'What's so funny:'
'That arsehole Benson going on about how he became dean of this place. Look at it. He's master of a heap of rubble.'
'He still runs Westminster Abbey church under the King's favour,'
I
said seriously.
Barak looked over at the huge church. 'So Henry wants to be buried there,' he said quietly.
'The sooner the better,'
I
said, more quietly still.
H
arsnet lived
at the top end of Westminster, in a row of fine old houses in King Street, just down from the Whitehall Palace gatehouse where pennants flew, outlined against the clear blue sky, the setting sun reflected in the tall gatehouse windows.
I
turned to Harsnet's front door, which had a brightly polished knocker in the shape of a lion's head.
I
wondered what dinner with his family would be like, but even more
I
wondered what Lockley had told him.
I
knocked at the door and a manservant ushered me into a large parlour. Gold plate shone on the tall wooden buffet, and a wall painting showing the journey of the Magi to Bethlehem covered one wall, with camels and caravan-trains picked out in soft, pleasing colours.
Harsnet was there with his wife. The coroner looked neat and spruce in a black velvet doublet, his beard newly trimmed and showing flecks of grey in contrast to his dark hair. But he had a worried, preoccupied look. His wife was a small round-faced woman, in a brown dress of good quality, with fair hair and bright eyes full of curiosity. She had been sitting on a pile of cushions, embroidering. She got up and curtsied to me.
'Elizabeth,' Harsnet said, 'allow me to present Serjeant Matthew Shardlake, who is working with me on an assignment of - some difficulty. There are some things we should talk about after our meal,' he added. He gave me warning look, and I realized his wife knew nothing about the murders. So I would have to wait for news of Lockley.
Elizabeth spoke in a high, pleasant voice. 'I hardly see Gregory these days, and when I do he looks tired out. I hope you are not responsible for all the work he is doing, sir.'
'Indeed not, madam. I am only his fellow-toiler.'
'Gregory speaks well of you.' I looked at Harsnet, a little surprised for I had thought he would have scant respect for someone not of his rigid faith. He smiled uncomfortably, and I realized again that he was a shy man.
'I have not thanked you properly for sending your man to my house,' I said. 'He is a good fellow, and gives the women a sense of security.'
Harsnet looked pleased. 'I knew he would give good service, he is a member of my church.'
Elizabeth invited me to sit at a table covered with a bright embroidered cloth. 'I hope you like roast mutton, sir,' she said.
'It is one of my favourite dishes,' I answered truthfully.
She rang a little bell, and servants brought in a large dish of mutton and bowls of vegetables. I realized this was the first time I had been out to dinner since that last night at Roger and Dorothy's. Samuel would be gone by now, she would be alone again. I would visit her tomorrow.
The door opened again and a maid ushered in four children, two boys and two girls, ranging in age from perhaps four to ten, hair combed tidily, the younger two in nightshirts. 'Come, children,' Harsnet said. 'Meet Master Shardlake.' The children went and stood obediently beside their father; the two boys bowed to me, the girls curtsied. Harsnet smiled. 'The boys are Absalom and Zealous, the girls Rachel and Beulah.' All Old Testament names, except for Zealous; one of the strange names the radical reformers gave their children now, such as Fear
-
God, Perseverance, Salvation. The two little girls stared with scarce
-
concealed interest at my back; the younger boy had his head cast down, but the elder, Zealous, had a surly, angry look. His father laid a hand on his head.
'I hope you have learned well from your beating,' he said seriously. 'To take Our Saviour's name in vain is a great sin.'
'Yes, Father,' the boy said, quietly enough, but his eyes looked angry still. Harsnet dismissed the children, watching as they left the room, then shook his head sadly. 'I had to strike Zealous with the cane for swearing when I came in,' he said. 'An unpleasant part of a father's duty. But it had to be done. I was unaware he knew such words.' He was silent again for a moment, that preoccupied look on his face again.
'Children can be a trial,' Elizabeth said, 'but they are a great comfort, and they are the future.' She smiled at me. 'My husband tells me you are not married.'
'No,' I answered briefly, reaching for another slice of mutton with my knife.
'Marriage is a state to which man is called by God,' she said, keeping her eyes fixed on me.
'So your husband has said,' I answered mildly. 'Well, God has not called me.' I turned to Harsnet. 'You said you had been assistant coroner six years. Where did you read law, sir?'
'At the Middle Temple. Then I worked in Lincolnshire, where my parents came from, for some years. Then the Northern rebellion came six years ago. I raised a troop of men against those papists. Though we had no fighting. They surrendered to us immediately.'
'In Yorkshire it was a different story,' I said.
'By God's grace the rebellion was put down there too. But afterwards I had a message to see Thomas Cromwell. You knew him too, I think.' Harsnet fixed me with that penetrating stare of his.
'Yes, from his early days as a young radical.'
'He was in the days of his great power then. He said he had marked me as a man of ability, asked me to take the post of the King's assistant coroner, the old one having just died.' Harsnet sighed. 'We were happy in Lincolnshire, we did not wish to move, and although the post carries a good salary, like all royal appointments, money has never been our main concern in life.'
'Lord Cromwell was not a man who could be easily refused.'
'Oh, I did not wish to refuse. He told me the post meant one more man of faith at court.'
'He works himself to death, Master Shardlake,' Elizabeth said. 'But we must all play our part as God wills.' She smiled, and I wondered if that was an oblique reference to my single state.
