‘Can I help thee, maisters?’ he asked quietly.
I exchanged a look with Barak. Something more than the selling of ale was going on here.
‘I don’t know,’ he replied. ‘Can you?’
The man inclined his head towards the door, and we were glad enough to follow him into a narrow passageway beyond, that stank of old beer. A candle burned in a lamp on the staircase. He closed the door. ‘I’m sorry about that, maisters. Southrons aren’t popular here.’
‘Never mind,’ I said. ‘Now then, how can you help us?’
‘Depends on your wants.’ He scanned our faces with narrow, calculating eyes.
‘A friend of mine was here a week or so ago. An official from the Progress. A large fellow with a fringe of fair hair.’
‘Ay.’ His face relaxed into a leer. ‘I remember him. Tell you what we have here, did he?’
‘That’s right.’
‘Well.’ He smiled confidingly. ‘Tell me what your pleasure is. Sharp little nips from a girl with a dagger, or a belt-thrashing from an old carrion-whore, like your friend enjoys?’ He leered again. ‘I can arrange to indulge the most sinful lusts.’
I was taken aback. Whatever I had expected, it was not this. Barak stepped in. ‘You provide girls who cater for special tastes, hey?’
He nodded eagerly. ‘Tastes the ordinary houses don’t cater for. Boys, too, if you like. Got a good network in York, going back to the days of the monks. Sinful, some of those fellows were.’
‘Tell you what,’ Barak said quickly. ‘We’re making enquiries on behalf of one of the senior officials at St Mary’s, who doesn’t care to be seen here himself. I think you have what he wants. We’ll talk to him and come back. He wouldn’t want to be seen here, perhaps some private room?’
‘Ay, sir, that can be arranged.’
‘Here’s two shillings for your trouble in the meantime.’ Barak produced the coins and handed them over. The man looked at them.
‘He’d pay well, then? This official?’
‘Handsomely.’
The pimp’s eyes narrowed. ‘What’s his name, maister?’
‘Now, you know better than that. Just wait for our return.’
‘Come in the morning, before we open. You won’t be bothered by the customers then.’
‘We will. And talking of that, is there a back way out of here?’
He nodded and led us to another door that gave on to the stinking alley. We walked quickly away, and did not relax till we reached the Fossgate again. Then Barak laughed loudly.
‘So that’s it. That pompous old fellow Craike likes to be whacked about by some old doxy. Wonder if he thinks about that as he shuffles his papers on that little desk of his.’
I looked at him. ‘You handled that very smoothly. As though you knew what you were doing.’
He shrugged again. ‘Lord Cromwell had contacts among the London whoremasters, especially fellows like that who deal with those who have outlandish tastes. Often the whoremasters could come up with the name of someone at court, and then they were in my master’s power.’
‘Blackmail?’
‘If you like.’
‘And you were involved?’
‘I was Lord Cromwell’s contact with some of the whoremasters, ay.’ Barak frowned at me. ‘You know well my duties were more than running errands. I didn’t like it much, if you have to know.’ He shrugged. ‘But if men of rank choose to delve in the stews, they take a risk.’
‘They do if there are spies about.’ I snapped my fingers. ‘I’ll wager that’s why he got to know Oldroyd. To find out if there were places like this in York.’
‘Only one way to find out. Ask him.’
I was reluctant to shame Craike, but realized there was no alternative. ‘I’ll see him tomorrow,’ I said. We walked on in silence for a time, then I asked, ‘Does Tamasin know about your work for Cromwell?’
‘Not the details.’ He looked at me sharply. ‘She doesn’t need to know those. After all, you have never enquired too closely before.’
‘I suppose I haven’t.’
‘It’s just as well I was able to work out what was going on there as quick as I did. Or we might have found ourselves presented with some salty old whores with birch-rods ready to beat hell out of us, and a little report going to someone at King’s Manor.’
I laughed. We walked on, our steps echoing on the cobbles. As Bootham Bar came into sight I asked him, ‘Have you thought any more about what we talked about? Your future?’
‘All I want now is to get safe back to London. And be sure I have one,’ he added grimly.
WE RETURNED LATE TO St Mary’s. It was eleven o’clock by the time the guard let us through the gate; everyone had retired to bed. A big, yellowish harvest moon had risen and in its dim light the helmeted soldiers continued their endless walks along the walls, more standing guard outside the tents and pavilions and the doors of King’s Manor, all its windows dark. I had heard the King was going hunting on the morrow; there was no word yet of the Scotch King’s arrival.
‘I’ve a meeting with Tamasin,’ Barak said. ‘I’ll come to the lodging house with you first.’
‘At this hour? Ah, in your secret love-nest?’ I did not mean the words to come out in the supercilious way they did. He gave me a sharp look. ‘Ay. She feels safe with me.’ ‘She will get in trouble if she is found out.’ ‘She won’t. After three months of the Progress half the servants in the Queen’s household have a dalliance with someone. And the Queen is hardly one to keep her ladies on a tight moral rein.’ He stepped ahead of me and walked briskly to the church. I realized I had annoyed him. One of the guards by the pavilions sneezed, making me jump. But I was glad of those armed men nearby. Always now at night my senses were alert for danger, for an assassin.
The monastic church was inhabited by a number of grooms who slept on blankets in the straw near the horses, their forms illuminated by candles burning in big iron sconces, five feet high. The gentlemen’s horses – over a hundred of them – stood quietly in their stalls, each stall with a paper pinned to the door with the name of the owner. It was a good system, enabling the horses owned by individuals to be readily available, while the huge herd of carthorses was left to browse in the fields. We walked down until I came to Genesis’ and Sukey’s stalls, side by side.
‘Let’s see how the horses are,’ I said.
‘All right.’
A young groom, rolled in his blanket on a pile of hay in the nave, sat up sleepily. He was a round-faced fellow in his teens, his smock covered with pieces of straw.
‘Who is it?’ He looked dubiously at our poor clothes.
‘We are the owners of these horses. We just came to see how they do.’
‘They are all well, sir.’
‘Good. Go back to sleep, fellow, we will only be a moment.’ We went over and spoke with the horses a little, stroking them. Genesis seemed happy enough in his stall but Barak’s Sukey was restless and pulled away from his hand.
‘Are you bored, here, Sukey?’ he asked. ‘Nothing to do? Well, hopefully we will soon be on our way. It all depends on the King of the Scotch.’
‘We walk them up and down the nave.’ The groom had got up. ‘We can’t take them out. There’s so much going on in the courtyard, we’re not allowed.’
‘I understand.’
‘When do you think King James will come, sir?’ he asked. ‘We are all anxious to move on again.’
‘I wish I knew,’ I said with a smile. ‘Well, we must to bed. Goodnight.’
We walked on to the open north door of the church that led to the courtyard where the lodging house and the animal pens were. Barak looked left, along to the claustral buildings at the other end of the courtyard.
‘Waiting for you there, is she?’
‘Ay.’
‘Go on. I can walk to the lodging house alone.” I felt guilty for annoying him earlier.
‘Sure?’
‘Ay. Off you go. No one’s followed us through the church, I was looking out.’