Page 42 of Linenfold (The Alice Chronicles #4)

S upper has been resumed and finished and the crowd has dwindled away to their various places. Except that Alice has asked Allan to keep lookout in the kitchen until Joe and Jackson are back to assure Jack of his delivered message, and then they can bar the door.

Ned is putting down a straw mattress and blankets in the chamber passage but Philip declares he will guard the main chamber.

‘Having failed my uncle,’ he tells Alice, ‘the least I can do is ensure Jack Egerton is protected.’

Now changed into a loose-gown, Alice busies herself checking and rechecking that the rest of the house is secure.

Outwardly collected, inwardly heavy at heart, she joins Philip and Jack in the winter parlour where they sit talking quietly.

Jack has removed his soiled doublet and sits before the fire in his shirt and mired breeches and stockinged feet.

Unasked, Rose is doing what she can in the kitchen to clean his muddied boots.

His hair is still caked but drying and is pushed back from his face.

Alice carries a woollen doublet which she holds out to him.

‘It was Henry’s,’ she says. ‘It won’t be the best fit but it will be warm.

’ Jack smiles his thanks and slips it on.

‘Jack’s been telling me what he discovered in town,’ Philip says. ‘Come and sit next to him by the fire.’

She has wit enough to excuse herself with, ‘I confess, I am warm with running up and downstairs. I’ll sit over there, away from the heat. So what did you discover, Jack?’

‘The one who sent a messenger was Lewis, in men’s wear. They gave me a description at the White Hart that matches him, and Allan has confirmed it matches the garments he found. The direction was a Master Vernon at York House.’

‘The equerry. Then it proves beyond doubt that His Grace is involved up to the neck,’ she says. ‘Did Philip tell you what I discovered from Honorine?’

‘That they are Louis’ agents? Or more likely Richelieu’s. Yes.’

‘She also told me something else. I believe she would never have said it but for feeling so defeated. She could not resist boasting that Her Majesty is a step ahead of the duke, that it was she on behalf of her brother who sent Lewis on this search for the treasury, under cover of collecting her trenchers. His Grace merely played into their hands by telling Lewis to attach himself to Lord Hardcastle for the same reason.’

Jack whistles. ‘Dangerous indeed. She could lose her head if that became known.’

‘But she’s so young,’ Alice protests. ‘She can hardly understand the gravity of what she did.’

‘Catherine Howard was around the same age when she was executed,’ Jack points out.

‘This cannot become known, then,’ Alice says.

‘If England executes the King of France’s sister, that could mean war with France.

And that would spark a Franco-Spanish alliance against us, as you told me that day at Freemans.

How are we going to keep such a secret if these two are brought to trial … ?’

None of them can answer that.

If they are brought to trial. If …

‘Who do you think attacked you, Jack?’ Philip says.

‘It must have been Pearce,’ Jack says. ‘That’s why I couldn’t tell you in the kitchen.’

‘Pearce! No! I’ve known him for years,’ Philip cries. ‘It can’t be Pearce.’

‘Pearce,’ Alice repeats, and nods. ‘Yes, it makes sense now. Only Pearce knew Jack was going into town, I didn’t mention it to anyone. They all went to the Red Lion. At supper they said Pearce left them to meet a woman again.’

‘That doesn’t prove anything.’

‘He must have been listening at the door while we discussed in here,’ Alice explains. ‘Remember he knocked just as Jack pushed back his chair to leave? So he will have discovered how much we know about Lewis and Honorine, and followed Jack to find out what he discovered.’

‘Philip,’ Jack says, ‘I asked at all the inns who run coaches if they had been asked for a coach for High Stoke and only the Red Lion had.’

‘God in heaven!’ Philip scrapes back his chair, paces the parlour holding his head in his hands. ‘He said he’d asked them all. He said! How can this be? Pearce?’

‘I’m sorry, Philip,’ Jack says.

There is a moment’s silence as both Alice and Jack look at Philip, his face an unwilling struggle to grasp this second betrayal within his household. Perhaps he cannot yet accept it. He diverts to another question. ‘Where did he attack you, Jack? You wouldn’t have gone to the vegetable patch.’

‘He waited in ambush by the barn. I heard a step behind me and went to turn and he knocked me to the ground with such a blow I was stunned for a few minutes. He must have picked me up and dragged me because when my wits returned, he had his boot in my back and was forcing my face down in the mud. The next thing I knew, you were scooping mud out of my mouth, Alice.’ He has given a short version of what happened, but she is sure those desperate seconds of choking in the mud will not soon fade from his memory. It will never fade from hers.

