The Painter's Apprentice, page 27
‘Then I shall accompany you, Cecily,’ said Beth, having no intention of allowing her younger sister to roam the streets of London at night with the twins as her only protection. ‘I should not wish you to become lost somewhere in the city if Joshua and Samuel are distracted and set off on some mad pursuit of their own.’
After supper, Lady Arabella, wearing a new velvet cloak, all perfumed, painted and be-ribboned, left in the coach with Sir George.
Beth and the twins walked along the lane, with Cecily skipping along beside them. A queue of people was waiting for transport by the crowded river.
After a while, Beth’s eye was caught by someone on one of the boats waving at them. ‘Look, it’s Noah!’ she said, her spirits soaring.
In a few minutes Noah’s boatman had tied up at the stairs.
‘I hoped I hadn’t missed you,’ Noah said, smiling at Beth in a way that made her heart race.
The river was teeming with boats as they made their way towards Whitehall. The setting sun painted the water with golden reflections and the bank was lined with crowds. Several barges and a myriad of small boats were moored up side by side, across the width of the river.
‘Can’t go no further,’ said the boatman. ‘We’ll have to stop here.’ He shipped the oars, took a chunk of bread and a raw onion from his pocket and began to eat his supper.
‘I’ve missed our evening walks,’ Beth murmured to Noah, wishing that they were on their own. ‘I wasn’t sure if you were coming tonight.’
‘Sir Christopher has kept me very busy but I was determined to keep my promise to accompany you to the fireworks.’
Noah’s warm smile embraced her; she forgot her anxiety of the past days and looked forward to enjoying an evening in his company.
Joshua and Samuel began to chat to a party of young men in an adjacent boat and before long were sharing one of their bottles of wine. The young men, full of high spirits, took it in turns to toast first Cecily and then Beth, their laughter ringing out and mingling with the expectant chatter emanating from the other boats.
‘Cecily, behave yourself!’ admonished Beth as her sister flirted scandalously with her would-be suitors.
‘Let her be!’ murmured Samuel. ‘She may as well be happy while she can.’
‘What do you mean?’
Samuel rubbed his nose and shrugged. ‘She’s set her heart on Harry de Montford, hasn’t she? Well, Harry had a letter from his father. He’s been told to stop wasting time and find himself a rich wife. At once. The plantation is going to rack and ruin.’
‘Harry can’t go out and find himself a rich wife just like that! Wives aren’t stocked in the haberdasher’s you know.’
‘But he has found himself a rich wife. Not top quality, I grant you. Her father is a butcher.’ Samuel rubbed his finger and thumb together. ‘But there’s a large dowry for little Miss Plumridge.’
‘I see.’ It was hard for Beth not to feel relieved, although she dreaded the impending histrionics when Cecily found out.
Meanwhile, Cecily was having a fine time. She trilled with laughter and jumped up and down, rocking the boat so that Beth’s shoes filled with dirty water, and then exchanged places with Noah so that she could be closer to the young men in the next boat.
As the sun began its descent the excitement amongst the crowd grew. The fireworks had been set up on barges in the middle of the river outside Whitehall and it was possible to see the outlines of three giant figures.
Noah nodded towards them. ‘I heard that the King planned for two female figures to represent Fecundity and Loyalty and also one of Bacchus since the wine will be flowing tonight.’ There was a gleam of amusement in his eyes. ‘But, unknown to His Majesty, Anglican supporters have modified the effigies to represent Anne Boleyn, Henry the Eighth and Queen Elizabeth. Then they started a rumour that the figures are to be publicly blown up as a symbol to undo all that they did to give birth to the Church of England.’
‘So the firework display may aggravate the tension?’
‘Very likely, especially if the wine is flowing.’ He glanced at the men in the adjacent boat, who were drunk enough to be amusing but not yet drunk enough to be argumentative.
Beth spared a thought for Princess Anne. If the Princess was at home in her apartments in the Cockpit, it would be a bitter thing for her to watch the celebrations, not only because her own baby was lost but because she so firmly believed that her father had foisted a Catholic changeling upon the nation. In her eyes, her sister had been denied her right to the throne. Beth shivered. What if the Princess was right?
