‘I do not trust him,’ Rob said when they had left Portinari’s house and were walking briskly toward the river.
‘Nor do I. I believed some of what he said but not all.’ She gave her husband a sharp look. ‘Do all men visit brothels before they marry?’
‘Not all men, no.’ Attempting humor, he added, ‘Some cannot afford the price of a whore.’
After this witticism fell flat, Rob proceeded in silence. He wondered what Rosamond was thinking. She could not be pleased to have confirmation that her old friend Lina, knowingly and willingly, had bound herself to a man like Alessandro Portinari. He supposed that Lina must have had her reasons. Marriage to a doting old man would seem a better fate than unending servitude to the Hacketts. In the days of their youth at Leigh Abbey, Lina had been a follower who had never shown any inclination to think for herself. She’d slip easily into the traditional role of ‘wife.’
At Old Swan Stairs, Rob hailed a wherry. They had passed the Vintry and were approaching Queenhithe and the Salt Wharf, huddled in their cloaks against a heavy mist, before Rosamond spoke again.
‘Mayhap Lina was badgered into signing. Threats. Even beatings.’
‘We will discover the truth soon enough.’ Blackfriars was not much farther upriver.
‘If Lina intends to tell us the truth.’
‘Do you question her honesty?’
‘I question her common sense.’ Rosamond rubbed her hands together against the chill. ‘If she lies to me, I will know. Her left eye twitches.’
‘She lied to you at Leigh Abbey.’
‘She … avoided telling me the whole story. That is not quite the same thing.’ Rosamond heaved a deep sigh. ‘She also burst into tears with the slightest cause, a most useful ploy.’
‘One you despise and therefore never use yourself, for which I am most grateful.’ Rob slid one arm around her shoulders. Without hesitation, she leaned against him. In companionable silence, they watched the houses and wharves pass by. The tide was in their favor. They were almost at Paul’s Wharf. Baynard’s Castle loomed up just beyond. From there it was only a short distance to Blackfriars Stairs.
With an abruptness that startled Rob, Rosamond sat up straight. Shading her eyes with one hand, she peered toward the shore. He saw nothing out of the ordinary, but Rosamond vibrated like a hound on the scent.
‘What is it?’
‘Look there. See the man just entering that house near Paul’s Wharf? The tall fellow in the gray cloak?’
Rob shifted on the embroidered cushion that served as a seat, but he was too late to glimpse anything but a door closing. Wisps of fog further obscured his view.
The waterman rowed on, sending the wherry skimming over the surface of the water. They were rapidly carried away from whatever person Rosamond thought she’d recognized.
‘What man did you see?’ Rob asked.
She shook her head. ‘There is no time now to explain. I will tell you later.’
‘A clue, if you please.’ The boat was already turning toward shore. The buildings of Blackfriars rose up out of the gloom.
She spoke in a rapid whisper. ‘The day before I visited the Royal Exchange, I went back to Salisbury Court. I wanted to talk to Tommaso again. Do not lecture me, I beg you.’
The wherry bumped gently against the bottom of the water stairs. ‘Go on.’
‘I saw something suspicious while I was there and took that intelligence to our friend with the Adam’s apple. No more for now. I will tell you the rest when we are alone. I promise.’
Although her confession disturbed him, Rob held his tongue. She was safe. Whatever her dealings had been with Walsingham’s minion, he had not detained her.
Rob helped his wife out of the small boat and paid the waterman, then escorted her through the Blackfriars precinct and into the building where Sir Walter Pendennis lodged. ‘Does it occur to you,’ he said as they mounted the narrow staircase that led to Sir Walter’s rooms, ‘that you and Lina are both guilty of the same sin?’
She bristled. ‘What sin?’
‘Omission. You are exceeding careful about how much you share. I suppose I cannot blame you for that, but it makes it damnably difficult for me to be of help to you. Furthermore, what you withhold could well put us at cross-purposes.’
The look she sent him was an odd combination of guilt and resentment, but before she could speak, Rob’s mother opened the door to Sir Walter’s lodgings. She did not look pleased to see them.
‘Why are you here instead of at Cambridge?’ Jennet Jaffrey asked.
Rob bent down to kiss her cheek. ‘I will soon return there, never fear.’
His gaze shifted to the interior of the room as he and Rosamond entered. Lina sat on the window seat, head bowed, shoulders shaking. Although he heard no sobbing, he assumed she was crying … again.
