Heartstone (6 page)

'Master Shardlake acts mostly for the poor, Elizabeth,' the Queen said gently. 'In the Court of Requests.'

'But, Mother, surely a poor man may have a bad case as easily as a rich one?'

'It is true the law is tangled,' I said, 'perhaps indeed too complex for men's good. True also that some lawyers are greedy and care only for money. Yet a lawyer has a duty to seek out whatever is just and reasonable in a client's case, so he may argue it well. Thus he may indeed engage his conscience. And it is the judges who decide where justice lies. And justice is a great thing.'

Elizabeth gave me a sudden winning smile. 'I thank you for your answer, sir, and will think well on it. I asked only because I wish to learn.' She paused. 'Yet still I think justice is no easy thing to find.'

'There, my lady, I agree.'

The Queen touched her arm. 'And now you must go, or Master Timothy will be searching. And Serjeant Shardlake and I have business. Jane, will you accompany her?'

Elizabeth nodded and smiled at the Queen, looking for a moment like an ordinary little girl. I bowed deeply again. One of the maids came over and accompanied the child to the door. Elizabeth walked with slow, composed steps. The little dog made to follow her, but the Queen called to it to stay. The maid-in-waiting knocked on the door, it was opened, and they slipped through.

The Queen turned to me, then held out a slim ringed hand for me to kiss. 'You answered well,' she said, 'but perhaps you allowed your fellow lawyers too much latitude.'

'Yes. I am more cynical than that. But she is only a child, though a truly remarkable one. She converses better than many adults.'

The Queen laughed, a sudden display of white even teeth. 'She swears like a soldier when she is angry; I think Master Timothy encourages her. But yes, she is truly remarkable. Master Grindal, Prince Edward's tutor, is teaching her too and says she is the cleverest child he has ever taught. And she is as skilled at sporting pursuits as things of the mind. Already she follows the hunt and she is reading Master Ascham's new treatise on archery. Yet she is so sad sometimes, and so watchful. Sometimes frightened.' The Queen looked at the closed door with a pensive expression, and for a moment I saw the Catherine Parr I remembered: intense, afraid, desperate to do the right thing.

I said, 'The world is a dangerous and uncertain place, your majesty. One cannot be too watchful.'

'Yes.' A knowing smile. 'And you fear I would place you again amidst its worst dangers. I see it. But I would never break my promise, good Matthew. The case I have for you is nothing to do with politics.'

I bowed my head. 'You see through me. I do not know what to say.'

'Then say nothing. Tell me only how you fare.'

'Well enough.'

'Do you find any time to paint nowadays?'

I shook my head. 'I did a little last year, but just now - ' I hesitated - 'I have many demands on me.'

'I read worry in your face.' The gaze from the Queen's hazel eyes was as keen as Elizabeth's.

''Tis only the lines that come with age. Though not on yours, your majesty.'

'If you ever have troubles, you know I would help you all I can.'

'A small private matter only.'

'An affair of the heart, perhaps?'

I glanced over at the ladies at the window, realizing that all the while the Queen had kept her voice raised sufficiently for them to hear. No one would ever be able to report that Catherine Parr had had a privy conversation with a man the King disliked.

'No, your majesty,' I answered. 'Not that.'

She nodded, frowned thoughtfully for a moment, then asked, 'Matthew, have you any experience with the Court of Wards?'

I looked at her in surprise. 'No, your majesty.' The Court of Wards had been founded by the King a few years ago, to deal with the wealthy orphan children throughout the land who came under his control. There was no court more corrupt, nor one where justice was less likely to be found. It was also where any documents certifying Ellen's lunacy would be kept, for the King had legal charge of lunatics too.

'No matter. The case I would like you to take requires an honest man above all, and you know the sort of lawyers who make wards their speciality.' She leaned forward. 'Would you pursue a case there? For me? I wish you to take it, rather than Master Warner, because you have more experience in representing ordinary people.'

'I would need to refresh my mind about the procedures. But otherwise, yes.'

She nodded. 'Thank you. One more thing you should know before I bring in your new client. Master Warner tells me Wards' cases often involve lawyers travelling to where the young wards live to gather statements.'

'Depositions. That is true of all the courts, your majesty.'

