Bertha was speaking. ‘I found a few bodies there at different times. Tha’s why I goes there. It’s a good spot fer pickins.’
‘Do you. .? Do you think these bodies come out of the drain?’
‘Lord, I never thought about it! Maybe they does, maybe they doesn’t. But I s’pose it’s possible. Not my place t’ question what the good God sends me. I just fishes out the corpses and am thankful for what I gets.’
‘And I might have been another of them,’ I mused. ‘I feel certain I was intended to be.’
‘G’arn with you! Nobody ain’t goin’ t’ kill you that easy.’ Bertha was dismissive. Nevertheless, she added, ‘What you up to, then? Pryin’ and pokin’ about I guess, like the first time I met you?’
‘I suppose so,’ I admitted sheepishly, not feeling up to telling her the whole story. I changed the subject abruptly. ’Will those clothes ever be any good again?’
She was indignant. ‘’Course they will! Think I don’ know me own business? I bin restorin’ clothes what’ve bin in the river fer years. And most of ’em’ve bin soaked a lot longer than what yours ’ave. But it won’t be done in a trice. You may ’ave t’ stay ’ere the rest o’ today an’ t’night. You can’t run through the streets as naked as the day you was born, now can you?’
I was appalled at the prospect, but I could also see that I had no alternative. My tunic and hose would take some time to dry before they could be worked on to bring them back to anything like their former glory. And I suddenly remembered my hat with the fake jewel pinned to the upturned brim. Had I been wearing it? If so, it was probably gone for ever. Moreover, I wasn’t certain that I could move, even if I were prepared to expose my manly body to the interested of Southwark. A great lassitude was stealing over me, and the heat from the fire was making me feel stupid.
‘Wha-what did you put in that ale?’ I asked sleepily. I remember that I wasn’t at all perturbed by the realization.
‘Lettuce juice,’ Bertha answered, her voice coming from a long way off. ‘You needs the rest. Don’ worry. I ain’t goin’ t’ rob you. You’m a friend. You comes from the same part o’ the world as what I do. .’
Her voice grew fainter, dwindling to a mere thread of sound before it ceased altogether. I sank deeper into the velvety darkness. .
I was standing in the great solar in Baynard’s Castle between Sir Pomfret and Lady Fitzalan. There seemed to be no one else present except the Dowager Duchess of York, facing us and tapping on the floor with her silver-handled cane.
‘Where are the rest of you?’ she was demanding of Sir Pomfret. ‘I was told that all your brothers would be present.’ Sir Pomfret made no reply and the duchess tapped even harder, adding an impatient foot to the beat. ‘Well, man? Speak up! Ah!’ This exclamation followed the opening of the solar door as Godfrey and Lewis appeared. ‘Here at least are two more.’ The twins bowed and went to stand behind their brother, jostling me out of the way as they did so, while the duchess continued glaring at us all. Her voice rose to a screech. ‘But some are still missing. Where are the others? Where are Henry and Warren and Raisley and George?’
‘No, no!’ protested Bevis and Blaise, getting up from the window embrasure where they had been sitting (although I felt sure that they hadn’t been there earlier). ‘Your Grace means Thomas and Peter and Maurice and Cornelius. Young Gideon can’t be with us because he’s disappeared.’
Duchess Cicely had turned towards them as they spoke, but now she swung slowly back to point an accusing finger at me.
‘Haven’t you found him yet, Master Chapman?’ she demanded. ‘The king told you to do so and before his coronation. The king, my son. . The king, my son. . The king, my son. .’
I noticed the expression of horror caused by her words on all the other faces, mouths opening and shutting as though they were trying to protest. They reminded me of the fish that used to be netted from the abbot’s carp pond at Glastonbury and how ridiculous the poor creatures looked once they were landed. I started to laugh, loudly, stupidly, and found myself shouting, ‘You fools! You fools! You never thought Edward was going to be king, did you? Did you? Did you. .?’
