Dissolution

'Didn't the townspeople know of your connection to the Smeatons?'

'It was thirty years since my uncle left and my mother's name changed when she married. The name was forgotten, and I was not likely to remind anyone. I said I had been away working in Esher for an apothecary who died.'

'You kept the sword.'

'For sentiment. Of a winter's evening my uncle used to show us some of the moves swordsmen make. I learned a little about balance, steps, angles of force. When I saw Singleton I knew I would use it.'

'By God, madam, you have a fearsome courage.'

'It was easy. I had no keys to the kitchen, but I remembered the story of that old passage.'

'And found it.'

'By looking through all the rooms, yes. Then I wrote an anonymous note to Singleton saying I was an informer, and would meet him in the kitchen in the small hours. I told him I was someone who had a great secret to reveal to him.' She smiled then, a smile that made me shiver.

'And he would have thought it was from a monk.'

The smile faded. 'I knew there would be blood, so I went to the laundry and stole a habit. I had found a key to the laundry in the table drawer in my room when I came here.'

'The key Brother Luke dropped when he was grappling with Orphan Stonegarden. She must have kept it.'

'That poor girl. Better you should look for her killer than Singleton's.' She stared at me fixedly. 'I put on the habit, took the sword, and went through the passage to the kitchen. Brother Guy and I were tending one of the old monks; I said I needed to rest for an hour. It was so easy. I stood behind the cupboard in the kitchen and the moment he stepped past me I struck him.' She smiled, a smile of terrible fulfilment. 'I had sharpened the sword, and his head was off with a stroke.'

'Just like Queen Anne Boleyn's.'

'Just like Mark's.' Her expression changed, she frowned. 'So much blood. I hoped his blood would wash away my anger, but it has not. I still see my cousin's face in dreams.'

Then her eyes lit up and she gave a great sigh of relief as a hand grasped my wrist from behind and pulled my arm behind my back, sending my dagger clattering to the floor. Another wrapped itself round my neck. Looking down I saw a knife held to my throat.

'Jerome?' I croaked.

'No, sir,' Mark's voice answered. 'Do not cry out.' The knife pressed into my flesh. 'Go and sit on that bed. Move slowly.'

I tottered across the room and crumpled upon the truckle bed. Alice stood up and went to Mark's side, putting her arm round him.

'I thought you would never come. I have kept him talking.'

Mark closed the door, and then stood balanced on the balls of his feet, his dagger a foot from my throat; in a moment he could pitch forward and slit my gizzard. His face was not cold now, but full of determination. I looked at him. 'It was you in the courtyard just now? You followed me?'

'Yes. Who else knows, sir?' Still he called me sir. I almost laughed.

'The messenger was one of Lord Cromwell's servants. Cromwell will know its contents by now. So, you know what she has done?'

'She told me when we first lay together the day you left for London. I told her you were clever, I saw you drawing closer and we made preparations to leave tonight. If you had arrived a few hours later you would have found us escaped. I wish you had.'

'There is no escape now. Not in England.'

'We shall not be in England. A boat is waiting out on the river to take us to France.'

'The smugglers?'

'Yes,' Alice said in matter-of-fact tones. 'I lied to you. My childhood friends never drowned and they remain my friends. There is a French ship waiting out at sea, it is picking up a cargo from the monastery tomorrow night, but they are sending a boat in to collect us tonight.'

I started. 'From the monastery? Do you know from whom, or what it is?'

'I do not care. We will wait on the ship till tomorrow, then sail for France.'

'Mark, do you know what this cargo is?'

'No.' He bit his lip. 'I am sorry, sir, only Alice and our escape matter to me now.'

'They have no love of English reformers in France.'

He looked at me with pity. 'I am no reformer. I never have been. Least of all after what I have learned of how Cromwell works.'

'You are a traitor,' I told him. 'False to your king and false to me who treated you as a son.'

He looked at me pityingly. 'I am no son to you, sir. I have never agreed with your religion. You would have realized that if you had ever really listened to what I said instead of treating me as a sounding board for your own opinions.'

I groaned. 'I have not deserved this of you. Nor you, Alice.'

'Who knows what anyone deserves?' Mark said with sudden wildness. 'There is no justice or order in this world, as you would see if you were not so blind. After what Alice has told me, I know that for certain. I go with Alice, I decided that four days ago.' And yet as he spoke I saw his face waver, I saw shame and that the affection he had had for me was not quite gone.

'Have you become a papist, then? I am not as blind as you think, Mark, I sometimes wondered what you truly believed. What then do you think of this woman's desecration of a church? That was you, Alice, wasn't it? You laid that slain cock on the altar after you had killed Singleton, to confuse the trail?'

'Yes,' she said, 'I did. But if you think Mark or I are papists you are wrong. You are both the same, reformers and papists, you fashion beliefs which you force the people to follow on pain of death, while you struggle for power and lands and money, which are all any of you truly want.

'That is not what I want.'

'Perhaps not. You have a kind heart and I did not enjoy lying to you. But when it comes to what is happening in England now you are as blind as a newborn kitten.' Pity mingled with anger in her voice. 'You should see things through the eyes of common people, but your kind never will. Do you think I would care for any Church after what I have seen of it all? I felt more sorrow at having to kill that cock than at what I did at the altar.'

'And what now?' I asked. 'Is this my death?'

Mark swallowed. 'I would not do that. Not unless you make me.' He turned to Alice. 'We can tie him up and gag him, put him in your cupboard. They'll be looking for him, but they won't think of looking here. When will Brother Guy find you are missing?'

'I told him I was going to bed early. He won't notice I'm gone till I don't appear in the dispensary at seven. By then we will be at sea.

I struggled to collect my thoughts. 'Mark, please listen to me. You are forgetting Brother Gabriel, Simon Whelplay, Orphan Stonegarden.'

'I had nothing to do with their deaths!' Alice said hotly.

'I know. I had considered whether there might be two killers working in league, but I never thought of two separate killers. Mark, think of what you have seen. Orphan Stonegarden pulled from the fish pond, Gabriel crushed like an insect, Simon driven mad by poison. You have helped me, you have been with me. Would you let the killer loose?'

'We were going to leave you a note, tell you Alice killed Singleton.'

'Please listen to me. Brother Edwig. Is he taken?'

Mark shook his head. 'No. I followed you to the refectory door and heard Bugge say there was a message. Then I followed you to the gatehouse and saw you go back to the infirmary. But Prior Mortimus came up to me and said Brother Edwig was not in his counting house, nor in his cell. He seems to have fled. That is why I took so much time, Alice.'

'He must not escape,' I said urgently. 'He has sold lands, I believe without the abbot's knowledge, he has a thousand pounds hidden somewhere. That boat, it's for his escape. Of course, he has been buying time until it arrived. That was why he killed Novice Whelplay, because he feared he would tell me about Orphan Stonegarden and I might have him arrested.'