Tombland

We had reached the bottom of Tombland. ‘Look there,’ Nicholas said, and pointed across the road to where Gawen Reynolds and his wife had just stepped out of their house. The old man, in his red aldermanic robe, leaned heavily on his stick; his wife was dressed, as ever, in black, white bandages on her hands. Reynolds saw us, following our passage with a ferocious glare. Nicholas insolently doffed his cap to him. We rode into Magdalen Street and the Maid’s Head stableyard. The ostler brought mounting blocks, and Nicholas helped me down. As I stepped on the ground I heard a harsh voice behind me. ‘Can’t you even dismount properly, crookback?’

We turned to find Reynolds standing there, hands clenched on his stick. The ostler stared at him. ‘Piss off,’ the old man said, and the ostler hastened into the inn.

‘I was injured, Reynolds,’ I answered coldly, ‘at the hanging ten days ago. Your grandsons will have told you. They were there, to see their own father hanged.’

‘Good. He was lawfully sentenced.’

‘Don’t pretend you haven’t heard of the pardon application,’ Nicholas said hotly. ‘I’m told it’s the talk of Norwich.’

‘What do you want, Master Reynolds?’ I asked curtly.

‘To know how long this pardon will take?’

‘I do not know.’

His eyes narrowed. ‘I have contacts in London who can find out.’

‘I would not cross the Lady Elizabeth,’ I said.

‘Piss the whore’s daughter,’ Reynolds snapped. ‘It’s Mary who counts in Norfolk.’

After a moment’s silence, I asked, ‘Why do you want your son-in-law dead so much?’

‘Because he’s a weakling, a lecher, the Boleyn family is tainted, and I want the thorn out of my family’s flesh.’

I met his gaze. ‘You may be a power in Norwich, Master Reynolds, and your grandsons figures of fear. But there is nothing you can do. The pardon has been lodged, and I have just seen the constable at the castle. He will ensure Master Boleyn is kept safe until the result of the application is known.’

Reynolds looked at me, wrinkling his nose with contempt. ‘You are a crookbacked scuttling lawyer, no proper man for all your learning. When are you leaving?’

‘Soon enough.’

‘Then at least I will not see your ugly face again. The sight of it made my wife cry, I had to send her home.’ He looked at Nicholas. ‘I will leave you to take your pleasures. I understand from the inn servants that some young woman comes here, and your friend with one arm, and they go to your room. Whatever games you get up to together, they must be worthy of a fairground. Does the lanky boy join in?’

Nicholas took a step towards him, but I laughed, which seemed to infuriate Reynolds more than anything. ‘Have you no honour, sir?’ Reynolds snapped. ‘No gentleman would take such remarks for jest.’

‘It was the sort of thing your grandsons might say, Master Reynolds. You talk like some malicious boy.’ Reynolds gave a disgusted snarl, but composed himself and hobbled out.

‘Old viper,’ Nicholas said. ‘I’d like to have sent him on his way with a boot up his arse.’

‘You sound just like Barak,’ I said, and smiled.

* * *

THE NEXT DAY , Tuesday, I went on my own for a longer, unaccompanied ride, through St Stephen’s Gate and out into the countryside. I was gaining confidence now. The hot weather had returned in earnest, and I noticed how ill-grown the crops were. I passed a large saffron field. After a mile the road passed a large triangular area enclosed with a hedge and ditch, the familiar hurdles behind, but cattle, not sheep, grazed within. I passed a shack, and saw an old man sitting outside watching the animals.

‘God give you good morrow, Goodman,’ I said. He stood and bowed. ‘Whose are all these cattle?’

He smiled. ‘You be a furriner, master, to ask that. They all belong to the city folk, who use them for their milk. Some are shared between two families. The land was enclosed by the city, it stops the beasts awandering; I’m the neatherd, the man who looks after them,’ he added proudly. ‘Anyone who pays a ha’penny a week may graze their beasts here.’

‘What of those who cannot afford that?’

He looked at me askance. ‘Then they must look to it their beasts don’t stray onto another’s land, or pay a fine to get them back. Excuse me, sir, I must keep a-doin’, there’s a calf should go back to his mother over there.’ He bowed quickly and hurried off, though I could see no calf in trouble. I rode down to the river, then back again, reflecting that nothing in Norfolk was straightforward.

* * *

ON WEDNESDAY , I had arranged to take a longer ride, with Barak and Nicholas and also Josephine and Edward Brown. Both had learned to ride in London, but had not done so for some time and were keen to do so again, so we hired a pair of horses for them at the inn. It was partly by way of thanks for what Josephine had done for me. The innkeeper bowed, but I suspected that by now Master Theobald, kindly man though he was, would be glad to be rid of us. I wondered which of his staff had been gossiping to Reynolds’s people.