Heartstone (71 page)

‘Looks like the soldiers are returning,' Barak said.

We sat on a bench outside one of the warehouses, leaning our backs against the wall. I looked across the harbour to the Gosport shore, where another fort stood opposite the Round Tower. The sun was low now, in a fiery red sky that presaged another hot day.

THE FIRST GROUP of soldiers to disembark were strangers. They came ashore quietly, with none of the usual talking and jesting, some stumbling a little on the steps. A whiffler drew the men into line and marched them away.

Several more groups landed before Leacon at last appeared at the top of the steps. About half the company followed. Among them familiar faces appeared: Carswell and Tom Llewellyn, Pygeon and Sulyard. Like the earlier groups some wore jacks, others leather or woollen jerkins, and Pygeon wore the brigandyne he had won from Sulyard. Snodin brought up the rear, puffing and blowing as he mounted the steps. Like the earlier groups the men were unusually silent; even Carswell seemed to have no jests this evening. Only the oafish Sulyard seemed in high spirits, his swagger returned. The men formed a ragged line on the wharf, not noticing us in the shadow of the warehouse. One man cast off his helmet and scratched his head. ‘These fucking lice!'

‘Stop making your moan!' Snodin yelled at him. The whiffler was evidently in a bad temper. ‘Whining miserable cur.' Several of the men gave Snodin nasty looks.

I stepped forward and called out to Leacon. He turned, as did the soldiers. Carswell's face brightened a little. ‘ 'Tis our mascot! Come with us on board the
Great Harry
again tomorrow, sir, bring us luck!' The other soldiers looked on, surprised that I had turned up again. I heard Sulyard mutter, ‘Hunchbacks bring bad luck, not good.'

‘Fall out, men,' Leacon ordered. ‘Wait over there till the rest of the company arrives.' The men walked wearily to an open space between two warehouses, and Leacon came over and took my hand. ‘I thought you had left, Matthew,' he said.

‘Tomorrow.'

‘The King comes then. As principal archers we have to parade before him outside the town in the morning.'

‘We shall be gone before then.'

‘That we shall,' Barak agreed firmly. ‘We leave first thing.'

Leacon glanced over to where his men stood, many looking weary and anxious. Pygeon cast his brigandyne to the ground, where it made a tinkling noise. Sulyard glared at him. Carswell asked the whiffler, ‘Master Snodin, may we get back to camp, get some food?'

‘Proper food,' another man said, ‘not biscuit you have to knock the weevils out of!' There were murmurs of agreement.

Snodin shouted, ‘We'll leave when the rest arrive, with Sir Franklin!'

‘Was today their first day on the ships?' I asked Leacon.

‘Yes. Not a good day either.'

Everyone jumped and looked round at a tremendous boom. Another cannon shot from the Round Tower. There was an answering flash and boom from the Gosport side.

‘What are they doing?' I asked Leacon.

‘Practising covering the harbour, should the French try to gain entrance. We should be able to stop them, those cannon have a range of over a mile. But if they defeat our fleet at sea, there will be nothing to prevent them making a landing elsewhere.'

‘George,' I said, ‘I wonder if I might ask yet another favour.'

He looked at me curiously. ‘Yes?'

I nodded at the men. ‘It is confidential.'

He sighed. ‘Come round the side of the warehouse.'

We went round the corner, out of earshot of the company.

‘Did it not go well today?' I asked.

‘The whole company has been on the
Great Harry
. God's death, the size of that ship. It has enough cannon to conquer Hell itself. None of the lads had encountered anything like it. Even when we were climbing up the rope ladder, a gust of wind came and it started swinging to and fro, us clinging on like snails to a drainpipe. I could see the men were terrified of tumbling into the sea. Then on board they all slid and fell with every little movement of the sea. And they didn't like being under that netting.'

‘I have heard of it. Fixed above the decks, so boarders would fall on top of it. With soldiers carrying small pikes standing underneath.'

‘The mesh on the netting is thick, you feel hemmed in standing under it. And if anything happened to the ship, if it went over, you'd be trapped under it.' He laughed; something wild in the sound made me frown. ‘Not that most of the men can swim. We should have been given more time to practise; we've been here a week. The men are getting bored and irritable doing nothing, hence the desertions. You can't easily replace skilled archers. The sailors laughed at them sliding about, which didn't help. The sailors go barefoot, clinging to the deck like cats.'

‘Soldiers and sailors must fight the same battle. If it comes.'

‘In two or three days, from what they say.' The haunted look was back in his eyes. ‘We've been told we're going to the
Great Harry
. As the flagship she will be at the head of the line. The men are all cast down, and Snodin doesn't help, snarling at them over every grumble they make. Being on the ship, he hasn't had a drink all day and that doesn't aid his temper.' He sighed. ‘Well, Matthew, what is this favour?'

‘George, I would not trouble you were it not important. But a woman's fate may be at stake. I need to speak again to Philip West, that I saw at the Godshouse.' I took a deep breath. ‘He is on the
Mary Rose
. I want to know if you can help me get on board there, this evening, to talk to him.'

Leacon looked doubtful. ‘Matthew, they are only allowing people with official business on the ships.' He looked out to sea. The big rowboats had lit their lanterns now, little points of light dancing on the water. The setting sun outlined the ships from behind in a fiery glow.

‘Please,' I said. ‘It's important.'

