'Are you Timothy?' I asked gently.
'Yes, sir,' he whispered. 'Sir, Toby says Master is dead. Did a bad man kill him?' 'I am afraid so.'
'What is happening to Master Toby?'
'He is going with the coroner. I would like to ask you some questions.'
'Yes, sir?' Soothingly as I had spoken, he still looked frightened.
Hardly surprising, a group of strangers clattering in at near mid
-
night.
'You know about Abigail, the woman who lives here?' I asked. He did not reply.
'Were you told to keep it secret? It does not matter now.'
'Toby said Master would beat me if I ever mentioned her name. Master did hit me once, for swearing. But I wouldn't have told, sir, she was kind to me for all Toby said she was a great sinner. Sir, what will happen to Abby? Will she be all right?'
Not if Harsnet has his way, I thought. I took a deep breath. 'You told no one about her? You will not be punished for telling the truth.'
'No. No, I swear I didn't. On the Bible, sir, on the Bible if you wish. I told no one about her. I liked her being here. She was kind, sometimes this last winter she would give me pennies, let me sit by the fire indoors if Master and Toby were out, She said she knew what it was to be cold and hungry.' His eyes filled with tears again. I guessed he had had no kindness from Yarington nor from the steward. Only from the whore.
I sensed there was something more, something he was keeping back in his fear. But if I told Harsnet of my opinion, the boy would be dragged with the others to the Archbishop's prison. And some
-
thing within me rebelled at that, I could not do it.
'Master Shardlake!' Harsnet's voice called from outside, making the boy jump.
'I must go now, Timothy,' I said. 'But I will come and see you tomorrow. You will be without a place now your master is dead. Toby said you have no family.'
'No, sir.' He sniffed. 'I will have to go a
-
begging.'
'Well, I will try to find you a place. I promise I will come again tomorrow, and we will talk more, eh? For now, close the stable door and go to sleep.'
'I told the truth, sir,' he said. 'I told nobody about Abigail.'
'Yes, I believe you.'
'Did the constables catch the man who killed Master?' 'No. Not yet. But they will.'
I left the stable. Outside, I bit my lip. What if he ran away? But he would not, not with the prospect of another place. He knew something, and it would be easier to find out what it was once he had got over his initial shock.
'Master Shardlake!' Harsnet called again impatiently from the open doorway.
'Yes, I am coming!' Suffer the little children, I thought bitterly.
I
joined Harsnet
, who had gone down the street and stood looking at the church with Barak.
'How did the killer know about Yarington's whore?' He sighed. 'I'll have the girl and that servant questioned hard, but I don't think they know anything. What about the boy?'
'He told no one about Abigail. I said I'd come and see him again tomorrow, when he's calmer. He will be without a place now. I told him I'd try and find him one.'
He looked at me curiously. 'Where?'
'I don't know yet.'
'I hope you can. Or if he lives he'll grow to be another beggar starving in the streets and threatening the peace.' He shook his head. 'I would they could be cared for, and brought to God.' His anger seemed to have passed.
'My friend Roger was starting up a subscription among the lawyers for a poor men's hospital.'
'Good,' he said. 'That is needed. Preachers too. The beggars are utterly devoid of the fear of God. I've seen that in my work.'
'They are outcasts.'
'So were our Lord and his disciples. But they had faith.' 'They thought a better world was about to come.' 'It will,' he said quietly. He smiled at me. 'I am sorry for my anger earlier. You will still come to dinner tomorrow?'
'Of course.'
'I wonder if Yarington had any family. I will find out from the servants.' He turned as the guards appeared in the doorway. Abigail and Toby slumped between them, looking terrified. 'I must go with them.' Harsnet bowed quickly, and walked away.
'I don't envy them,' Barak said as the two were led away.
Chapter
Twenty
-
five
B
arak and
I walked back to Chancery Lane. I was bone
-
tired, the stitches in my arm tweaking and pulling.
'We should have a few hours' sleep when we get back,' Barak said. In the moonlight he too looked exhausted. 'There's Adam Kite's case tomorrow, then Smithfield with Harsnet, then the dean.' He groaned at the thought of it all.
We walked on in silence for a while. Then Barak said, 'That poor arsehole Yarington a lecher, eh?' He sounded almost back to his usual mocking self, perhaps glad to be dealing with ordinary human weakness again after the horror at the church.
'Yes. And the killer knew that somehow.'
'How?'
'I don't know. If we can find out, we may have him.' 'What will he do next?'
'It's impossible to say. As Hertford said, the fifth prophecy is vague.'
'What do you think those people are hiding — Lockley and the dean? They're hiding something.'
'Yes, they are. We must find out tomorrow.'
'Do you think they were part of some nest of sodomites? The monasteries were full of those filthy creatures.'
'I don't know. Lockley certainly didn't strike me as being inclined that way.'
'You can't always tell.'
'You sound as fierce against sin as Harsnet.'
He grinned. 'Only sins I don't feel drawn to myself,' he said with a flash of his old humour. "Tis always easy to condemn those.'
We arrived back at Chancery Lane. 'I must go and see that boy Timothy first thing,' I said wearily. Behind a window I saw a lamp raised. Harsnet's man Orr, on watch.
'What if he makes a run for it in the night;'
'He won't run. I told you, he needs a new place.'
'And how are you going to conjure that out of thin air for him?'
'I have an idea. I will not let him down. Now come, I am too tired to talk more. We need a few hours' sleep, or we shall be seeing double tomorrow.'
