I HAD TO VISIT BRODERICK before I went to my next task, which was to ponder on that royal family tree, and what the Titulus had said about Richard III’s being born in England. I felt buoyed by my successes at the castle, and by my conversation with Craike.
Sergeant Leacon was standing guard with one of his men outside Broderick’s cell. He nodded to us stiffly.
‘All well?’ I asked.
‘Ay. He’s just lain on his pallet all day. Won’t talk to the man I have posted with him.’
‘I have solved the mystery of how the poison reached him.’ I told the sergeant of my discovery at the castle. ‘I think Radwinter will be back soon.’
He shrugged. ‘I hoped we had seen the last of him.’
‘I fear not.’ I took a deep breath. ‘Sergeant, I have to thank you and your men. For shooting the bear last night. I fear if you had not arrived when you did, it would have had me.’
‘We were just doing our duty,’ he said stiffly. ‘Though I wondered if it was a ruse to distract me and free the prisoner; I wondered whether it was safe for us to lock Broderick up and go to the church.’
‘Thank Jesu you did. I shudder to think what might have happened had you not been so close.’
He nodded, but his look was still cold.
‘Sergeant,’ I said, ‘I have been thinking on your parents’ troubles. That it seems I helped land them in. It struck me: I made that arbitration without knowledge of any underleases or copyholds. Do your parents have any documents about their tenancy?’
He shook his head. ‘No. The manor court records were destroyed in a fire years ago. But they always thought they were tenants of the monks.’
‘I did not have that evidence before me. It might have made a difference, especially if any records could be found.’
‘My parents can barely read or write,’ he said awkwardly. ‘They rely on my uncle, and he is no great reader either. And they are not people who can afford a lawyer.’
‘How long before they have to be out?’
‘Six months. Spring quarter-day.’
‘Listen, sergeant, I feel some responsibility for this. When we get back to London, if you wish, I could try to help.’
‘I told you, my parents have no money for a lawyer.’
‘I would do it for nothing. Pro bono, as we say.’
His face lightened a little. ‘Would you, sir? If you could help…’
‘I cannot guarantee anything. But if I can, I will.’
‘Thank you.’ He looked at me. ‘I confess I cursed you hard when I learned of your involvement.’
‘Then undo the curse. I have had enough of those recently.’
He smiled. ‘Right readily, if you will aid us.’
‘Well,’ I said, a little embarrassed, ‘I must see how Broderick fares.’
Leacon shook his head as he reached for his keys. ‘Why do folk bring themselves to such a dreadful place as he is in? Is there not enough trouble in the world?’
BRODERICK LOOKED PATHETIC when I entered his cell, lying pale and drawn on his pallet. I stood looking down at him. A candle had been lit against the gathering dusk and it made deep shadows of the premature lines in his young face. He looked up wearily.
‘You have something to drink?’ I asked.
He nodded at a pitcher on the floor. ‘Ay.’
‘I know how you did it, Sir Edward,’ I said quietly. ‘The poison. You took those horrible toadstools from the drainpipe, didn’t you?’
He looked at me for a long moment, then let his eyes fall. ‘ ’Tis all one now,’ he said apathetically. ‘I failed. And now you have moved me there will be no more chances.’
‘Your very being must have cringed when you forced those things into your mouth.’
‘It did. I forced them down with water, held my nose to avoid that smell.’
‘Yes. The smell.’
‘But it did no good. My body voided them.’ His face twisted in a spasm of anger.
‘Listen,’ I said. ‘Why not talk now, give them what they want? They will torture it out of you in the end. There is no virtue in pain. You may be able to negotiate a pardon if you talk; it has been done before.’
He laughed then, a harsh croaking sound. ‘You think I would believe their promises? Robert Aske did, and consider how they served him.’
‘His skeleton fell from the castle tower today. The wind blew it down.’
He smiled slowly. ‘An omen. An omen the Mouldwarp should take note of.’
‘For an educated man, sir, you talk much nonsense.’ I studied him, wondering how many of the answers I sought might lie within his scarred breast – the connection between the Queen’s secret and the conspirators, the contents of that box of papers. But I was forbidden to probe his secrets.
‘If King Henry is the Mouldwarp,’ I asked him suddenly, ‘who then is the rightful King? Some say the Countess of Salisbury’s family.’
He gave me a crooked smile. ‘Some say many things.’
‘Prince Edward is the rightful heir, is he not, the King’s son?’ I paused. ‘And any son Queen Catherine may have after him. There have been rumours she is pregnant.’
‘Have there?’ No flicker in his eyes, only an expression of amused contempt. He laughed coldly. ‘Are you turned interrogator, sir?’
‘I was merely making conversation.’
‘I think you do not merely do anything. But you know what I would like?’
‘What?’
‘To have you with me in that room in the Tower, while they work me. I would have you watch what your good custodianship will bring me too.’
‘You should talk now while your body is still whole.’
‘Go away.’ Broderick’s voice was full of contempt.
I sighed, and knocked on the door for the guard. As I stepped outside, I saw with a sinking heart that Radwinter was there. His eyes looked tired, the skin around them dark. His arrest had told on this man who loved his authority. He stood glaring at Barak, who leaned against the wall, a picture of studied nonchalance.
‘So,’ Radwinter was saying. ‘I hear your master found out how Broderick poisoned himself.’
‘Yes. Broderick did it cleverly.’
‘He will get no further chance. I am restored to my duties.’ He turned to me. ‘Maleverer says I have you to thank for that.’
I shrugged.
‘And you will enjoy the thought I am beholden to you,’ he said bitterly.
‘I do not care,’ I said. ‘I have other matters to think about.’
‘I put you down once,’ Radwinter said. ‘And I will again.’ He shouldered his way past me, almost knocking me into Barak, and called sharply to the soldier to surrender the keys to the prisoner’s cell back to him.
Chapter Twenty-nine
Barak and I sat in my cubicle at the lodging house. Between us on the bed was the piece of paper on which I had copied out again, from memory, the family tree I had found in the box. A lamp set precariously on the bed cast a dim yellow light over the royal names.
‘How can this lead us to who attacked you?’ Barak asked wearily.
‘The answer is always in the detail,’ I said, frowning at it. ‘Bear with me,’ I continued. ‘Now, the Titulus stressed that Richard III was born in England, which gave “more certain knowledge of your birth and filiation”. I have been thinking. I think they were saying between the lines that one of Richard’s brothers was a bastard.’
‘You said yourself the Titulus seemed to be scraping together everything, no matter how shaky, to justify Richard usurping the throne. Where is the evidence?’
I looked at him. ‘Perhaps in that jewel casket?’ I pointed at Cecily Neville’s name at the head of the tree. ‘If one of her children was a bastard that would explain Maleverer’s remark when the papers went missing. “Cecily Neville. It all goes back to her.” ’
Barak stroked his chin. ‘There are two sons beside Richard III.’
‘Yes. George Duke of Clarence who was the father of Margaret of Salisbury, who was executed this year, and Edward IV. The grandfather of the present king.’