“Si, Senores, I could have wound my crossbow again and killed the black haired woman too, but why? What was the point? I couldn’t think, I believed she was only a lady-in-waiting. I looked at her as she knelt by my Amy’s body, crying over her body, trying to stop the blood coming from my Amy’s ears and eyes. I climbed up to hide the crossbow among the roofbeams, climbed down again and I saw she was taking off the broken headdress, using it to mop the blood, try to make all clean. I saw her take off her own headdress and place it on Amy’s head where there were two terrible dents from my crossbow. Perhaps to hide it.
“And then milord came back and he pulled her to her feet. She had rolled all together in a bundle, the headdress, her gloves dirtied with blood. They argued, he ordered her to ride and called her “Your Majesty” and that, Senores, was when I understood that she was the Queen but wearing a black wig and someone else’s kirtle. I stood there, turned to stone as I heard their horses gallop away.
“Later I found the bundle in a bush. I kept one of the gloves, the bloody one, and my friend took the other and the headdress. ER was embroidered on the gloves and they were the finest gloves I had seen. Then when my friend had stopped my weeping and I could think again, we rode back to my father.”
Jeronimo’s face darkened. “My God, my father was furious. He would not let us in the house, told us to go and lie low and he will do what he can. We hid in the Spanish embassy for a while. Then we went to Oxford where my friend had his family. We lived there a while and then when the Queen came back to Oxford six years later and the place was full of pursuivants and that evil man she hired to hunt us down, I rode to Bristol and took ship for the Low Countries where I learned other things than lute-playing.”
“You could simply have told me this, Don Jeronimo,” said Hunsdon, “Why do you insist on seeing the Queen?”
Jeronimo was not paying attention to him, looking hard at the women beside him. He narrowed his eyes and then smiled.
“If I could be received into Her Majesty’s Presence, if I can have such favour though not deserved,” he said quietly staring into space. “I will say this to Her Majesty: I am not now the hot-headed young idiot that I was. Now I am a cold-headed old idiot. I have a canker that came from a mole that broke open and bled. My liver is full of stones, there is a rock in my stomach. Soon I will take to my bed and die in pain and then I will go to Purgatory to answer for all the men and women I have killed in my life. For my querida Amy, I have already paid much. It is just.
“I will say this to the Queen: Your Majesty, I ask pardon that I tried to kill you. I am happy that I failed but I am also sorry that because I so stupidly killed your horsemaster’s wife, the scandal meant you could not have him. A very strict Jesuit confessor sent me back to England to make amends. And so here I am. I beg your forgiveness with all my heart. You may take me and execute me if you like, you will do me a favour.” He paused in the silence. “He was a clever Jesuit, I think.
“This I will say to the Queen for the end: Now I thank God you were incognito so I made such a mistake. And then I will wait for Her Majesty’s judgement and mercy.”
He bowed his head and there was silence. Hunsdon leaned over to talk to the women beside him and then lifted a hand. “We will consult on it.” A nod to his men and Jeronimo was helped to his feet and led out of the hall, walking slowly as if he was in pain. At another nod from Hunsdon, Carey went with them.
“Sergeant Dodd,” said Hunsdon after a moment, “I understand from my youngest son that you have dealt in your inimitable way with the troublesome band of sturdy beggars who took my supply train and beat up my men and that you propose that my son take them into his service.”
“Ay, sir,” said Dodd after a moment to collect his thoughts. “They wis only raiding because they had nae ither choice, being betrayed in France by the Earl of Essex and getting none of their pay.”
Hunsdon’s eyes were hooded. “We will offer them the chance to go back to their villages near Hereford. If they choose not to, Sir Robert will take half and I’ll send the other half to Berwick to my other son who is Marshal there.”
Dodd shrugged. It was eight men not sixteen for Carlisle, but he supposed the Captain of Berwick Castle would need unattached men as badly as they did. He was glad Hunsdon saw the advantage there.
The black-haired woman with the tall hat cleared her throat. “Sergeant Dodd, my mistress the Queen asked me to…talk to you about what has been happening.”
“Ay, missus,” said Dodd warily. “Milady.”
The woman beckoned him so he went over, trying not to hobble, and did the best bow he could over her hand. She looked far too old to be any of the women constantly pestering Carey’s father and son to bed them so perhaps she did work for the Queen. You could tell she was a powerful character with that beaky nose and the snapping dark eyes and you’d think there would be clashes. The other woman was sitting back, talking to Hunsdon.
She took him through the entire past four months in detail, since Carey had arrived at Carlisle to be Deputy Warden to his brother-in-law, clearly knowing far more about the various happenings on the Border and in London than any lady-in-waiting really ought to. She laughed at some of Dodd’s comments which emboldened him so he gave her more stories than he normally would. Her laugh was delightful for all her age and the fact that her teeth were stained.
“Sergeant Dodd,” she said eventually, “I take it that you approve of Sir Robert Carey and his various…actions?”
Approve? That was a little strong. “Eh, he’s canny but he takes mad plans in his heid,” Dodd said cautiously. “He’s a bonny fighter but he’s allus a Courtier, no’ a Borderer and that holds him back.” In the corner of his eye, Dodd caught a brief flash of a smile from Lord Hunsdon and wondered why. Conscientiously he added, “Mind, he’s no’ himself at the moment, he seems…eh…a little unwell.”
“Perhaps you could tell him that I have already spoken to Mrs. Odingsells before you arrived. I personally received from her the…document she kept for me all these years, so faithfully.”
“Ay missus,” said Dodd, with no clue as to what she was talking about. The lady nodded once, seemingly approving, then smiled again.
“He will understand. I have made provision for her as well although she insists she needs nothing. Now then. This matter of Don Jeronimo,” continued the lady, narrowing her eyes. “Do you think I should advise Her Majesty to see him?”
“Good God, no!” snapped Dodd. “He says he’s sorry for it all but there’s a long plan here. He’s the one brought the broken men here tae Oxford, he saw me at the inn on the Oxford road, heard me say I wis Carey’s man, and then he took me prisoner in the forest, easy as ye like. And then he comes and helps me escape and take over the troop…I dinna think it wis kindness nor to make amends. And why was he at the Oxford inn at all? Eh? What had he been at before? He says he tried to kill the Queen thirty years gone and he got the wrong woman, his ainly love.” Dodd’s lip twisted in a sneer. “Och, the puir wee manikin, whit a sad tale to be sure.” Dodd stabbed the air with his forefinger. “He’s a Papist-he admits he tried it on once, you tell the Queen hang him today!” Dodd realised he was shouting and toned it down so as not to frighten her. “He said she’d be doing him a favour.”