'The boy concerned in this case lives in Hampshire, near Portsmouth.'

I thought, the way there from London lies through West Sussex. Where Ellen comes from.

The Queen hesitated, choosing her next words carefully. 'The Portsmouth area may not be the safest region to travel to these next few weeks.'

'The French? But they say they may land anywhere.'

'We have spies in France, and the word is they are headed for Portsmouth. It is not certain, but likely. I would not have you take on this matter without knowing that, for Master Warner tells me depositions may well be needed.'

I looked at her. I sensed how much she wanted me to deal with this case. And if I could go via Rolfswood . . .

'I will do it,' I said.

'Thank you.' She smiled gratefully and turned to the ladies. 'Jane, please fetch Mistress Calfhill.'

'Now,' she said to me quietly, 'Bess Calfhill, whom you are about to meet, was an old servant of mine when I was Lady Latimer. A housekeeper at one of our properties in the north and later in London. She is a good, true woman, but she has recently suffered a great loss. Deal with her gently. If anyone deserves justice, it is Bess.'

The maid-in-waiting returned, bringing with her the woman I had seen in the presence chamber. She was small, frail looking. She approached with nervous steps, her hands held tightly together.

'Come, good Bess,' the Queen said in a welcoming voice. 'This is Master Shardlake, a serjeant at law. Jane, bring over a chair. One for Serjeant Shardlake too.'

Mistress Calfhill lowered herself onto a cushioned chair and I sat opposite her. She studied me with her intent gaze, grey-blue eyes clear against the lined, unhappy face. She frowned for a second, perhaps noticing I was a hunchback. Then she looked at the Queen, her expression softening at the sight of the dog.

'This is Rig, Bess,' the Queen said. 'Is he not a fine fellow? Come, stroke him.'

Hesitantly, Bess leaned across and touched the animal. Its feathery tail wagged. 'Bess always loved dogs,' the Queen told me, and I realized she had kept Rig back to help relax her old servant. 'Now, Bess,' the Queen said, 'tell Serjeant Shardlake everything. Do not be afraid. He will be your true friend in this. Tell him as you told me.'

Bess leaned back, looked at me anxiously. 'I am a widow, sir.' She spoke softly. 'I had a son, Michael, a goodly, gentle boy.' Her eyes filled with tears, but she blinked them away resolutely. 'He was clever, and thanks to Lady Latimer's - I beg pardon, the Queen's - kindness, he went to Cambridge.' Pride came into her voice. 'He graduated and came back to London. He had obtained a post as tutor to a family of merchants named Curteys. In a good house near the Moorgate.'

'You must have been proud,' I said.

'So I was, sir.'

'When was this?'

'Seven years ago. Michael was happy in his position. Master Curteys and his wife were good people. Cloth merchants. As well as their house in London they had bought some woodland belonging to a little nunnery down in Hampshire, in the country north of Portsmouth. All the monasteries were going down then.'

'I remember very well.'

'Michael said the nuns had lived in luxury from the profits of selling the wood.' She frowned, shaking her head. 'Those monks and nuns were bad people, as the Queen knows.' Bess Calfhill, clearly, was another reformer.

'Tell Master Shardlake about the children,' the Queen prompted.

'The Curteyses had two children, Hugh and Emma. I think Emma was twelve then, Hugh a year younger. Michael brought them to see me once and I would see them when I visited him.' She smiled fondly. 'Such a pretty boy and girl. Both tall, with light brown hair, sweet-natured quiet children. Their father was a good reformer, a man of new thinking. He had Emma as well as Hugh taught Latin and Greek, as well as sportly pastimes. My son enjoyed archery and taught the children.'

'Your son was fond of them?'

'As if they were his own. You know how in rich households spoiled children can make tutors' lives a misery, but Hugh and Emma enjoyed their learning. If anything, Michael thought they were too serious, but their parents encouraged that: they wanted them to grow up godly folk. Michael thought Master Curteys and his wife kept the children too close to them. But they loved them dearly. Then, then - ' Bess stopped suddenly and looked down at her lap.

'What happened?' I asked gently.

When she looked up again her eyes were blank with grief. 'There was plague in London the second summer Michael was with them. The family decided to go down to Hampshire to visit their lands. They were going with friends, another family who had bought the old nunnery buildings and the rest of the lands. The Hobbeys.' She almost spat out the name.