He considered. ‘Easy enough to pay a boatman to take us over to the
Mary Rose
, but getting on board may be another matter even with me there. You certainly won't get on without me. Very well. But I cannot take long, I need to get back to camp; the men are downhearted and they must make ready to parade before the King tomorrow morning.' He brushed away a mosquito; now dark was coming they were starting to whine around our ears.

‘George, I am more grateful than I can say.'

‘First I must wait until the rest of the men arrive with Sir Franklin. He can lead them back to camp, then-'

He broke off. Snodin, out of sight, was yelling furiously. ‘Stand up! Stand, you lazy slugs!'

‘God's death,' Leacon muttered. ‘He'll go too far -' He walked rapidly round the warehouse, Barak and I following. Many of the men now lay sprawled on the ground. Snodin was haranguing them furiously. ‘Lazy bastards! Stand up! You're not in your dirty houses now!'

Nobody moved. Carswell said, ‘We're tired! Why shouldn't we rest?'

‘The captain told you to wait, not lie on the ground like fucking toads!' The whiffler was almost beside himself, purple jowls trembling with fury.

Everyone turned as Leacon appeared. ‘Don't talk to Master Snodin like that, Carswell!' he snapped.

Pygeon stood, pointing a shaking finger at the whiffler. ‘Sir, he's been throwing abuse at us all day, all we wanted was to rest our legs after being on that ship!'

‘Afraid, jug ears?' Sulyard called out contemptuously.

Then a new voice spoke up. ‘If going on the flagship's such an honour, let the King come and serve on it!' Snodin turned and stared at Tom Llewellyn. The boy, normally so quiet, had stood up to face him. ‘Let King Henry come and do this for sixpence a day, that's worth less than fivepence now!'

‘And let us go back and get ready for the harvest!' another man called. Snodin whirled from speaker to speaker, so quickly it made some of the men laugh. Leacon stepped forward and grasped the whiffler by the shoulder. ‘Calmly, Master Snodin,' he said in a low voice. ‘Calmly.'

Snodin stood, breathing heavily. ‘They have to be ready for battle, sir.'

‘And they will be!' Leacon raised his voice. ‘Come, lads, it's been a hard day, but I have been on ships before and you soon find your balance. And I have seen to it that a cow has been slaughtered for your meal tonight. Stand now, ready for Sir Franklin. See, the rest of the company are pulling up at the wharf!'

For a second nothing happened. Then, slowly, all rose to their feet. Leacon walked Snodin away a short distance and spoke quietly in his ear. Barak and I went over to where Carswell and young Llewellyn stood together nearby. ‘Bold words, lad,' Barak said to Llewellyn.

The boy still looked angry. ‘I'd had enough,' he answered. ‘After today - we've all had enough.'

Carswell looked at me. There was no humour in his face any more. ‘It's real now,' he said. ‘I see what it'll be like if there's a battle. If the
Great Harry
grapples with a French warship it'll be cannon tearing into us, pikes thrust up at our bowels from their decks if we board. I always thought I had a knack for imagining things, Master Shardlake, but I could never conjure anything like that ship.'

‘The size of it,' Llewellyn said wonderingly. ‘It's as big as our church back home; those masts are like steeples. I thought, how can such a thing float? Each time the deck shifted I thought it was sinking.'

‘The pitching of a ship is strange at first,' I said, ‘but Captain Leacon is right, you get used to it.'

‘We practised shooting our bows from the upper decks,' Carswell said, ‘but the ship kept moving and throwing us off balance. The sailors were all laughing and guffawing, the malt worms. And it's hard to draw fully under that netting.'

Pygeon had come over to us. ‘You spoke well, Tom,' he said. ‘All this to save King Harry, that doesn't give a toss if we live or die.'

Carswell said, ‘But if the French win they'll do to our people what we did to them last year. There's no help for it, we must fight.'

Sulyard shouted across, ‘What're you plotting, Pygeon, you treasonous papist?'

‘He's been trying to keep his courage together all day,' Carswell said contemptuously. ‘The more he shouts the more you know he's frightened.' He looked at me. ‘Why have you come back to this damned place, sir?'

Suddenly a well modulated voice called out, ‘How now, what's this?' Sir Franklin had appeared at the top of the stairs, dressed as usual in fine doublet, lace collar and sleeves, the rest of the company behind him. ‘Where's Leacon?' Leacon went over to him, followed by Snodin, who looked surly. Sir Franklin peered at them. ‘Ah, there you are. All well?'

‘Yes. Sir Franklin, I wonder if you would lead the men back to camp? Master Shardlake has asked me to do something for him.'

‘Legal business?' Sir Franklin looked at me dubiously. ‘You here again, sir? You don't want to get yourself too tangled up with lawyers, Leacon.'

‘It should not take much beyond an hour.'

I said, ‘I would be grateful indeed if you would allow it, Sir Franklin.'

He grunted. ‘Well, don't be long. Come, Snodin, you look as though someone had dropped a bag of flour on your head.'

‘Wait for me at the inn, Jack,' I told Barak.

He leaned close. ‘You can't ask Leacon to go with you, not with his men in the mood they are. They'd have put Snodin in the water if he hadn't stopped them.'

‘He's agreed,' I said brusquely.

‘I think you would like to stay and tackle Rich too.'

‘Maybe so, to see this done.'

‘Then I begin to fear for your reason.'

Barak walked away. I returned to where Leacon stood, watching as Sir Franklin led the men away.

‘Will the men be all right?' I asked.

‘I've told Snodin to go easy, and they won't challenge Sir Franklin.' He took a deep breath. ‘Right. The
Mary Rose
.'