Dark Fire

'I didn't see a crossbow!' the man howled. 'He had a big satchel, I didn't know what was in it!'

Barak stepped away from him. 'Get out, then, you great bag of guts. Go on. And don't say a word. Gabble about this and Lord Cromwell will be after you.'

He cringed at that. 'I'd not do anything against Crum, sir, I mean the earl-'

'Get out! Arsehole!' Barak twirled him round and helped him through the doorway with a kick. He turned to me, breathing heavily.

'I'm sorry I let pock-face get so close,' he said. 'I dropped my guard.'

'You can't be watching all the time.'

'He must have been somewhere among that rabble in the church. By Jesu, he's good. Are you all right?'

I took a deep breath and dusted down my robe. 'Yes.'

'I'll have to get word of this to the earl. Now. He's at Whitehall. Come with me.'

I shook my head. 'I can't, Barak. I have my appointment with Joseph. I can't miss that, I'm still responsible for Elizabeth. Then I want to see Guy.'

'All right. I'll meet you outside the apothecary's in four hours and we can go on to Southwark. It was nine by the church clock as I came in – say, at one.'

'Very well.'

He looked at me dubiously. 'You sure you'll be all right on your own?'

'God's death,' I snapped irritably, 'if we have to stay together every minute we'll double the time this takes. Come,' I said more gently, 'we can ride together as far as Cheapside.'

He looked worried. I wondered what Cromwell's reaction would be when he learned a third killing had been attempted.

Chapter Fifteen

WE WERE AT Aldersgate before Barak spoke again. 'I knew we should never have gone to Barry's,' he said crossly. 'What did we achieve except for that poor arsehole being shot and Rich put on the alert?'

'We got confirmation that Greek Fire was discovered in the way the Gristwoods said it was. That there really was a barrel of – something – and a formula.'

'So you believe it now. Well, we have made a step,' he said sarcastically.

'When I was learning law,' I said, 'one of my teachers said that there is a question that applies in every case. The question is: what circumstances are relevant?'

'And the answer?'

'All the circumstances are relevant. One must know all the facts, the whole history, before proceeding. And I have learned much, downriver and again today, for all it nearly cost me. I have some leads that I would like to pick over with Guy.'

Barak shrugged, evidently still feeling the visit had been a dangerous waste of time. As we rode on it occurred to me that all who knew about Greek Fire might be in danger: Marchamount, Bealknap, Lady Honor.

'I'll have to tell the earl we met Rich,' Barak said. 'He'll not be pleased.'

'I know.' I bit my lip. 'It worries me that all of our three suspects are linked to some of the highest and most dangerous people in the land. Marchamount to Norfolk and Bealknap, apparently, to Rich. And Lady Honor, it seems, to almost everyone.' I frowned. 'What is the connection between Rich and Bealknap? I'm sure Bealknap was lying.'

Barak grunted. 'That's for you to find out.' We had reached Cheapside. 'I'll leave you here,' he said. 'Meet you at the old Moor's shop at one.'

He rode off south, and I turned down Cheapside. As I rode between the rows of busy stalls I kept a careful eye out. I told myself no one would dare assault me among such a crowd – anyone would surely be seized before he could get away. But I was glad to see a number of constables with their staffs among the crowd. I turned up Walbrook Road, where many imposing merchants' houses stood. A little way up the street I saw Joseph pacing up and down. I dismounted and shook his hand. He looked strained and tired.

'I have been to see Elizabeth again this morning.' He shook his head. 'Still she says nothing, just lies there, paler and thinner each time.' He studied me. 'You look out of sorts yourself, Master Shardlake.'

'This new case I have is a troubling matter.' I took a deep breath. 'Well, shall we face your family?'

He set his jaw. 'I am ready, sir.'

Then so must I be, I thought. Taking Chancery's reins, I followed him to an imposing new house. He knocked at the front door. It was answered by a tall, dark-haired fellow of about thirty, dressed in a new jerkin and a fine white shirt. He raised his eyebrows.

'You! Sir Edwin said you would be calling.'

Joseph reddened at his insolent manner. 'Is he in, Needler?'

'Ay.'

I did not like the steward on his looks. He had a broad sly face under long black hair and a stocky frame starting to run to fat. An impertinent servant, I thought, allowed to get above himself. 'Can someone stable my horse?' I asked.

The steward called to a boy to take the animal, then led us through a wide hallway and up an imposing staircase, the banisters carved with heraldic beasts. We followed him into a richly appointed parlour hung with tapestries. Through the window I could see a garden, large for a town house. Flower beds with trellised walkways between ran down to a stretch of lawn; the grass was browning at the edges from lack of rain. There was a bench under an oak tree and, nearby, a circular brick well. I saw its top was sealed.

Four people sat on cushioned chairs. All were dressed in black, to my surprise for it was nearly a fortnight since Ralph had died and few wear mourning so long. Sir Edwin Wentworth was the only man among them; seeing him close I saw the resemblance to Joseph not only in his plump red face but in something fussy about his manner. He fumbled with the hem of his robe as he stared at me, eyes hard with anger.

His two daughters sat together: they were as pretty as Joseph had described, both with fair hair falling over the shoulders of their black dresses, milk-white complexions and with startlingly large cornflower-blue eyes. They had been embroidering, but as I entered they laid their needles on their cushions and gave me quick, demure smiles before lowering their heads and sitting with a well-brought-up stillness that was decorous but also a little unnerving, their hands unmoving in their laps.

The third female in the room could not have been more different. Joseph's mother sat ramrod straight in her chair, snow-white hair gathered under a black cap, veiny hands folded over a stick. She was thin, the planes of her skull visible beneath pale skin that was a patchwork of lines and smallpox scars. Wrinkled eyelids were closed for ever over her decayed eyes. She should have been a pitiful figure, but somehow she dominated the room.

She was the first to speak, turning her head towards me and thrusting out a lantern jaw. 'Is that the lawyer come with Joseph?' she asked in a clear voice with a trace of a country accent, showing pearl-white teeth I knew must be false. I shuddered involuntarily, for having dead people's teeth fixed in your jaw by a wooden plate was a conceit I disliked.

'Yes, Mother.' Edwin cast me a look of distaste.

She smiled crookedly. 'The seeker after truth. Come here, master lawyer, I would know your face.' She raised a beringed claw and I realized she wanted to feel my features as blind people sometimes will with their social inferiors. I approached slowly, for this was presumption from a woman who had once been a mere farmer's wife, but bent down. I felt all the eyes in the room upon me as her hands flickered lightly over my head and face with surprising gentleness.

'A proud face,' she said. 'Angular, melancholic' She ran her hands lightly over my shoulders. 'Ah, a satchel of books and the slip and slide of a lawyer's robe.' She paused. 'They say you are a hunchback.'

I took a deep breath, wondering if she intended to humiliate me or just spoke as she liked out of age.

'Yes, madam,' I replied.

She smiled, giving me a glimpse of wooden gums. 'Well, you can take solace in having a distinguished face,' she said. 'Are you a Bible Christian! I hear you were once associated with the Earl of Essex himself, God protect him from his enemies.'