London in Chains (40 page)

‘That's not clear,' he admitted unhappily. ‘I'll apply for a discharge as soon as I can and forgo any pay owed if it helps me get free, but I am at the mercy of my commanders.'

She was silent. She hadn't had time enough to imagine what it would be like to live with him, but she now understood very clearly that she would be obliged to live without him. He would come at irregular intervals – a day here, two days there, and then weeks of absence. If the Army moved further from London, the weeks would be months. If there was another war . . .

She refused to think about that. ‘How long do you have now?'

‘I was granted two weeks' leave, to come to London and speak to you. Forgive me, but I had to tell them of you. Else I would have had no leave at all.'

‘Well,' she said slowly, ‘two weeks is better than nothing. It's a mercy that my father
is
here, to give his consent, or we might have had trouble finding anyone to marry us.'

He was watching her closely. ‘I had thought of that. I had thought I might have to content myself with a betrothal – if you were willing to accept such a poor bargain at all, that is.'

She met his gaze. ‘I would have accepted it if I had to, Jamie, but I'm glad my father
is
here.'

He relaxed and his smile came back again: she saw that he'd feared that she might refuse altogether. ‘Aye.' He was quiet a moment, and then said, ‘When I told them that I wished to go to London to speak to my sweetheart, the clerk of the court laughed. He asked what sort of sweetheart such a monster might have.'

She reached out and touched the scarred side of his face; it seemed something she'd wanted to do for a long time. She traced the pattern of the injury, then laid her palm against his cheek. ‘One that was hurt, as you were.'

He put his good hand over hers. ‘Oh, but you are so bright a light! When you come into a room every man in it looks and smiles!'

‘That's false flattery, Jamie! When we first met you thought me a scolding shrew! Confess it!'

He smiled. ‘Nay, that was John, not me! Marriage to a scold has made him wary.
I
thought you the prettiest hoyden in London and I hated my wounds all over again.
You
thought
me
a monster, confess it!'

‘At first,' she admitted. ‘But, Jamie, I stopped minding your scars after the first day!'

He beamed, then leaned across the table to kiss her. ‘I must beg your pardon again that I promised Ned not to court you, but it seemed to me that I was forswearing something I could never win anyway. When John came and laughed at me and said, nay, she likes you
well
, I thought it nothing but a friend's raillery. I could not believe that
you
would love
me
! And you truly refused Ned? Was he very angry?'

She hesitated. ‘Aye. He's not spoken to me since.'

He seemed pleased at the thought of their friend's disappointment. ‘What will you do this next year? I can write to my father and ask him to pay my allowance to you, but it's not much – and, as for my pay, all the world knows the Army provides it but scantily.'

‘Keep your allowance!' she told him. ‘I have a place with the Overtons and I have work. I'll be well enough till you are free again. But see if you can work on my father to provide a good sum for us. I want to buy a printing press.'

She hadn't meant to say that last but the words came out very naturally, surprising her. She supposed the seed of the idea had been planted with the legacy of silk. With savings of a few shillings, the idea of owning a press was a fantasy; with savings of eight pounds, it seemed possible – even though she'd need as much again to achieve it.

‘A printing press!' he exclaimed, smiling again. ‘With that and a smithy, we're like to have a noisy house, my love!'

‘Amen to that,' she said and kissed him.

Historical Epilogue

I know, I'm out of my period. The English Civil Wars were things I knew nothing about until I started research: I was so ignorant, in fact, that I didn't even know they were plural. Their history turned out to be fascinating but vastly more complicated and challenging than I anticipated, and I know I haven't done it justice. However, for what it's worth, the political events that form the background to this piece of fiction really happened, and many of the characters are based on real people. The greatest liberty I'm aware of taking is making
The Moderate
newsbook start up a few months earlier than it actually did. Be warned, though, that this is one viewpoint and that events would look quite different if seen through another character's eyes.

All but one of the documents quoted are real; the exception is the newsbook article at the beginning of Chapter Six. The personal letters, however, are invented, though I've tried to make them sound like letters of the period. I apologize if readers find the language of the dialogue irritating. I was trying to make it sound sufficiently seventeenth-century that it would fit in with the quotations, while keeping it sufficiently modern that it would be intelligible to twenty-first century readers. Tastes being what they are, I've probably annoyed traditionalists and modernists alike.

For those who'd like to know more, the best history of the Civil Wars is still S.R. Gardiner's four volume
History of the Great Civil War
, first published in 1889; those looking for a shorter and more accessible work might like to try Diane Purkiss's
The English Civil War: A People's History
(2006). The latter contains a bibliography with suggestions for further reading. For my part, I owe a particular debt to Joseph Frank's
The Beginnings of the English Newspaper 1620–1660
(1961): if I hadn't stumbled across it, I wouldn't have embarked on this novel at all. Hmm. Considering how hard I've had to work, maybe I should be blaming not thanking him!

I must also mention a debt to two websites, which I looked at every day I wrote:
british-civil-wars.co.uk
and
pepysdiary.com
. The first has timelines, biographies and links to various documents; the second, though slightly out of period, is great fun and provides everything from recipes to the price of a seventeenth-century hackney cab. If any of you on either web community are reading this, keep up the good work!