‘Then there was the young guard at the gate, Sergeant Leacon. Master Wrenne, too, and his boy.’ I hesitated, for mention of Mistress Marlin had brought the girl Tamasin to mind.

‘What?’ Maleverer asked sharply. ‘What else?’

I looked at Barak, then took a deep breath. ‘There was something we discovered this morning, sir.’ I looked quickly at Barak again. ‘I think we must tell you. It involves one of the Queen’s servants, a Mistress Reedbourne.’ Barak set his lips as I told Maleverer what we had learned about the staged robbery.

‘We’ll resolve that one now,’ Maleverer said firmly. He opened the door and spoke to the guard. Barak gave me an accusing look. I could see he was wondering, as I was, whether Tamasin might be subjected to the same treatment Maleverer had meted out to Green. The fact she was a woman would mean nothing to Maleverer. ‘We mustn’t hold anything back from him now,’ I whispered intently. ‘Nothing. Don’t you see the danger we’re in?’

Maleverer returned. ‘She’s being fetched. And that Marlin woman too.’ We waited in tense silence for a minute, then footsteps were audible outside, there was a knock, and two guards thrust a terrified-looking Tamasin Reedbourne, an apron over a working dress, into the room. Behind her Jennet Marlin followed. She cast Maleverer a look of such hatred my eyes widened in surprise. Maleverer met her look with an unpleasant smile. Tamasin stared in horror at the caked blood on the side of my head.

Maleverer went over to them. He glanced at Tamasin briefly, then looked at the older woman. ‘Mistress Marlin, I think.’

‘Yes, sir,’ Mistress Marlin replied coldly. ‘Why have we been brought here? Lady Rochford would expect -’

‘Piss Lady Rochford.’ He turned back to the white-faced Tamasin, and stood over her, his arms folded. ‘Now then, Mistress Reedbourne. You know who I am?’

‘Yes, sir.’ She gulped. ‘Sir William Maleverer.’

‘And you and Mistress Marlin were sent with Lady Rochford to York, to ensure the arrangements at King’s Manor for the Queen were satisfactory. You are a kitchenmaid?’

‘A confectioner, sir,’ she ventured.

‘A scullion. You are under Mistress Marlin’s orders?’

‘Yes, she is,’ Jennet Marlin said. ‘And I am under Lady Rochford’s.’

‘Shut your gob, I didn’t ask you.’ He turned back to Tamasin. ‘Now then, these gentlemen bring me a strange tale.’ I saw Barak look at Tamasin with an anguished expression as Maleverer towered over the girl, intimidating her with his height. ‘They say you faked a robbery to make their acquaintance. They have evidence. Now, Master Shardlake here is involved in important matters of state. He may not look like it but he is. So, you will tell me, now, why you played this game, and whether your mistress is involved.’

Tamasin stood silent a moment, then seemed to compose herself; her breathing steadied and the colour came back to her cheeks.

‘It was not Master Shardlake whose acquaintance I sought to make,’ she said clearly. ‘But Master Barak. I saw him ride by in the city, I liked his looks so well. Then I saw him pass by again, and thought to make him stop. The city was full of beggar lads, I knew they’d do it for a shilling.’ She glanced at Barak, her face quite red now, then back at Maleverer. ‘It was worth a shilling,’ she said, a note of defiance in her voice.

Maleverer slapped her hard across the face. Barak took a step forward. I gripped his arm, the sudden movement making my head throb. Tamasin put a hand to her cheek but did not cry out, only looked at the floor, trembling.

‘Don’t speak to me like that, you malapert creature,’ Maleverer snapped. ‘That was all there was to it, then – you hatched this plan because you liked the look of that churl?’

‘That was all, sir. I swear.’

Maleverer took hold of her chin and lifted her head roughly to look her in the eye.

‘You are a wilful, saucy, unbroken wench. Mistress Marlin, you will see this girl’s behaviour is reported to Lady Rochford. It will serve you right if you are set back on the road to London. That is where you are from, by your tones?’

‘Yes, sir.’

‘Then get out, back to your fellow scullions. And you, Mistress Marlin, keep a better eye on your servants instead of going around whining about how hard done by your fiancé is and making everyone laugh at you.’

Mistress Marlin reddened. ‘So this is why we were brought here? You feared I had involved Tamasin in some plot? That I am not loyal?’ Her voice rose. ‘I am made a victim again as poor Bernard has been.’ Maleverer stepped over to her but she did not quail, looking him hard in the eye. I had to admire her courage.

‘Do you want a slap too, you prune-faced baggage? Don’t think I wouldn’t give you one.’

‘I do not doubt it, sir.’

‘Oh get out, both of you. You’re wasting my time.’ He turned away and the women left the room, Tamasin scarlet-faced.

Maleverer gave Barak a look of distaste. ‘So that was all it was. God’s nails, the things the royal servants get up to on this Progress. They could both do with a whipping.’ He turned to me. ‘You said that Marlin creature saw you bring the box into the hall? You know her?’

‘I have spoken with her briefly,’ I said. ‘She told me of her fiancé in the Tower.’

‘She talks of nothing else. For all her local knowledge, she should not have been allowed to come on the Progress – she is fixated on the innocence of that papist Bernard Locke. She has been after him since she was a girl. It took her until she was thirty and his first wife dead before she cozened him into proposing. And then he gets snatched away to the Tower.’ He gave a bark of laughter. ‘Right. Go and make a copy of that family tree. And be careful, the eyes of the Privy Council will be looking at it. I shall have Master Wrenne in here to question.’ He must have seen my face fall, for he added, ‘You do not wish that?’

‘It is only – he seems a harmless old fellow.’

‘Harmless?’ Maleverer gave another bark of humourless laughter. ‘How do you know who is harmless and who is not in this place?’

OUTSIDE, THEY WERE MAKING the final arrangements for the Progress. Great drapes of cloth of gold were being set in layers over the tents. A queue of carts stretched from the gate to the church, loaded with bales of hay: the bedding and fodder for all the horses that would soon arrive. It was cold, with a raw wind, the sky grey. I took a deep breath, and felt giddy for a moment. Barak took my arm.

‘Are you all right?’

‘Yes.’ I looked at him. ‘I am sorry about Mistress Reedbourne, but I had to tell him what I knew.’

He shrugged. ‘Well, it’s done now.’

‘Come, I must do that family tree. God’s death, Maleverer is a brute. I hope he is not rough with Master Wrenne.’

‘I think that the old fellow can look after himself.’

‘By God, I hope so.’

Barak looked back at the house. ‘We’ve got off lightly.’

‘Don’t be too sure,’ I said. ‘I doubt Maleverer has finished with us yet. Nor the people he was writing those notes for.’