The cry died on my lips and I sat up with a start, aching in every joint and limb. Opposite me, seated beside the fire on a rickety three-legged stool and watching me fixedly, was Bertha Mendip. We were alone — there was no sign of the young girl — and early morning sunlight was streaming in through the open doorway of the hut.
‘What. . What day is it?’ I mumbled, struggling to get my bearings.
‘Friday,’ she said. ‘Freya’s day — the mother o’ the gods. You’m slept all night through, but not easy. You’m bin tossin’ and turnin’ and mutterin’ in yer sleep somethin’ terrible, so you ’ave.’
Friday. Today, Lord Hastings would be beheaded on Tower Green, quietly and without fuss. Indeed, so little attention would be drawn to the proceedings that, in after years, many people would continue, mistakenly, to assert that that he had been executed out of hand the preceding week.
‘Yer boots aren’t quite dry yet,’ Bertha said, ‘but the rest of yer gear’s ready.’ And she indicated my hose, shirt and tunic lying beside me. ‘There’s a hat, too,’ she added, ‘what I fished out the water. Gawd! You in a gen’leman’s hat! Velvet!’ She rocked to and fro, convulsed by a paroxysm of laughter.
I couldn’t have taken umbrage even had I wished to. It had been no vain boast when she said that she knew her business: all the garments had been restored, if not quite to their former glory, then to a condition that would deceive most eyes.
‘You’re a marvel, Bertha,’ I breathed, picking them up and examining them one by one.
The next moment, I was hurriedly pulling the blanket I was wrapped in up around my shoulders as I realized that by sitting up I had rendered myself half-naked.
My companion gave another of her cackling laughs. ‘No need fer modesty, lad. I seen better nor you in me time. Still, if you’d rather get dressed on yer own, I’ll get meself to the Rattlebones and get you summat to eat and drink. Big fellow like you needs ’is victuals.’
‘Wait!’ I said. ‘Bertha, I can’t pay you. I’ve no money.’
She grinned. ‘Oh, yes you ’ave.’ She picked up my belt with the money purse still firmly attached to it and shook it in my face. ‘Whoever ’it you on the ’ead weren’t after robbin’ you. This ’ere was still strapped round yer waist when I pulled you out the water.’
I breathed a sigh of relief, opening the purse to check the contents. All my money seemed to be there and I handed a couple of coins to Bertha. For her part, she continued to regard me curiously.
‘Who did ’it you over the ’ead,’ she asked, ‘and whereabouts were you? From what you said yesterday, seemed like you reck’ned you’d been pushed down that drain what empties the Wallbrook inta the river. What you got yerself mixed up in, lad? You’ve nearly got yerself killed, you knows that, don’t you? If it ’adn’t bin fer me, you’d likely be fish meat by now.’
I nodded humbly. ‘I know that, Bertha, and I’m grateful, believe me. Is it really Friday? I must have been asleep for hours and hours and hours. If I remember rightly, I hadn’t long had my dinner when. . when. .’
‘You ’ave bin asleep fer hours and hours and hours,’ my companion acknowledged, ‘but that were the lettuce juice. I got some from ’pothec’ry when I went fer the ale. Sleep’s the only cure fer a shock like you’d ’ad. But it weren’t easy sleep, like I told you. An’ afore you woke up jus’ now, you was in a right sweat. Callin’ out a lot o’ men’s names, you were. An’ summat about a sun an’ a king.’ She eyed me sternly. ‘You goin’ t’ tell me what ’appened or not?’ She sat down again on her stool. ‘’Cause I ain’t goin’ fer yer breakfast until you do.’
I could see she was in earnest and I owed her my life. So I arranged the blanket more modestly about me, to the great irritation of the fleas settled within its folds, and proceeded to tell her as much as I knew (but making no mention of my lord of Gloucester or his intentions regarding the crown). Bertha heard me out without comment and when I had finished, she got to her feet once more.