The Midsummer Crown Read Online Free PDF Page A

didn’t stop him.
    I turned back to my informant. ‘There hasn’t been any . . . any trouble then in the capital?’
    Our ale arrived, plonked down in front of us by the harassed pot-boy with more haste than ceremony. He held out a grubby hand for the money before hurrying away in response to a shout from the landlord.
    â€˜What do you mean by trouble?’ Joshua Bullman asked, his small, round eyes peering at me enquiringly over the rim of his beaker.
    â€˜Roger knows something,’ Jack said with conviction. ‘I never met such a man for gettin’ tangled up in things he shouldn’t. Go on, then, lad! Tell us what trouble you’re expecting.’
    â€˜I’m not expecting anything,’ I retorted irritably. ‘But the Queen Dowager’s family aren’t any friends of the duke, and there was that plot by the Woodvilles to either arrest or quietly despatch him at Northampton. And if it hadn’t been for the Duke of Buckingham it might well have succeeded. And also Sir Edward Woodville has put to sea with half the royal treasure.’
    Joshua Bullman nodded. ‘Oh ay! I heard men’d been sent to waylay him before he reached Calais. But that’s all. What the outcome was, or is, I’ve no more notion than you.’
    â€˜And Lord Chamberlain Hastings?’ I persisted. ‘He hasn’t been stirring things up?’
    â€˜Not that I heard. Why should he?’
    I hesitated, picking my words carefully. ‘Oh . . . I just thought . . . I thought he might resent Buckingham’s growing influence with my lord Gloucester. After all, right-hand man to the Protector is the position he’d probably decided upon for himself. Indeed, the position he had every reason to expect would be his. To be usurped in such a fashion could make him discontented, to say the least.’
    Again came the shrug. ‘I know nothing of that. There were no rumours in any of the alehouses and taverns that I heard tell. London seemed peaceful enough when I left it. Everything going forward for the king’s coronation as it should. The place’ll be heaving by now, I shouldn’t wonder, with folk arriving for the ceremony and the Parliament that’s been called. There won’t be a decent bed to be had for love nor money. My advice is, if you’re thinking of going there, wait until after the crowning and thing’s have settled down a bit.’
    â€˜Oh, I’m not thinking of returning to London,’ I said forcefully. ‘That’s the last thing on my mind. It’s my intention not to stir much beyond the Bristol pale for the next few months.’
    Jack was shaken with silent laughter. ‘I’ve heard you say stuff like that before, Roger, my lad, and it never works out that way. You tempt providence, you do! I reckon you’ll be back in London inside a month. What’ll you wager me?’
    â€˜Nothing,’ I said angrily. ‘Stop talking nonsense! I’ve told you! Adela and the children need me. I’m staying near home for the rest of the summer.’
    He grinned. ‘Oh, ah! And I might find a pot o’ gold at the end of the rainbow.’ He got up. ‘I must be off. You coming?’
    I shook my head. ‘I’ll stay a bit longer.’
    â€˜Please yourself. Josh?’
    â€˜Ay’ The other man rose ponderously to his feet and they went out together.
    â€˜Don’t get drunk,’ was Jack’s parting shot. ‘I reckon you’ve had enough.’
    I stuck two fingers in the air, but the gesture was wasted. He was already out of the door. As it happened, I had no intention of spending my money on more ale: I simply wanted to be alone, to think.
    I could have sworn, when I left London three weeks earlier, that trouble was brewing. The general mood of the city was edgy and had been, or so I guessed, ever since the heralds had cried the news of King Edward