The Amorous Nightingale

    'How did you get them, Mr Trigg?'

    'Now you're asking!'

    'Tell me in your own words.'

    The coachman perched on the anvil and spat into the sawdust. After looking his visitor up and down, he launched into a long account of the ambush, interspersing it with speculation about who his attackers might be and adding a description of his later return to the house.

    'I knew it,' he emphasised. 'I knew they took Mary Hibbert as well.'

    'That's not what you said to her brother.'

    Trigg was checked. 'Who?'

    'Peter Hibbert. He called here twice yesterday. Seeing the door wide open the first time, he became alarmed and ran to relatives in Carter Lane, hoping that he might find his sister there. But Mary was nowhere to be found. Peter hurried all the way back here and bumped into you. Or so he says.'

    'It's true.'

    'The boy had no reason to lie.'

    'How did you find out about it?'

    'The Hibbert family once lived in my ward, sir. I knew them well. That's why Peter turned to me when he felt his sister was in trouble.'

    'He was very upset when he came back here.'

    'Yet you did nothing to reassure him.'

    'What could I do? Tell him that Mary had been took along with Mrs Gow? How would that have helped?' Trigg hunched his shoulders. 'I thought the best thing was to say as little as possible. So I pretended they'd both gone out of London for a few days.'

    'Peter wasn't sure if he should believe you.'

    'I wanted to get the lad off my back!'

    'You might have done it more gently.'

    'He was pestering me.'

    'Returning to the ambush,' said Jonathan patiently, 'you've told me the exact point in the lane where you were set upon but you haven't explained what you were doing there in the first place.'

    'Making my way to the Strand.'

    'Down such a narrow thoroughfare? Surely there are easier ways to travel. And why go to the Strand? Mr Redmayne is firmly under the impression that you were heading for the Palace of Westminster.'

    'Then he's quite wrong.'

    'You had another destination?'

    'We weren't going to the Palace that day.'

    'Yet you ended up there.'

    'Only because I was sent for, Mr Bale. The ransom note had arrived by then. They knew there'd been an ambush. I was hauled down there to explain what had happened.'

    'So Mrs Gow was actually visiting someone in the Strand?'

    'I didn't say that.'

    'Do you dispute the fact?'

    'I've no need.'

    'What do you mean?'

    'My job is to take Mrs Gow wherever she wishes me to take her. She has a lot of friends so I drive all over London. Well beyond it at times. I never know who she's going to see and I don't care. I simply do what I'm paid for, Mr Bale. That's all I'm saying.'

    'Even though you could be hiding evidence?'

    'Of what?'

    'The motive behind the kidnap.'

    'I've told you everything.'

    'Except your destination yesterday. Don't you see how important it is for us to know it, Mr Trigg? The person she was on her way to see might be able to help us. Perhaps someone had a grudge against him and used Mrs Gow as a means of revenge. One thing is certain, sir.'

    'What's that?'

    'You were expected. That ambush was laid in the ideal place.'

    'So?'

    'You mightn't have known exactly where you were going but someone else did. They knew the time of day you'd be driving down that lane and they knew just how many men it would take to overpower a strapping coachman and abduct a lady. Now,' he said, squaring up to Trigg, 'where were you taking Mrs Gow?'

    'To see a friend.'

    'Does he have a name?'

    'She didn't say.'

    'What about an address?'

    'I've forgotten it.'

    'So you were told?'

    'I can't remember.'

    Jonathan could not make out if he was dealing with sheer bloody-mindedness or with fierce loyalty to an employer. Either way, the result was the same. Willing to furnish any other information, the coachman was strangely reluctant to disclose the destination of his coach. It was time to try another tack with him.

    'You mentioned the name of a suspect, I hear.'

    'I mentioned several.'

    'This one came as an afterthought. Mr Redmayne paid particular attention to it. He said I was to ask you about Mr Bartholomew Gow.'

    Trigg nodded. 'He's tied up in this somewhere.'

    'Why do you say that?'

    'Because of the way things are between him and his wife.'

    'But they don't even live together.'

    'Exactly, Mr Bale,' said the other with a faint flicker of lechery. 'How would you feel if a lady like that turned you out of her bed?'

    'I'd never have got into it in the first place, I promise you!'

    'Then you've never seen Mrs Gow. She's more than beautiful, I can tell you. It's a pleasure to be anywhere near a woman of her type. Mr Gow can't do that any more. He's been deprived. The last time he came to the house, she refused even to see him.'

    'Oh?'

    'He was very persistent. I had to move him on his way.'

    'Is that one of the things you're paid to do, Mr Trigg?'

    'Sometimes.'

    'Moving her husband on his way?'

    'Getting rid of undesirables,' said the coachman with a smirk. 'They buzz around her like flies. Swatting them is my job. But Mr Gow is the main problem. He's sworn to get even with her.'

    'Was it a serious threat?'

    'Mary Hibbert thought so.'

    'What about his wife?'

    'I think she'd gone past listening to him.'

    'Why did Mr Gow bother her?'

    'Ask him.'

    'What was he after?'

    'His wife.'

    'But she turned him away and that made him angry.'

    'Vicious, more like.'

    'Wasn't she worried by his threats?'

    'Not really, Mr Bale.'

    'Why not?'

    'I told you,' said the other complacently. 'She's got me.'

    'Yes,' agreed Jonathan, annoyed by his manner. 'I'm sure that you protected her well - until you drove down that lane towards the Strand. Even your strong arm was not enough then, was it? They were waiting.' He leaned forward. 'Now who could possibly have known that you'd be taking that exact route?'

    'I'm a very busy man, Mr Redmayne. I can only give you a little time.'

    'Yes, Sir William.'

    'I leave for the theatre within the hour.'

    'Then I'll not beat about the bush,' said Christopher. 'I just wondered what you could tell me about Miss Abigail Saunders.'

    'Abigail?'

    'I understand that she was once a member of your company.'

    'Briefly.'

    'Why did she leave?'

    'By common consent.'

    'Miss Saunders is with The King's Men now.'

    'That's of no concern to me,' said the other smoothly.

    After studying the list provided by his brother, Christopher Redmayne elected to begin with the name at the bottom. Sir William D'Avenant was an eminent man with a lifetime of literary achievement behind him. Yet his career had been even more chequered than that of his rival, Thomas Killigrew. The godson of William Shakespeare, he was rumoured to be the playwright's illegitimate offspring and there were those who had hailed him as Shakespeare's natural heir. Civil war interrupted his promising work as a dramatist. A committed Royalist, he was captured twice but escaped both times. When the Queen sent him to Virginia, his ship was intercepted and D'Avenant was arrested once more. Held in the Tower, he was at least allowed to write and publish poetry. It enabled him to keep his talent in good repair.