DRAMATIS PERSONAE

Simon Winchelsea: Agent working for Sir Francis Walsingham.

The Honorable Nicholas Holt: Spy, adventurer, owner of The Black Sheep Tavern, Bankside.

Robert, Earl of Blackwell: Nick’s older brother.

Francesco del Toro: Spanish diplomat.

Edmund Lovett: Acquaintance of Nick’s from undergraduate days at the University of Oxford; currently an agent in the employ of the Earl of Essex.

Sir Robert Cecil, aka the Spider: Nick’s immediate boss under Sir Francis Walsingham.

Elizabeth I: Queen of England, France, and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, etc.

Robert Devereaux, Earl of Essex: The Queen’s favorite, stepson to the Earl of Leicester and former ward of Baron Burghley.

Codpiece the Fool: The Queen’s personal spy at court.

Hector: Nick’s Irish Wolfhound.

John Stockton: Nick’s childhood friend; runs The Black Sheep.

Maggie Stockton: John’s wife.

Bess: A parrot formerly owned by the playwright Christopher Marlowe.

Henry and Jane Stockton: Maggie and John’s children.

Matty: A former cinders from Whitehall Palace who now lives at The Black Sheep.

Will Shakespeare: A young, aspiring playwright.

Kat: Madam of a Bankside brothel; Nick’s friend and occasional lover.

Joseph: Kat’s business partner; formerly The Terror of Lambeth, a retired wrestler.

Harold: An unsuccessful rat-catcher.

Sir Francis Walsingham, Secretary of State: Head of the Queen’s spy network in England.

Lady Annie O’Neill: Daughter of the exiled Hugh O’Neill, Ireland’s future Earl of Tyrone.

Henry Gavell and Richard Stace: Agents working for Essex.

Sir Thomas Brighton: Agent working for Walsingham.

Eli: Jewish doctor who lives in Bankside.

Rivkah: Twin sister of Eli, doctor in all but name.

Sir John Staffington: Gentleman who lives in the same lodging house as Sir Thomas Brighton.

Mistress Shrewsbury: Landlady of Sir John Staffington and Sir Thomas Brighton.

Sundry other minor players.