Tombland

We arrived at Tombland. The houses of the rich had closed gates, as did the cathedral. No servants bustled about the square now. There were plenty of poor folk around, though, many seeming to walk with a new confidence. I heard a man call at the shuttered windows of one of the great houses, ‘We’re coming for you, merchants of Norwich!’

Barak fingered his beard. ‘You can see why the city fathers are cooperating with Kett. They fear that if they don’t, they’ll be next.’ He looked at me. ‘Where do you think the money that was passed about the camp came from?’

‘I think plenty came from the villages. But some has been taken from the manor houses.’

‘Stolen,’ Nicholas said.

I thought of Southwell leaving St Michael’s Chapel. I wondered, but said nothing.

* * *

WE WENT FIRST TO the Maid’s Head. Here too doors were closed, windows shuttered. We knocked, and a servant opened the front door a crack and eyed us suspiciously. I asked for Master Theobald. He came, his eyes widening at our dishevelled state. I told him we had been taken to the camp, but allowed to come into town.

He invited us inside the empty inn. He wrung his hands. ‘That you should be reduced to such a state, Serjeant Shardlake, I am so sorry. You should escape the city while you can, by one of the western gates. The constables will not stop you.’ He lowered his voice. ‘Many of the richest citizens are leaving.’

‘I have given my oath not to leave.’ I said nothing of my wider agreement with Kett; the fewer the people who knew about that the better.

Master Theobald clenched his hands. ‘Oaths to rogues like that mean nothing. These creatures wandering over Mousehold, bathing naked without shame in the river, the whole country is full of these mutinies and commotions, they must be put down.’ He leaned close. ‘Master Leonard Sotherton rode out to London at first light, to tell the Protector of the size of this camp and to ask for help.’

‘Perhaps when the commissioners arrive they may settle things,’ I replied neutrally.

He looked at me seriously. ‘Things have gone beyond that. I doubt they will ever come now.’ He sighed. ‘But, Master Shardlake, I have kept your robes for you, will you take them?’

‘Keep them for now, if you would. And if you could arrange to post some letters for me?’

‘I hear the rebels control most of Norfolk, and are stopping post-riders on the road and examining correspondence.’

‘We have been careful.’

‘Then I will see they are sent. And I have one for you, it arrived two days back but I did not know where you were.’ He passed it over. It was from Parry. I sat down and read it immediately.

Master Shardlake,

I have heard nothing from you since I last wrote. I know much of the country is in chaos with these accursed rebellions, but I understand East Anglia is peaceful, and the Lady Elizabeth and I are anxious about the business we sent you on, and ask you to return as soon as possible. The Lady Elizabeth, as you know, has insisted on making enquiries locally, and it appears that a woman answering our visitor’s description lodged with a poor family near Hatfield for a while before visiting us, although she used a different name. Attempts are being made to trace her movements back from there.

The letter had evidently been written before the East Anglian outbreaks were known at Hatfield. ‘No news,’ I said, ‘save that Parry wants us back.’

‘We could go,’ Nicholas said. ‘This is our chance.’

I shook my head. ‘I do not give my oath lightly.’ This was true, and if I had a chance to help bring law and order to these proposed trials, I had a duty to take it.

‘Well said.’ Barak smiled. Nicholas bit his lip, but said nothing further.

I put the letter away. ‘Master Theobald, have you any idea where Mistress Boleyn and her steward went when they left here?’

‘They were going to see if they could find a place at one of the inns at the market square.’

‘Thank you. Then let us see if we can find her there.’ We took our farewell of Master Theobald, who looked at us with pity. His wellordered world had vanished.

* * *