‘But why attack you, Jack? Why not Philip? Or me?’ she asks.

‘I only stopped at the Red Lion to question the landlord about the messenger to York House. That’s when Melbury let slip about coach hire for the following day.

Then suddenly he was being evasive about it.

Pearce will have seen me talking with Melbury and wondered.

Having arranged the delay of the hired coach, he must have decided it was too risky to let me live.

Do we know how he was in touch with Lewis? ’

‘Pearce has been seen apparently courting Honorine,’ Philip explains.

‘Of course!’ Alice says, realising. ‘He spoke to the women when they first got out of the luggage wagon, telling them he was going to hire a coach, I thought he was trying to offer reassurance. Louise murmured something, probably asking Pearce for an overnight delay. Honorine took a walk round the kitchen court later and he approached her there.’ She looks from one to the other.

‘Pearce has been working with them all the time.’

‘So he “went to meet a woman again”. I’ll wager he “went to meet a woman” the night my uncle was murdered!’ Philip’s fists are balled. ‘By Christ’s nails, I’ll make him pay for this!’

The door opens and Joe puts his head round.

‘Visitor for you, Master Egerton,’ and stands back as Olivia surges into the winter parlour.

‘Jack! You’re safe! I feared … oh, look at you!

’ She wraps her arms round her husband who has risen to greet her.

‘Oh Jack! Jack!’ and he embraces her tightly, murmuring words of comfort.

It is a measure of her agitation that Olivia’s long rope of hair hangs down her back, and blown tendrils have escaped at several points from under her cap.

‘Olivia,’ Jack says, holding her off and fingering a tendril of hair out of her eyes, ‘you should not have come. I expressly said—’

‘Do you think I would stay at home when two men ride through the night to tell me my husband prefers to avoid that same ride but I am not to worry?’

‘Pretty feeble, I confess,’ he says. ‘I wasn’t thinking clearly.’ He holds her close once more and they stand thus a moment, each silently exulting in the life of the other. Then she puts him off, stands back to look at him.

‘What happened to you? Joe said it was an accident. I got him to tell me that much, but it’s not true, is it?’

‘Joe,’ Alice says as he waits by the door. ‘Thank you for bringing Mistress Egerton. And please thank Jackson too. Can you find room to stable her horse? They will be staying in the main chamber tonight.’

‘No, Alice, I didn’t come here to stay!’

‘I think, my dear, we should do as Alice suggests,’ Jack says. ‘There are reasons. Come and sit and I’ll explain.’

Olivia already knows much of the story and is aware of the search for the two Frenchwomen from when Jack called by in his earlier search. It does not take long to complete the tale of events.

‘This man Pearce is the man who attacked you?’ Olivia’s face is a picture of horror.

‘Almost certainly it was Pearce.’

‘You were right not to ride home with him still out there.’

‘That’s also why I didn’t want you to come over.’

‘Try to stop me,’ she says.

Philip counts off his fingers. ‘Pearce, Cranley, Lewis, Honorine. Four out of our party of nine. My uncle thought we were being followed. In fact, we were surrounded.’

‘How did Pearce know your uncle would send him to hire a coach?’ Jack asks. ‘If he had chosen to send Jackson, or one of the others, things could have turned out very differently.’

‘John Pearce is the one responsible for the coaches,’ Philip says. ‘I’ve always thought him loyal, but now I think Lewis and Honorine turned him in Paris. Though I don’t suppose they took him fully into their confidence. That would be too risky for a new recruit.’

‘I wonder if Pearce was already turned,’ Alice says. ‘He must know what it is they are looking for.’

Jack looks keenly at her. ‘Why do you say that?’

‘Two attacks by the same method, so almost certainly by the same person. For a man who was only turned in Paris, it’s hardly enough time to nudge him into killing twice, especially if Lewis or Honorine didn’t tell him about the Huguenot treasury.

What motive would he have? I’ll wager he already knew, also that he had protection from above to make it worth taking the risk of killing.

I think it’s likely Pearce has been the duke’s man for some time, that it was he who pushed Master Cranley’s face into the mud.

It wouldn’t surprise me if Pearce is the leader of this spy ring. ’

‘I doubt you’ll see Pearce again,’ Jack says. ‘He’ll know that he’s suspect now. In his position I’d make myself scarce.’

Olivia shudders. ‘The sooner that treasury is found, the sooner we shall all be safe again.’