'Who were they?' I asked.

'Nicholas Hobbey was another cloth merchant. He was having the nunnery converted to a house and Master Curteys' family was to stay with them. Michael was going down to Hampshire too. They were packing to leave when Master Curteys felt the boils under his arm. He had barely been put to bed when his wife collapsed. They were both dead in a day. Along with their steward, a good man.' She sighed heavily. 'You know how it comes.'

'Yes.' Not just plague, but all the diseases born of the foul humours of London. I thought of Joan.

'Michael and the children escaped. Hugh and Emma were devastated, clinging to each other for comfort, crying. Michael did not know what would become of them. There were no close relatives.' She set her jaw. 'And then Nicholas Hobbey came. But for that family my son would still be alive.' She stared at me, her eyes suddenly full of rage.

'Did you ever meet Master Hobbey?'

'No. I know only what Michael told me. He said originally Master Curteys had been thinking of buying the nunnery and all the land that went with it, as an investment, but decided he could not afford it. He knew Master Hobbey through the Mercer's Hall. Master Hobbey came to dinner several times to discuss splitting the woodland between the two of them, which was what happened in the end, with Master Hobbey buying the smaller share of the woodland and the nunnery buildings, which he was going to convert to a country residence. Master Curteys took the larger part of the woodland. Master Hobbey became friendly with Master and Mistress Curteys over the sale. He struck Michael as one who adopts reformist positions when he is with godly people, but if he were negotiating the purchase of lands with a papist he would take some beads to click. As for his wife, Mistress Abigail, Michael said he thought she was mad.'

Madness again. 'In what way?'

She shook her head. 'I don't know. Michael did not like to talk to me of such things.' She paused, then went on. 'Master and Mistress Curteys died too quick to make wills. That was why everything was uncertain. But shortly afterwards Master Hobbey appeared with a lawyer, and told him the children's future was being arranged.'

'Do you know the lawyer's name?'

'Dyrick. Vincent Dyrick.'

'Do you know him?' the Queen asked.

'Slightly. He is an Inner Temple barrister. He has represented landlords against me in the Court of Requests occasionally over the years. He is good in argument but - over-aggressive perhaps. I did not know he worked in the Court of Wards too.'

'Michael feared him. Michael and the Curteyses' vicar were trying to trace relatives, but then Master Hobbey said he had bought the children's wardship. The Curteyses' house was to be sold and Hugh and Emma were to move to the Hobbeys' house in Shoe Lane.'

'That went through very quickly,' I said.

'Money must have passed,' the Queen said quietly.

'How much land is there?'

'I think about twenty square miles in all. The children's share was about two-thirds.'

That was a great deal of land. 'Do you know how much Hobbey paid for the wardship?'

'I think it was eighty pounds.'

That sounded cheap. I thought, if Master Hobbey bought Hugh and Emma's wardship he has control of their share of that woodland. In Hampshire, near to Portsmouth, where there would be much demand for wood for ships, and not too far from the Sussex Weald, where the expanding ironworks had brought constant demand for fuel.

Bess continued. 'Master Hobbey seemed minded to get his own tutor, but Hugh and Emma had grown attached to Michael. The children asked Master Hobbey to keep Michael on, and he agreed.' Bess lifted her hands, made a sort of helpless motion. 'Apart from me, the Curteys family were all Michael had. He was a lad full of generous emotion: he should have sought a wife but for some reason never did.' She composed herself again, continued in a flat voice. 'And so the children were moved, and the house they had lived in all their lives sold and gone. I think the proceeds were put in care of the Court of Wards.'

'Yes. It would be the trustee. So, Mistress Calfhill, your son moved with the children to Shoe Lane.'

'Yes. He did not like the Hobbeys' house. It was a small, dark place. And Michael had a new pupil. The Hobbeys' son David.' She took a deep breath. 'Michael said he was a spoiled and pampered only child, the same age as Emma. Stupid and cruel, always taunting Hugh and Emma, saying they were in his house on sufferance, that his parents did not love them as they did him. True enough, I suppose. I believe Master Hobbey only took the children on to profit from their lands.'

'Is it not illegal to make profit from a ward's lands?' the Queen asked.