Chapter Sıxteen

I am still a constable in Stratford, though I seem to have little time for that. The king was true to his word. He has called me to his service a number of times over the years since Will’s death. I have served him honourably, I hope. Perhaps if time and health allow, I will be able to record something of those adventures as well.

Margaret did marry Matthew, and I will someday give them the wool business. Mary has also grown into a beautiful young woman.

Peg and I are in love once more, the kind of love that only a lifetime can breed. Mary will marry soon, and we will have the house on Henley Street to ourselves again. I take great comfort in Peg’s love, and visions of her with Will no longer haunt my dreams.

———

Susanna and John Hall moved into New Place with Anne Shakespeare. Susanna had a plaque placed at her father’s grave with a curse for anyone who would attempt to intrude on his eternal sleep. She put word about that Will had feared that his bones would be unearthed and placed in a charnel house. I have always believed that she did that to keep anyone from ever discovering the truth of her father’s death. In truth, Will had never worried about such things as charnel houses.

“Simon,” he told me once, “life is but an unweeded garden that grows rank and gross. The only thing we know for certain is that someday our bones will lie in cold obstrution and rot as is the natural order. The rest is nothing.”