Cecil said: ‘But how is the killing to be done?’
‘Key question. I believe the writer doesn’t know. Look at the vagueness. “They shall receive a terrible blow . . . they shall not see who hurts them.” It suggests danger from a distance, perhaps by cannon fire, but nothing more specific.’
Cecil nodded. ‘Or, of course, the whole thing could be a figment of a madman’s imagination.’
Ned said: ‘I don’t think so.’
Cecil shrugged. ‘There’s no concrete evidence, and nothing we can check. An anonymous letter is just a piece of paper.’
Cecil was right, the evidence was flimsy – but Ned’s instinct told him the threat was real. Anxiously he said: ‘Whatever we think, the letter must be shown to the king.’
‘Of course,’ said Cecil. ‘He’s hunting in Hertfordshire, but this will be the first thing he sees when he returns to London.’
*
MARGERY HAD ALWAYSknown this terrible day would come. She had managed to forget the fact, even for years at a time, and she had been happy, but in her heart she had realized there would be a reckoning. She had deceived Ned for decades, but a lie always came back to you, sooner or later, and now that time had come.
‘I know that Jean Langlais means to kill the king,’ Ned said to her, worried and frustrated. ‘But I can’t do anything about it because I don’t know who Langlais is or where to find him.’
Margery felt crucified by guilt. She had known that the elusive man Ned had been hunting most of his life was Rollo, and she had kept this knowledge to herself.
But now it seemed that Rollo was going to kill the king and queen and their two sons, plus all the leading ministers including Ned himself. She could not allow that to happen. Yet still she was not sure what to do, for even if she revealed the secret it might not save anyone. She knew who Langlais was but not where he was, and she had no idea how he planned to kill everyone.
She and Ned were at home in St Paul’s Churchyard. They had eaten a breakfast of hen’s eggs with weak beer, and Ned had his hat on, about to leave for Robert Cecil’s house. At this moment in the day he often lingered, standing by the fire, to share his worries with her. Now he said: ‘Langlais has been very, very careful – always.’
Margery knew that was true. The secret priests she had helped Rollo smuggle into England had known him as Langlais, and none of them had been told she was his sister. The same went for all the people he conspired with to free Mary Stuart and make her queen: they all knew him as Langlais, none as Rollo Fitzgerald. In being so cautious he was unlike most of his co-conspirators. They had approached their mission in a daredevil spirit, but Rollo had known the quality of the people he was up against, especially of Ned, and he had never taken unnecessary risks.
Margery said to Ned: ‘Can’t you cancel the opening of Parliament?’
‘No. We might postpone it, or move it to a different location; though that would look bad enough: James’s enemies would say the king is so hated by the people that he’s afraid to open his own Parliament in case he might be assassinated. So James will make the decision himself. But the ceremony has to take place some time, somewhere. The country must be governed.’
Margery could bear it no longer. She said: ‘Ned, I did a terrible thing.’
At first he was not sure how to take this. ‘What?’
‘I didn’t lie to you, but I kept a secret from you. I thought I had to. I still think I had to. But you will be terribly angry.’
‘What on earth are you talking about?’
‘I know who Jean Langlais is.’
Ned was uncharacteristically bewildered. ‘What? How could you – who is it?’
‘It’s Rollo.’
Ned looked as if he had been told someone had died. He went pale and his mouth dropped open. He staggered and sat down heavily. At last he said: ‘And you knew?’
Margery could not speak. She felt as if she were being strangled. She realized that tears were streaming down her cheeks. She nodded.
‘How long?’
She gasped, sobbed, and managed to say: ‘Always.’
‘But how could you keep this from me?’
When at last she found words, they came fast. ‘I thought he was just smuggling harmless priests into England to bring the sacraments to Catholics, then you found out he was conspiring to free Mary Stuart and Queen Elizabeth and he left the country, and he came back after the Spanish armada but he said it was all over and he wouldn’t conspire any more, and if I betrayed him, he would reveal that Bartlet and Roger had helped smuggle priests.’
‘You wrote the letter to Monteagle.’
