Queen's Ransom (29 page)

Having finished with Sir Thomas, I then needed another private discussion, this time with Jenkinson. “I must talk to you,” I said to him quietly when I rejoined him. I looked about me. Blanchard was now sitting in a corner, very flushed over the cheekbones and nodding as if about to fall asleep. Helene was listening to the music. A part-song was in progress, performed by a bass, a tenor, and a boy soprano. “But we need to talk alone,” I said.

“The tenor sings flat,” said Jenkinson with aplomb, and loudly enough to be heard by anyone nearby who might be listening. “Will you take my arm, mistress, for a stroll into the courtyard? The sun is out and there are some pleasant seats out there.”

We sat down on a bench beside a lily pond and I told him my idea. “I’ve borrowed enough money,” I said, showing him the purse that Gresham had given me. Gresham had accepted my surety, with loan, interest, and collateral recorded in a ledger and no chivalrous protestations about not taking collateral from a lady. As I said, he was a businessman. “All going well,” I explained to Jenkinson, “I will recoup with the help of what’s under those floorboards. I hope so.”

Jenkinson had been listening to me with interest and dawning enthusiasm. “Is this a trap or merely a safeguard?” he inquired.

“A safeguard,” I said. “We can hardly take prisoners. The deception will soon be discovered but that won’t matter if it seems that we are the ones who were deceived.”

“You may well be right. You intrigue me, Mistress Blanchard. You are not quite like the average lady of my acquaintance. My wife, who is very dear to me and a woman of some learning, too, would still never think in the convoluted way that you do. We will try this. We must take care, though, that . . .”

We sat on by the pond for another half hour, discussing details, until a trumpet sounded, calling us to dinner.

Jenkinson had to give my father-in-law a shoulder to steady him as we went in to dine. We sat one on either side of Blanchard during the meal, nudging him every now and then to encourage him to stay awake and eat. But there was wine with the meal and before the end of it, he had fallen into a deep sleep, and we had to lift his nose out of his platter.

On the way home, the men literally carried him, and once in our lodgings, Harvey put him to bed. He slept until the following morning when he woke with a shocking headache.

That meant that when Jenkinson and I took the house rowing boat and set out on an exploratory trip to the canal alongside Hoekstraat, Blanchard couldn’t come with us. Since he regarded the expedition to collect the treasure as my business and not his, I’m not sure if he would have done so anyway, but I was glad that there was now no question of it, because it enabled me to avoid Helene’s never very exhilarating company as well.

“I know Harvey will look after your guardian,” I said solemnly, “but it would be a pretty attention if you stayed with him, too. You could make him a posset later on.”

“But I’d like to come!”

“Remember,” Jenkinson told her, “that I have dangerous men on my trail. Mistress Blanchard is obliged to take part. But you can stay safely at home, and still be useful.” “

I wish I were at home,” Helene said miserably. “St. Marc’s Abbey is home to me. I think of it all the time. I may never see it again. Very well. I will stay and make possets and pray for your success.”

“I truly pity Helene sometimes,” I said as Jenkinson and I set off. “I knew her prospective husband when I was a child; he’s my cousin, as it happens. I didn’t like him.”

“Helene and you,” said Jenkinson, “are two quite different people.”

Laying the Bait

As Jenkinson rowed us along, I felt increasingly anxious. What if after such a lapse of time I couldn’t identify the place? I had only seen it once, when Gerald showed it to me after he first rented it. He had shown me the hiding place under the floorboards, and I had watched him mark them, so that he could easily retrieve anything concealed there. I thought I could remember where on the floor to look for the mark. But suppose there had been changes since then?

I hadn’t seen the treasure hidden, although I knew that it had definitely been hidden; Gerald had told me so. But he was already feeling unwell that evening, and he hadn’t gone into details. Alarming possibilities now haunted me. Suppose the building was in use with huge heavy crates right over the floorboards we wanted? Or suppose the space under the floor hadn’t been big enough for those hefty salts?

