‘What means this sudden return?’ Margery wondered.
‘The strangest news that ever you heard, my love.’
‘Good news, I trust?’
‘Good news but mingled with bad,’ he confessed, putting an affectionate arm around her. ‘Lord Westfield sent for me to put a proposition to us that still makes my head reel.’
‘He bestowed money on us?’ said Hoode optimistically.
Gill was cynical. ‘Disbanded us, more like!’
‘Far from it, Barnaby,’ explained Firethorn. ‘A signal honour has been conferred upon us. We will be the envy of the London theatre. But honour, alas, comes at a high price. While some will prosper, others will have to suffer their absence.’ He placed the softest kiss on his wife’s forehead. ‘We are to leave the city, my angel, and that right soon.’
‘I expected no less,’ she said with a brave smile. ‘Marry an actor and you are a hostage to fortune. There will be hardship without you, but I will bear it nobly.’
‘As ever, my pippin.’
Firethorn pulled her to him and gave her another gentle kiss. Disgusted by the sight of marital tenderness, Gill became increasingly impatient.
‘Why did our patron summon you?’ he asked.
‘To show me the invitation,’ said Firethorn.
‘What invitation?’
‘The one that set my blood racing, Barnaby. The one that made me gallop hell-for-leather back to Shoreditch to acquaint you with its import.’
‘Then do so without further delay.’
‘My mind is still bursting asunder.’
‘Why?’ demanded Gill. ‘Why, why, why?’
‘Will the company still go on tour?’ asked Hoode.
‘Oh, yes!’ affirmed Firethorn. ‘And such a tour as we have never been on before. It will be a supreme challenge, but it may also be the crowning achievement of Westfield’s Men.’
‘Skulking from town to town like beggars?’ sneered Gill. ‘You call that a crowning achievement? It is an insult to ask of a man of my abilities to play before the dullards of the English countryside. I refuse to lower my high standards.’
‘You will need to raise them,’ warned Firethorn. ‘We must give the very best account of ourselves, Barnaby. But not for the benefit of English eyes and ears. We are to sail across the sea on a glorious adventure.’
‘The sea!’ gasped Margery, clutching at him. ‘Will you go so far away from me, Lawrence? Why? When? For how long?’
‘And where?’ asked Gill.
‘To Holland, Germany, and thence to Bohemia.’
His wife was aghast. ‘Bohemia!’
‘That is our principal destination,’ he said. ‘We have received an invitation to play for two weeks at the Imperial Court in Prague. What higher accolade could there be for Westfield’s Men? The company has performed for Her Majesty on more than one occasion. An even mightier sovereign now recognises our worth. We are going to Bohemia at the express wish of the Emperor Rudolph the Second. This is one of the proudest moments of my life. We are set to conquer a whole new world.’
Firethorn was positively glowing but his wife was fighting to hold back tears. All that she knew about Bohemia was that it was a distant country which would deprive her of her husband for a long and arduous period. Travelling around England with his company, he could at least keep in regular contact with her by letter. If he went to Bohemia, she feared that she would lose all track of him. Firethorn himself was enough of a husband to regret his forced departure, but he was even more of an actor and thus eager to respond to the call for a command performance in front of an Emperor.
Barnaby Gill was equally thrilled by the invitation. He could already hear the applause at the Imperial Court as he displayed the full repertoire of his theatrical talents. He was quick to endorse acceptance of the invitation.
‘We must go!’ he asserted. ‘By heaven, we must!’
Edmund Hoode could not resist some gentle mockery.
‘We will, Barnaby,’ he said. ‘Without you, alas.’
‘Without me?’
‘You will be too busy with your other tempting offers.’
***
Anne Hendrik lay naked in his arms while he stroked her hair. Conscious that they would soon be separated for a lengthy period, they were sharing a bed for the night while they still could. It gave their love-making an extra urgency. Panting from their exertions and glistening with perspiration, they lay there in silence for several minutes and listened to the beating of each other’s hearts. It was Nicholas Bracewell who finally put quiet words to sad thoughts.
‘I will miss you,’ he whispered.
‘Mine will be the greater loss,’ she said. ‘I will to Holland and back as swiftly as I may, but your journey will last an eternity. While you are being honoured in a foreign court, I will be pining for you in an empty bed.’
‘It does not have to be that way, Anne.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘I do not have to leave you.’
‘But you told me that it was all arranged. You were at the Queen’s Head this evening when Lawrence Firethorn sent for you to tell you of the invitation and to seek your advice. The decision to go to Bohemia had already been taken.’
‘It had. Westfield’s Men will soon set sail.’
‘Then there is an end to it.’
‘Only if I go with them.’
Anne stiffened in surprise and pulled away from him so that she could look into his eyes. ‘You have to go, Nick,’ she said. ‘They would be lost without you. Westfield’s Men have come to rely on you totally.’
‘That may be another reason to stay behind.’
‘Stay behind! I do not believe that I heard you say that. To visit other countries and play at foreign courts. This is an opportunity that may never come again. Any man of the theatre would grab at it.’
‘And so would I if it were not for the circumstances.’
‘Circumstances?’
‘You, Anne,’ he said, pulling her to him again. ‘I yearn to go with the company, yet I am loath to leave your side. This invitation is like a blessing from on high. It will take us from a plague-ridden city to the capital of the Holy Roman Empire, where we will be honoured guests. My head urges me to join the company on this wonderful adventure, but my heart tells me that my place is here with you.’ He cupped her chin in his palm. ‘Say the word and I will remain behind.’
Anne was profoundly touched. ‘Would you really do that, Nick? Bid farewell to Westfield’s Men for my sake?’
‘I would!’ he affirmed.
‘That pleases me more than I can say.’
‘Then choose for me, Anne. Do I go or stay?’
‘It is a decision that only you can make,’ she said, ‘and it would be unfair of me to influence you. Weigh duty against inclination here. All that I will offer is this comment. I would much rather welcome a happy Nick Bracewell back from his foreign travels than live in Bankside with an unhappy one. The mere fact that you were willing to make such a sacrifice is enough for me. Do not feel obliged to go through with it.’
Nicholas lay there in the dark and wrestled with his problem. There was no comfortable solution to the conflict of loyalties. Any decision he made would involve pain, loss, and deep regret, but the election had to be his. Anne was right. It was unjust to make her either give him permission to go or entreat him to stay. Nicholas had to take account of all the possible consequences of his actions. The one saving grace of joining Westfield’s Men on their tour was that Anne Hendrik would be waiting for him on his return. If he left the company at such a moment, there would never be a joyous reunion with his fellows. Close friendships would perish. An occupation that was a labour of love would become a sour memory.
‘I will go with them,’ he said.
‘That is where you belong, Nick.’
‘But I’ll not spent a day longer apart from you than I have to, Anne. You must sail for Holland, and so must we. Let us at least travel together as far as Flushing. The sea is in my blood, as you know, and I would love to share its mystery with you even on so short a voyage. Shall you sail beside me?’