Sovereign

BARAK AND I had left London the day after the executions. It was a cold ride to Kent but fortunately the frost kept the roads dry and we reached Ashford by evening. We had spent the next day nosing through various archives, and I had been pleased to find evidence to back Sergeant Leacon’s claim that his parents’ land was indeed held under a valid freehold grant. I suspected the landlord had falsified a document somewhere, and I was looking forward to meeting the landlord’s lawyer tomorrow in Ashford, along with young Leacon and his parents. That left a free day, which I had told Barak I needed for some private business. I had left him in Ashford the previous afternoon and ridden the ten miles to the village. A small, poor place like a hundred such hamlets in England; a few houses straggling along one street, an i

I stepped quietly outside, pulling my coat around me tightly, or at least as tightly as I could for it was loose now; I had lost weight in the fever I had caught in November. I had spent three weeks in bed, delirious at first. When the fever subsided it had amused and touched me to see how Joan and Tamasin argued over who should bring my food.

It was bitterly cold. My breath steamed in front of me as I crossed to the little church and stepped round the side to the graveyard. My feet crunched in the frozen grass as I walked among the headstones, searching.

It was a small, poor stone, hidden right at the back and shaded by trees from a little wood behind. I bent and studied the faded, lichened inscription:

In memory of Giles Blaybourne

1390-1446

his wife Elizabeth

1395-1444

and their son Edward

died in the King’s service in France, 1441

I stood there, lost in thought. I did not hear the light footsteps approaching, and jumped violently at the sound of a voice.

‘So Edward Blaybourne gave his son his father’s name. Giles.’

I turned to find Barak gri

‘God’s death,’ I demanded, ‘What are you doing here?’

‘I guessed where you must have been going. It wasn’t that difficult. Somewhere less than a day’s ride from Ashford. It had to be Braybourne village. I left before sun-up this morning and rode down. Sukey is tied up behind the church.’

‘You nearly gave me a seizure.’

‘Sorry.’ He looked around him. ‘Not much of a place, is it?’

‘No.’ I looked at the gravestone. ‘Poor Blaybourne’s parents, they did not live long after their son disappeared. Cecily Neville must have had him declared dead.’ The import of his words earlier suddenly struck me. ‘Wait – you said – you know Giles Wre

‘I guessed. And there were some things you said, when you were delirious.’

My eyes widened. ‘What things?’

‘Once you shouted out that Wre

I looked at him seriously. ‘You know how dangerous that knowledge is.’

He shrugged. ‘Without those papers, who can prove anything? You burned them all, didn’t you?’

‘Yes. I did not want to tell you, it is better no one else knows the truth.’

He nodded slowly, then looked at me again. ‘You killed him, didn’t you? Wre

I bit my lip and sighed deeply. ‘It will haunt me till I die.’

‘It was self-defence. There was no alternative.’

‘No.’ I sighed again. ‘I held his head under the water until he drowned. Then I turned the body over so he lay face down and it would look as though he had fallen in and drowned himself. That was how you found him, Jack. With the great lump they found inside him, it was enough for the coroner.’

‘Who was Wre

‘He was going to look for supporters of the conspiracy in London. Ironically his original contact was Bernard Locke.’

‘I suppose there still are some conspirators in London.’

I shrugged. ‘I suppose so. Perhaps the King in his foolishness and tyra

We stood looking in silence at the old gravestone. Then Barak asked, ‘Why come here? Curiosity?’

I laughed sadly. ‘When I recovered from my fever and learned Wre

‘You owe him nothing,’ Barak said.

‘It was a crazed notion, as I said; perhaps I was still a little delirious.’

‘You should feel no guilt over him.’ Barak paused. ‘Nor over your father.’

I nodded slowly. ‘No. You are right. I have paid my father’s mortgage, put a fine marble headstone over his grave. I shall visit it soon. But I see now that we were always distant, always apart. That was the way it was and there is no point in regretting it now.’

‘No.’

‘But I wanted to come here. To see. I still ca

‘What will you do with his library?’

‘I do not know.’ We had found Wre

He made a face. ‘Visit the damp demesne of York again? Eat her pottage? Only if I must.’

‘After you have done that I think I will get in touch with Master Leland the antiquarian, see if there is anything he wants. I suppose you had better bring back the old lawbooks. Gray’s I

‘I might see Maleverer there. Now he has lost his place on the Council of the North I can thumb my nose at the arsehole.’

I laughed. ‘That he would not like. I suspected him for a while, you know. But you were right, he was too stupid to plot anything. There was nothing behind that bluster of his, he was an empty vessel. Yes, thumb your nose if you see him.’

Barak looked at me. ‘There is something I have been meaning to tell you. Now might be a good time.’

‘Oh, yes?’

‘I have asked Tamasin to marry me.’

‘It did not take her too long to bring you round, then.’

‘No.’ He laughed. ‘She has agreed.’ He looked down, nudging a loose stone with his boot. ‘And we were careless. It seems I may have a son myself before long.’ He laughed again, embarrassed. ‘Perhaps one day someone will make him king. He could start another reformation, bring England back to the faith of my Jewish ancestors.’

‘That would be something.’ I looked at him. ‘You are sure it is what you want, this marriage?’

‘Yes,’ he said decidedly.

‘You will suit each other well. Perhaps she will make you tidier in your habits when she is mistress of your home, and we shall have a neater office.’

‘She can try.’

‘Thank you for all you did,’ I said quietly. ‘At York and afterwards. You stayed steadfast and loyal, while I was unfair to Tamasin.’

‘’S all right.’ He smiled. ‘ ’Tis time to settle down at last. Unless you grub up more adventures.’

‘Never,’ I said. ‘Never again so long as I live. But I have grubbed up something else.’