Prophecy - Страница 42

I hesitate.

‘There was another murder at court. Earlier in the evening. You had not heard?’

Her eyes widen.

‘I have not been out. I have had enough to do with the comings and goings here.’ Her face darkens. ‘A murder? But surely —? What has that to do with us?’

‘When Doctor Dee went to see the queen the night before the murder,’ I begin, in the same low voice, ‘he described to her a vision of a red-haired woman violently killed. What he described was almost exactly what happened the following night to one of the queen’s maids, who had red hair. Not surprisingly, your husband’s apparent foreknowledge is a matter of interest to the Privy Council. These murders are regarded as a threat to the queen herself.’ I pause again, unsure how much I should divulge. Jane nods slowly, her lips still pressed tight. The baby grizzles; without looking, Jane inserts the knuckle of her little finger into its mouth, and it gnaws gratefully.

‘So they believe he prophesied it by some devilry?’ Her scorn is somehow reassuring.

‘I think they are more interested in whether he could have learned of it by more ordinary means.’

She frowns.

‘But of course it wasn’t his vision,’ she says, and the bitterness is unmistakable.

‘No. The vision was told to him by the cunning-man Kelley.’

‘Who has not been seen these past four days,’ she finishes. ‘But naturally my husband won’t tell the queen that. Won’t want her to think he doesn’t have the gift. Poor John.’ She laughs sadly. ‘He doesn’t have it and he never will. It’s not something you can get from books, however much time and money you spend fretting over them. My own grandmother had it, so I should know — she could divine with the sieve and the shears, and tell dreams. But if you ask me, that Ned Kelley has no such gift either. Kelley is many things — and it wouldn’t surprise me if a murderer was one of them — but he doesn’t see the future nor speak with any spirits.’ She nods a full stop and shifts the baby to her other hip.

‘We are agreed on that,’ I say, with feeling. ‘But I would like to know where Ned Kelley had his prophecy from. It cannot be coincidence. And I fear your husband’s loyalty to him is more than he deserves. If John knows anything, he will not divulge it to the queen’s advisors, and I fear that will be to his own cost.’

Jane sucks in her cheeks and glances down at the boy, who has nudged himself a few inches nearer to my feet.

‘You never spoke truer there, Doctor Bruno. It has been a sore enough subject between us these past months. God in heaven only knows how John has allowed himself to be duped by that man, I cannot account for it. Sleeping under our roof, taking the bread from our table, from the mouths of my babes —‘ She breaks off, realising how her voice has risen; there is a sudden colour in her cheeks. Little Arthur cranes his head up with interest.

‘Who took the bread from the table?’

‘Hush, my dove.’ Jane stops, motions to me to be silent. We all stand still for a moment, straining to hear, then she tiptoes across the room and flings open the parlour door. The scrabble of hurried footsteps can be heard retreating up the passage. Jane jerks her head towards the sound and casts me a meaningful look, as if to say, You see what I have to put up with?

‘You said there had been comings and goings here,’ I say, as she closes the door again. ‘What did you mean?’

‘John’s library. You know how he welcomes all comers, says his collection should be for any scholar who knows how to read them with due care? All except his magic books, naturally,’ she adds, dropping her voice. ‘Well, this very morning, while John is still detained at court, a man turned up on the doorstep, well before nine, saying he had travelled a long road to consult a particular manuscript, and that he had letters from my husband granting him permission.’ The baby grizzles and she offers it her knuckle again. It seems less willing to be fobbed off this time, and turns its face away, its cheeks an angry red. ‘I didn’t like to let a stranger in with John away and me here on my own with the babies, but neither did I like to turn the fellow away, for John never did, though you can imagine the sorts that fetch up at our door.’

I think of Kelley, and nod. ‘So you let him in?’

‘I didn’t know what else to do.’ She looks up, pained.

‘Did he show you these letters?’

‘He showed me some papers — you have to understand I don’t read well myself, Doctor Bruno, but I know my own husband’s signature. So I let him into the outer library, but I told him I wouldn’t know where to begin with this book he wanted. I said he’d have to look it out for himself, if he could, but as you know, John keeps no rhyme nor reason to his bookshelves.’

