‘Well,’ drawled L’Estrange. ‘There is an end to them! You are lucky I followed you, or that pair would not be the only ones heading for a watery grave. I always knew Brome was a phanatique. Joanna, too, or she would have let me bed her when I made my advances. But you are in my debt now, Heyden. I saved your life, and in return, you will say nothing to Williamson about my inadvertent role in this affair.’
‘I shall say nothing to Williamson at all,’ said Chaloner fervently, not liking to imagine what would happen to him if the Spymaster ever discovered that he knew about the blind eye that had been turned to the Hectors’ thievery.
‘Very wise,’ said L’Estrange. ‘Shall we seal our arrangement with some music?’
‘I do not know about that,’ said Chaloner. There were limits.
‘Tomorrow, at three o’clock,’ said L’Estrange comfortably. ‘And do not be late.’
Epilogue
The Lord Chancellor rubbed his plump hands and chortled in delight as he inspected the box Chaloner had given him. He made no attempt to soil his fingers with its contents, of course, stained as they were with the filth of the street. Chaloner could have rinsed the jewels before presenting them to his master, but he had not done so, and he had refused to let Bulteel do it, either. Money was a dirty business, and he did not see why the Earl should be spared that knowledge.
‘And this is all of it?’ asked the Earl.
‘Yes,’ said Chaloner shortly. ‘It is.’
The Earl sighed. ‘I am not accusing you of dishonesty, Heyden. I was just wondering whether the Bromes had spent any before you managed to retrieve it.’
‘They did not have time. Is there enough to pay Dorcus Newburne’s pension?’
‘I have been relieved of that particular obligation,’ said the Earl smugly. ‘Newburne was working for me, and that why I was determined to have the truth about his death. However, he was killed because he was a thief, and I cannot be held financially responsible for that sort of thing. Dorcus has agreed to forget about the pension.’
‘How did you persuade her to do that?’ Chaloner was startled.
‘Bulteel suggested I offer her an official government post instead — Assistant Editor. She is an educated lady, and said she would relish the opportunity to use her intellect to benefit her country. So, we are both happy.’
Chaloner glanced to where Bulteel was labouring over his ledgers in an antechamber. ‘It means she will be spending a lot of time with L’Estrange.’
‘That is what I said. It was only fair to point out the downside of Bulteel’s recommendation, but she said she did not mind at all. In fact, she said it would be a pleasure.’
‘Bulteel is a clever man,’ said Chaloner, impressed by the coup the clerk had staged for his master’s benefit. ‘You would not have had this treasure without him.’
‘So you have said, at least a dozen times. I have rewarded him with a pleasant house in Westminster — his wife presented him with a son last night, and I do not want him wasting hours travelling between here and his old home in Southwark, when he could be working for me.’
Chaloner smiled, pleased the clerk’s loyalty was being acknowledged at last.
‘I have reinstated you,’ the Earl went on. ‘I have also arranged for you to be paid for the time you were in Portugal, and I have informed Williamson that you are a vital member of my household. I do not think he will risk my wrath by harming you now.’
‘Harming me for what reason?’ Chaloner had not told the Earl about Williamson’s role in the Hectors’ dark business, so the Spymaster should have no need to resort to sly daggers.
‘For tossing a bottle of exploding oil on a fire, and throwing his soldiers into a panic. He is furious that you exposed them as incompetent to the general populace.’
‘I needed to leave, and they were dithering. You would not have been pleased if I had allowed Joanna to assume control of the Hectors — or if she had used Newburne’s hoard to do it.’
‘That is what I told him,’ said the Earl, closing the box and patting it contentedly. ‘You should avoid antagonising him in the future, though — he has a nasty habit of dispatching people he does not like. But time is passing, and I have a lot to do. The floods did much damage, and my organisational skills are needed to put all to rights. Incidentally, London is not the only city to suffer from an excess of rain. So did Oxford, and I want you to go there and solve a theft that took place in my old College when the waters were up.’
‘Oxford?’ asked Chaloner unhappily, wondering if he would ever be granted the opportunity to stay in London and learn about its customs and politics.
The Earl ignored his disgruntlement. ‘The day after tomorrow will do, though — you have earned a few days of leisure. Perhaps you can use them to purchase some better clothes.’
Chaloner congratulated Bulteel on the birth of his son, and stayed to enjoy a piece of celebratory cake. Then he walked to Lincoln’s Inn, taking a few moments to look at the green stain on the buildings around White Hall, which showed the height of the flood. The rain and a gale in the North Sea had combined to produce one of the highest tides anyone could remember, and water was still seeping from damaged buildings.
Lincoln’s Inn’s new astrological device had been bent during one particularly fierce downfall, so it would never track the movements of the stars accurately again, but the foundation was otherwise intact. Chaloner knocked on the door to Chamber XIII, and was admitted by Leybourn. The surveyor had still not gone home, despite his brother sending word that all signs of the explosion — and Mary — had been eradicated.
Thurloe suggested a walk in the garden. The sun was shining, a weak, watery orb in a misty sky, and birds sang in trees that dripped. The ground squelched underfoot, a morass of mud and sodden leaves. Gardeners were out in force, gathering fallen branches and sweeping paths. One sang a song about love, and Leybourn snorted his derision.
‘So, you have answers to all your questions, Tom,’ said Thurloe, to distract Leybourn from bitter thoughts. ‘Brome and Joanna — but mostly Joanna — conceived the notion of listening in coffee houses for details of valuable horses and the movements of their owners. This information was converted into a code in music, and was sent to Ireton and the Hectors.’
‘The Hectors stole the horses,’ said Chaloner. ‘And most victims bought notices in the newsbooks. Some nags were returned and the rewards claimed; others were sold.’
‘Why did they sell some of them?’ asked Leybourn. ‘Why not return them all?’
‘Because that would have aroused suspicion,’ explained Chaloner. ‘In fact, at one point, Joanna thought they were returning too many, and wrote a note telling Ireton to hold back. Somehow Finch got hold of it, probably through Newburne. Anyway, the horse thefts fulfilled two functions.’
‘First, making money from the rewards or the sale of these stolen horses,’ said Thurloe. ‘And second, making money for the newsbooks. Those advertisements cost five shillings a time.’
‘Three functions, then,’ said Chaloner. ‘They also made the newsbooks popular, which meant an increased circulation — more copies printed and more sold.’
‘Four functions,’ said Thurloe with a smile. ‘An increased circulation means the government has better control of the news — and therefore of the hearts and minds of the people. Everyone believed that tale about the vicar of Wollaston’s soiled prayer-book, but it was almost pure fabrication. Apparently, the book was accidentally left open when a bird flew past, but L’Estrange reported it in his own inimical way to make a point about religious phanatiques.’