Needham stood nearby, body hunched forward at an awkward angle. The way he was twisting the cap in his hands told Rob he wanted to offer comfort but feared rejection.
Seated a short distance away in a chair upholstered in faded blue velvet, Lady Appleton watched the two of them with a resigned expression on her face.
Rosamond lacked her foster mother’s patience. She strode purposefully across the room, shoved Needham out of her way and seized Lina by the shoulders to give her a good shake. ‘Stop it this instant. Your tears do not fool anyone.’
Lina blinked up at her old friend, eyes awash. Her mouth opened and closed. Little mewling sounds emerged instead of coherent speech.
‘Rosamond!’ Lady Appleton spoke sharply.
‘If she was brave enough to climb out a window, break into her sister’s house, and flee all the way to Kent with the constables after her, she can face a few simple questions.’ With a sound of disgust, Rosamond let go and stepped back.
Lina wiped her nose on her sleeve and glared. ‘You are not the one in danger of arrest.’
‘If that worries you so much, you should have stayed at Leigh Abbey.’
‘There is something you should know,’ Lady Appleton said. ‘A difficulty arose this morning when we attended services at St Anne’s.’
‘Why did you bother going to church?’ Rosamond asked in surprise. ‘No one knows you are here. No one is likely to fine you for non-attendance.’
‘I wanted to go,’ Lina said in a small voice. ‘I find myself in need of God’s forgiveness.’
‘You are in more need of mine.’ Rosamond’s hands curled into fists at her sides. ‘What happened at church?’
‘I saw someone I know. I feel certain she recognized me and fear she will go straight to Isolde with that news.’
‘It seems unlikely anyone can find you in a precinct as large as this one, even if they do come looking,’ Rosamond said.
‘Just what I’ve said all along.’ Rob’s mother muttered the words under her breath, She’d set about serving wine and an assortment of sweets, nuts, and cheese. By the time everyone held one of Sir Walter’s large brown earthenware cups in hand, the mood in the chamber had eased, but it was still far from convivial.
‘I chose to come here rather than to hide Lina in Master Baldwin’s warehouse in Billingsgate,’ Lady Appleton said, ‘because I believe that the old laws of sanctuary still apply in Blackfriars.’
‘You believe? You are not certain?’ Rosamond was still on her feet, too agitated to settle anywhere. She even refused the offer of a piece of marchpane.
‘There is no guarantee of Lina’s safety anywhere,’ Lady Appleton said, ‘but as long as she does not set foot outside the old friary walls, she does not fall under the jurisdiction of the city of London.’
‘Portinari has offered Lina his protection,’ Rob reminded them, mindful that it appeared the merchant was, in fact, Lina’s husband.
‘She is safer here,’ Lady Appleton said.
‘Let her speak for herself,’ Needham suggested, giving Lina an encouraging smile.
She burst into tears.
‘I should say she has already done so, by agreeing to marry for money.’ Hands fisted on her hips, Rosamond glared down at the sobbing woman. ‘Why did you try to deceive me, Lina? You should have told me everything when I came to you in Kent.’
Rob heard the hurt in his wife’s voice. He was not sure anyone else did.
‘I feared you would think me a fool for agreeing to the marriage.’
‘And so I do. All the same, it would have been convenient had I known about it before I started asking questions.’
‘Why do you think I came to London? I wanted to explain the circumstances in person, so that you would understand. I wanted to make things right and now, because I went to church, I am in t-t-terrible danger.’
Lady Appleton cut in before Rosamond could make a rude remark. ‘Sit down, Rosamond. Stop looming over her. Andrew told us what Portinari said about the nature of the marriage contract. Lina had already confided as much to me. Did you see the document in question?’
‘I did. It is as he said.’ Rosamond lifted the seat of the box chair, no doubt to see if it contained any interesting documents, before settling herself atop the cushion that padded it. As was her habit, she curled both legs beneath her.
‘Well, then, there is no point in badgering Lina over what cannot be undone. We must fix our attention where it belongs, on exonerating her of the charge of murdering Hugo Hackett.’
‘Portinari claims that his nephew did not know about the formal betrothal. Is that true, Lina? Did Tommaso believe you were free to marry him?’
Rob’s gaze shifted to the window seat just as Needham at last gathered enough courage to sit down beside the beleaguered bride. The bleak look on Lina’s face did not change, but she seemed to take comfort from his nearness.
She nodded in answer to Rosamond’s question. ‘I deceived him, too. I let him think we had a chance at happiness.’