The sky turned cobalt, faintly streaked with orange in the west. A sprinkling of silver stars appeared and a faint mist, damp and clinging, began to rise from the river. Anticipation stirred amongst the crowd and snatches of song, rallying cries to battle, floated over the water.
When, at last, a fanfare of trumpets sounded in the distance, Cecily jumped up to peer at the milling crowd on the river bank in front of Whitehall. The crowd parted and a few people cheered.
‘Look!’ Cecily cried. ‘It’s the King and Queen.’
Beth strained to see the distant figures, curious to see the King and Queen who were so disliked by the nation. Torch-bearers illuminated the Queen, a dark-haired, slight figure in a blue gown, who rested her hand on the King’s forearm as they made their way through the crowd.
‘Huzzah!’ shouted Joshua and Samuel, waving their hats in the air.
A family in a nearby boat turned to stare at them, muttering amongst themselves and Beth felt uneasy that they might imagine her to be a papist.
The lamplit party, led by their Majesties and surrounded by courtiers, made its way slowly through the press of people and on to the royal barge. The crowd remained mutinously silent.
‘Not exactly a rapturous welcome,’ Noah murmured.
The trumpets blew another fanfare and within moments the fireworks exploded in a dazzling display of colour and light against the deep indigo of the night sky.
Beth stared open-mouthed as the three giant firework figures began to move, their limbs jerkily bending and stretching in a strange dance while fountains of sparks coloured massicot yellow, rose madder and verdigris burst out of the huge effigies with a great hissing and whistling.
Firecrackers burst across the water and women and children screamed in terrified delight. The acrid scent of gunpowder hung in drifts over them all.
Joshua put his fingers to his lips and emitted a piercing whistle while Cecily shrieked and buried her head in Samuel’s shoulder.
Beth clasped her hands over her ears as a rocket detonated with an ear-splitting bang high above them in a shower of green and white sparks. Noah was looking at her, his face serious in the warm, reflected glow of the fireworks.
‘Not frightened?’ he shouted over the noise.
She shook her head. ‘I’ve never seen such a spectacle! What a wonderful painting it would make.’
The remains of the firework figures were merrily ablaze. A final flurry of rockets screeched up into the blackness of the sky to explode with the might of thunder, dissolving into a myriad of crimson falling stars like a deluge of rubies.
A momentary silence fell as they drifted down; Beth was speechless with the wonder of it. Then Cecily sneezed as their boat was enveloped in a thick cloud of gunpowder smoke.
A round of cannon fire started, provoking a cheer from the barges moored near to the royal party.
‘That’ll be Sir George and Mama,’ said Joshua with a grin. ‘Mama is determined that the King will see she is a loyal supporter in these difficult times.
No sooner had the cannon fire stopped than the church bells began to peal. One after the other they joined in until a crashing cacophony of sound reverberated over the water. The clamour was deafening.
At last the bells ceased and the boats began to disperse.
‘Hey!’ One of the young men in the neighbouring boat stood up, rather unsteadily, and waved his bottle of wine at Cecily. ‘We’re going to the Old Bell for a lil’ drink. Why doan you all come with us? Make a party.’
‘Can we, Beth?’ Cecily’s voice was bubbling with excitement. ‘Please say yes!’
‘It’s not a good idea, Cecily.’
‘Listen to your sister,’ said Noah. The conduits are running with wine and there will be fights before the evening is out.’
‘Please!’
‘No, Cecily!’ said Beth, more sharply than she meant to. ‘Have you no sense?’
‘It won’t hurt to take a little walk in the city,’ said Joshua.
‘Then you shall go by yourselves.’ Noah spoke to the boatman, directing him to row as best he could to the river bank. ‘And in the interests of your own safety, Joshua, I’d take care not to put it abroad that you support the Catholic persuasion.’
Joshua let out a snort of derision. ‘All right, Sobersides. We shall do better without you.’
‘We only converted because Sir George said we had to if we wanted a place at Court,’ protested Samuel. ‘The same as Lord Salisbury.’
‘But I want to come with you both!’ Cecily caught hold of Joshua’s sleeve.
Samuel took her hand and kissed it. ‘Perhaps Noah is right. Do go home, there’s a good girl.’
