Heartstone (Matthew Shardlake #5)(3)

BACK IN GATEHOUSE Court the flower seller was gone. I went into chambers, where my young clerk Skelly was copying out some orders in the outer office. He was bent closely over his desk, peering carefully at the document through his glasses.

‘There is a View of Arms over at Lincoln’s Inn Fields,’ I told him.

He looked up. ‘I’ve heard the Trained Bands have to find a thousand men for the south coast,’ he said in his quiet voice. ‘Do you think the French are really going to invade, sir?’

‘I don’t know, Skelly.’ I smiled reassuringly. ‘But you won’t be called. You’ve a wife and three children, and you need your glasses to see.’

‘So I hope and pray, sir.’

‘I am sure.’ But these days one never knew.

‘Is Barak not back from Westminster?’ I asked, glancing over at my assistant’s vacant desk. I had sent him to the Requests Office to lodge some depositions.

‘No, sir.’

I frowned. ‘I hope Tamasin is all right.’

Skelly smiled. ‘I’m sure it is only a delay getting a wherry on the river, sir. You know how busy it is with supply boats.’

‘Perhaps. Tell Barak to come and see me when he returns. I must go back to my papers.’ I went through to my office, little doubting Skelly thought me over-anxious. But Barak and his wife Tamasin were dear friends. Tamasin was expecting a baby in two months, and her first child had been born dead. I dropped into my chair with a sigh and picked up the particulars of a claim I had been reading earlier. My eyes wandered again to the letter on the corner of the desk. I made myself look away, but soon my thoughts returned to the View of Arms: I thought of invasion, of those young men ripped apart and slaughtered in battle.

I looked out of the window, then smiled and shook my head as I saw the tall, skinny figure of my old enemy, Stephen Bealknap, walking across the sunlit court. He had acquired a stoop now, and in his black barrister’s robe and white coif he looked like a huge magpie, seeking worms on the ground.

Bealknap suddenly straightened and stared ahead, and I saw Barak walking across the court towards him, his leather bag slung over one shoulder. I noticed my assistant’s stomach bulged now against his green doublet. His face was acquiring a little plumpness too that softened his features and made him look younger. Bealknap turned and walked rapidly away towards the chapel. That strange, miserly man had, two years ago, got himself indebted to me for a small amount. Normally bold as brass, Bealknap, for whom it was a point of pride never to part with money, would turn and hasten away if ever he saw me. It was a standing joke at Lincoln’s Inn. Evidently he was avoiding Barak now too. My assistant paused and grinned broadly at Bealknap’s back as he scuttled away. I felt relieved; obviously nothing had happened to Tamasin.

A few minutes later he joined me in my office. ‘All well with the depositions?’ I asked.

‘Yes, but it was hard to get a boat from Westminster stairs. The river’s packed with cogs taking supplies to the armies, the wherries had to pull in to the bank to make way. One of the big warships was down by the Tower, too. I think they sailed it up from Deptford so the people could see it. But I didn’t hear any cheering from the banks.’

‘People are used to them now. It was different when the Mary Rose and the Great Harry sailed out; hundreds lined the banks to cheer.’ I waved at the stool in front of my desk. ‘Come, sit down. How is Tamasin today?’

He sat and smiled wryly. ‘Grumpy. Feeling the heat, and her feet are swollen.’

‘Still sure the child’s a girl?’

‘Ay. She consulted some wise woman touting for business in Cheapside yesterday, who told her what she wanted to hear, of course.’

‘And you are still as sure the child’s a boy?’

‘I am.’ He shook his head. ‘Tammy insists on carrying on as usual. I tell her ladies of good class take to their chambers eight weeks before the birth. I thought that might give her pause but it didn’t.’

‘Is it eight weeks now?’

‘So Guy says. He’s coming to visit her tomorrow. Still, she has Goodwife Marris to look after her. Tammy was glad to see me go to work. She says I fuss.’

I smiled. I knew Barak and Tamasin were happy now. After the death of their first child there had been a bad time, and Tamasin had left him. But he had won her back with a steady, loving persistence I would once not have thought him capable of. I had helped them find a little house nearby, and a capable servant in Joan’s friend Goodwife Marris, who had worked as a wet nurse and was used to children.

I nodded at the window. ‘I saw Bealknap turn to avoid you.’

He laughed. ‘He’s started doing that lately. He fears I’m going to ask him for that three pounds he owes you. Stupid arsehole.’ His eyes glinted wickedly. ‘You should ask him for four, seeing how the value of money’s fallen.’

‘You know, I sometimes wonder if friend Bealknap is quite sane. Two years now he has made a fool and mock of himself by avoiding me, and now you too.’

‘And all the while he gets richer. They say he sold some of that gold he has to the Mint for the recoinage, and that he is lending more out to people looking for money to pay the taxes, now that lending at interest has been made legal.’

‘There are some at Lincoln’s Inn who have needed to do that to pay the Benevolence. Thank God I had enough gold. Yet the way Bealknap behaves does not show a balanced mind.’