Page 14 of The King’s Man (Guardians of the Crown #2)

N othing could have prepared Thamsine for the insufferable boredom of imprisonment. She had counted every stone in the walls of her cell and spent the long hours lying on her cot composing melodies in her head. Her dwindling supply of coins did not run to the luxury of pen and paper.

She was deeply absorbed in a reworking of a familiar piece for the lute when her door opened with a thud.

‘You’ve visitors,’ the turnkey said with a suitable amount of surprise in his voice.

Thamsine rose to her feet and smoothed her rumpled skirts. She could think of no one who would be visiting her other than that awful man, Thurloe, and she had no wish to see him again.

‘Well, well, Lady Muck, this is quite a comedown, ain’t it?’

The shock of seeing Nan Marsh caused Thamsine to take two steps backward. She tripped over the stool and fell back onto the narrow, flea-infested cot.

Nan stood at the door, looking around her with a faintly bemused air. ‘So this is the Tower of London? I thought they’d throw you in a dungeon. You did all right for yourself.’

Thamsine buried her head in her hands. ‘Nan, what are you doing here?’

‘I thought a pleasant stroll in the Tower of London – what a stupid question!’

‘Hello, Thamsine.’ May’s head appeared around the door.

Thamsine stared at them both in disbelief, as Nan set a basket down on the table with a thump and began unpacking it.

‘May and I reckons you might need a few things: clean linen, stockings, cloak, petticoat and bodice. Comb. Candle, tinder, a flagon of wine and one of me pies, some bread and cheese and most importantly … ’ There was a jangle of coins as a purse landed on the bed beside Thamsine.

‘That’s your earnings from t’other night.

Jem was right peeved when those soldiers took you away. Thought you was a nice little earner.’

Thamsine stared at the girls. Nothing in their short acquaintance had given any indication of friendship.

‘You didn’t have to do this,’ she said.

Nan’s lip curled. ‘Nah, ye’re right. No one made us do it but after all the bother you caused us, we had a bit of an investment in you.’

‘Did you really hurl a brickbat at the Lord Protector?’ May asked

Thamsine nodded.

‘Why d’ya go and do a stupid thing like that?’ Nan demanded.

Thamsine looked from one twin to the other.

‘I needed a diversion,’ she said. ‘I didn’t stop to think what I was doing.’

‘A diversion? What from?’ Nan looked incredulous. ‘Come on, Thamsine. I reckons you owe us your story.’

Thamsine shrugged. There seemed little point in keeping her silence.

‘I ran away from a man,’ she said. ‘A man who wanted to marry me.’

‘Well that’s not such a bad thing, in’t it? I wish there was someone who wanted to marry me,’ May said.

‘Not like this man. He is violent and vicious and his motives for wanting to marry me have nothing to do with love and everything to do with money.’

‘Oh, so you have money then?’ Nan’s eyes narrowed. ‘Could’ve fooled me.’

Thamsine gave a bitter laugh. ‘Yes, but when I marry it goes to my husband and until I marry it is controlled by my guardian, who is the same man who thinks he has a right to marry me.’

‘Same man?’

Thamsine nodded.

May shook her head. ‘Sometimes I reckon it’s best to be poor, then if a man marries you, you can think it’s coz he likes you … ’ she sighed, ‘… or coz he got you in the family way.’

‘So what happened?’ Nan put in over her sister’s musings.

‘He … treated me badly.’

May’s eyes widened. ‘He didn’t …?’

Thamsine grimaced as she took the girl’s meaning. Of course, he had tried. It had only been the chance intervention of another that had prevented it.

‘He is capable of that and worse. He thought he could force me into marriage with him,’ she said

‘How d’ya get away?’

Thamsine swallowed, the memory of that terrible night as vivid as if it had only just occurred. ‘I shot him. I thought I’d killed him. I ran away to London to hide.’

‘You didn’t kill ’im?’

Thamsine shook her head. ‘No. I know I didn’t kill him and he’s here in London looking for me.’

‘How’d you know that?’

‘I saw him in the crowd that day. That’s why I threw the brickbat. If I hadn’t, he would have caught me and then … and then … ’ An unimaginable fate, far worse than her present predicament, loomed before her. At least he couldn’t find her while she was incarcerated in the Tower.

May put an arm around her shoulders and hugged her.

‘Well I reckon you had as good a reason as any for throwing brickbats at Cromwell,’ she said. ‘Have you told ’em why you did it?’

Thamsine shook her head. ‘I can’t,’ she said. ‘I would rather hang than go back to that man.’

‘Are they going to hang you?’ Nan asked.

‘I don’t know. I had a meeting with an awful man called John Thurloe. I think whatever happens to me will be his decision.’ She sighed and changed the subject. ‘Is there any news of Kit Lovell and the others?’

