Page 327 of A Column of Fire

The deputy pulled the trigger and the lighted cord touched the gunpowder in the firing tray. Rollo saw a flash and heard a bang, and knew instantly that he had been cheated of an easy death. At the last split-second the barrel had been knocked aside by Ned. Rollo felt a sharp pain at the side of his head and sensed blood on his ear, and understood that the ball had grazed him.

Ned grabbed his arm and took away the knife. ‘I’m not finished with you,’ he said.

*

MARGERY WASsummoned to see the king.

It would not be the first time she had met him. In the two years of his reign so far she had attended several royal festivities with Ned: banquets and pageants and plays. Ned regarded James as a voluptuary, interested mainly in sensual pleasure; but Margery thought he had a cruel streak.

Her brother, Rollo, must have confessed everything under torture, and therefore he would have implicated her in the smuggling of priests into England. She would be accused and arrested and executed alongside him, she supposed.

She thought of Mary Stuart, a brave Catholic martyr. Margery wanted to die with dignity as Queen Mary had. But Mary was a queen, and had been mercifully beheaded. Female traitors were burned at the stake. Would Margery be able to retain her dignity, and pray for her tormentors as she died? Or would she scream and cry, curse the Pope and beg for mercy? She did not know.

Worse, for her, was the prospect that Bartlet and Roger would suffer the same fate.

She put on her best clothes and went to White Hall.

To her surprise Ned was waiting for her in the anteroom. ‘We’re going in together,’ he said.

‘Why?’

‘You’ll see.’

He was tense, wound up tight, and she could not tell whether he was still angry with her. She said: ‘Am I to be executed?’

‘I don’t know.’

Margery felt dizzy and feared she was going to fall. Ned saw her stagger and grabbed her. For a moment she slumped in his arms, too relieved to hold herself upright. Then she pushed herself away. She had no right to his embrace. ‘I’ll be all right,’ she said.

He held her arm a little longer, then released her, and she was able to support herself. But he still looked at her with an angry frown. What did it mean?

She did not have long to puzzle over this before a royal servant nodded to Ned to indicate that they should go in.

They entered the Long Gallery side by side. Margery had heard that King James liked to have meetings in this room because he could look at the pictures when he got bored.

Ned bowed and Margery curtsied, and James said: ‘The man who saved my life!’ When he spoke he drooled a little, a mild impediment that seemed to go with his sybaritic tastes.

‘Your majesty is very kind,’ Ned said. ‘And of course you know Lady Margery, the dowager countess of Shiring and my wife of fifteen years.’

James nodded but did not say anything, and Margery deduced from his coolness that he knew of her religious affiliation.

Ned said: ‘I want to ask your majesty a favour.’

James said: ‘I’m tempted to sayEven unto the half of my kingdom, except that the phrase has an unlucky history.’ He was referring to the story of Salome, who had asked for the head of John the Baptist on a platter.

‘I don’t think I’ve ever asked your majesty for anything, although perhaps my service might have won me your good will.’

‘You saved me from those evil gunpowder devils – me and my family and the entire Parliament,’ said James. ‘Come on, out with it – what do you want?’

‘During the interrogation of Rollo Fitzgerald, he made certain accusations about crimes committed many years ago, during the 1570s and 1580s, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth.’

‘What sort of crimes are we talking about?’

‘He confessed to smuggling Catholic priests into England.’

‘He’s going to hang anyway.’

‘He claims he had collaborators.’