‘You want to be rid of me!’ Cecily pouted. ‘You want to go racketing off into the city, drinking and looking for girls.’
‘That is also perfectly correct,’ said Joshua, hardly able to contain his laughter.
The boat wasn’t able to reach the stairs since so many other boats were trying to do the same thing. Eventually Joshua and Samuel jumped on to the muddy shore with whoops of glee and ran off into the night.
‘I hope they’ll be all right,’ said Beth, worry creasing her brow. ‘Arabella will be sure to blame me if something happens to them.’
‘You could hardly stop them, could you?’ Noah put his arms around them both but Cecily huffed and puffed and turned sulkily away.
Joshua and Samuel returned at first light the following morning, waking the whole household as they hammered on the front door. The scullery maid let them in and they stumbled into the hall, singing loud enough to wake the saints.
Beth, hearing the commotion, forgot any idea of trying to sleep any longer. Tiptoeing on to the landing, she peered over the banisters.
Joshua had a bloody nose and Samuel’s breeches were singed and blackened with smoke.
‘Doan you wag your finger at me, Mama,’ said Joshua.
Yawning, Cecily leaned against Beth and looked over the banisters too.
Then the door to Sir George’s chamber was flung back and his footsteps clipped along the landing.
Beth and Cecily shrank back so that he wouldn’t see them.
‘There was a bonfire in the street,’ said Samuel to his mother, ‘with an effy …’ He looked puzzled for a moment and then his face broke into a wide grin. ‘I have it now.’ He spoke slowly, concentrating on the words. ‘There was an effigy of the Pope burning on the fire.’
‘A pope burning!’ Lady Arabella’s eyes were wide with outrage. ‘They burnt an effigy of the Pope? But that’s monstrous!’
‘S’all rig’, Mama.’ Hiccoughing, Joshua clasped her to his bloodied coat and patted her head. ‘We pissed on the fire to put it out.’
‘Made ’em all as mad as hornets.’ Samuel sank down on to the bottom step convulsed with giggles. ‘But we fought ’em off.’
Sir George thundered down the stairs, grasped hold of Joshua’s arm and dragged Samuel to his feet by his collar. ‘You should both be utterly ashamed of yourselves, coming home in this condition!’
Beth began to feel concerned since his normally bland face had turned an alarming shade of magenta. His ire was all the more disturbing since he rarely showed any emotion other than complacency.
‘After all your mother and I have done to position this family so well at Court and then you go out and bring disgrace upon us!’ he shouted. ‘What if the King hears about you brawling and misbehaving in the street?’ Rage made him shake the twins until their teeth chattered.
‘Sir George, I beg you …’ Lady Arabella pulled on his dressing gown sleeve but to no avail.
‘Ignorant curs!’ He banged the twins’ heads together and then dropped the young men, groaning, on to the hall floor. ‘Madam,’ he turned his fury upon Lady Arabella, ‘Have your sons taken to the stables at once. I’ll not have them in the house until they recover their manners.’ He marched off upstairs again, slamming the bedchamber door so hard that Beth thought he might bring the ceiling down.
‘Now look what you’ve done!’ shrieked Lady Arabella at the twins. ‘Ungrateful boys! How can you risk your places at Court with such foolishness?’
‘But Mama,’ protested Samuel, ‘no one from Court was there.’
‘You never know who is watching,’ she snapped back. ‘Once you’ve sobered up you will come and prostrate yourselves in front of Sir George. Is that quite clear?’
‘Yes, Mama,’ said Samuel, still rubbing at the bump on his head.
‘Oh dear! I think I’m …’ Joshua vomited copiously all over his mama’s Persian carpet.
Beth and Cecily judged it best to retreat to their bedchamber and quietly closed the door on Lady Arabella’s hysterical tirade.
Chapter 33
At dinner time the conversation in the great hall was all of the trial and the possible outcome. As tempers frayed, fisticuffs broke out between the baker’s boy and one of the gardener’s apprentices, setting the dogs to snarling and fighting amongst themselves. Nicholas Tanner hauled the boys outside by their collars and returned grimfaced to his beef stew.