I knew that, at first, Gerald had considered just packing the things into crates and leaving them on the floor surrounded by other crates, empty or with unimportant contents. He had finally decided that this wouldn’t be safe enough, especially if they had to stay there for some time. But what if he had been forced to leave them out on the floor because they wouldn’t fit under it? In two years, anything could have happened to them. Even if no one else had taken the place over, unvisited warehouses attract attention sooner or later. The treasure could have been stolen long since.

Oh, God, I said fervently, if silently. Let me know the building when I see it, and let the treasure be there. Please!

In other circumstances, I would have enjoyed the water journey, if nostalgically. The April sun was flashing on the water, and busy, lively Antwerp was just as I remembered. Vessels were on the waterways, bringing cargoes to and from warehouses; moving in and out of repair docks: stout, tublike Netherlands traders; merchantmen from half a dozen countries; and hordes of small craft, the private transport and the ferryboats that carried people about the waterways and across the river. A glimpse of the river itself revealed a stately galleon with towering masts being rowed upstream.

All the smells and sounds were familiar: the tang of water; the calls of the gulls that had followed the ships inland in search of scraps; the scents of leather and spices from the warehouses; the splash of ripples breaking on the banks as moving vessels sent their wakes outward; the shouts of the men winching the cranes that heaved goods on and off the decks and wharves. Once I smelled strong cheese, which reminded me of the
Chaffinch.

But I was here on business. Longman had chosen our lodgings well and we were soon into the waterway that, according to the map, ran beside Hoekstraat. I scanned the scene intently. Quays and landing stages, some with moored craft alongside; warehouses, mostly adjoining but with occasional alleyways between. The buildings were generally three or four stories high, with rows of tall, narrow windows. They were dreadfully alike. I was noting this with increasing unease, just as Jenkinson observed cheerfully that all we had to do now was find the right building, because it wouldn’t do to burgle the wrong one. I stared at him without answering, and he read my face.

“It’s all right. Give yourself a fair chance. Think back. Can you recall any landmarks or identifying features?”

“No. I’ve been trying! We’re going the right way,” I said, trying to steady myself. “We aren’t there yet. It’s on the right-hand bank. But . . .”

“You said it had a landing stage. Wood or stone?”

“Wooden,” I said. “And—yes—there were double doors painted blue—though that could have changed, I suppose.” I thought again and to my relief, some more details surfaced. “Just beyond the warehouse we want,” I said, “was a bigger one, with a stone jetty and steps, very weedy. Green with weed and slippery. When Gerald brought me, a ship was unloading there and a man slipped on the steps and fell in, along with the box he was balancing on his head. There was another man at the top of the steps, cursing enough to make the heavens fall, and shouting at the sailors on the ship to get the box out before it sank . . . and they weren’t to mind the fool who fell in; if he couldn’t swim, let him drown. He actually shouted those words. I’ll always remember that.”

“And did he drown?” inquired Jenkinson with interest.

“No,” I said. “He scrambled out onto the steps, cursing even louder than the other fellow.”

Jenkinson laughed. “We should be able to find it! In fact—are those the blue doors, just ahead? Is that the place?”

“Yes. Yes! I can see the wooden stage and there’s the stone jetty just beyond!”

Excited, I half rose and Jenkinson yelped at me to sit down again before I capsized us. “We’ll go on a little farther and take a good look. Just keep calm.”

Slowly, we slid level with the blue doors. I recognized the faded blue paint at once, and the yellowish stone of the walls. The ground-floor windows were barred and the doors looked as though they were still securely shut.

But gaining entrance was not a difficulty. “We could go in at once,” I said. “I have a key. I have the right. My husband paid the rent for five years in advance.”

“We’ve no tools for lifting floorboards and no sacks for putting the treasure in. We might get in without causing comment but imagine coming out in broad daylight with gold and silver plate all flashing in the sun! It is mostly plate, isn’t it?”

I had given the full description only to Queen Catherine. Now, I said: “There are salts as well, two very fine ones. I keep thinking that someone else may be using the place and perhaps they’ve put racks or piles of boxes all over the floorboards we want.”