Nan shook her head. ‘Nah. I feel quite sorry for poor old Noll Cromwell. Everyone seems to be trying to do him in. I tell you having half your patrons hauled away by the poll heads is not good for business. Jem’s threatening death if he finds who squealed on ’em.’

‘Where’s your brother’s loyalties?’ Thamsine asked.

Nan was silent for a moment. ‘D’ya mean was it Jem what squealed on yer all?

You can put that thought away. Jem is dead loyal to the King.

Always has been, always will be. Mind you, another week like this and my betting is they’ll find some way to shut him down.

He don’t need Cromwell’s soldiers tramping around arresting his customers.

Now you need to eat that pie before it goes stone cold. ’

Thamsine sat down on the stool and attacked the pie with relish. A week of the cold, gelatinous gruel the turnkey dished up was enough to have reduced her to a state of semi-starvation again. Nan wandered around the cell, perusing it as if it were a possible apartment to purchase.

May sat on the cot. ‘One blanket? Cold enough in ’ere to freeze your tits off. If we can get in again, we’ll bring yer another blanket.’

‘So how’d you come to know Kit Lovell?’ Nan asked. ‘I never believed the “old friend of me brother” story you both span.’

Thamsine looked up from the pie. ‘The truth is he pulled me out of the crowd that day I threw the brickbat.’

‘You never knew ’im before?’

Thamsine shook her head.

The sisters exchanged glances.

‘We thought you was sweet on him or summat,’ May said

Thamsine forced a laugh. ‘Me? Sweet on Kit Lovell? What about you?’

To her surprise, Nan flushed. ‘Hard not to be a little sweet on him, I admit it, but he’s well set with that widow up in Holborn!’ She shrugged. ‘Anyway, he’s not for the likes of May or I.’

There was the sound of heavy footsteps in the corridor outside. The turnkey appeared in the doorway like an avenging angel.

‘Time’s up. Out!’ He jerked a thumb at Nan.

Thamsine rose to her feet and embraced both the girls.

‘Thank you for coming. You’re better friends than I deserve.’

Nan patted her shoulder and broke the embrace.

‘That’s enough of that. Don’t need you getting all sentimental on me. I just does me bit, that’s all.’

At the door, she stopped. ‘It’ll all be right in the end, Thamsine. You see if it isn’t and if they lets you out, there’s a place for you at the Ship.’

Thamsine forced a smile. ‘I wish I had your optimism, Nan.’

Nan shook her head. ‘You be sure to guard that purse well. Turnkeys like this bastard are just as likely to sneak in while you are asleep and steal it.’ She gave the turnkey a foul look.

The door closed heavily behind the girls and an overwhelming sense of loneliness washed over Thamsine.

She carefully packed away the provender that Nan had brought and counted the coins.

Not enough to sustain her for more than a few more days.

She sighed and lay down on the cot with her arms behind her head, forcing her mind to return to the lute melody.

***

‘Colonel Barkstead says, seeing as it’s a fine day, you can take a turn on the walls,’ the turnkey said, holding the door open for Thamsine.

Since the twins’ visit, the walls of her cell had closed in around her, and the chance to walk on the walls and stretch her legs and her lungs was one she seized with alacrity.

Thamsine wrapped her cloak tighter around her as the cold wind blew in a gust off the river and turned her face to it, taking a deep, thankful breath. From her narrow walkway, she could see down into the inner and outer courtyards of the Tower.

In the outer courtyards, children played while women stood and gossiped, babies or baskets of washing on their hips. Watching them gave her a feeling of normality. No one paid any heed to the prisoner on the wall above them.

A cheerful whistling diverted her attention to the inner courtyard. A prisoner, accompanied by a solitary guard, came through the gate. Despite being hampered by the wrist and leg irons, he still managed a familiar swagger.

‘Lovell!’ She had yelled his name before she knew what she was saying.

He stopped whistling and looked up.

‘Thamsine Granville, as I live and breathe! “Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania”.’ He managed a clumsy bow, cut short as his escort hauled at his chains.

Kit lowered his head to speak to the man. The soldier shrugged and stepped back. Kit walked over to the wall and looked up at Thamsine. She crouched, looking down into his dirty, bruised, unshaven face.

Despite the ten yards of wall that lay between them, he grinned and spread his hands as wide as the manacles would let him.

‘Here we are, Thamsine. Still alive. Are they treating you well?’

She shrugged. ‘I suppose as well as could be expected in the circumstances.’ She managed a small smile. ‘But Nan Marsh has looked after me.’

‘Nan?’ Kit’s eyebrows rose in surprise.

‘Yes, she and May brought me a basket of food and some clean clothes.’

‘I told you she had a big heart.’

‘And I take back my comment about the widest legs. What about you?’