Page 111 of The King's Man
‘I love you, Kit.’
He gave her a crooked smile. ‘I’m sorry, Thamsine. There will be a more appropriate time for such tender moments. We have to finish this business.’ He ran his left hand over his eyes as if trying to pull together his scattered thoughts. ‘Tell Thurloe that there is to be a meeting tonight to co-ordinate the simultaneous seizing of the Whitehall Guards and the Tower of London by the London apprentices and others. Can you remember that?’
Thamsine repeated it back to him and he nodded. ‘Where is the meeting to be held?’
He frowned. ‘The Swan, at eleven. After you’ve seen Thurloe you must send a message to a man called Peter Vowells. He’s the schoolmaster in Islington. He is to come here.’
Thamsine rose to her feet. ‘Here?’
‘Well, I can hardly go to him, and there are some details we need to discuss that are too complex to send by message alone.’ He gave an unwise snort of laughter, wincing as his broken ribs caught. ‘It won’t do my cause any harm for him to see that I am physically incapable of participating any further. Perhaps that is one thing I should thank Ambrose Morton for.’
‘And Thurloe will move on the meeting?’
Kit nodded. ‘They’ll all be there. He will snare the lot.’
‘How do I get in to see Thurloe?’
‘Tell them you have been sent from Master Green. Go now, Thamsine. There’s very little time.’
Chapter 35
To her surprise, Thamsine encountered little opposition in her request to see Thurloe and she was shown through to his rooms with no questions.
Thurloe looked up from the paper he had been writing as she entered and ran the quill through his fingers as he looked her up and down.
‘Well, well, Mistress Granville. What a pleasant surprise. You’re sadly missed by Mistress Skippon.’
Thamsine swallowed. ‘My disappearance was not my choice,’ she said defensively.
‘Lovell has told me. A domestic matter, I believe. All resolved now I trust?’
‘Not entirely.’
Thurloe studied her for a moment before speaking.
‘I was told you had a message for me. Is there some reason why Lovell couldn’t come in person?’
‘He had an encounter with some footpads last night,’ she lied.
‘And he didn’t come off well?’
‘No.’
‘That’s unusually careless of him. He is quite capable of taking much better care of himself.’ Thurloe’s eyes took on the hooded, predatory look she recognised from their previous encounters. ‘Convenient for him though. What is the message?’
‘Before I give it to you, I want your assurance that this work is a discharge of the debt I owe you.’
Thurloe’s face betrayed nothing. ‘Mistress Granville, what gives you the right to start making demands of me?’
‘I know what Lovell has been doing for you. The message I bear is the key to the whole operation. He told me it was of sufficient gravity for you to consider my work in delivering it a discharge of that duty.’
‘Indeed? How presumptuous of him.’ Thurloe raised an eyebrow. ‘Does it concern a meeting?’
‘Yes.’
Thurloe nodded. ‘Very well, consider your debt discharged, Mistress Granville. Now, the message, please.’
She repeated Kit’s message and Thurloe, his fingertips pressed together, nodded approvingly.