‘I cannot think what possessed you to knowingly and willingly sell yourself to one such as Alessandro Portinari.’
With the first sign of spirit Rob had seen from her, Lina sent Rosamond a defiant look. ‘At the time, I wanted to marry him. I signed those papers because I did not want him to be able to back out of the arrangement. There is nothing wrong with that! I was looking out for myself.’
‘Old, fat, and smells bad – were those not the words you used to describe him to me?’
‘But wealthy, Ros. Do not discount how much more appealing money can make a man. So long as I remained in Hugo Hackett’s house, I had nothing I could call my own.’
Rob expected Needham to be appalled by Lina’s admission. Instead, his friend placed a comforting hand on the young woman’s forearm. Sheer folly, Rob thought, but he said nothing aloud. He remained as he was, his back propped against the linenfold paneling, watching a dramatic scene unfold before his eyes like a spectator at a play.
‘You might have told me all this when we were still at Leigh Abbey,’ Rosamond complained.
‘I was afraid you would be shocked and disgusted by my willingness to marry an old man for his wealth. As you are. And I was ashamed too. I was so quick to accept him that I did not stop to think of the consequences. I was horrified when I learned he’d been keeping secrets from me. That he visited whores was bad enough, but when Cecily Kendall told me that he suffered from the pox, I realized that Alessandro did not care for me at all. He’d not have had a single qualm about infecting me with that terrible disease after we wed!’
Rosamond listened to this outburst with a thoughtful expression on her face. ‘As it turns out, he is not diseased at all. Furthermore, although he does not deny that he was accustomed to visiting one of the women at Black Luce’s house, he claims that his intent was to be faithful to you once your marriage was consummated.’
‘Are you certain he is not diseased?’
The expression on Lina’s face caught Rob’s attention. Was that skepticism … or hope?
Rosamond glanced at Lady Appleton. ‘Is there any sure way to tell if a man has the pox?’
‘I will consult my herbals, but it seems to me that Rob and Andrew have already obtained the testimony of the one person in the best position to know.’
‘Black Luce’s girl?’
‘Even she.’
Lady Appleton’s answer told Rob that while he and Rosamond had been dining with Portinari, she had persuaded Needham to tell her everything he knew, even the details Rob had omitted from the story, in deference to his mother’s presence, when they were in Rochester.
‘Your commitment to marry Portinari appears to be irrevocable.’ Rosamond sent Lina a hard look. ‘That reduces the likelihood that he killed Hugo Hackett. At the same time, the fact that Tommaso Sassetti was deceived about your commitment to his uncle gives him a powerful reason to want to do away with your guardian.’
Lina’s lower lip trembled. Not unexpectedly, tears welled up in her eyes. Rosamond ignored both reactions.
‘As I feel certain you have been told by now, I experienced Tommaso’s idea of courtship for myself. I was not interested, but it is plain that you were swayed by his attentions. Are you still a virgin?’
Lina’s face flamed. ‘What difference does that make?’
When Lady Appleton cleared her throat, everyone in the room looked her way. ‘It could make quite a lot of difference. In some few cases, if a woman is married but untouched and a panel of midwives can affirm that she is still a virgin, then the marriage can be annulled. An annulment permits both parties to marry elsewhere, should they choose to. If, however, the marriage appears to have been consummated, then both parties are bound to each other for life. Even if they never live together as man and wife, even if it was not the husband who was responsible for his wife’s loss of virginity, neither can marry elsewhere until the other one dies.’
‘Oh,’ Lina said in a small voice. She neither admitted to losing her innocence nor denied it.
Rob did not much care what the truth of the matter was, although he could see that Needham did. His friend’s despair was palpable.
In the somber silence that followed Lady Appleton’s explanation, Rob’s thoughts drifted back in time. Vivid memories filled his mind, as fresh as if only days instead of years had passed since the night that had irrevocably changed his life.
Rosamond, sixteen years old and determined to marry, had crept into his bedchamber at Leigh Abbey. She’d flung off her nightgown, revealing her nakedness. She was the most desirable woman he had ever seen, and he had loved her for as long as he could remember.
Only two months older than Rosamond, Rob had been as inexperienced as she was. They’d fumbled a bit and laughed a great deal. In the end, they accomplished what they’d set out to do, consummating marriage vows made in private and without witnesses that were nevertheless as binding as a church wedding. Rosamond had taken great care to make sure that their union could never be dissolved.