbing solicitor, to drum up some work for me in London. Now that Tamasin and I were reconciled, I could do so openly.

Philip looked worried when he visited, as many did that month. The power struggle between Protector Somerset and the Earl of Warwick had threatened for a while to turn into another full-scale military conflict; but in the end Somerset had surrendered his office. However, it was not that which he had come to discuss, but Nicholas and Beatrice.

He sat down in my office, stroking his long, silky beard. ‘I am sorry to trouble you, Matthew,’ he said with some embarrassment. ‘But I have been asked by Edward Kenzy to speak with you. He said his wife is snapping at his heels like a terrier since your return. Have you seen him?’

‘No, I have spent most of my time here since I got back from Norwich, trying to catch up with everything.’ I did not add, and trying to forget.

Philip sighed. ‘Well, Kenzy’s wife and daughter are most concerned that Nicholas has not been in touch. Beatrice Kenzy wrote him a letter asking for news in the summer, but he never replied.’ He looked embarrassed. ‘Kenzy feels, and I have to agree, that given how things were developing between the two of them, Nicholas is being discourteous. He suggests I arrange another dinner, where they can at least be brought together.’

I rubbed my chin. ‘You are right. But Nicholas – I have been keeping him busy, although he was much affected by what happened in Norfolk. And I thought before we left that he was more interested in Beatrice than she in him.’

Philip smiled. ‘Perhaps absence makes the heart grow fonder. And the mother, I think, still has hopes. She is one for the proper proprieties.’

I sighed. ‘I should warn you, Nicholas is much changed. He is – melancholy.’

Philip looked at me. ‘As are you. People remark on how you have lost weight, have a haunted look about you now.’

‘We saw terrible things. It affected me, but Nicholas even more. To be frank, I think he has pretty much forgotten Beatrice. But you are right. She deserves to know where she stands. What date had you in mind?’

‘The twenty-first would be convenient for us.’

‘I shall speak to Nicholas.’

‘Thank you.’

‘No. Thank you , Philip. If I remember aright, there was too much dissension over religion for the last occasion to go well. It is good of you to bring that mix together again.’

‘I think conversation this time will be more about the struggle between the Protector and the Earl of Warwick. I am sure everyone will agree the Protector had to go, for the peace of the realm.’

‘What is the latest news?’

‘Somerset goes to the Tower today. Warwick has won.’ Philip shook his head. ‘He is a hard man; the poor will not fare well under him. But better than a civil war, which many predicted.’