London
Meg wished a bear would come lumbering down the street and drag her away in its teeth. Or that the street would open up and swallow her. Anything to escape the disappointment that crossed Will’s face.
“You cannot read!” repeated Will in perplexity.
It was hardly something to be ashamed of. Meg knew very few people besides Will who could read or write. “Am I no longer worthy of your companionship?” she asked, striving to keep her voice from trembling.
“Of course not. I mean—yes, you are. Fie upon my tongue.” Will rubbed his mouth. “Not a word?”
Meg decided the best strategy was to be bold, not shamefaced. “I could no more read that lawyer’s book than I could swim to France with my hands tied together.”
“You could swim to France with those well-turned legs alone,” said Will with an admiring glance below.
Meg felt herself blush. There was no way to hide the shape of her legs while wearing close-fitting hose. “Believe me, I would do it if it would help you in this case.”
“Would you do something easier and less dangerous?”
“If it were in my power, yes,” said Meg warily.
“Would you pretend to be someone you are not in order to help a friend in need?”
Meg’s heart pounded against her ribs. Had Will uncovered her secret?
“Speak plainly,” she demanded.
“If I read the lawyer’s part to you, could you memorize it for the judge?”
Meg let out her breath slowly. Of course I can, she thought. She was already performing a role. Not once had she slipped and forgotten to speak and behave as Mack. But could she doubly disguise herself to play Mack and a lawyer at the same time? Meg scratched her head through her cap. How shall I know my cue? She opened her mouth to ask, then remembered Mack knew nothing about acting.
Instead she said, “What if the judge asks me a question I cannot answer? I shall be exposed as an imposter.”
“All the world is a stage on which we wear costumes to flatter ourselves and deceive one another,” said Will.
“Do you accuse me of false intentions?” asked Meg, feigning offense as Mack yet wondering if Will had discovered her to be Meg and was baiting her.
“What I meant was that no clothing could improve what Nature made perfect in you, dear friend.”
“Are you suggesting I go about naked?” she said roughly, hoping her red face would be construed as irritation.
A laugh exploded from Will. “Wear whatever you will as long as you agree to learn the lawyer’s part.” He was on his knees now. “Dear friend, do it for my sake.”
Will was in such earnest that inwardly Meg melted. She had to remind herself that he was appealing to Mack. Yet how could she deny the pleasure it gave her to have a fair young man kneel before her? How could she refuse him? It might end their friendship and thus her adventures as Mack. And it would mean Will’s defeat in court. If he were fined or imprisoned she could do nothing to help him.
“You look like a besotted lover. Get up before someone notices you,” said Meg, pretending disgust. “I hardly know you, Will Shakespeare, and yet I trust you. We will meet again in two days.” She turned to leave, then said over her shoulder, “Do not make the lawyer’s part too difficult!”
As usual Meg returned to the Boar’s Head by a different route and quickly became Long Meg again. When Will came in she asked, “Did you find the lawyer?” and pretended to be shocked when he showed her the book he had stolen. When Will said he had persuaded her brother to play the lawyer, Meg put on a doubtful look.
“He will need several days to study the role,” she said. “His memory is not so quick as mine.”
“First I must write it,” said Will and commenced working as if a fire had been lit under him. He paged through the stolen handbook, jumped up from his table and gave a speech to the air, then fell to his stool and scratched furiously with his pen. Meg watched in amazed silence.
“My head aches, Long Meg. Fetch me some ale and listen to what I have written.”
Meg brought him a cup and peered at the mysterious scribbles. How she wished she could read it for herself!
Will recited his new words for her. “Are these not fine phrases? I have mingled the Latin with the English to sound more learned.”
Meg tried to hide her panic. She was afraid to say anything.
“Why do you look so distressed?” asked Will. “Do you not like it?”
“Like it? I can make no sense of it! How shall my brother learn it? What if he makes a mistake before the judge?”
Will touched her hand to calm her. “I have confidence in him. He is as brave as you are and almost as witty.”
Meg’s hand tingled. She did not draw it away. “And what if he is arrested for impersonating a lawyer?”
Will waved his hand as if brushing away a fly. “Many an ignoramus passes as a lawyer because he can curse in Latin. Under my tutelage your brother will seem as wise and logical as Aristotle.”
Already Will was using foreign words. Meg feared he might lose his purpose while studying this lawyer’s book.
“Tell me, Will, can a painter work from a description in words or must he see the subject with his own eyes?”
“Is this a riddle?” he asked eagerly.
Meg plucked the book from Will’s hand and placed it on the table. “Have you ever been to court or heard a lawyer speak to a judge?”
Will kept his gaze on the book. “I see your point,” he said. “But I say a man may play a king without living in a castle. Surely he can play a lawyer without being in a courtroom.”
Perhaps he was right. But Meg was afraid of the unknown realm of the judge. She had seen the outcome of their decisions: a man in the pillory bleeding from his ears, a prostitute in a white sheet standing before the church. Once she had witnessed a hanging on Tower Hill during which Peter had filched several purses from unwary bystanders. But foremost in her memory was the Wood Street jail, the dark, miserable hole where her father suffered without any cause and died without recourse to justice.
“A court of law is not a mere stage, Will Shakespeare,” said Meg, striving to check her strong feelings. “Feign what you will but remember that a judge in fact sends men to prison. He takes away their freedom—and sometimes their lives.”
She swept up the empty cups and turned away so Will would not see the tears in her eyes, threatening to fall.