‘Did he tell you the title of this book?’

She frowns.

‘I’m sure he must have, but I don’t know if I recall. It was Latin.’ She shakes her head. ‘In any case, it seems he didn’t find it, because I kept an eye on him. Dropped in every few minutes, you know. I’m not a fool — some of those books are worth a year’s wages and I wouldn’t put it past anyone to try and steal them, no matter how much of a fine gentleman they dress. John has noticed a few missing, though I put that down to our house guest.’ Her lips draw tight with dislike.

‘He was a gentleman, then, this visitor?’ I ask, suspicion pricking. ‘Well dressed? What did he look like?’

‘Oh, tall. He wore a hat with a great feather which he didn’t take off even indoors — I thought that ill-mannered, I remember. Just shows you can have all the fine cloth you like and it won’t improve your manners. He had a pointed beard, dark, cut like this in a triangle.’ She indicates with her free hand, taking it from the baby’s mouth; it complains loudly.

‘A young man, was he?’

She considers.

‘Younger than John. Older than you, I’d guess. Forties, maybe.’

My heart seems to contract; it sounds unmistakably like Henry Howard. No doubt there are other men who would fit such a description, but who else would take the opportunity to rifle through Dee’s library, knowing he was detained? And if it had been Howard, what was he hoping to find?

‘So you observed him in the library?’ I make sure my voice betrays no alarm; the poor woman has enough to be anxious about. ‘Did you see what he read? Did he try to take anything?’

‘I don’t think so. But it was strange. He combed those shelves like the hounds of hell were at his heels, almost in a frenzy. And when he thought I wasn’t looking I saw him trying the door to John’s inner rooms, you know, where he keeps his secret books. Thank God John had locked it up and taken the key with him. Tapping on the panelling, too, this fellow was, as if he were looking for some secret hiding place. He even stuck his hand up the chimney breast — I didn’t see him do it, but when he came to leave he had soot on his sleeve.’ She half laughs at the man’s audacity.

I happen to know, as she must, that Dee keeps certain papers in a box hidden in a recess inside the chimney breast in his own office. Whoever this man was, he clearly had a good idea of what he hoped to find, and it must have been something he suspected Dee would keep away from prying eyes.

‘How long did he stay? Did he give the impression that he found what he wanted?’

‘So many questions, Doctor Bruno!’ Jane tries to make her voice light, but I catch the fear in it as she jiggles the baby more urgently on her hip. ‘He stayed until it was past dinner time, though he didn’t seem to notice. He took down one or two books and glanced inside them, I didn’t see what, but that was more for show. I started to think maybe he’d come on purpose, knowing John was away, thinking he’d have free run of the place. But who could have known about that, except the queen and her people?’ Her voice has risen; she looks at me as if for reassurance. ‘Do you know who he was? You suspect something, I can tell by your face.’

‘I think you should not allow any stranger in while your husband is detained,’ I say. ‘Especially not this man, if he shows up again. And I will see if someone can be sent to keep an eye on you while John is at court — it is not right that you should be left alone with the children.’

‘Oh, I am not alone,’ she says drily. ‘Not while I have that slattern for company.’

I glance around, guessing she means the sullen maid who opened the door. I wonder that she doesn’t get a different servant, since she appears to resent this one so much. Perhaps this one is all they can afford, which might explain the resentment.

‘Might I look in Ned Kelley’s room?’ I ask. ‘There may be something there that will offer us a clue as to how he invents his visions, and that might be enough to clear John of any suspicion.’

‘Of course.’ She shows me to the door, hands me a candle and points up the main staircase. ‘The room over the stairs. Go on in and root around all you will, with my blessing. And don’t mind her,’ she adds, darkly.

Dee’s house is old and crooked, the wood of the stairs and banisters dark and smoothed to a sheen by generations of hands and feet. The treads groan like living things weary with age as I climb, and from the corner of my eye I glimpse shadows at my back as the watery pool of light moves with me. Though I know there is no one in the house except Jane and her children, save for the maid, still I find I am tensed against any sudden surprises, half-expecting someone to leap at me from a passage or doorway, as if Kelley might have been squirrelled away in some spidery corner all this time.