I barely heard him. ‘I’ve always thought my lord of Gloucester so loyal to his brother.’
That brought my companion’s head up with a jerk as he fixed me with a gimlet eye. ‘And so he is,’ he answered fiercely. ‘And so will he always be as long as Edward lives. But you saw for yourself, last May at Fotheringay, how ill the king was then, and you’ve seen him again these past weeks. You can’t have failed to notice the deterioration in him even in that short time. There’s no reason why an injustice should be perpetuated if he. .’
Timothy broke off, but I was able to finish the rest of his speech for him in my head. If Edward died, there was no reason for the Duke of Gloucester to extend that lifelong loyalty to his nephew — who, on his mother’s side, was one of the hated Woodvilles — if what he suspected should prove to be fact.
‘Why doesn’t the duke just ask his mother for the facts?’ I demanded bluntly. ‘The duchess once offered to declare Edward a bastard, as I was reminded only a short while ago. If it was indeed the truth, what’s to prevent her doing so again?’
‘Not “again”,’ Timothy corrected me. ‘The duchess never actually lived up to her word, if you remember. It was a threat that was never carried out. And you could argue,’ he went on, repeating almost verbatim what I had said earlier to Eloise, ‘that she was so furious she would have said anything at the time to prevent Elizabeth Woodville becoming queen.’ He grinned. ‘I’m sorry, Roger. You’re not going to wriggle out of this trip to France so easily.’
‘But the stupidity of it!’ I exclaimed. ‘The expense!’ That surely should be an argument to appeal to Timothy’s heart and pocket. ‘When all my lord of Gloucester has to do is ask his mother to confirm or deny the accusation she made all those years ago. As possibly the rightful king-’ But here I stopped, frowning. ‘What about Clarence’s son, the young Earl of Warwick?’
‘Barred from inheriting on account of his father’s attainder. And for God’s sake, keep your voice down! You’re not wrong when you say that this could be interpreted as treason.’
Frightened, I lowered my voice to a whisper. ‘And Clarence’s daughter?’
‘Same reason, of course. Besides, what dolt would want a woman on the throne? We nearly had one once, and look what an unmitigated disaster Matilda was all those centuries ago.’
‘You still haven’t answered my query,’ I hissed. ‘Why doesn’t the duke ask his mother for the truth?’
‘I haven’t enquired,’ Timothy snapped back. ‘It’s not my place. I just carry out my orders. At a guess, I’d say it’s not the sort of question a man wants to ask his mother. “Did you cuckold my father while he was away fighting the French?” Especially if the rumours are true and the man concerned wasn’t even a member of the nobility, but a common archer.’
‘There are rumours, then?’
‘There are always rumours,’ was the brief riposte.
Silence reigned for a moment or two while I studied the paper in front of me once again. The more I read it, the more I could see the desperate need for secrecy, even from my travelling companion. If Duchess Cicely’s claim had been a lie, prompted by nothing other than anger at Edward’s clandestine marriage, and if the king was truly her eldest son by her husband, the late Duke of York, then what I was about to get involved in was in very truth high treason, and enough to get me hanged, drawn and quartered. I broke into a cold sweat.
‘You realize I’m putting my head in a noose?’ I demanded. ‘I have a wife and children dependent on me. I have every right to refuse.’
Timothy nodded. ‘His Grace knows that and would do everything in his power to protect you if things should go wrong. It’s why he wants to speak to you himself.’
‘To over-persuade me, you mean. To assure me that it will all be as simple as falling off a log.’
‘There’s no need to take that tone. Believe me, the duke fully appreciates the risk you’re running on his behalf. But as I said, you’re the only person he trusts completely. And you must see that this is something he needs to know. If King Edward is really a bastard. .’ The spymaster gestured with his hands.
‘Then, of course, his children have no claim to the crown,’ I finished. I tapped the paper, realizing as I did so that the deaths of Jeanne Lamprey and Reynold Makepeace had been almost completely driven from my thoughts. Dabbling in treason focuses the mind wonderfully. ‘So, who is this man I have to find? This Robin Gaunt? What is he like, and where does he live?’
Timothy looked guilty, always a bad sign. ‘Well, we know he probably lives in Paris. He did ten years ago, at any rate.’
Oh, marvellous! Paris is one of the largest, most highly populated cities in Europe and here was a man who possibly might live there.
‘What street?’ I asked coldly.
‘Ah!’ Timothy smirked and tried to put a brave face on things. ‘We don’t actually have that information.’ He added hurriedly, ‘He is English.’
I expelled my breath in silent fury. ‘It says here that he was one of the Duke of York’s men-at-arms when York was governor of France in the early forties, but that he stayed on after the English withdrawal because he’d married one of Duchess Cicely’s French tiring-women who didn’t want to leave. Doesn’t it perhaps occur to you that by this time he also might speak French like a native?’
‘He still has an English name.’
I let rip with a string of oaths that even put Timothy to the blush — ‘Really, Roger!’ he protested — and he could be pretty foul-mouthed when he put his mind to it, I can tell you.
‘Do you seriously understand how impossible this is?’ I fumed, fairly spluttering with rage. ‘You know I can’t speak French. You’ve forbidden me to take Mistress Gray into my confidence. Yet you expect me to wander all over Paris on my own — and how I’m to do that without arousing her suspicions, I’ve no idea — searching for a man who might not even live there any more, and if he does, is quite likely no longer distinguishable as an Englishman. You’re mad!’
‘You’ll manage,’ Timothy assured me winningly. ‘You always do.’
‘Bollocks!’ I stormed. ‘I suppose you can’t even tell me what this Robin Gaunt looks like?’
‘Ah, now there we might be able to help.’
‘Dear God, a miracle! Don’t tell me! Some ancient codger who knew Gaunt forty years ago, when they were soldiers together in France, but who hasn’t set eyes on him since.’
‘Well, yes,’ Timothy admitted, plainly unnerved by my perspicacity. ‘One of my agents only tracked him down the day before yesterday. We haven’t spoken to him yet — we thought it best to leave that to you — but it’s definite that he fought alongside Robin Gaunt and was garrisoned in Rouen with him. His name is Humphrey Culpepper and he lives in Stinking Lane, just off the Shambles. At least he’ll be able to give you some idea whether Gaunt was tall or short, fat or thin and if he had blue eyes or brown. I’m informed that Culpepper’s hair is grey now, so it’s probable that Gaunt’s is, too.’
‘Do you really think,’ I asked wrathfully, ‘that a soldier would have any idea of the colour of another soldier’s eyes? Especially after forty years! Your idea of military life needs some revision, old friend.’
‘Well, he may be able to tell you something useful,’ Timothy snapped, exasperated, and knowing, I suspected, that my anger was justified. He was nobody’s fool and could appreciate as well as I could that I was being sent on a well-nigh impossible mission.
He got up. The evening had drawn in while we were talking and it was nearly too dark to see one another clearly, but he wouldn’t send for candles: he didn’t want anyone else in the room.
‘What do I do with this?’ I queried, indicating the paper on the table and also rising to my feet.
‘Put it away, but for the Lord’s sweet sake keep it safe. No one must be allowed to set eyes on it but yourself. If anyone were to read those questions that you must put to Gaunt and his wife, it wouldn’t take them long to work out what it’s all about. And I don’t need to tell you, Roger, to watch yourself. If any Woodville agent gets a whisper of this, I wouldn’t give much for your chances.’