During the afternoon Beth worked on her painting again but her heart wasn’t in it. Noah had gone to Westminster with Bishop Compton and George London to await news of the trial. Every time she heard anyone arrive in the courtyard below she leaped up to peer out of the window but Noah, George and Bishop Compton didn’t come. Eventually, she walked down to the river to wait on the landing stage. She squinted into the setting rays of the sun, dazzled by the reflections coming off the water as she scanned the river for signs of Noah.
Still there was no sign of a boat bringing Noah, George and the Bishop. When darkness fell she returned to sit with Judith in her room.
They listened to the church clock chiming the hours through the night. As the first streaks of dawn showed in the east, they fell asleep curled up together on Judith’s bed.
Then a great shout down in the courtyard woke them.
Rubbing sleep from her eyes, Beth ran to the window. ‘It’s the Bishop!’
The whole household, full of excited chatter, turned out to follow Bishop Compton into the great hall.
Beth looked all around but couldn’t see Noah or George London.
Bishop Compton stepped up on to the dais and raised a hand for silence. ‘My friends!’ he called. He waited until the noise died down and a sea of anxious, expectant faces turned towards him. He stood still, expressionless, until the last whisper had faded away.
Beth held her breath.
Then the Bishop threw his fists into the air and shouted with all his might, ‘Not Guilty!’
An explosion of cheers and yells of delight resonated up to the highest beams. Nicholas Tanner caught hold of Beth’s waist with his brawny great arms and whirled her around in a mad dance of delight. She saw Lizzie Skelton kissing the steward, who didn’t seem to be objecting. And then she saw Noah and George.
Noah’s face was flushed with exhilaration. ‘Beth! I thought you’d have gone back to Chelsea last night,’ he said, raising his voice over the general euphoria.
‘I waited for you’ she shouted back. ‘I had to know what happened.’
Beth found herself in his arms and he kissed her forehead. She turned her face up to his and met his eyes; slowly, he bent his face towards hers. She quivered in blissful anticipation of his kiss but then three loud bangs sounded as the Bishop thumped his fist on the table.
One by one the shrieks of glee died away until at last there was silence again.
Beth glanced at Noah as he let her go, frustrated that the longed-for kiss had been interrupted.
‘Ten hours,’ said the Bishop in sonorous tones. ‘Ten hours for sixty peers to testify for the bishops! Such a crowd has never been seen before at the Court of the King’s Bench. His Majesty is left in no doubt that the public would not accept such a charge.’
George London, standing beside Noah, cheered and waved his fist in the air.
‘The jury sat all night to decide that seven old men are not guilty of sedition.’ He thumped the table again. ‘It was a charge which should never have been brought against them in the first place,’ he thundered.
The apprentices whooped and drummed their heels on the floor.
‘When the foreman of the jury, Sir Roger Langley, pronounced the seven “Not guilty”, Lord Halifax threw his hat in the air.’ Bishop Compton beamed at the assembly. ‘Ten thousand people roared their delight and the noise was so great that the roof of Westminster Hall nearly cracked.’
Another cheer burst from the household. The dogs began to bark again and there were cries of jubilation.
‘You should have heard it,’ Noah said into Beth’s ear. ‘It sent a shiver down my spine. The cheering of the crowd shook the very air. It grew and grew until it spread the news over all of London. I don’t doubt it reached all quarters of the kingdom. People were dancing in the street and lighting bonfires.’
Bishop Compton banged loudly on the table again. But,’ he said, ‘while this is a triumphant victory, the battle of Protestantism against Popery may not yet be won.’ His expression grew sombre again. ‘Now we must wait to see how His Majesty the King responds to this momentous event.’ He stepped down from the dais and strode from the hall, his cloak flying out behind him.
George London yawned widely. ‘We didn’t sleep at all last night while the jury was out,’ he said, ‘and I’m fit to drop.’
‘You must be tired, too,’ Beth said to Noah.
‘Tired but I’m not sure I can sleep. I can still hear the bells ringing and the cannons firing in my head. I wish you’d seen the crowds, Beth.’ His eyes were fever-bright. ‘The King can be in no doubt now that his subjects will not have papist rule in England.’ He took her arm. ‘Shall we walk outside?’
