I felt a touch on my arm. Marchamount beckoned me to lean down so he could whisper to me. I felt his hot breath in my ear.

'Are you any closer to finding those missing papers?' he asked.

'My investigations continue-'

'I hope you will not be troubling Lady Honor further about them. She is a woman of great delicacy. I like to think she looks on me as a counsellor now that her poor husband is dead.'

I leaned back and stared at him. He nodded complacently. Remembering what Lady Honor had told me, I had to resist an urge to laugh in his face. I glanced at Henry Vaughan and saw he was staring over the water, lost in his own gloomy thoughts. I leaned in to Marchamount's large, hairy ear.

'I have had my eye on you, Serjeant, by the authority of Lord Cromwell. I know you have had certain conversations with Lady Honor, involving matters of interest to yourself and to the Duke of Norfolk.' At that his head jerked aside and he gave me a startled look.

'You have no right -' he blustered, but I gave him a set look and crooked a finger so that, reluctantly, he bent his head again.

'I have every right, Serjeant, as well you know, so don't piss me about pretending an authority you do not have in this matter.' I was surprised at my own crudity; I was picking up Barak's ways.

'That's a private matter,' he whispered. 'Nothing to do with – with the missing papers. I swear.'

'Your interest is of a romantic nature, I believe.'

His face reddened. 'Please say nothing about that. Please. For her sake as well as mine. It is – it is embarrassing.' His look was suddenly pleading.

'She did not tell me willingly, Marchamount, if that is any consolation. But, be assured, I will say nothing. Nor about the duke being after her lands.'

His eyes widened briefly for a moment in surprise. 'Ah, yes, the lands,' he said a little too quickly. 'A privy matter.'

I had to lean back then because the boat hit the Bankside steps, making us all jerk slightly. The ladies laughed. The boatman began helping them out. Looking at Marchamount's broad back as he clambered ahead of me, I thought, he was surprised when I spoke of the duke being after Lady Honor's lands. Was it something different that Norfolk really wanted of her? I remembered her hand on the Bible as she swore the duke had never asked her to discuss Greek Fire, and my doubts about her faith.

The bank was crowded with people, mostly of the common sort, heading for the baiting. A man in a jerkin brushed against Lady Honor's broad skirts. One of her attendants gave a yelp and a servant shoved him away. Lady Honor sighed.

'Really, one wonders if coming here is worth it with all this crush and noise.' I saw there was a sheen of perspiration on her lip.

'It will be, Lady Honor,' Marchamount said. 'There is a fine bear from Germany called Magnus being baited today. He's over six feet tall, killed five dogs yesterday and ended the day alive. I've a shilling on him going down today, though, he was much bloodied.'

Lady Honor looked over at the high wooden amphitheatre. A great crowd was waiting by the gates, and shouting and cheering could already be heard from within: the old blind bears were already in the ring, the dogs loosed on them. She sighed again.

'When is the great Magnus to be brought on?'

Marchamount did not appear to notice the ironic emphasis in her voice. 'Not for an hour or so.'

'I will join you then, I think. I don't think I can stand that dreadful kerlie-merlie of noise right now. If you will forgive me, I will take a walk along the bank with my ladies.'

Marchamount looked crestfallen. 'As you wish, Lady Honor-'

'I will join you by and by. Would any of the other ladies care to join me?' She looked around. One of the mercers' wives looked as though she would have, but when she glanced at her husband he shook his head.

'I'll join you, Lady Honor,' I said.

She smiled. 'Excellent. Company would be pleasant.'

Marchamount shook his head. 'Surely you don't prefer the companies of ladies over manly sport, Brother Shardlake?'

'When has the company of ladies not been preferable to that of bears and dogs?'

Lady Honor laughed. 'Well said! Lettice, Dorothy, come along.' She turned and began walking upriver along the Bankside path. I stepped to her side. Her two women walked a few paces behind, with the pair of sword-carrying servants.

Lady Honor's wide skirt brushed against my legs and I felt the wickerwork frame underneath, which held the farthingale out from her legs. I thought of the legs underneath the frame and blushed momentarily.

She made a moue of distaste as another loud roar came from the stadium. 'A manly sport indeed. It'll be manly when they set a man on the bear instead of dogs.' She turned to me with a wicked smile. 'Gabriel Marchamount perhaps, how d'you think he'd fare?'

I laughed. 'Not well. I do not like bear-baiting either. The taking of pleasure in another creature's suffering.'

'Oh, it's the noise I can't stand. You sound like one of those extreme reformers, sir, that would ban all pleasures.'

'No, I have always felt thus.'

We walked slowly on. 'They're naught but dumb brutes.' Lady Honor sighed. 'But no, you do not see humanity at its most edifying at the baiting. To be honest I was afraid I might faint, it would be so hot in there today, and smelling of blood. Ah, this is better. Goodwife Quaill looked as though she'd have liked to join us, but she wouldn't speak unless her husband allowed her.'

'The advantages of a widow's independence,' I said.

She smiled broadly, showing her white teeth. 'You remember our conversation. Yes indeed. I am widening my business interests, you know. I have bought a workshop for the sewing of silk garments down by St Paul's. Gabriel helped me, he's good at that sort of thing.' She smiled again. 'But I dare say you are too.'

'I could do with some new clients,' I said ruefully. 'Mine are abandoning me.'

'More fool them. Why is that?'

'I do not know.' I changed the subject. 'You hire women to do the sewing?'

'Yes. Silk is such a difficult material; many ladies prefer to have their clothes made up for them now. I have six seamstresses working there, all ex-nuns.'

'Really?'

'Yes. From St Clare's, St Helen's, Clerkenwell nunnery. Some of the nuns were happy enough to leave the cloister, I've heard one or two of them have ended up down there-' she nodded back at the Southwark stews – 'but my women are older. Pitiful creatures, afraid to walk in the streets. They're happy enough to work at sewing.'

'It must be hard for them,' I said.

'The poor old things like working together again. I feel it is important the ex-religious are found places where they feel secure. Everyone should have their settled place in society. If proper attention was given to that, we should not have all these masterless men roaming the streets.' She shook her head. 'It must be a troubling thing to have no place. One must feel very insecure.' For the first time it struck me that for all Lady Honor's sophistication there were whole areas of the world, indeed of the very city in which she lived, of which she could have no conception.

'It is better that people should have the chance to rise if they have the merit.' I said.

'But so few have, Matthew, so few.' Her use of my Christian name gave me an unexpected frisson. 'I think you do, but you are not ordinary.'

'You compliment me, Lady Honor,' I said, bowing hastily to cover my confusion.

'There is such a thing as natural nobility.'

I blushed, and thought suddenly: I must not let my feelings get the better of me. I must not. 'The king's government is full of new men,' I said hastily. 'Cromwell. Richard Rich.' I dropped that name to see how she would react, but she only laughed.

'Rich. A cruel brute in a velvet doublet. Did you know, his wife is a mere grocer's daughter?'