'You said you are thinking of starting a hospital for the poor,' Harsnet said.
I was glad of the change of subject. 'Yes, it was Roger Elliard's idea. To take subscriptions from the members of Lincoln's Inn, perhaps from all the Inns of Court, to fund a hospital for the poor and sick. When I have enough time I intend to start work on the matter.'
He nodded agreement. 'That would be a fine thing. Between these four walls, the King has no interest in spending any of the money gained from the monasteries on replacing their hospitals with some
-
thing better.'
'No,' I agreed. 'Building palaces is all that interests him, and war with France now the Scots are beaten.'
Harsnet nodded in agreement. 'Ay, and all for vainglory.' 'Gregory . . .' his wife said uneasily.
'I know, my love, we must be careful. But to return to the hospital, Serjeant Shardlake. I would like to help you when your project gets going. I still have contacts at Middle Temple. Where would you build it?'
'I confess I have not thought. Though there is no shortage of land in London since the monasteries went down.'
He nodded. 'Somewhere central. That is where they all gather to beg. We see how they suffer every day. And suffering and uneducated as they are, they lie under a great temptation to doubt God's providence and care.'
'They could be taught the Bible in the hospital,' Elizabeth added.
'Yes.' Harsnet nodded thoughtfully. 'After their bodies have been mended.'
We had finished the meal now. Harsnet caught my eye. 'If you will excuse us, my dear,' he said to his wife. 'Serjeant Shardlake and I need to talk. Shall we go to my study, sir?'
I stood up and bowed to Mrs Harsnet. 'Thank you for that excellent repast, madam.'
She inclined her head in acknowledgement. 'I am glad you enjoyed it. Think, sir, if you were to take a good wife for yourself, you could have such a table every night.'
H
arsnet led me
to his study, a small room whose main item of furniture was a paper
-
strewn desk. On one wall was a large fragment of stained glass enclosed within a frame, a design of red and white roses with golden leaves on a dark background in between. It had a pleasing effect, lightening the room. 'That came from the old nunnery at Bishopsgate,' he said. 'I thought it a pretty design, and there are no idolatrous representations of saints to spoil it.'
'It is pretty indeed. But, sir - what of Lockley?'
His whole neat, erect posture seemed to sag as he sat down, waving me to a chair opposite him. My heart sank as I realized there was more bad news to come.
'He's gone,' Harsnet said bleakly. 'Made a run for it. When my men arrived at the tavern they found the Bunce woman in a great state. Lockley had gone out to make an order at the brewer's three hours before and never come back. She said he'd been on edge ever since you came.'
'Well, that proves he was hiding something.'
He had laid a hand on the table, and he suddenly clenched it into a fist. 'Lockley gone. He could be the killer.'
'I don't think so. I don't think he is clever enough, apart from anything else. No, it's some secret to do with those connected with the abbey infirmaries. Barak speculated that there might have been some sodomites there, but I doubt that too.'
'I would bring Dean Benson into custody here and now, but that is not so easy. I have an appointment with Lord Hertford tomorrow, I will see what he can do. He will not be pleased,' he added.
'We do not have much luck.'
'And the killer does. Perhaps that should not be a surprise. With the devil inside him, everything he does succeeds. He seems invisible, untouchable.' He looked at me with an intense, haunted gaze.
'He failed with Cantrell,' I said. 'Would the devil have allowed that?'
Harsnet stared at me, suddenly stronger and harder again. 'I know you do not believe the killer is possessed, sir. But how else can you explain someone doing such wicked, evil things? For no possible personal gain.'
'He must gain something. In his disordered mind. I think he has an insane compulsion to kill. He would not be the first.'
'Madness? If you are to justify that definition, sir, if it is to be more than just a word, you must tell me in what ways his mind is dis
-
ordered, how and why he is mad.'
'I cannot,' I admitted. 'I can only tell you that there have been similar cases in the past.'
'When?' he asked, surprised.
I told him about Strodyr and De Rais. When I had finished he spread his hands, gave me a sad smile.
'But surely, sir, those are further examples of possession rather than madness as we know it. Whatever that ex-monk Dr Malton may say.'
'Perhaps there will never be an explanation for such men as these.'
'But surely possession is an explanation,' Harsnet said. He leaned forward. 'Acts that make sense only as a wicked mockery of true religion.'
'True religion?' I asked quietly. 'Is that how you would describe the Book of Revelation?'
'How else?' Harsnet spread his hands wide. 'It is a book of the Bible, and all of the Bible is God's word, telling us how to live and find salvation, how the world began and how it will end. We cannot pick and choose which parts of the Bible to believe.'
'Many have doubted whether the Book of Revelation is inspired by God. From the early church fathers to Erasmus in our own day.'
'But the church fathers did accept it. And Erasmus remained a papist. Not a true Bible man. The Book is Holy Writ, and the devil has entered this man to make him blaspheme.'
I did not reply. Harsnet and I would never agree. To my surprise, he smiled suddenly. 'I see I will not convince you,' he said.
I smiled back. 'I fear not. Nor I you.'
He looked at me, not in a hostile way but with compassion. 'I am sorry my wife was so insistent about the virtues of the married state. Women these days will say what they please. But she has a point. Matthew, I may call you Matthew—'
'Of course—'
'I have watched you with interest this last week. Working together gives one a chance to weigh up a man. You are clever, and a moral man.'