“We will come back tonight,” said Jenkinson soothingly. “We will come under cover of darkness, with tools, and plenty of time to move or dismantle anything that’s in our way, and put it all back afterward. And since we have to do all that, and the treasure may well be heavy, we may need extra hands and even an extra boat. We’ll bring Longman and young Sweetapple. Even Blanchard could lend a hand if he’s willing.”

At the lodging, we found Blanchard out of bed and eating. He was interested to learn that we had found the warehouse but declined to join us that night, or to allow any of his men to do so.

“It’s not my enterprise,” he said candidly. “Helene and I are leaving for England as soon as possible, and I don’t wish to get arrested for robbing a warehouse, or to allow any of my men to get arrested either. I am sending Sweetapple and Arnold back to France with you out of care for your safety, Ursula, but that’s as far as I’ll go. Our passages have been confirmed, by the way, both to England and to St. Germain. A message came from Sir Thomas Gresham while you were out. This is Thursday. The
Leopard,
under Captain Drayton, sails for England on Monday; Captain Ericksen and the
Britta
sail for France the day after that. Both captains advise us to be aboard the previous night.”

It was only what I expected from my father-in-law. I shrugged and said nothing. Jenkinson, however, merely said that the news about our passages was excellent and then asked what everyone’s plans were for the afternoon. “I have things to buy, including tools for getting floorboards up, and some food.” Klara’s larder was well provided with shelves but there wasn’t very much on them. “Will you come and help me, Mistress Blanchard?”

“If you wish,” I said smoothly. “Do you want to come, Helene? We could buy you some wedding clothes. You and I could do that while Master Jenkinson buys the other things.”

“I’m tired. I’d rather rest,” Helene said.

“You tire too quickly for a girl of your age,” said Blanchard disapprovingly.

“Well, you and I will go together, Mistress Blanchard,” Jenkinson said. “There’s a lot to do. As I said on the way back this morning, I think we should hire a second boat, a bigger one, in case the treasure is very heavy. Longman could do that, and row it back here, ready for tonight.”

I was tired myself by the end of the afternoon, for the shopping expedition was intensive, and it was a good thing that Helene and her trousseau hadn’t formed part of it. Jenkinson needed my help. Longman, who I now realized had quite a good command of the local language, went to find a boat, while Jenkinson and I set about spending Gresham’s five hundred pounds as wisely as we could.

“If this evening’s effort fails,” Jenkinson said, as we returned home, heavy-laden, “I’ll dispose of some of the costly little gewgaws in my baggage, and buy some of these items off you, Mistress Blanchard. Then you can redeem your jewelry from Gresham. I daresay I’ll turn a profit on these goods once I get them to England.”

He was a businessman, too.

We had not neglected the matter of food. In the lodging once more, I helped Jenkinson to fill Klara’s larder shelves, while Klara watched us, her watery eyes full with gratitude, as she realized that when we sailed away, quantities of cheese, dried fruit, dried fish, rice, and bacon would be left for her, plus a good supply of wine. She even managed to thank us in English, of which it seemed she had a few words. Longman had obtained a suitable second boat, and everything that we would need was piled into it. All was ready and we had only to wait for nightfall.

Until then, I could rest. But the time dragged, and also, it was disturbed. Helene was nowhere to be seen when we returned and Sweetapple told us that she had gone out after all, with Jeanne, to the cathedral, to pray for us “in what she calls the right atmosphere,” he said. She woke me up on her return, just as I had fallen into a doze. After that, I got up. The evening found me in such a state of nervous tension that my teeth kept wanting to chatter.

“You need not come, any more than Helene,” Jenkinson said quietly, as he entered Klara’s somewhat gloomy parlor, where I was sitting with my book of poems in my hands. “There may be danger. If there is an attempt to seize the treasure, it could be made here but it’s more likely to come, I think, on the canal, which is full of very cold water and where there is nowhere to take shelter. Longman and I can take your key and fetch the treasure if you can tell us exactly where to search for it.”

I shook my head. “I can’t. Gerald left a mark but it was very tiny and I need to be there myself to find it. It won’t be easy to see by lantern light. Besides, it’s my responsibility.”

“No one in the world would blame you, a young woman, for sending men on your behalf.”

“You might still have trouble finding the right part of the floor. No,” I said. “I have to come.”