The Merry Devils

What they would not at first see was the peril that lay at the heart of the work. Willoughby had disguised it very carefully. He turned back to the first page and began to read. His dark laughter soon filled the room. He was truly delighted with the play.

The Witch of Oxford would be a fitting epitaph.

*

Nicholas Bracewell was candidly surprised. As he sat in the parlour of the house and listened to Grace Napier, he saw that his major assumption had been wrong.

'I thought that you used Edmund Hoode to get information at the request of your brother,' he said. 'You needed an inside knowledge of our work and friendship with our playwright was a way to obtain it.'

'Yes,' she agreed. I am sorry to have taken advantage of Master Hoode in this way. It must seem to you that I toyed cruelly with his affections but I took no pleasure in it, sir, and it caused me much heartache. But my hand was forced. The end justified the means.'... 'What was that end?' he asked.

'Revenge.'

If Nicholas was surprised then Isobel Drewry was openly amazed. She sat alongside Gregory Napier and heard the truth emerge for the first time. It showed her just how little she really knew her friend.

'You are a deep one, Grace!' she said. I was not able to confide in you, Isobel.'

'It is just as well,' added the other with a giggle. 'I could never keep a secret. As it was, I had no notion that any of this was going on and can now understand why you were always a little disappointed at the performances.'

Yes,' said Grace. 'My plans did not quite work out. I wanted to humiliate Westfield's Men in public but we failed each time. I own that I needed your company at tine theatre to hide my purposes. I hope that you will not feel too abused, Isobel.'

'Not at all,' said the other chirpily. 'I had some wonderful afternoons that have helped to change my whole life.'

'Let us come back to the revenge,' suggested Nicholas. 'What reason could you have for hating Lord Westfield so?'

'His callous treatment of his nephew.'

'Master Francis Jordan?"

'Do not mention that foul name to me, sir,' she said with asperity. 'It is not to stand alongside that of his brother. I am speaking of David Jordan.' A mixture of pride, anger and intense passion made her features glow. 'David is the cause of all that has happened.'

'How?'

'I will tell you, sir.'

Grace Napier was calm, poised and highly articulate. Her story was a revelation. Instead of being simply a mercer's daughter who liked to visit the theatre, she was a young woman so deeply and desperately in love that she would stop at nothing to avenge what she saw as the terrible wrong done to her inamorato. She had met David Jordan over a year earlier when she was out riding near the boundary of his land. He was in a severely depressed state. His wife had died recently and the baby daughter who survived her lingered for only four days before she went off to join her mother. David was distraught. The double blow shattered him completely.

Friendship with Grace Napier slowly helped to restore him. It was a gentle, unforced courtship that lasted many months. Drawn more and more together, they reached the point where they could think of nothing but sharing their whole lives together.

Tears sparkled in Grace's eyes as she recalled it.

'David proposed to me in the wood nearby. The sky was blue and the sun was slanting down through the branches of the trees. Birds were singing. Everything was so beautiful and tranquil.'

'The romance of it!' said Isobel, carried away.

'Naturally,' continued Grace with a soft smile, 'I accepted the proposal. It was arranged that I would go to Parkbrook next day and the engagement would be formally announced.'

'What happened?' said Nicholas.

'I never saw David again.'

'Why?'

'He was thrown from his horse and badly injured.'

'Did you not rush to It is bedside?' said Isobel.

'Immediately, but they would not admit me.'

'But you were his fiancee."

'They would not accept that,' said Grace. 'Our courtship had been conducted in secret for obvious reasons. Father is wealthy but he is still only a tradesman. David conies from a family with noble blood. He wanted to announce our engagement when it was too late for anyone to stop the marriage from going ahead/ She winced as a memory haunted her. 'I was turned away from Parkbrook.'

'Did you not speak with Master Jordan's physician?' said Nicholas.

'That was forbidden as well.'

'By whom?'

'Master Francis Jordan. He was staying at Parkbrook when the accident occurred and he took charge. Nobody was allowed in. I called, I wrote, I even tried to bribe the servants for information but it was to no avail. David was kept from me.'

'You must have been in despair!' said Isobel.

'I was. In the end, I turned to Lord Westfield for help but he would not see me. I was told that his lordship could not spare the time. He was always too busy at court or spending time with his company. His nephew was in a parlous condition and Lord Westfield was watching plays! You can see I came to hate the company. Westfield's Men became a symbol of all the things I detested.'

'Lord Westfield has his faults,' conceded Nicholas, 'but I cannot believe there was anything calculated in his behaviour. He was not to know that you had been on the point of joining the family.'

'That was not the only reason I despised him, sir,' she said. 'It was he who allowed Parkbrook to be taken from David. It was Lord Westfield who helped his other nephew to become the new master.'

'How was that done?' wondered Nicholas.

'Yes,' said Isobel in bewilderment. 'I know little of such things but how could one man inherit when his elder brother was still alive and well?'

'David was alive--but far from well.'

'That does not alter the situation, Grace.'

'It does, Isobel. I puzzled over that very point because it had such significance for me. After all, I was to have been the new mistress of Parkbrook. I felt that both David and I had been robbed.'

'So what did you do?' said Nicholas.

'I consulted a lawyer in the Inns of Court. He explained that there was a way that David could lose his inheritance. If he failed to pass an inquiry De idiota inquirendo then he could be dispossessed. It is unusual but not unknown. The lawyer told me of a case in which lie was involved some years ago. It concerned a large house in Petersfield. I cannot remember all the details but it was to do with the conveyance of the fee simple and involved a breach of the entail. Anxious to get the house for himself, the offended party challenged the conveyance on the grounds of the vendor's incompetence by reason of idiocy to conduct affairs. The Queen's Escheator in Sussex was charged with an inquiry to establish the vendor's sanity, with a view to placing the estate under the Court of Wards and Liveries.'