Page 115 of The King's Man
Another tear started to course down her cheek.
‘What he did was done to your body, May, not to your heart.’ Thamsine put a hand on her friend’s chest. ‘He can’t hurt what’s inside you.’
May’s lips twisted into a weak smile. ‘Listen to me. What a misery. I’ll be fine. Just see if I’m not!’
Thamsine reached out for the girl’s hand and squeezed it.
‘I’ll see the brute dead. You both have my word on that.’
Both women looked up to see Kit sitting at the bottom of the kitchen stairs, roughly dressed in breeches and a shirt.
‘How long have you been there?’ Thamsine demanded.
‘Not long. It took me a full five minutes just to get down the stairs. I’m surprised you didn’t hear me.’
‘Well, you shouldn’t be up, and how did you get dressed?’ Thamsine demanded.
‘With difficulty,’ Kit responded with a glimmer of his old humour, ‘but I’m not going to lie in bed being fussed over any longer. Three days with you wittering women is enough for any man. Where is everyone?’
‘Nan’s gone to do some shopping. Jem’s in the taproom,’ Thamsine replied.
Kit pulled himself to his feet, wincing as he did so, and holding his ribs with his good hand, limped over to the chair where he subsided.
Thamsine poured him a cup of small ale.
‘What are you doing?’ he asked.
‘May has been showing me how to make candles. My sister would tell me that work is good for the soul,’ Thamsine said.
May smiled. ‘Helps make things seem more normal.’
The door opened and Nan stepped in, shaking the water from her cloak.
‘Pelting down, it is.’ She glared at Kit. ‘’Ere, what you doing out of bed?’ She set the basket she carried on the table. ‘Never mind. There’s bin no sign of that devil Morton. Jem has a boy watching the house … says he’s laid up good and proper.’
‘If he feels anything like me, he’ll be keeping his head down for a few weeks yet,’ Kit said with what Thamsine detected as a gleam of satisfaction in his eye.
‘With any luck you killed him,’ May responded.
Kit shook his head. ‘I don’t think so.’
‘More’s the pity,’ Nan responded. ‘I’ve a message for you.’ She handed over a grubby, slightly damp piece of paper.
Kit took it and gave it to Thamsine. ‘You read it. I recognise the seal and I don’t want to know what’s in it.’
Thamsine broke the seal and read the few scrawled lines. She swore in an unladylike fashion. Thurloe required Lovell attend him immediately. She handed it to him and he read it without emotion on his face.
‘He calls, I must go,’ he said with weary resignation.
‘And how do you plan to get to Whitehall?’ Thamsine asked.
Kit managed a watery smile. ‘Very slowly.’
‘I’m coming too,’ Thamsine declared flatly. ‘Whatever Thurloe has to say, he can say to both of us.’
***
They found Thurloe in his office in Whitehall. He rose to his feet as they entered and looked them both up and down.
