Tombland

‘Over seven hundred and eighty thousand. And so many phrases contradict each other, or need scholarly interpretation. Unfortunately, people these days just pick and choose the passages that suit them.’

‘Good Master Calvin is a great scholar,’ she snapped back, ‘and he has said that where the poor are concerned the bridle should be kept tight.’

Kenzy sighed. ‘Ah yes, Master Calvin. We hear more and more of him these days.’

‘A better scholar than your popish priests, sir,’ she snapped back.

‘Mother, that is enough,’ Philip said, ‘Let us eat in amity.’ The old woman pursed her lips, but returned to her plate, mumbling something about burnings needing to be brought back.

Laura Kenzy said, brightly, ‘I hear the Earl of Warwick’s younger son, Robert Dudley, is to marry a Norfolk lady, Mistress Amy Robsart. Apparently, they met at the Robsart estate after Robert fought in that great battle against the rebels.’

‘Marry young and rue later,’ her husband said.

‘We married young.’

‘There are exceptions, of course,’ Edward replied, straight-faced. He turned to me. ‘Did you know, Master Shardlake, that Sir Richard Southwell is in trouble?’

I looked at him with interest. ‘I had not heard. Only that he had been promoted to the full Council now Protector Somerset is gone.’

‘Apparently, he has been accused of giving an enormous sum – five hundred pounds of government money – to the rebels. Did you hear anything of that when you were prisoner in the Norfolk camp, Matthew?’

‘No,’ I lied, though my heart leaped in my chest. So Elizabeth had informed Cecil after all, and he had acted.

Philip looked at me. ‘And what of the man accused of murder, whom you and Nicholas went to defend?’

‘He got his pardon at the end of September.’

Beatrice looked at Nicholas. ‘So at least some good came of it all,’ she said.

‘I suppose so,’ he replied, then fell silent again.

Philip asked, ‘How is the little girl you brought back from Norwich, Matthew?’

I smiled. ‘She thrives under the care of her good nurse. My application for adoption is with the courts.’

‘Is she not the daughter of your former servant?’ Laura Kenzy asked disapprovingly.

I looked back at her. ‘She is a child, mistress, left alone and friendless in the world.’

‘At least she will have a gentle upbringing. Who knows, in time she may marry a gentleman.’ She looked at Beatrice and Nicholas, still eating in silence.

And so it went on, the second dinner party as awkward as the first. The conversation turned to the inflation, even worse after the bad harvest, and whether Warwick would emerge as leader of the Council. Edward Kenzy hoped he would, he would rule the country with a firm hand and hopefully end the wars with France and Scotland. With the last, at least, I could agree.

* * *

ONCE AGAIN THE DINNER broke up early. Servants brought our coats. As we rose from the table Nicholas said to Beatrice, ‘May we have a private word, mistress?’ She nodded, and they left the room. The rest of us went and stood awkwardly in the hallway. Edward Kenzy came across to me. He said quietly, ‘I think that will be the end of their – relationship.’

‘I agree. I am sorry.’

‘My wife is furious, I fear. She thinks young Overton has treated Beatrice badly, and has been working the poor child up.’ He looked at me with sudden shrewdness. ‘The boy looks like death, and you little better. What happened up there in Norfolk?’

I met his gaze. ‘Dussindale. Bloodshed such as I have never seen, and countless executions afterwards.’

Kenzy sighed. ‘What else could they expect, Matthew?’

‘The Protector offered the people much, with his radical talk and enclosure commissions. The rebels intended to help – all right, give muscle to – the commissioners in enforcing what was, after all, the law.’

Kenzy shook his head. ‘By setting themselves as judges over gentlemen, beating and imprisoning them? Did they truly think the Protector and the Council would allow them a say in the rule of the country? It would be like allowing the foot to rule the head.’

‘I think they did. At first.’

‘Then they forgot that such a thing could, and must, never be allowed.’ He sighed. ‘But perhaps, after all, if they were truly loyal to Crown and Protector, the whole thing was no more than a terrible misunderstanding, by people too backward to see the social order could not be changed.’

‘No,’ I said. ‘The Protector offered them much, while Cranmer and the reforming bishops spoke of England as a diseased body that needed treatment. Even after the rebellions began, it is true the Protector ordered the camps to disperse, but he offered reform and changes to the government of the countryside.’ I looked at him fiercely. ‘Until he sent a Herald to Mousehold Heath who ordered them to disperse, used savage terms, and offered nothing. That was no misunderstanding, it was a betrayal. As people said in the camp later, they were promised much at first but in the end got only a barrel of ropes and halters to hang them.’

Kenzy inclined his head. ‘Be careful who you say that to, Matthew.’

‘I will.’