When we reached
home I asked Barak to have me wakened no later than first light, and wearily mounted the stairs to bed. Exhausted as I was, I could not sleep. Lying in bed in the darkness I kept turning Yarington's terrible death over in my mind, trying to fit it into the pattern of the others. At length I got up, threw my coat over my nightshirt and lit a new beeswax candle. The yellow glow spreading from my table over the room was somehow comforting.
I sat at the table, thinking. I was sure the killer had been there when we got Adam down from London Wall. Yarington had been there too. Was that when the killer had decided that Yarington would be his next victim; No, that spectacle had been planned a long time, and Yarington's fornication with that poor girl had been known to the killer. But how, when the cleric had kept it so secret; It had not been a matter of common knowledge like Roger's and Dr Gurney's turning away from radical reform, or poor Tupholme's noisy affair with Welsh Elizabeth.
It was important to see that boy tomorrow, find out if he knew anything. I had not seen nearly enough evidence to be sure that Goddard was the killer. But if not Goddard then who was he, this man who knew about medicine and the law and mixed, or had mixed recently, with the radical sectaries; I wondered uneasily whether Harsnet was pressing the radical reformers enough for information; he would be far gentler with his own people than with Abigail.
The old law book was on my desk. I had borrowed it from the library. I opened it again to the case of Strodyr, smelling dust and ancient ink again. Strodyr too must have planned his killings with care, to go undetected for years. I read again how he refused to say anything at his trial but that he had often raged 'most obscenely' against the wicked trade of whores. Did our killer too somehow believe he was doing God's work, or was it all some terrible game? Or were both the same in his unfathomable mind? I remembered the German Anabaptists, wh
o in overthrowing society in Mu
nster believed that in their violence they were pushing forward God's will, bringing Armageddon about all the faster. Perhaps the killer believed each step was a symbolic fulfilment of the Revelation prophecies, that he would bring about the end of the world. I resolved to talk to Guy again. At last, I fell asleep.
I
was still
deeply asleep when Joan knocked gently at the door. I rose slowly, my back stiff and sore, although my arm ached less. I decided to leave off the sling. I went to the window and looked out. The sky was lightening, clear and blue with light fluffy clouds. For the first time in several days I did my back exercises, grunting as I twisted and stretched. Then I dressed and went downstairs. I scratched at my stubbly cheeks, conscious I needed a visit to the barber.
In the parlour Barak, dressed in his shirt and upper hose, was already breakfasting on bread and cheese and wizened apples.
'Last year's apple crop is drying out quickly,' he said.
'I'll get Peter to open up a new barrel. They'll be fresher.'
'Is your arm better?'
'Yes, it is today.'
'Young Piers did a good job, then.' I pulled the loaf towards me. 'Is Tamasin not up yet?' 'Just. She is getting lazy.' I looked at him and he reddened. 'Her bruises are going down, and her mouth is healing, but she still doesn't like to be seen. She'll be all right in another day or two. She's still furious about that tootlvdrawer asking her to sell him her teeth.'
'She could have been killed that night,' I said seriously. 'And it happened because of our work. My work.'
Barak put down the remains of his apple. He was silent a moment, then said, 'I hate this job, chasing after this lunatic or devil' possessed man or whatever he is. I suppose I've been taking it out on Tamasin.' He shifted uncomfortably.
'Why?' I asked gently.
'Because she's there, I suppose. It's no way to treat your wife, I know.'
I asked quietly, 'Do you still want her for your wife?'
'Of course I do.' He glared at me, and I wondered if I had gone too far, but then he sighed and shook his head. 'I know I've been a churl, but—' he ran his fingers through his thick, untidy brown hair—'somehow you get into a way of behaving and it's hard to get out of it.' He sighed again. 'But when all this is over I've decided to leave the Old Barge and see if I can't find a decent little house for us to rent nearer to Lincoln's Inn.'
I smiled. 'That is marvellous news. Tamasin will be so pleased.'
'And I'm going to stay home more. Spend less time in the — er — taverns.' His hesitation made me wonder if Tamasin's suspicions had been right and he had been seeing other women.
'Have you told her?' I asked.
'Nah. I'll wait till things have settled down a bit.'
'But you should tell her now.'
He frowned. I realized I had gone too far. 'I'll tell her when I think it's right,' he said brusquely. 'I'll get dressed, then I'll tell Peter to get Sukey and Genesis saddled and ready.' He got up and went out.
His mention of Peter reminded me of my promise to the boy Timothy. I paused to eat some bread and cheese, slipped one of the wrinkled apples into my pocket and went to the kitchen. There I found Joan and Tamasin. Tamasin was sitting at the table, slicing vegetables for the evening meal. Her bruises were less puffy now, but still horridly colourful, red and black, and her face was still swollen. Joan looked up at me and smiled, but Tamasin put a hand up to hide her face.
Joan was washing, bent over a large wooden bucket. Her face, surrounded by her white coif, was red as she kneaded the wet fabric. I reflected with a pang of guilt that she was near sixty now. Her late husband had once been my steward, and when he died fifteen years ago I had kept her on as housekeeper. It was an unusual arrangement for a single man, despite the difference in our ages, but I had always liked her quiet, motherly ways. I had been going to ask her if she knew of any help that might be needed in the houses near by, but last night a new idea had occurred to me. 'I wonder, Joan,' I said, 'if you could use the help of another boy in the kitchen.'