‘The soldiers got drunk. Leacon brought them to me and I sent them to sleep it off. They’ll suffer later. He and Radwinter were left alone to guard Broderick. Later Leacon came to me to discuss what was to be done with the soldiers. When he came back Radwinter was lying on the ground by the bench. Radwinter says someone knocked on the door. When he stepped out he saw no one there, then someone struck him from behind, knocked him out, stole his keys, then unlocked the chains and killed Broderick.’ He stepped over to Radwinter, who looked up at him. He seemed stunned, confused. Ironically, that made him look normal, human, for the first time since I had known him.

‘Couldn’t he have killed himself?’ I asked.

‘No.’ Maleverer almost snarled. He had lost his prisoner, this would go hard for him. ‘Look at his wrists, they’re manacled together behind him, there’s only six inches of chain between them. Broderick was manacled if ever he was left alone, precisely so he could not harm himself. Someone helped him to this. They tied the rope to the rafter, helped Broderick to stand on the bed, got the rope round his neck. Then he jumped.’

I nodded. ‘Yes.’ I made myself look at the body again. ‘And his helper pulled on his feet when he was dangling, to break his neck and stop him from strangling slowly. They were merciful. They helped him kill himself. He did it after all.’ I looked at Broderick’s face again. It was turned slightly away, his expression oddly peaceful. At last he had shut us all out, for ever.

‘Radwinter’s story doesn’t add up, to me,’ Maleverer said, glowering down at the gaoler. ‘He says he was hit on the head from behind but I see no mark of a blow.’ He addressed Radwinter. ‘I am placing you under arrest for the murder of your prisoner. And by God, when we get to London we will find out why, one way or another.’

Radwinter stared up at him, then let out a terrible sound, somewhere between a screech and a moan. Maleverer nodded to Leacon. ‘Lock him up, then take the body down. And by Jesu, you and your men will have to make answer too, for this mess.’ Maleverer turned to me. ‘So that’s it,’ he hissed. ‘The last chance of finding out more about the conspirators. Gone!’

But it had not been Radwinter, I was sure. Maleverer merely needed a culprit and he had found one. I realized something that set my heart hammering against my ribs. I had been right that it was not Jennet Marlin who had knocked me out at King’s Manor. It was someone else. They were on this ship, and now they had helped Broderick die.

Chapter Forty

BAD WEATHER HIT US next morning, rain and wind and heavy seas that had the passengers retching all over the ship. After lunch the rain stopped, and I came up and sat alone on the bench on deck, looking out at the heaving grey wastes of the German Ocean. Mountainous seas heaved and rolled, giant waves capped with white foam, the sky only slightly less dark than the sea. I watched a herring gull swoop above the water. How did they survive out here, I wondered.

I had felt a need to be alone, to get away from the shocked, anxious atmosphere that Broderick’s death and Radwinter’s arrest had created below decks. I could not rid myself of the memory of Broderick’s face, turned away as he swung gently. I wondered how God would judge him; suicide was a great sin but Broderick had only anticipated and eased his passage to death. And I had been, however reluctantly, an agent of those who had abused him so that killing himself with another’s help was the only way left. I had come to admire him, for all that his intensity had sometimes frightened me.

I looked down the deck, beyond the billowing sails, to where the captain was running between the sailors, shouting and looking over the side. I wondered if something was wrong. I turned as the hatch to the lower decks banged open and Barak, swathed like me in a heavy coat, emerged and came over, grasping at the rails as the ship bucked and heaved. He sat beside me.

‘How is Master Wrenne?’ he asked.

‘Still in bed. He says he’s all right, but he looks weak to me. I worry this voyage may be too much for him.’

Barak sighed. ‘He’ll make it or he won’t. There’s not much we can do. Poor old arsehole.’ We were silent a moment as he looked down the deck to where the captain was still pacing. ‘There’s a problem with the rudder. They think they’ve broken a pintail, it’s some sort of a bolt.’

I looked at him. ‘Serious?’

‘It needs attending to. We’re putting in at Ipswich now. We’ll be later than ever, just when we’ve got a favourable wind. The sailors are even more convinced this voyage is cursed.’

‘Sailors are a superstitious lot. What day is it? I lose track.’

‘October twenty-third. We’ve been out seven days already. The sailor said Rich is furious, he’s going to leave the ship at Ipswich and ride back to London.’

‘The King will be back before us at this rate. Though with Broderick dead I suppose that matters little now.’

He nodded, screwing up his eyes against the spray as a large wave crashed over the side of the boat. I looked at him. ‘Thank you for standing by last night,’ I said.

‘That’s all right.’

I hesitated. ‘How is Tamasin?’

‘Fine.’ He looked down a moment, then back at me. ‘But I have told her she must stop mourning for Jennet Marlin. That however kind she was to Tamasin, the woman was a murderess. And she can’t blame you for resenting her sorrow for her. Jesu, Jennet Marlin would have killed Tamasin if she had got in her way.’

‘Yes. She would.’

He smiled sadly. ‘Tamasin has so little security in her life, she cleaved to Jennet Marlin. As she cleaved to the idea of her father having good blood. If it turns out he hasn’t, I’ll say nothing.’

‘Even if he has, he probably wouldn’t want to know her.’

‘No.’ He looked at his feet for a moment. ‘It’s a pickle.’ He looked up again. ‘But I care for her. I am sorry, though, for what I said to you in Hull.’

‘It is all right. We have been cooped up together too long.’ I thought of the rosary, but our reconciliation was too fragile to mention that now.

‘I suppose Radwinter will go to the Tower when we land,’ Barak said.

‘Yes. To be questioned.’

‘The way Broderick would have been questioned?’

‘Probably.’ I shook my head. ‘I do not believe Radwinter killed him. Maleverer is wrong. He is so bull-headed, he sees only what is straight ahead, like a blinkered horse.’

‘Yet it all points to Radwinter. He was the only one with Broderick at the time, he said he was knocked on the head but there was no sign of a blow.’

‘You know it is possible to knock someone out without leaving a mark. Then there’s motive. Why on earth would Radwinter do it?’

‘Maleverer thinks he’s gone mad, doesn’t he?’

‘Yes. That was partly my fault.’ I sighed. Maleverer had questioned me after Broderick’s body had been taken away, railing with furious anger against Radwinter. Leacon had told him I had said Radwinter was mad, and Maleverer had seized on that, believing the erosion of his authority had sent the gaoler out of his wits until he went berserk and killed Broderick. I had protested that I had not meant I thought Radwinter would kill his prisoner, but Maleverer had been in no mood to listen.

‘Maleverer has more reason than just what you said to think Radwinter mad,’ Barak said. ‘I’m told he’s collapsed since he was locked up in the cell, shrieking and crying and calling down plagues on Maleverer. And who can tell what goes on in a man’s mind when it runs mad?’

‘It still doesn’t add up to me. How could he have done it alone?’

‘Perhaps he knocked Broderick out, then hanged him.’

‘I can’t see him taking Broderick unawares.’ I paused. ‘You know what I think happened?’

‘Go on.’

‘When I last saw him, Broderick seemed calm, almost resigned. What if someone had already been to see him, to offer him this way out if he still wanted to kill himself?’